Thirteenth Lake and Peaked Mountain

When you’ve hiked almost every popular trail within an hour of the Capital Region, it’s hard to find new places to explore. There are still plenty of mountains in the Southern Adirondacks that I still want to climb. The problem is that the drive is usually 2 hours or so. On Wednesday Jordan and I drove up to Johnsburg. Located near Gore Mountain, about 1.5 hours north, is Peaked Mountain, a 3.5 mile hike one way that begins at the pristine Thirteenth Lake.

The trail itself starts at Beach Road (boat launch at Thirteenth Lake) in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. There are a number of primitive campsites along this trail right on the lake. I would love to come up here and camp sometime! The trail is marked with red markers, but doesn’t seem to get much use. It goes along the East side of the lake for a while before turning right toward Peaked Mountain Pond at 2.7 miles, following along a nice little stream.

From there, the trail goes right again but it doesn’t get steep until the last .4 miles. Most of the trail was relatively flat until this part.

It took about 4 hours total including stops. It was a great little hike that was just challenging enough to feel like a good workout with some rewarding views.