Ampersand Mountain- A 5.9 Mile Hike Near Saranac Lake, NY

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For our first ever family vacation, we decided to spend the week in Saranac Lake. We wanted to do some hikes that were a bit challenging. But because our daughter is only seven months old, we didn’t want to tackle anything TOO crazy. We’d read a little bit about the Saranac Six, and thought that could be a cool little challenge to check out. We figured we’d start with the easiest, and see what our daughter had to say about it.

On our first day of vacation, we started with Baker Mountain. That was a rousing success, so we decide we’d move onto a more challenging hike, and settled on Ampersand. Since we were staying in town, we didn’t have too far to drive- which is always good with a little one in tow!

Ampersand Mountain turned out to be equal parts relaxing forest stroll and challenging uphill ascent. Despite our huffing and puffing up the ascent, the view was absolutely worth it. They were simply phenomenal. Ampersand was the perfect hike for us and our daughter, but I would NOT recommend that anyone else hike this carrying their children unless you have a lot of experience hiking, a good sense of your child’s limits, and are fairly fit.

Dogs are allowed on the trail to Ampersand, although NY State signage at the trailhead indicated they need to be under full control of the owner at all times.

Less than 6 miles (10 kilometres) for views like this? Awesome.

Getting There

Ampersand Mountain is just southwest of Saranac Lake. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.251470, -74.239421.

There was parking across from the trailhead, in a small, paved parking lot with room for about ten cars. When we arrived, there were only a few other cars there. By the time we got back, the parking lot had filled up, and cars were parked along the side of the road too.

Branching off from the parking lot was a trail to Middle Saranac Lake. This was not the trail we wanted to take. There were no facilities at this trailhead. Parking was free.

Sign at the back of the parking lot.

Leaving No Trace in the Adirondacks

It’s important that we, as hikers, do our best to Leave No Trace wherever we go in nature. In places like the Adirondacks, where TONS of people like to head out and enjoy the wilderness, it is extra important that we all do our part to keep these places wild.

Sometimes, it can be hard to know exactly how we do that, or to understand why it’s important that we act certain ways while out in nature.

If you haven’t heard of Leave No Trace, then the first step for you will be really easy (yay!)- find out what it means!

Then it’s time to think about how to Leave No Trace when hiking. For us, we always make sure that whatever garbage we bring onto the trail comes back out with us. We will also pick up and bring out garbage that doesn’t belong to us, because every little bit helps. We ALWAYS stay on the trail, no matter how wet or muddy, to avoid widening it (and destroying plants unnecessarily).

In places like the Adirondacks, there are sometimes special trail conditions that we’re not as used to in Ottawa (where we live). We try to learn about things like this before we go to a new place.

In each season, trails need to be treated differently. “Mud season,” in the spring, can last for a long time in the Adirondacks. During this time trails at high elevation are especially at risk of being damaged. So the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation asks hikers to avoid trails above 2500 feet. That’s part of why we chose to hike the Saranac Six on our vacation (although we made a mistake on Ampersand because it was the ONLY one not recommended by the DEC).

And now, back to our hike!

The Trailhead

In order to get to the trailhead for Ampersand Mountain, we had to cross Route 3, a busy two lane highway. We waited patiently for a break in the traffic, and then crossed towards the NY State sign that announced the trailhead. It was the only one we were able to see, so there was no confusion about where to go.

We noticed that the sign said to follow the NYS trail markers, but that the marker on the sign had been removed. At the time, we thought nothing of it.

Sign at the trailhead- note the missing marker.

The Trail

The start of the trail to (up?) Ampersand Mountain was wide and flat. We stopped at the register to sign in, and then we were on our way.

The trail quickly thinned out, with lots of brush and trees creating a corridor of sorts. At just under 0.2 miles (0.3 kilometres) we crossed over a small stream on a sturdy, four-plank footbridge. Not too long afterwards, we crossed another, much smaller stream with a little footbridge.

A little bridge over a little stream.

