We have been visiting the Adirondacks for over a decade now, but more recently within the past 2-3 years I started learning about all the hiking challenges in the park. For instance, the most well known of them all -becoming a 46er, meaning you climbed all 46 peaks over 4000’ of elevation.
We did our first high peak, Cascade Mountain, 2 years ago and since then we’ve been hooked! We are also working on our Lake George 12ster and Lake Placid 9er. Not long after that hike I learned about the ultra-challenges, meaning you complete a group of hikes in under 24 hours. One seemed most appealing to me; the Saranac Ultra 6er and so I had it set in my mind that I would do this challenge first. To become a Saranac 6er you must climb Ampersand, Haystack, McKenzie, Scarface, St. Regis and Baker mountains. To become an Ultra Saranac 6er you must climb all in under 24 hours.
It took the full two years to convince my husband and line up babysitting and all the logistics, but on Thursday June 25, 2020 we finally set off for Lake Placid and checked into our favorite hotel, the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort. I hadn’t slept all week, I was so excited! I was also nervous about the logistics such as parking, finding the summit markers and staying on trail. Spoiler alert- none were a problem for us.
We spent a few hours hanging out on the beach at the Golden Arrow and ordering take out from their restaurant, Generations, then we finally headed to bed around 9:30 that night. The alarm was set for 4am, but as I predicted I wouldn’t need an alarm because I barely slept that night. We woke up a bit earlier, double checked our packs and headed out.
On the advice of some friends we decided to do Ampersand first. Not only would it be a beautiful sunrise hike, but the parking situation at Ampersand gets very crowded so we wanted to avoid any issues with that.
Our first stop however, was Berkeley Green right in the middle of town. To become an Ultra 6er your time starts when you sign in at the Ultra register and ends when you sign out there. We signed in at Berkeley Green at 4:31am and it was a very pleasant 53 degrees.
We then headed to Ampersand and were relieved to see just one other car in the parking lot. We signed in at 4:49am and headed out. My adrenaline was high, so I was keeping a very quick pace, so much so that my husband told me to go on without him and he would meet me at the summit. The trail started out flat and quite easy for the first 2 miles, soon though the trail changed abruptly and was very steep for the last .7 miles. Still, I was keeping up a great pace and reached the summit at 5:53am. The summit offers 360 degree views and was absolutely stunning.
At that point I was unsure if my husband was still going to be joining me on the summit or not, so I took a few minutes to take pictures and make some notes. My son had also made us a special treat to enjoy on our first summit, honey sandwiches with a smiley face so I made sure to have some of that and take pictures to send him later.
I decided to head back down and it was then that my phone rang and my husband was calling me, he thought he was near the top so I waited and within a few minutes he arrived on the bald face summit. We spent a few more minutes taking pictures and enjoying the view before we headed back down.
To be honest I don’t remember much of the descent other than it was quick! We arrived back at the trailhead at 7:01 am and I knew next up was our biggest challenge of the day. We were eager to hit the road towards Haystack and McKenzie.
If you’re doing the Ultra be sure to use the Jackrabbit trail AND the herdpath to ascend Haystack and Mckenzie. It cuts out a considerable amount of time and mileage. My husband felt like we were cheating, but I pointed out to him that all other Ultra-ers and those with the fastest known times use the Jackrabbit trail. The jackrabbit trail is located off Whiteface Inn Lane, thankfully with GPS it was very easy to find. There is no parking lot and from what we could tell probably only 3-4 cars could fit on this spot for parking so we were happy to see we were just the second car there at that time.
We signed in at 7:36am and set off on the jackrabbit trail, opting to do Haystack first via the herdpath. The first 30 minutes of the hike was really just a walk, a bit rocky and then more of a dirt road, but a very gentle grade. 30 minutes in we reached the Placid lean-to, I would have loved to check it out, but we were on a mission so we continued on. The weather was still very pleasant.
Not long after (maybe a few minutes to 15 minutes?) we arrived at the Junction for McKenzie mountain (to the right) and Haystack (to the left). VERY important here if you are doing Haystack to continue straight on the Jackrabbit trail to find the herdpath. Do not go left. Continue walking on the Jackrabbit for about 10-15 minutes and keep your eye out for a herdpath on the left. I had read that there was a rock cairn signaling the location of the herdpath, however it was not there on our hike. I’m not sure at what point in time it was removed, but we walked right past the trail and thankfully I decided to check my Alltrails app to find out we had missed the turn off. We turned back around, and my husband spotted the herdpath. From there it was easy to follow, very narrow but well-traveled.
It wasn’t long at all before we reached the summit of Haystack at 8:45am. I was almost in disbelief at how gentle and easy this trail was. I did spend a considerable amount of time attempting to find the summit marker for Haystack, however I learned later there is no marker. So make note of that!
