Baker Mountain- A 2.1 Mile Hike Near Saranac Lake, NY

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My daughter climbed her first mountain!! I absolutely adore the Adirondacks, and we’ve slowly (very slowly!) been hiking the 46 High Peaks in the region over the last few years. With a baby in tow though, we weren’t really looking to log the miles that the High Peaks require. So instead, we headed out to Saranac Lake. We’d done some research about the Saranac Six, and thought it would make a fun challenge for this summer while she’s still young.

We drove into Saranac Lake from Ottawa on a beautiful, sunny day. Originally our plan was to check in to where we were staying, get settled, and scope out the neighbourhood. But we had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast for the week, and it looked like a lot of rain. So we decided we’d start our trip in earnest on the day we arrived, with the shortest trail out of the Saranac Six– Baker Mountain.

What a great hike! It’s short, a bit steep, and there are quite a few spots with really beautiful views. No wonder it’s one of the most popular hikes in the region. We had our daughter in her new pack, and it worked really well. Despite some tricky footing at times, my husband felt very confident carrying her up the mountain (he felt just a bit winded too).

Dog are allowed on this trail, although they must be leashed. Baker Mountain can be hiked as an out-and-back hike, or as a loop. We decided on the loop!

Getting There

Baker Mountain is just outside of Saranac Lake. It’s right beside Moody Pond. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.331405, -74.115836.

Even from Ottawa, where we were driving from, it’s not too far of a drive (just over two and a half hours). From downtown Saranac Lake, it’s even closer! It only took us five minutes to get there once we had gotten into town.

There was no official parking lot for the trail. The shoulder beside Moody Pond was really wide though, and we pulled in behind a few other cars parked there. There was room for about ten cars at the side of the road. Since this is such a popular hike, I can see it getting really busy at times.

There were no facilities at this trailhead. Parking was free. Score.

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 and we’ll own up to it in that blog post).

And now, back to our hike!

The Trailhead

The trail itself was really easy to spot, because there was a NY State sign across from Moody Pond announcing that this was the trail to Baker Mountain.

We crossed over a tiny little ditch, and started to head uphill IMMEDIATELY. Good thing this hike is only 0.9 miles (1.44 kilometres) to the summit.

Within a few feet, we arrived at the trailhead register. This is not something that we have in Ottawa, because most of our trails are quite easy to hike. We also don’t have such an influx of people coming specifically to hike there, and so needing search and rescue is much less of a thing. Thank goodness.

Anyway, we signed into the trailhead register because it’s the smart thing to do.

The Trail

After hiking about 300 feet (100 metres), we reached the split in the trail that forms the looped route. There was a sign here, and although I took note of it, I didn’t pay nearly as much attention as I should have.

We decided to hike the loop counter clockwise, for no real reason. The sign posted on the tree was an arrow pointing off to our right, and maybe that influenced us subliminally?

There was a NY State trail marker posted on top of the arrow. At the time, I thought absolutely nothing of it. After completing the whole loop though, I realized that only HALF the loop was marked trail. That’s likely why the arrow posted had a trail marker on it- in THIS direction there are trail markers.

Heading off to our right, we continued uphill. The trail just after the split was fairly wide, and it was easy to walk side by side. Soon, we began to see some nice rocky stretches of trail. We were able to see a few cars parked on the side of the road on our right hand side after hiking 0.2 miles (0.3 kilometres)

Uphill!

With calves starting to burn (just a bit!) we passed an old, square foundation on our right hand side. There weren’t too many trail markers posted, but the trail was so well worn that it was easy to follow the path in the dirt.

Just shy of half a mile (0.7 kilometres) we hiked over a section of flatter trail, which was a nice little break.

Open Rock Face

After hiking 0.6 miles (1 kilometre), we found ourselves doing a bit of a scramble over open rock face. Beyond that, the trail became a bit trickier as there was a lot of rock scattered over it. We had to watch where we placed our feet a bit more carefully, whereas before there were some sections of the trail that were just made up of dirt.

We reached another section of the trail that required some scrambling at three quarters of a mile (1.2 kilometres). This section looked slightly more difficult than the last, and we stopped for a moment to consider our options. Since we had our daughter with us, we were only going to hike sections of the trail that we felt absolutely confident in navigating.

Fortunately, my husband is much more nimble than I am, and he was able to navigate this section no problem (if I ever had to get her back down on my own I would just scoot on my bum!). Soon after, the trail branched off to our right. We could see through the treeline, and headed off in that direction to see if we could get any views. There were a few really nice lookouts here, and we stopped to soak in the first Adirondack views we’d had all season.

The Summit- I Think?