So far, the trail hadn’t been very rocky at all. We were able to (and tried to) move fairly quickly through this section. It was easy to do because on a dirt path you don’t have to be as careful about where you’re placing your feet. Since this was going to be our daughter’s longest hike yet, we wanted to make sure we got a lot of miles in where we could.

At 0.43 miles (0.7 kilometres) we crossed two tiny streams that had dried up, and the trail began to get a bit rockier.

The next stream we crossed had an old, slanted bridge to bring us to the other side. Then, after hiking 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometres) we found ourselves on a long, two-plank boardwalk that brought us over a swampy section of the trail.

A Mile In

At the one mile mark (1.6 kilometres) we crossed over a deep creek bed with another two-plank bridge. This bridge had a handrail because it was a few metres above the ground underneath it, although the water wasn’t deep at all.

Snapped this shot on the way back down.

The trail was again becoming rockier in spots, and we crossed a small stream, easily avoiding the water because of big rocks that we were able to step on.

Up until this point, we had been making very good time because the trail was so flat. After hiking 1.25 miles (2 kilometres) though, we began a gentle ascent.

We hopped over some big rocks in another small stream, and the ascent became just a little bit steeper. Here, we took note of the first trail marker that we had seen so far. I’m not sure if it counts though, because it was broken and really faded. Maybe that’s what they meant by not having a trail marker at the trailhead- that we were on our own.

Aha, some rocks.

Getting Steep

After hiking 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres), the ascent became steep enough that we start to feel it! We were able to cover this first part of the hike in 45 minutes.

Not long after, we came across our first sign on the trail. There was a trail marker posted on the tree above the sign, which pointed to our left, to help us stick with the Ampersand Trail. There was a big rock on our right hand side, and behind the rock there were herd paths branching off of the trail. I was glad we had noticed the sign, because this could have been an easy spot to head off course.

We followed the trail further uphill, meandering along with a creek flowing down the mountain on our left hand side. We arrived at our first rocky “staircase” at just over 1.75 miles (2.8 kilometres). Beyond this staircase, the trail continued to alternate between rocky, root-y, and dirt covered path. Although the ascent was getting steeper, the actual hiking itself didn’t feel too difficult to navigate so far.

Rock staircases making things easier, but things are still tough.

Getting Steeper

At 1.9 miles (3 kilometres) the ascent became much steeper quite abruptly. That’s one of the best and worst things about the Adirondacks- you’ll find yourself thinking that things can’t get any steeper, and then the mountain always proves you wrong.

As we hiked along, we couldn’t help but notice that the trail work on Ampersand was phenomenal. We repeatedly climbed well-built sets of “rock stairs.” This undoubtedly made our hike much easier than it might have been otherwise. While there were lots of high “steps” on these staircases, we were easily able to step onto level, wide surfaces, instead of having to navigate to mountain as it would have been before. There were also stones placed strategically in different spots to help funnel water off the trail, making for a much drier trail than we might have had otherwise.

Feeling Like The Adirondacks

After hiking 2.25 miles (3.6 kilometres), we approached a huge rock face. We stopped to appreciate how grand the mountains can feel. A lovely set of hikers offered to take our photo there, and we gladly took them up on it!

Thanks for the picture new friends!

Beyond this, the trail became a bit trickier to navigate (in my opinion) because water that had run down the path previously had deposited all sorts of small rocks that we had to walk over.

At 2.5 miles (4 kilometres), we approached the first section of the trail that was comprised of open rock face and required a bit of scrambling. Since things were getting a bit more technical, we began to really take our time to make sure every step we took was a safe one. We also began to consider not only whether we could hike UP these features on the trail, but if it would also be safe for our daughter when we were coming back DOWN.

Scrambley, but still doable.

Just 800 feet (0.2 kilometres) later, the trail flattened out for a bit (phew!). Since we’re able to look somewhere else besides our feet for a bit, we notice that there was tons of moss on this section, giving the forest a really vibrant green colour.

Are We There Yet?

Of course, all flat things must come to an end, and soon the trail began to ascend again. At the 2.7 mile (4.3 kilometre) mark, we approached a massive rock on our right hand side. A yellow arrow spray painted onto it pointed us in the right direction. It was here that we started wondering how far the summit was, because “didn’t the trail description say it was only 2.7 miles to the summit?”

