Completed on Friday, August 29th, 2025.
Bottom Line Up Front:
Very bad mud, particularly between Donaldson and Emmons (at least knee deep in spots)
Steep, tricky (but thankfully not slick) slabs near summits of Donaldson and Seward
WET WET WET
Potentially great views (couldn’t see due to bad weather)
Took me 11.2 hours with only brief stops (16.85 miles) - 4770 ft vertical - WAY MORE THAN ALLTRAILS ESTIMATE.
Weather: Overcast with rain showers all afternoon; temperatures in the low 50s to start to around 60 in the afternoon; winds nearly calm, 5-10 mph at the summits in the afternoon.
This was hands down the hardest hike I have ever completed. After reading other reviews/trail notes, elected to do the Calkins Brook route as an out and back as opposed to the loop coming down Seward to the Blueberry Trail after hearing how treacherous it was going down Seward. This was probably the right call, as conditions were very wet.
Weather forecast was for rain overnight, tapering off to a few passing showers ending early afternoon. I figured that wouldn’t be too bad. Got a late start, around 9am. First section from the trailhead to the Calkins Brook crossing was a piece of cake on the old truck trail. Watch for the cairn at the brook crossing - I missed it at first and had to double back 100 feet or so before finding the crossing and trail on the other side. Otherwise, the trail is easy to follow across all three peaks. However, as you climb up Donaldson, the trail gets steadily more eroded, with lots of exposed roots and a few tricky slabs, the most challenging of which (to me) being the one right after the turnoff to the Donaldson summit.
Rain started around 11:30am. Didn’t really matter though, as my legs were already pretty wet from all the wet branches that I kept brushing on the increasingly narrow trail up the mountain. The rain didn’t really let up, except for a few brief pauses until around 6pm. Pretty sure this Range makes it’s own weather.
Got to the trail junction between Seward and Donaldson a little after noon (it’s marked with a nice cairn). 15-20 more minutes up a few slabs, including a couple steep/tricky ones shortly after the turn up Donaldson and I got to the summit around 12:30. There was a brief interlude in the rain and the sun came out for a few minutes, allowing me to eat a quick lunch and take in the (partially visible) views back towards Seward/Seymour and then across the Santanonis and towards the Great Range and Allen. I am sure on a clear day, it would be breathtaking!
Came off of Donaldson and started on the mile trek to Emmons. It took about an hour, and was the most miserable slog I have encountered in the High Peaks thus far. There are a couple of large bogs immediately below the summit of Donaldson that feature knee (maybe thigh?) deep mud in spots. I tried to tip-toe around to the left side and was nominally successful, but still ended up to my knees in one surprise puddle. Rain also started back up, which added to the misery. Summited Emmons around 1:30pm. Back down Emmons, through the mud on Donaldson and back to the trail junction for Seward. At this point it was around 3pm, rain still falling, and I seriously debated calling it a day. However, I had come this far, and couldn’t bear not making the addition 0.8 mile jaunt over to Seward.
There is a pretty steep slab to scoot down just down the Seward trail. After that you go down, then up, then down again before making the final 400 foot ascent to the summit of Seward. This section features some steep scrambles. The rain turned this into what was essentially a climb up a waterfall. Lovely. Thankfully, the rocks were not slick and the slabs were negotiable, though a bit sketchy at times. Summited Seward after about 50 minutes (3:45 pm), at which point the summit was completely socked in, with rain and a breeze picking up. I decided it was time to get off the summit ASAP. The scramble down was generally much easier, and the slab getting back up to the Donaldson junction was easier going up than coming down - that said, the short but steep ups and downs were pretty tiring by this point… Got soaked as I had to sit in the waterfalls going down Seward to negotiate some of the slabs, but between the mud and the rain, it didn’t matter anymore. Thankfully it was relatively mild (around 60F), otherwise, hypothermia could have become a major concern.
Made it back up to the Donaldson cairn around 4:30pm and started the long slog down. Pretty slow going, with lots of slippery exposed roots and plenty of noticeably larger puddles and mud. Caught up to a group of three I had encountered coming down from Emmons (they had come up from Seward after spending the night at a lean-to on the Blueberry trail). They still had a long ways to go back to their lean-to!!! Was a little concerned with how much higher Calkins Brook would be with the rain, but it wasn’t much higher and was easily rock-hopped/forded (I didn’t care, as my feet were soaked through long before, as the mud had overtopped my gaiters on Donaldson, and the rain had worked its way down anyways). After that it was a straightforward race against the fading daylight back to the Seward trailhead parking lot. Reached the Blueberry Trail junction at 7:30 and donned my headlamp to finish the last 1.4 miles, arriving back at the parking lot at 8:15 pm, a little over 11 miserable hours after I started, cold, wet, and sore.
I am glad I knocked these three peaks off my list - I was originally going to do Marcy/Gray/Skylight, but didn’t want to do them in sub-optimal weather, as to ruin the nice views, and I crossed these off the list instead. In better weather, I would probably do Donaldson and maybe Seward again, but a hard pass on Emmons - not worth the muddy slog. I would also only do them on a nice dry, clear day; too much of a slog to stare at the damp, gray nothingness. This was not my least favorite of my 46er hikes so far - Allen with it’s longer slog and wretched red slime takes that trophy, but definitely hands down the most challenging mentally and physically.
Final Stats: 16.86 mi; 4770’ vertical; 11h14m total; 1.50 mph overall.
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