It was time to try and summit a couple of more winter 46er peaks for me, and a couple of 46er peaks for Jenn. We weren't in the mood for an epic hike like the Santanonis in a day or the Dixes in a day, so we decided to focus on something moderate. Street and Nye fit the bill nicely.
Ewart had been out the day before hiking the Sewards, and so he was already down in the High Peaks Region. We agreed to meet up at 7:30am on the road to Adirondack Loj. Sure enough, Ewart was there when we turned onto the road, snoozing away in his car with his head on a pillow against the window. We parked his car at the South Meadows road turnoff and carpooled the rest of the way to the ADK Loj parking lot (in order to economize on the $9 parking fee).
Street and Nye, Panoramic
We were on the lookout for other members of the "adk winter hiking community" (as I've come to realize, there is a certain specific set of souls that head out all the time in the winter!). Bill and Judy from ADKforum.com (and who we met on Giant) had given the intent of doing Algonquin and Wright at 7:30, but I'm not sure if I noticed their car in the parking lot.
I did notice Pin-Pin's car two down from mine though, replete with 46 x 46 badge, 100 highest winter badge, and a little pin-pin guarding on his dashboard. Wonder what he was hiking today?
We hiked the very easy first km or so, past scenic Heart Lake, and onto the herdpath leading to Street and Nye. At the trail register, I noticed that many parties had gone up the day before - this promised a good and well-defined path for us today!
My only concern on this hike was the state of the crossing at Indian Pass Brook, which is a fairly major watercourse. If the ice was spotty or not thick enough, it could prove to be a difficult crossing.
A first look at the obstacle
A couple of kms later, we arrived at Indian Pass Brook. The crossing looked a little dicey from afar, threading its way between a couple of open water areas. Just in case, we decided to don snowshoes to help spread out our weight (to this point the trail had had virtually no snow, so we wore only yaktrax). As it turned out, though, the ice was quite thick at the spot where we crossed (as you got right onto the ice you could see and tell that it was quite thick). So, in the end, no problems at all crossing the stream.
The way up from the brook was quite straightforward. Yesterday's hikers had left a very nice well-defined path. The snow level down below was minimal, and, as we gained elevation the trail continued to be very firm and well-defined. Also, the blowdown situation was great. I'd classify it as "very minimal" - a very nice bonus!
We made good time up the headpath to the T-junction that marks the split of the herdpath to Street and Nye. Views started to present themselves here and there, and, even though there was a high cloud deck to the south, the views were excellent. Street and Nye provide some unique angles on the mountains of the High Peaks region. To the north, we could see blue sky (a major snowstorm was passing not far to the south - hence the high cloud over the high peaks region).