Are we there yet? Almost.

We had one final, tricky obstacle to traverse first. We soon came across another massive rock formation, but this one, we had to go THROUGH. The rocks formed a skinny little chute about four feet above the ground and four feet high that we had to get up and through. Fortunately, there was a very strong tree growing on one of the rocks that helped us along with some nice handholds.

Very helpful tree.

The Summit

Just a little further down the trail the treeline opened up, giving us our first stunning view of lakes and mountains off in the distance. Hiking these challenging trails is so fun, but its views like this that absolutely tug at my heart strings.

We traveled over a massive open rock face, following yellow painted arrows to get to the true summit. The rock face was slightly steep in some spots, but overall quite easy to traverse. Once we had reached the survey marker that let us know we had reached the summit, we settled in to enjoy the views. It had taken us two and a half hours to reach the summit, and our GPS had tracked the distance as being just over 3 miles (5 kilometres).

Getting close!

The summit of Ampersand was truly spectacular. Because it’s completely open, there were beautiful views in every single direction.

We spent some time chatting with a handful of other people who were there as well. Everyone was excited to see that the baby had made it to the summit. She’s popular wherever she goes, I’m telling you.

We stayed at the top for a while, because those views were hard to walk away from. Not to mention, our daughter had been in her pack for long enough that we knew she needed an opportunity to wriggle around and be free.

Proof that we made it!

Heading Back

Eventually though, we knew we had to head back. We packed everything up, and headed back the way we had come. We were able to descend just as easily as we had ascended (in terms of navigating the scrambles, etc.).

The only point that we had to strategize about was the rock chute. Instead of carrying our daughter through it as we had on the way up, it felt safer to pass her down. So I hopped down, and my husband passed her (still in her pack, those handles are convenient!) to me, with no problems. Pretty soon after this she actually fell asleep and had a nice long nap.

We really enjoyed how the last leg of this hike was so flat and easy on the way back too. Descending can be as tough on the body as heading uphill, so by the time our knees were starting to get sore we were back on level ground!

When we arrived back at the trailhead (the baby really wanted out at this point!) our GPS told us we had hiked a total of 5.9 miles (9.5 kilometres). We were able to cover this distance in five hours and nineteen minutes.

On our way back. The coolest tree on the trail. Besides that other cool tree that helped us up the chute…

Trail Thoughts

We really loved hiking Ampersand. And even if we didn’t, the summit would have made up for it! It was nice to have such a long stretch of trail at the beginning (and then the end!) that was fast and easy enough to navigate. Then, throw in a challenging ascent to the summit, and we felt like we had really earned the views up there! Despite the fact that the incline was steep at the end and there were a few scramble-y spots, the fantastic trail work made the work of getting to the summit fairly enjoyable. The stone staircases that had been put in place were really impressive, and helped make things a million times easier than they might have been.

More of the terrain on Ampersand.

Ampersand Mountain was the perfect distance and length of time for us to challenge ourselves to figure out what would work best for our daughter on longer hikes. She did amazingly well, and we were pretty proud of ourselves too! This is NOT a hike that I would do with a baby, if I didn’t have lots of experience hiking on different terrain, good gear, and if I didn’t have an amazing hiking partner to bring with me.

But, I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Our GPS tracked route of the Ampersand Mountain Trail.

Whenever I’m hiking somewhere new, I tend to wonder about who was on, and who took care of that land before me. I’ve enjoyed using this website as a place to start learning more about the indigenous people whose land I’m on: Native-land.ca.

Elevation gain on Ampersand Mountain.

Gear We Brought

*We talked with our doctor about bringing our baby out hiking in the Adirondacks. We can’t know yet if our daughter is allergic to things like wasp stings. So we wanted the doctor’s opinion on our options to help keep her safe, since it can take longer to get to help or have help come to you on the mountains. Our doctor felt comfortable prescribing the EpiPen for us to use in the case of an emergency, and we’re lucky enough to have good insurance that covers it.

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