Seward Range Off-Trail Route

Dogs Unknown

Calkins Brook herd path leads up Donaldson and is a much easier way to get onto and off of the Seward Range ridgeline than going up Seward itself

The Blueberry lean-to is about 0.1 miles west of the junction of the Blueberry Foot Trail and the Blueberry Horse Trail. The cairn on the right (south) side of the trail is about 0.1 miles beyond that junction. The path can be difficult to follow until it starts climbing--many muddy spots until then also.

A few tenths of a mile in the trail starts ascending up a rocky stream bed that may not be dry in the spring. From here it gets gradually steeper, with the terrain changing from large rocks and roots to granite slabs. Very near the top of Seward is a headwall that cannot be ascended by an average height hiker without equipment, and the trail follows the wall until it gets low enough to crawl over. This is basically the summit of Seward.

South of the summit is a nice outlook over towards a subpeak of Seward, Donaldson, and Emmons. The descent down the southern face of Seward is steep with loose rocks, and likely not easy to climb up either. The trail is slightly to the east of the ridgeline.

In the last 0.1 miles north of the summit of Donaldson views towards Seward open up, and there is a cairn marking the junction with Calkins Brook Trail , another well-defined herd path. Just shy of the summit of Donaldson is an outlook to the west featuring the Ampersand Range. The true summit is a boulder on the east side of the trail.

It is 1.3 miles from the summit of Donaldson to Emmons. Donaldson's southern summit is almost as high as its northern (true) summit. The trail is gentler between Donaldson and Emmons than between Seward and Donaldson. There are still a few scrambles going up Emmons, though.

At the totally viewless summit of Emmons the trail just stops--no branching paths to view points or anything, it just ends.