Switchbacks Are For Suckers

Hiking the Adirondack Seward Range & Seymour Mountain

I have hiked all over the place, from New Zealand to Montana.  I believe that nowhere - nowhere - brings the misery like the Adirondacks.  Thick clouds of blackflies, bad weather, knee-deep mud, horrifically steep and eroded trails...

Yeah, "trails."

Dave and I had a good dose of horrifically steep and eroded trails when we hiked the Seward Range and Seymour Mountain.  By far, these peaks were the hardest trails of the summer, way harder than anything we hiked in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, or Wyoming.

Switchbacks?  What are those?  :-)

Our route:

• Day 1 we hiked in via Ward Brook, made camp at Ward Brook Lean To (just past 2), hiked Seward (3) - Donaldson (4) - Emmons (5) - Donaldson (4) - Seward (3).
• Day 2 we hiked Seymour (6), broke camp (just past 2), and hiked back out.

The walk in via Ward Brook is totally cruiser.  We chose to tent near the Ward Brook Lean-To, because that site is between the herd path turn-offs for Seward and Seymour.  Other folks stay at Blueberry or #4.  I'd pick Blueberry over #4, so you have a shorter distance back to camp after Seward.

The turn-off for Seward is really easy to find - it's just after this bridge!

The north approach to Seward has the reputation for being awful.  It's muddy, steep, and rough, but it's not insane.  Take the back side of Algonquin, add the cliffs of Cliff, and season with the mud of Iroquois.  So:  muddy, steep, and rough.

The hard part of the day is leaving Emmons.  Why?  The trail is easiest at this point!  But knowing that you are about to reverse all of the hard work you did, going back over the two mountains you just hiked....

Some folks exit down Calkins Brook, but I think that would take just as long.  And the trail really isn't that bad.  Be careful on the way down, though - we missed a cairn and needed to backtrack to avoid a bushwhack.

In camp, we found a frog in a tree.  He was cute.

The trail up Seymour is also steep, eroded, and muddy, but not as bad as the north side of Seward.  The trail is easy to find from Ward Brook.  The worst part was the rawness of my shoulder blades under my pack.

After Seymour, it's an easy pack out, again via Ward Brook.  The perfect overnight!

The trip is somewhere around 23ish miles, with somewhere around 5,000 feet of elevation gain.  Of those 23 miles, around 13ish are the aforementioned muddy, steep, eroded, unmaintained summit herd path.  Dave and I averaged about 1 mile per hour on these sections.  

Like I said...  easily the hardest trail I've done all summer...  and right in my backyard!  Take that, Western states with your big mountains!

P.S.  High Peaks count:  37 down, 9 to go!

8 Things I Love About Cambodia

Women love to wear coordinated pajama sets during the day.  I haven't quite figured that one out, yet.

There are itty bitty Cambodia kitties everywhere, and they're all friendly.

I love biking everywhere.  And it's not just tourists--Cambodians bike, too.  Although they put multiple people on a bicycle, on the theory that:  (number of wheels) x 2.5 = maximum capacity of vehicle.

Calves are ridiculous looking and induce smiling.  Water buffalo are funny, too.

Bananas on a stick.  I rest my case.

Cambodian food rocks.  More on that here.

We've been here 10 or 11 days, mostly going about the business of life...  sleeping, eating, thinking, wandering.  Not a lot of sightseeing or vacation type activities.  Just living.  And in the process of everyday life, we got to know a few people.  It's reassuring and pleasant to recognize the same face every day.  We've eaten pretty much every meal in one of two restaurants.

Breakfast and lunch at Navy Kitchen:

Dinner at Five Sons:

And last, but certainly not least, is my friend that I greet every evening:

"Fat Frog," or as I like to say, "FAT FROG!!!" hangs out on the first floor of my guesthouse.  He stands next to a column of ants and snatches one after another, hoovering up the entire colony.  He's actually not that fat, but when he sees me, he puffs up.  Haha, I'm giggling just looking at his picture.

This are the little things that make me feel at home.  Silly routines, recognizing faces, noticing little details...  life on the road is just like life at home.  Same same...  but different.

