Seymour

Aug 14, 2022

I showed up at the end of Corey's road at 08:00 to a full parking lot and a few cars spilling out onto the road. I did have a very compact car with me though, so managed to squeeze it into the lot, carefully manouvering around a tree so I could still get out the door. I spent a few minutes getting ready and finally hit the trail at 08:30.

The walk in was long, somewhat boring, but pretty in spots. I passed a couple people going in, several people coming out, witnessed a surprise full-moon as I passed Blueberry camp, and received some praise for my hat by a couple at Ward camp. After two hours of walking I arrived at the cairn marking the herd path to Seymour. I noticed a bright blue and yellow object stuffed in the cairn, but did not really think much of it at the time.

Long approach, often on old roads.

Seymour herd path cairn

The first part of the herd path was much nicer hiking than the approach trail as it meandered along the cascading stream. Every few hundred meters, I spied a brightly painted rock adorning the trail. At the third or fourth one of these I picked it up to examine. Written on the back was a name (Keith), a date (yesterday), and the name of this mountain (Seymour). Not wanting to carry rocks up the mountain, I put it back, figuring that I might pack it out on my return journey. Shortly after, I met a fellow coming down and chatted for a bit. Though neither he and I did not mention the stones, I noticed he had a coloured rock or two stuffed into the mesh pocket of his pack.

A carnivorous tree waiting patiently for the unwary

Litter

The climbing got steeper, and for a fairly long section there was some fun and somewhat challenging slabs for about 100m of vertical. Once at the top of the slabs, the angle lessened, and it was a mostly straight forward walk to the summit. After a quick picture, I turned back to have lunch at the lookout rock, joining two women, and later being joined by a couple guys that I had chatted with on the summit earlier. The day was beautiful so I spent some time enjoying my bagel and an Ubu, drying my feet, and taking in the view of the main Seward range directly in front of me.

Lunch with Seward

I started slow on the descent, carefully planting my feet as I went as the Ubu and general tiredness from the climb of Haystack yesterday were both making me feel very much alive. The slabs seemed to be much easier down than they were going up... either from the gravity assist, or maybe it was the extra boldness incurred by the Ubu. I looked for coloured rocks and picked up one, but did not find any more. At the cairn, I saw that the rock had been removed here as well. Looks like the litter from yesterday has been dealt with.

The walk back to the parking lot seemed to take forever, but despite being somewhat exhausted at this point, somehow took ten minutes less time than the walk in. The hike took exactly seven and a half hours.

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