Hiking NY: Day Hike of Seymour Mountain in the Adirondacks

Better late than never! Just now realizing I never posted about my solo hike of Seymour, so here you go if interested! I've done several high peaks solo now and have had zero issues (knock on wood!) so that's a nice feeling and boost of confidence in my abilities! I always make sure to let people know where I'm going to be, what time I should be back, I have a paper map as well as digital, I text home when I get a signal, and I'm extra careful on tricky spots to avoid accidental slips or falls.

Seymour makes #27/46 for me so I'm slowly chugging away at the peaks. I'm not in any rush, and I'm enjoying the journey! Coming from almost 6 hours away makes it very difficult, not to mention the cost of gas etc but I try to make a few trips out each summer. Seymour was my second high peak this season and I have a few more planned before snow comes!

I hiked this one on June 29 which was my one day off from my summer job in Old Forge. The drive was 2hr and I could not leave my job until 7am so I got to the Seward trailhead around 9am and hit the trail!

The trail is well marked and pretty straight forward, passing by 2 lean tos and a campsite along the way. Also countless small creeks and water to pass by with ample supply for filtering. At approx 6 miles I reached the unmarked junction for the trail to summit Seymour. It is an unmarked trail so definitely have a map/navigation system for backup.

It's a pretty well worn herd path and the trail is approx 1.5 mile to the summit, most if which is next to or crisscrossing a creek. The last 0.5 mile to summit is harder with steep rocks and much scrambling. For me it was very muddy and wet so I had to be extra cautious with my footing being solo. The actual summit does have a sign, and a small view thru the trees. There is a much better lookout spot before the summit where you can rest on a large rock with a nice view. There is a cell signal on most all of the trail from junction to summit.

As you can see the "trail" got much harder and more steep as I got closer to the summit. That last half mile took forever.

The actual summit is pretty anticlimactic with many trees surrounding the view. My view was cloudy so I did not linger, and you can see my thoughts on this peak here:

However there was a great rock outlook just before the summit where I did rest and have lunch before heading back down.

For me I am moderate speed in the flattish areas, and slow on the ascents. The first 6 miles took me 2.5hrs, then the 1.5 miles to summit took another 2.5hr. I rested 30 min at summit, then it took under 2hr to get back to junction of main trail. From the junction back to car took me 2.5hr. I was moving pretty slow toward the end from tired legs. I reached my car at approx 6:45pm.

High Peaks: #27/46

Total miles: 15.3

Total elevation gain: 2,841ft