We headed back down the herdpath to the Jackrabbit trail, me leading the way and suddenly I heard my husband let out a load groan. It didn’t sound good. He yelled that he hurt his knee and “it was bad”. At this point he was continuing very slowly, hobbling along and I immediately saw any chance of our Ultra gone. It was an absolutely crushing feeling.
We talked about what to do, of course I had brought pain meds but not in my backpack- silly me I had left them in the car. I considered running the several miles to the car to get them, I also considered the possibility of me completing the Ultra by myself- something that terrified me knowing that cell service is non-existent in that area. I’m also terrified of snakes and bears (mostly just seeing cubs and worrying about the mom).
We made a plan that my husband would continue on as best he could and I would do my best to not get too far ahead. We headed back down the Jackrabbit trail and reached the McKenzie Junction (now on the left) at 9:29am. McKenzie is without a doubt the most challenging hike of the day, it’s an intense climb up a rocky and incredibly eroded trail. We went very slowly, in fact we went so slow that I found the climb to be very easy. I wasn’t even out of breath. I guess that was a nice bonus of my husband’s much slower pace.
I found the trail very difficult to follow, there were markers but very few and far between. The trail was so eroded that nothing looked like a clear trail. I was hoping my husband could just do this one last one with me and I would finish the others by myself. Finally, we reached the false summit. That was a nice feeling to be done with the eroded, very steep part of the trail, but soon I looked out and could see the true summit- it seemed like it was 10 miles away at that point. Really though, it was just a bit of a descent and up again and I was there in no time at all. I snapped a quick picture at the summit (wooden tree marker) and ran back to my husband on the false summit. At some point we had cell service and he did call to say he was starting his descent and I said I would meet him.
It was a long and difficult descent down the eroded trail. It felt amazing to finally reach the jackrabbit trail. We made it back to the trailhead at 1:11pm, WAY behind schedule.
My husband loaded up on Advil and I decided to take some as well since we still had three hikes to go and my knees were beginning to feel the pain of the steep descents.
Next up was Scarface Mountain, we reached the trailhead at 1:37pm. I couldn’t believe how beautiful and easy the first few miles of the trail were. It was absolutely beautiful forest and a lush bed of pine needles to walk on. It felt like a dream. Eventually though we reached a concrete pad full of rusted items and the trail began to ascend slightly. It became much steeper and at this point both of our knees were screaming. I should add that we finally whipped out our trekking poles which was possibly our biggest mistake- waiting so long to use our poles, we should have used them from the start of the Ultra.
My husband was really hurting and our pace was very slow. The top of the trail is interesting, you finally reach a flat spot that seems to go on completely flat and for what seems like forever. Finally, we reached the summit at 3:32. Scarface summit has no views, just look for the white disc on a tree marking the summit, it is impossible to miss.
We immediately turned back around and began our descent. This was really the beginning of the major problems with our Ultra time, it took us 2 hours to descend due to knee pain and this made us lose an incredible amount of time. I’ll be honest, I was crying near the end of the trail, I wasn’t sure how we could possibly go on at this point our knees were so bad. Finally, at 5:30 pm we reached the trailhead.
We still had two mountains to go, both of which had very step ascents which inevitably meant incredibly painful descents for us. We were not feeling optimistic. We considered changing our plans and knocking out Baker first, the shorter but steeper of the two. Almost 1000’ of elevation gain in .8 miles. My husband decided though that we should stick to the original plan and hit St. Regis next.
St. Regis is about a 40 minute drive outside of town, just long enough for your legs to really cramp up on the drive. We arrived and signed in at the trailhead at 6:18pm. The first several miles were very flat and easy, like Scarface. Eventually we reached a section that had a moderate climb and it was here that we came across other hikers who clearly were experienced and could tell we were doing the Ultra. We foolishly asked the conditions of the rest of the trail and they told us straight up that it was very steep. I wish they had lied to us instead. They did tell us that another group of Ultra hikers was not far behind them and headed to Baker next.
This felt encouraging to know that we were somewhat on pace with another group of hikers doing the Ultra. It wasn’t long before we ran into them, they seemed to be flying down the descent and I was amazed at how their knees didn’t appear to be bothering them. They were in great spirits. We chatted very briefly about our start times and said maybe we would see them on Baker.
We continued the ascent and very soon reached the steep boulder section. It was full of obstacles to get over and took quite a lot of effort. Just beyond this section we reached the bald face summit at 7:57 pm. At the summit there is a fire tower which was closed due to COVID when we were there. I don’t know that we would have had the energy to climb it anyway with our knees. We sat down at the summit for a few minutes, had some snacks and headed back down.
At this point we knew we would be descending St. Regis well into dark, but still with plenty of hours left to complete our Ultra. The descent seemed to go on forever, thankfully we made it down the steepest part before darkness arrived. We hiked down in complete silence, I could tell we were both contemplating our plans to attempt Baker. After a little over two hours we signed out of the trail register at 10:07pm. We both knew we couldn’t do Baker. We debated it for awhile given that it was such a short hike, but the problem was the elevation gain and how that descent feels on our knees.