Getting back on the trail, it continued to ascend over open rock face. This section was not too steep though, and quite easy to hike up.

Trail markers began to appear more often as we got closer to the summit.

We arrived at the summit without knowing it at first. There was a lovely view off to our right hand side, and survey markers on the open rock face we found ourselves standing on. But most of the trails we’ve hiked in the Adirondacks have been High Peaks, and we’ve grown accustomed to seeing a sign at the summit. So for a while, we didn’t think we had actually reached it. There were tons of trails branching off from the summit, which also had us thinking we had further to go.

After checking our trail description, map, and GPS, we finally sorted out that the trail looped off to our left (from the direction we approached), over a small (by Adirondack standards) rock. We figured that we must be at the summit, and stopped to take some pictures.

Heading Back

The trail beyond the small rock was well-traveled, but there were absolutely no trail markers. We were quite confused about that- we thought that the trail was SO well worn that it absolutely must be the way back, but why were there no markers?

Soon after scooting down past the first small rock, there was another small rock on our left hand side. If you see this, you’ll know you’re on the right path.

We still hadn’t clued in about the sign at the split. But, we kept checking our map and GPS to make sure we were on the right track, and kept heading downhill.

The descent on this trail was much less technical. Often, the trail was dirt covered with pine needles, versus open rock face or rockier sections like we had seen on the other side.

After hiking 1.24 miles (2 kilometres) the trail branched off to our left, but also continued straight in front of us. We noted that the trail to our left would have brought us to the treeline, so we stuck with the trail ahead of us to continue our descent.

More Rocks

As we headed downhill, the trail became rockier and a bit thinner. We also started to cross sections of the trail that were very muddy and wet, with water still trickling down the trail.

The mosquitoes were also BAD on this side of the loop. So much so that we stopped and put on bug nets, which we hadn’t felt a need for on the way up.

We crossed a tiny stream after hiking 1.8 miles (3 kilometres). Then the trail widened, and we were back at the original split in the trail.

We Made It!

Soon, we found ourselves back at the trailhead. By completing the hike as a loop, we had traveled 2.12 miles (3.4 kilometres). We were able to cover this distance in just under two hours. The time we spent on the mountain included lots of breaks, and some time spent at the summit enjoying the view (and trying to figure out if we were actually at the summit).

Trail Thoughts

This was a perfect little hike for us to try out our daughter’s new pack with. It wasn’t a walk in the park- it had enough elevation gain that our legs were definitely getting a workout in spots, and there was a tiny bit of scrambling involved too. But it was also short enough that we knew no matter what, we wouldn’t be out on the trail for too long.

The southern side of the loop was rockier on the way up, and we had to be more careful about where we placed our feet. But, it was marked, making it really easy to follow the trail all the way up without worrying about accidentally veering off course.

We descended on the northern side of the looped path, and the trail there was much less rocky and easier to navigate. I was thinking to myself that this side would have been MUCH easier to come up. But the downside there was that there were no trail markers!

So if you’re at all worried about sticking with the trail, you might decide it’s best to just hike the southern side of the loop, and head back the way you came once you’ve reached the summit.

Regardless of which route you take, the views from Baker are worth the work! For such a short distance, we were able to enjoy some stunning views, in a few different spots along the trail. And it was amazing to be able to share those types of views with our daughter for the first time.

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

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.

Gear We Brought

• Hiking Boots
• Wool Socks
• Hiking Pants
• Tops
• Rain Jackets
• Waterproof Pants
• Cell Phones
• Sunglasses
• Baby Sun Hat
• Baby Polyester Sleeper
• NUBY Bug Net
• MEC Shuttlecraft Kid Carrier
• Infantino Up Close Newborn Carrier (as a back-up carrier if she wanted to change positions)
• Baby Sleep Sack (Fleece)
• Spare Fleece Sleeper
• Spare Polyester Onesie
• MEC Heritage Newt Suit
• Pacifier (and back-up pacifiers)
• Mountain Warehouse Day Pack
• 2 Litre Water Bladder
• Nalgene 32 Ounce Bottle
• Coghlan’s Bear Bell
• Snacks
• GERBER First Essentials Bottle+ Formula
• Munchkin Formula Dispenser
• Diapers
• Wipes
• Coppertone Waterbabies Stick Sunscreen
• First Aid Kit with Tick Removal Tool
• Banana Boat Sunscreen Stick
• Tylenol (for baby)
• Benadryl (for baby)
• Baby EpiPen*
• SOL 2-Person Emergency Bivvy
• Whistle
• Compass
• Map
• Fire Starter Kit
• Headlamps
• Bug Lotion
• Bug Hats
• Toilet Paper
• Hand Sanitizer
• Plastic Bag

*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.