ALGonquin Bob
Well-known member
The gate was still closed on Coreys Road, adding 3 miles to our walk. The road is in excellent dry condition; the extra miles were covered in just an hour. From the summer trail head, "Hillman1" and I headed back to the Ward Brook truck trail. The trail was surprisingly dry, compared to my last hike there in November. There are the usual boggy areas, but overall it was in very good shape. Even the weather cooperated, with the predicted rain holding off until late in the day.
We stopped at the Ward Brook lean-to and prepared our daypacks for the summit attempt. The lean-to (along with Blueberry) is one of the nicest (cleanest) that you'll ever stumble into. We hiked back to the Seward cairn and began following the herd path along the brook. There are some beautiful waterfalls and flumes on the way up. When we reached the thick spruce area, the path became intermittent, with bushwhacking required. As we reached higher elevations, snowshoes were required, with the snow depth still 2 feet plus. The brook became a maze of braided streams, and the trail wasn't to be seen. Snow bridges collapsed as we stepped on them, making for a very wet hike. We followed the description of the ascent as read on adirondackjourney.com. There seemed to be three 10 foot head walls to deal with; the first being a wide waterfall. We finally came to the headwall just below the summit and followed it left until we could pull ourselves up to the summit plateau. Keep following the path as it drops a little and finally climbs up a rock to the summit, marked with a red disk. The views of Lake Ampersand were veiled in mist and by the rain clouds that approached. We began our descent at 6:15.
We were soon joined by a group of four who were returning from Donaldson and Emmons. The "MarkandKelly" party descended with us. After much bushwhacking and trail finding in the dark, we finally reached the truck trail at about 11:30 P.M. - A six hour ascent, with a 5.5 hour descent. Much thanks to everybody for their help on this one. -ALG
P.S. The gate was open when we hiked out!
We stopped at the Ward Brook lean-to and prepared our daypacks for the summit attempt. The lean-to (along with Blueberry) is one of the nicest (cleanest) that you'll ever stumble into. We hiked back to the Seward cairn and began following the herd path along the brook. There are some beautiful waterfalls and flumes on the way up. When we reached the thick spruce area, the path became intermittent, with bushwhacking required. As we reached higher elevations, snowshoes were required, with the snow depth still 2 feet plus. The brook became a maze of braided streams, and the trail wasn't to be seen. Snow bridges collapsed as we stepped on them, making for a very wet hike. We followed the description of the ascent as read on adirondackjourney.com. There seemed to be three 10 foot head walls to deal with; the first being a wide waterfall. We finally came to the headwall just below the summit and followed it left until we could pull ourselves up to the summit plateau. Keep following the path as it drops a little and finally climbs up a rock to the summit, marked with a red disk. The views of Lake Ampersand were veiled in mist and by the rain clouds that approached. We began our descent at 6:15.
We were soon joined by a group of four who were returning from Donaldson and Emmons. The "MarkandKelly" party descended with us. After much bushwhacking and trail finding in the dark, we finally reached the truck trail at about 11:30 P.M. - A six hour ascent, with a 5.5 hour descent. Much thanks to everybody for their help on this one. -ALG
P.S. The gate was open when we hiked out!
