Nye & Street 7-9-2018

Nye Mountain.

Our adventures in the High Peaks have been a lot of fun. We were looking to break into the double digits with a climb of Nye & Street in Lake Placid.

We arrived at the Adirondack Loj at 7:15am on a Monday. It's known that the Loj parking lot fills up quickly. But, there were very few cars there on this day.

Nye & Street have an unmarked trail. The parking attendant gave us a little run down of of things to look for on our hike and get us where we wanted to go.

Since this was our first visit to the Loj, we checked out the High Peaks Info Center before setting off on our hike. It's a cool little building with a gift shop and a small cafe.

It was nice change from getting out of the car and immediately starting a hike. After browsing around for a bit we went back to the car and strapped on our gear.

Reflection of Street on Heart Lake.

The trail to Nye & Street follows the Heart Lake Loop & trail to Mount Jo for a stretch. Heart Lake is a spectacular sight. Street and the MacIntyres reflection shimmered on the calm water.
We passed a very tiny Adirondack museum & garden. Something to check out more on a future visit.

We arrived at a sign reminding us that the Old Nye Ski trail is unmarked & unmaintained. We followed it down to Indian Brook. There's a bunch of herd paths that lead down to the brook. We stayed on the main trail until I spotted the cairn across the brook. We then picked a good place to rock hop and made our way to the cairn.

Time to rock hop!

The old ski trail follows a runoff & there was a few muddy spots. Nothing bad.

Eventually, we came to a clearing. This would make a good spot for a snack or lunch.  A tree had "Nye & ST" carved into it with arrows pointing the way to each.

Trail Junction.

Right led to Nye & we went there first. It only took a few minutes from the junction to the summit of Nye. This way our Ninth High Peak (or Nye-nth... Get it!?!)

Nye is tree-d in, but Kailee found a little herd path which led to a small view point. This spot doesn't offer a sweeping vista but I enjoyed the view. Nye is one of the few High Peaks that falls under 4000'. So, a view like this was evidence of a healthy ecosystem for a peak of such stature.

View from Nye

We ate a quick lunch at the Summit and backtracked towards the col. We checked out a very tiny rock outcrop that gave us another little view of Street & the Macs.

Once back at the junction, we set our sites on our tenth High Peak: Street. The trail meanders through the trees on the way towards the summit. It was a very easy & relaxing climb.

Summit of Street.

Street's summit also offers no views. But, just past it there is a nice lookout that offers a great view of Algonquin to the Southeast, the Sewards to the West and Ampersand in the North. A plethora of smaller peaks decorated the beautiful background.

Street's overlook. 

I really liked the view point on Street. It feels like your standing in an audience of thousands of small pines.

Looking Northwest.

It was pretty hot, so eating a second lunch at the summit seemed like a good idea before we made our descent.

We were afforded a few bonus peeps as we walked down the trail.

Once we got back to the Loj, I asked Kailee if she wanted to take a quick dip in Heart Lake.

She excitedly yelled "Yes!" and ran into the water.

This was a fun way to celebrate breaking into the double digits!