Street & Nye

Late May 2005

Rule #1: Mother Nature Never Takes A Day Off

From Brandon Tuchovsky:

"I'm contacting you regarding Nye and Street mountains with good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news. There is considerable blowdown over the trail before the junction [EDIT: where trail divides for Nye or Street]. In a couple of sections the trail is completely wiped out and care should be taken when looking for where to pick it back up again. From the junction to Nye's summit the damage was nothing short of biblical. A few hundred feet of the trail (easily) just disappeared under rows upon rows of fallen trees, and what was once a 10-20 minute walk now takes 45 minutes climbing over all the downed trees.

"Street was hit similarly, but by some miracle the trees didn't fall onto the trail [yet]. Most are suspended in mid-air over the trail, being held up by the rest of the forest. When the wind blows over them it makes a distinct creaking noise (similar to an old house). It won't be long before those come crashing down either.

"The good news is, there is now a semi-decent view from Nye. Thanks to the blowdown there is an opening in the forest just to the south allowing you to looks over the shoulder of Street and onto Algonquin, Boundary and Iroquois peaks.

"One more thing, there's still no signs on the trail past the one that says "No maintenance". The sign for Street summit is completely gone, but the red tag still remains on Nye's summit. [EDIT: lack of signs is normal as both peaks are officially trailless peaks"]

Our thanks to Brandon. Plan carefully as always.

Trip In A Nutshell:
This 8 hour round-trip hike heads west from Heart Lake, crosses Indian Pass Brook, then climbs to the summits of Street and Nye. The entire route is unmarked starting at the registration box located at the western (far) side of Heart Lake. From the ticket booth at Adirondack Loj the trail follows the Indian Pass Trail (ADK #75, McM #34) around Heart Lake's north side, south a bit still along the lake, and then connects into the Old Nye Ski Trail which is not far south of the sign in register on the west side of Heart Lake. Strictly speaking, the herd path starts at the Old Nye Ski Trail, since it is unmarked. From Heart Lake all the way to both summits the path is in fine condition and is excellent hiking for anyone capable of hiking any of the other of the High Peaks. The Old Nye takes you to Indian Pass Brook.

You will hike north along the brook a ways. Finding the correct place to cross has long been a problem because there has been no sign to indicate the proper spot. The brook is steadily shallow and wide and you could cross in many places. Which is the right place to cross? Fortunately, in October 2004 we received a report from David Cichon who had just returned from hiking Street and Nye. He reports that you should cross the brook at the point where you see a cairn close to the water on the opposite bank. Once you cross, head north along the brook a short distance and you will quickly pick up the trail where it turns sharply west and hugs the S side of a tributary that flows into Indian Pass Brook from the slopes of Nye.

Soon the trail will be high atop steep slopes that descend to the tributary which has eaten its way deeply into Nye's base. You will pass by very old machinery left perhaps by miners once upon a time.

At about 3.0 miles and well past the end of the tributary you'll reach an open, sparsely wooded, flat area with a large cairn and a carved sign on a tree that marks the trails to Street (left) and Nye (straight ahead). Nye's summit is a very short walk. Street will require 30-45 minutes to reach. The Street segment has a short boggy area that was dry when we passed by, but might be a minor problem in a wet year or after the thaws in Spring.

Difficulty:
Today this is a good trail. We hiked it in 2001, not long after the trail was overhauled, then again in 2003. This hike from Adirondack Loj to the summits of Street and Nye Mtns used to be a nervous affair for hikers due to the many herd paths that confused and muddled things as you neared the summits. That situation was resolved by the 46'ers who rebuilt the trail with what might justifiably be called "tender, loving care" given the outstanding job they did! Today a single, good-to-excellent trail carves its way to the summits of both peaks. We rate difficulty as easy to moderate. It is only about 7 hours round trip on pleasant trails.

Views:
From Nye there are no views. You may just as well poke out both your eyes, don a blindfold, stand in a closet with the door shut, and put a bucket over your head... at midnight. However, from Street, the view in the photo above is available to the E, SE, and S if you follow a very short, obvious herd path that starts just past the summit sign. It takes you about 50 feet. The view there includes the MacIntyre Range, Santanoni Range, and the terrain in between. (See the photos and details below.)

Maps:
These Maptech topographical maps are the latest metric maps, as recent or more recent than those you can buy in a store. Print them and use them on your hike. We suggest that if you do use these on your hike that you seal them in a plastic food bag for protection against moisture which will cause the ink to run and the paper to become one large spitball.

