The Saranac Six

We start from the soil and stone. From there—if we’re lucky—we expand into the forest and eventually a cathedral of sky. First, there is the work and the trails that tie everything together. For now they are enough.

I begin the 2.7-mile trudge to Ampersand Mountain the way I commence all such hikes, by introducing myself to the soil. It’s the most abundant thing around and the basis for all the rest. I find a handful of the dark stuff under the newly sprung foliage beside the trail. Smooth with silt and jumbled with the braille of small pebbles, the paste connects me electrically to the land. Like the dirt itself, this link is full of darkness, half-remembered smells and the odor of ghosts. Understanding it is the reason I am here.

There are a half-dozen summits known as the Saranac Six scattered among the lakes of the northern Adirondacks. Each trek has its own character and commonalities: jewel streams, outsized birch trees and boulders, and airy views to lakes and the teeth of other peaks. The experience of one will never quite be duplicated on another. Hiking them all makes one a “Saranac 6er” and conditions the adventurer for longer and more intense scrambles in the High Peaks region.

My companion, Jason Hunter, shoulders his