Street and Nye Mountains

Hike distance: 8 miles round trip
Peaks: Nye (3,890 ft.), Street (4,166 ft.)
Trail Map

There's nothing like the first climb of a new year.  This one came much too far into the new year for my taste, but it finally happened so I'm not complaining.  This time around me and the crew took on two mountains without official trails in the waning weeks of winter.  Going off trail is always a bit unnerving, because, admittedly, none of us are that handy with a compass should we go off trail.  Street and Nye are the easiest of the unmarked mountains though, so we figured this would be a good place to start.  The trail head is at the Adirondack lodge and picks up when the trail up Mt. Jo cuts right.  We ducked left and headed into the unknown.  It was supposed to be a frigid day, but it was unusually warm after our bodies adjusted to the initial shock.  The ice on the trail made for some fun slip and sliding early in the hike.

The frozen Indian Pass Brook

The trail was mostly packed snow, making for a relatively easy hike since we got to skip the hopping from boulder to boulder.  The surprise of being so monstrously warm made us all drenched from our own sweat, despite the temperature being in the teens.  We passed over Indian Pass Brook on top of an ice bridge that formed from one side of the riverbank to the other.  It was so calm and serene, which was ironic given the fact that the brook can be impassable during the spring melt.  We made good time up the trail that was conveniently plowed by the snowshoers who came before us.  We even had time for a goofy pose or two.  It's worth mentioning that I accidentally hit Allie in the face with a chair earlier in the day, and neither she, nor Brian, would let me live it down.  I argue it was a soft chair and she was fine after the shock of impact.  As proof:

Brian navigating a steep section

The fork for the two mountains is in a clearing that is marked clearly on a tree bearing the etchings of which way to go.  Nye, famously, is the second shortest of the "High Peaks".  Inaccurate measurements placed the peak at 4,000 feet, when it doesn't even break the 3,900 foot mark.  It remains on the list of High Peaks for old times sake, but it is a wooded summit with practically no views.  We choose Nye first to get it out of the way.  It is very close to the fork and took no time to get to.

Street was our final destination for the day, our 25th mountain, and had much better views than its sister peak.  After the customary summit dance and gnawing on frozen jerky and protein bars, we took in the best sights of the day.