*Street and Nye Mtns (McM #38)* from Heart Lake**
1		The toll booth at Heart Lake trailhead in 2001 when we did this hike. After paying the ever-increasing and usurious toll, park, and return to the point where this photo was taken and you'll see the sign just below.
2		Follow the start of the Indian Pass Trail RED (ADK #75, McM #34) from this sign adjacent to the Adirondack Loj toll booth. It will take you around Heart Lake until you reach the sign for the Old Nye Ski Trail (below). You will come to a trailhead sign-in booth just prior to reaching the sign. Don't forget to fill out not only the register but, also, one of the DEC tags that you must carry with you. People without these HAVE been fined and ARE being escorted out of the woods by the rangers.
3		We were concerned that we might not find the "Old Nye Ski Trail" which is the start of the herd path to Street & Nye. We expected just a trace that we might miss. We didn't expect to have this sign greet us. [Note: we passed by again in 2004 and the sign is still there.] Turn right onto this trail here, leaving the Indian Pass Trail. The ski trail is in good shape, obviously not very used. It wanders through the woods, gently downward to the banks of Indian Pass Brook.
4		Cross Indian Pass Brook. The trail picks back up on the opposite side. Note that the Old Nye Ski Trail follows the near-side bank for a ways and hikers may choose different places to ford the stream. The latest information we have received (10/04) from a hiker that is that you should keep a lookout for a cairn on the opposite bank, cross there, and head north until you find the trail which will promptly turn left (west) toward Nye following a tributary.
5		In 2003, this nice cairn marks the point where the trail crosses Indian Pass Brook.
6		The terrain changes after crossing Indian Pass Brook. For a while you will be in tall grass and bushes as you move uphill high above the tributary to your right which seems almost to be in a canyon, but soon the tributary rises to meet you and you follow it most of the way up to the wye where the trail divides (photo 9) for Street or Nye. As you hike, you will cross from one bank to the other a number of times.
7		The path continues to be easy to follow over the whole route to the Street-Nye intersection. You can move fast on this trail if so inclined, but there is a lot of beauty in this pleasing and open hardwood landscape.
8		As you can see here, the path is on spongy soil, not wide, but easy to follow, nonetheless. This is a very enjoyable climb on a nice day.
9		You eventually arrive at a flat area, a shoulder of Nye Mtn, actually. Today (9/2003), the trail is VERY clear to both peaks and no alternate herd paths were evident. Our hiking buddy, Elaine, is standing next to the cairn that marks the split in the trail: right to Nye, left to Street. What's more, the tree at the right has an "N" and an "S" carved in it with arrows marking the way.
10		Here's the tree mentioned above. What could be clearer? We will now take the right fork to Nye. The "climb" is actually just a very short walk on the side of a ridge... some hundreds of yards. You'll find no views, no sense of actually being on a peak; Nye is as dull as you can get.
11		Don't ask. We can't explain why she's licking the sign. Or maybe she's kissing it, but it IS the summit of Nye, a plateau. We looked around for some views, but the conifers are too dense and there was no obvious place to climb up out of them. As of 2003, the sign had been removed. We have heard two stories: first, that a number of summit signs had been stolen by felons, and, second, that the state had them removed because they were nailed into trees. (Of course, the state nails its trail markers and numerous other signs into trees so we tend to go with the theft of the signs, knowing that there is nothing movable that some idiot won't steal, but if you told him to go up to Nye, get the sign, and bring it to so-and-so location the idiot would call that "work" and refuse. Well, hopefully, he's at Dannemora State Prison now doing 10 to 20. SIGN UPDATE, June 2004: There is still no sign, but here is some info from hiker, John Gordon, jr.: "The summit of Nye now has a red trail marker, with "Nye Mt" written on it in black permanent ink, nailed to a pine tree about 10 feet off the ground."
12		This is a sample of the conditions in 2001 on the trail that connects Nye to Street. Very typical. Nice, soft hiking, few rocks. In 2003 things had changed little.
13		We've left Nye, passed back through the intersection and have just started out toward Street. Right here it's a little wet. Nothing significant. That's Street ahead. Were there fewer obstructions, you'd see that we will head West for a time and then turn South to do most of the climbing to Street.
14		Summit of Street. From the intersection (photo #8, above) of the herd paths to Street and Nye it is probably 10x further to Street than to Nye. Overall, this hike would be the easier of the 30 or so peaks we climbed in the last several years. Whatever you read to the contrary elsewhere, just be aware that the 46'ers have done an outstanding job in 2000 cleaning this trail up and blotting out all the misleading herd paths.
15		Looking E at the northernmost portion of the MacIntyre Range from Street. When we reached the summit of Street we ran into a man that we'd seen a number of times passing each other on the trail on the way up from Adirondack Loj. Turns out that Mr. Carr (can't recall his first name) is from one of our party's hometown, the Town of Moriah, over on Lake Champlain. It's nice to run into someone that you have some connection to when in the wilderness. He had pick a quart or more of wild blueberries and we helped him eat them. Delicious!!! Way better than store-bought blueberries. THANK YOU, MR. CARR!!
16		SE to the MacIntyre Range from Street.
17		Iroquois and Marshall from Street.
18		The Santanoni Range to the SW from Street.
19		Descending from Street. There's a lot of dead wood and minor blow-down strewn around on Street. It is old, very old, and not an obstacle.