Technically we had plenty of time to literally crawl up and down Baker, but our spirits were defeated, and we decide to throw in the towel after a long discussion. We didn’t want to risk injury. We came up with the plan to return in a few weeks with our children and do Baker as a family. I would then be a Saranac 6er, just not an ultra. It sounded really sweet and fun in our heads at the time to do that as a family.
We drove back to Berkeley Green and signed out of the trail register sometime just before 11 I believe. I had forgotten to write down the exact time in my notebook, but based on the drive time this was a reasonable estimate. My husband parked the car and I hobbled out to sign out, I could barely move my legs. It was a sight to see.
As we got back in the car to drive away we saw the two men who were doing their Ultra, they so causally and effortlessly walked to the register to sign out and I felt immense happiness for them. We did roll down the window and wave, but I don’t think they saw us.
We headed back to the Golden Arrow unable to find a parking spot anywhere close to our room which was quite comical. Eventually we made it to our room, each of us took a shower and we attempted to sleep. I thought I would pass right out, but to my surprise I had yet another sleepless night. Thankfully from about 5-7 am I was able to sleep and that gave me just enough energy to get myself into the amazing jacuzzi tub in our hotel room.
After the bath I felt so much better and hung out on the Golden Arrow’s private beach before we packed up and headed home.
Here are our official stats from the hike:
Berkeley Green sign in: 4:31am
Ampersand (5.4 miles, 1,781 elevation gain)
Sign in: 4:49am
Summit: 5:53am
Sign Out: 7:01am
Total Time: 2:35
Haystack
Sign in: 7:36am
Summit: 8:45am
Reach McKenzie junction: 9:29am
McKenzie
Leave junction: 9:29am
Summit: 11:09am
Sign out: 1:11
Haystack and McKenzie totals: 8.8 miles, 2,539 elevation gain
Total Time: 5:35
Scarface (7.5 miles, 1,588 elevation gain)
Sign in: 1:37pm
Summit: 3:32 pm
Sign out: 5:30pm
Total Time: 3:53
St. Regis (7.1 miles, 1,614 elevation gain)
Sign in: 6:18pm
Summit: 7:57 pm
Sign out: 10:07 pm
Total Time: 3:51
Baker – Abandoned (had we done it, it would have been 1.8 miles RT and about 900 feet of elevation gain) Such a minimal amount in comparison to the others.
Totals:
Miles- 28.8
Elevation Gain- 7,522
Hiking Time- 15:54 (does not include drive time)
Total Ultra Time (includes drive time): estimated 18:15 (est. because I did not log my sign out time at BG, but it was shortly before 11)
It’s now a few days later and I feel regret over not attempting Baker. At the time it did feel impossible and I know we made the safe decision to not attempt it. We were already being foolish on the last mountain by risking severe injury to our knees, but part of me wonders if we had just taken an hour off, took more meds and pushed through we may have been okay.
We’ve also changed our minds about how we will finish this thing. We still plan to do Baker with our kids to become regular 6ers, however we have both mentally committed to coming back at some point (maybe later this summer?) to attempt the Ultra again.
We had no training whatsoever before the Ultra. I had planned it all and assumed that because we were physically fit, had a solid amount of hiking experience and had the correct gear that we would have no problem. I really overestimated the ability of our knees to handle so many descents. Having had a prior knee surgery, I should have put a lot more consideration into this aspect before setting out on the Ultra.
Here are some things we learned that we will implement on all future Ultra or otherwise longer hikes:
1. Even on the first mountain when we are feeling fresh we will 100% have our trekking poles and be using them.
2. We will begin the day with an appropriate dose of Ibuprofen, before any pain sets in.
3. Although we both had appropriate footwear we will consider other options that may be more comfortable for us. Craig uses Keens and I started with breathable Adidas trail runners and switched to my Merrell MOAB. I’ve gotten the suggestion to consider inserts as well.
4. I also received the suggestion to use compression knee braces. On this Ultra Craig used a hinged brace and I use a patellar brace. Neither worked any wonders for us.
5. I also was told to consider training myself how to descent properly. Don’t descend in a straight forward walk, that puts too much pressure on the knee caps, instead descend at an angle.
6. We will focus more training effort on bike riding and lunges to build up the muscles around our knees.
Overall though we were well prepared for this hike. We did everything right and it was only our knees that did us in. We had plenty of water and food, we stuck together, we wore the proper gear, we had 3 GPS/cell phones running, and we had plenty of extra supplies stashed in the car.
I look at this Ultra attempt with happy memories already and can’t wait to return and try again! 5 out of 6 isn’t so bad for our first attempt at an Ultra 😊
