Hiking Balm of Gilead Mountain

Which would you rather call this impressive summit on the edge of Siamese Ponds Wild Forest: “Eleventh Mountain” or “Baker’s Peak”?

The names of Adirondack mountains run the gamut from tedious to whimsically creative. For example, it's hard to beat Eleventh Mountain for sheer dullness. It looms over Route 8 at the northern edge of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness in the hamlet of Bakers Mills.

This small community was called "Township Eleven" until a post office was established there in 1879. That apparently incentivized the citizenry to adopt a new name with more pizzazz. Someone noticed that John P. Baker not only owned the Hitchcock Mill on Edwards Hill Road but a grist mill and a sawmill. So they replaced "Township 11" with "Bakers Mills."

Why didn’t they rename their mountain while they were at it? "Baker's Peak" packs a lot more punch.

For one of the best mountain names in the Adirondack Park, we suggest a 30-minute drive up Route 28 to North River. There you'll find "Balm of Gilead Mountain." It’s a name that makes you wonder: Where did that come from?

Thanks to "self-taught Adirondack historian" John Sasso, author of "History and Legends of the Adirondacks" in Facebook, we know the story.

“Balm of Gilead Mountain” ranks among the best mountain names in the Adirondack Park. And you’ll find great views on the summit.

First, he tells us, the Balm of Gilead is a "hybridization from the balsam poplar, which is native to northern North America, and is common in swampy areas." It can grow up to 70 feet tall and its buds produce a resin that is "antibacterial, anti-fungal, and mildly analgesic." For loggers nursing blistered hands in the 1800s, it was a welcome salve.

Second, he says, the tree once was so plentiful in this area that its fragrance could be sniffed as far away as the hamlet of Christian Hill in Johnsburg, according to Bill Ingersoll and Barbara McMartin in Discover the South Central Adirondacks. It appears that Verplanck Colvin himself coined the name because it first appears in his 1873 topographical survey of the Adirondack wilderness.

If any Balm of Gilead trees remain in the area, we didn't pick up their scent on the warm September day that we hiked. But we did enjoy a 2.8-mile out-and-back hike through a beautiful hardwood forest that starts out flat and rises 400 feet along a small stream bed. The main reward was its rocky summit, with an open rock ledge and a spectacular westward view of such surrounding peaks as Bullhead Mountain, Hour Pond Mountain, Peaked Mountain, and Thirteenth Lake. (There’s another name that could use some work.)

For a detailed trail map, click No. 2 on the Warren County Recreation Mapper.