Outback Adventures

We spent our first full night in the Northern Territories aboard Inti... a yacht! We met Rob in virtual reality through Couchsurfing. He invited us to spend a night in his home, which happens to be a boat. We talked about life as nomads, philosophy, politics, economics, and all the other things that make the world go 'round. I feel like I met a kindred spirit in Rob. It was inspirational to meet someone who has lived according to his own vision and values well past the age when certain pressures to "grow up" subdue even the most dedicated idealist. Rob, you have a home wherever we are, and I look forward to the day when our paths cross again!

Darwin turned out to be much more expensive and crowded than we anticipated, as we didn't realize it was peak tourist season (one potential downside to showing up in places randomly). We tried one night in a hostel, but even though we didn't arrive until 3:00 a.m, still I barely slept. So, it's back to sleeping outside! We rented a "ute," or a utility vehicle, actually a small pick-up truck, for only a few more dollars per day than a hostel booking for two. Grabbed a canister of butane for the camp stove and a mosquito net and it was back to nights with nothing but clouds between my closed eyelids and the universe.

(Side note: we obtained two camping mattresses via legal but dubious means. The first night we used them, we spent +/- 3 hours determining whether they were infested with bedbugs via careful application of the scientific method. No, not kidding. Verdict: no bedbugs!)

We spent a few days wandering around Litchfield National Park, which was crowded with mostly Aussie vacationers. Memories... every night, there was a very bright object in the sky, perhaps a planet. One night after dinner, a teeny tiny frog hopped up my skirt and landed on my thigh. Once I was done screaming and hopping around like a frog myself, that was pretty funny. Wild cockatoos are enchanting and goofy. It was so hot that everything slowed to a crawl: my thoughts wandered out of my brain, my feet simply refused to get a move on.

The most memorable tourist attraction in the park was a non-tourist attraction. It wasn't on any map. We stopped to explore some interesting rocks. They reminded me of some sort of ruins, the way they were stacked up in the middle of an otherwise flat, dry landscape. Clumps of grass switched at my calves as I tiptoed around, putting footprints in sand that hasn't seen human feet in a long, long time. One potential upside to showing up in places randomly, I'd say.

On the way back to Darwin, we stopped at Territory Wildlife Park, sponsored by Northern Territory government and featuring only species native to the region. This was the single touristy thing we did, and I'm happy with that. Highlights for me were the wedge-tailed eagle, the "saltie" or saltwater crocodile, and the rock wallabies.

On our last night in Darwin, we drove out to what we expected would be a quiet, dark, deserted park. Imagine my curiosity when a group of flashlight-weilding, rubber-glove-wearing, plastic-bag toting adults and children started wandering around the truck! I approached one of the kids, Brandon, who eagerly explained that they were searching for cane toads to grind into mulch.

What?!

Turns out cane toads are a non-native pest animal here, interfering with hermit crab populations, like possums and stoats interfere with bird populations in New Zealand. "Do you wanna join me? Please?" little Brandon asked. As if he had to ask! Dave got a pair of rubber gloves to protect his hands from the skin irritants in the toads' warts and I got a plastic bag. Brandon entertained us with his stealthy yet showy ninja toad catching moves as we wandered around the park. And thus we caught toads until it was time for bed.

Photo journal:

Here are a few suggestions for Darwin and Northern Territory:

What Makes New Zealand So Special?

I've been excited about visiting New Zealand since I was in high school and the first Lord of the Rings movies were released.  I was captivated by the amazing scenery, and I enjoyed watching the documentaries about filming the movie in NZ as much as I enjoyed the movies themselves.

Mt. Ngauruhoe, inspiration for film version of Mt. Doom, photo by Don Swanson, 1984

Since I made the decision to go to New Zealand, I've tried to learn a little about the land and its native species.  I've lived my entire life in New York and New Jersey in the United States.  My frame of reference, my concept of "outside," is a forest of oak and pine or maple and beech, or a gorge lined with hemlock.  I expect to see grey squirrels in the oak trees, white-tailed deer wandering through the pines, and blue jays zooming through the canopy (or terrorizing the chickadees).

New Zealand is completely different (not surprisingly--it is on the other side of the globe).  What is surprising are the extent to which and the reasons why it is unique.

Coromandel rainforest, photo by James Shook, 2005

Click the link below for more about New Zealand's otherworldly ecology!