He was up on the mountain with five other members of a professional trail crew with the Adirondack Mountain Club, digging trenches to direct water runoff away from the trail and laying brush over entrances to the “social trails” to redefine the corridor. This work is being funded by the $15 fees the village of Saranac Lake collects when people register for Saranac Lake 6er hiking challenge patches.

Baker is one of the six mountains in the challenge, one of the most-hiked because of its short length, great views and proximity to town; and also one of the most controversial. Its trailhead spills out into a residential road where there’s not a lot of parking, there’s a lot of foot traffic, and neighbors and the town of St. Armand have put up numerous poles and signs directing hikers to not park on the road or grass.

The 6er hiking challenge was created in May 2013. In August 2022, after much discussion about the issues with parking and traffic near the Baker trailhead on Forest Hill Avenue, Saranac Lake village Trustee Kelly Brunette wrote legislation that cut back on marketing the hiking challenge, move the official Baker trailhead to the 6er bell in Berkeley Green and put money from patch revenue to the Saranac Lake Local Development Corporation to spend on trail maintenance.

SLLDC Board Member Jeremy Evans said the fund has around $7,000, and the work in the first week of August will cost around that same amount. But it should be replenished shortly.

Saranac Lake village Treasurer Patrick Murphy said there are around 5,700 6ers in total. The program brings in thousands of dollars each year. In 2020 it brought in $10,000. In 2021, it brought in $15,000. The $7,000 in the fund now was collected just since August 2022.

Baker was the priority for work this year.

Adirondack Mountain Club Director of Communications Benjamin Brosseau said this sets the stage for doing similar work at the other 6er mountains.

“I think all of them need it,” Brosseau said. “Other than maybe St. Regis.”

Brosseau attributes this to a combination of high recreational use, which has increased in the past decade, poor initial trail design, years of erosion and intense weather in recent years.

There are dozens and dozens of “social trails,” “herd paths” or “community paths” around the mountain. Brosseau pointed out areas where these social trails widen the path from 4 to 10 feet.

These issues compound on themselves. When the trail gets muddy, people avoid the muck and walk on the sides, which widens the trail and causes more erosion and mud on the sides.

Ma’at said Baker’s trail is wider than most because it gets lots of use. High up near the summit, there are many meandering and braided “community paths.” It’s not the worst trail he’s seen — many in the High Peaks are deeply cut.

The members of the Trail Fixing Crew — they call themselves TFC — would only share their trail names: Ma’at, Jumpman, Flip, Neutron, Topol and Blunt Force Paddle.

They’re a happy bunch, grinning and grunting as they work, straining as they pushed boulders around.

They are trained to see where water has flowed down the trail and carved mini canyons into the dirt, eroding soil around rocks and degrading the trail. Herd paths redirected water from a water bar back onto the main trail, instead of draining it off the side of the trail.

They dug water bars — trenches that catches water and moves it off the trail. They rolled heavy rocks from the woods into place, reinforcing these water bars with a backstop.

Members of the trail work group all said they love the work. It’s benefiting people and nature. And they get to spend all day in the woods.

“It’s nice to be out here all day long,” Ma’at said. “I like working with my hands and with the Earth.”

On Baker, they said the work is open-ended, so they enjoyed being creative with their solutions.

Hikers walking up with kids and dogs thanked the trail workers as they passed, but they all said it was their pleasure.

Ma’at said this week of work will make a difference but they could spend more time on it in the future.

Evans said the trail may need a whole rebuild at some point in the future.

“We were pleased to help the village follow through on its commitment to leverage 6er registration fees to fund trail stewardship, maintenance and improvements on the Saranac Lake 6er peaks,” Evans said in a statement.