Street & Nye Mountains(Adirondack High Peaks)

Met up with a couple of my hiking friends to nab a couple of Adk High Peaks today, including my buddy Jim who is working on his Winter 46.  We parked at the Adirondack High Peaks Information Center at the Adirondack Loj with flurries in the air.  I'm always amazed at how popular the High Peaks are...even on a snowy early March day, the lower lot was full and much of the second lot was too.

We all geared up and donned the snowshoes heading towards Heart Lake, where I caught a glimpse of Mount Jo hovering above the trees, socked in with snow squalls.

The trail begins on the north side of Heart Lake before turning onto the Old Nye Ski Trail.  A short distance beyond that we hit the "herd path", which heads west along a broken trail.  The hiking was pretty much straightforward, passing through very wintry woods.  About a half hour into the hike, we hit picturesque Indian Pass Brook. 

We figured that this might be the toughest part of the day, but we rock hopped across fairly easily.

Just beyond the brook crossing, we passed by a gorgeous beaver meadow.

A short distance later, we came to another brook crossing on a downed log.  This is a tributary of Indian Pass Brook and is much smaller in size, so the crossing was pretty easy.

A large wetland near the tributary.

After pretty mellow hiking for the first couple miles, the trail began to climb quite steadily, through gradually heavier snowfall.

The conifers were dressed in their wintry best as we continued to gain elevation.

Arriving in the clearing at the Street/ Nye split.

We chose to head over to Street first, which was fairly steep and socked in with snow.

 

 Nearing the summit.

Arriving at the 4166 foot summit of Street, the 31st highest Adk High Peak. 

We went in search of the views near the summit, but heavy snow squalls blocked any and all views.

 

Dropping back off Street we caught a glimpse of Nye through heavy squalls. 

We then headed back down to the split before a very short hike up brought us over towards Nye.

Arriving at the 3895 foot summit of Nye(#45 highest ADk High Peak).

The snow only picked up in intensity as we made our back.  We made great time hiking back out and were back to the car by 4pm.  With stops the hike took us a little over 6.5 hours for 8.4 mile RT and over 2500 feet elevation gain.  My 18th and 19th Adk High Peaks.