Trip Report: A Father-Daughter Weekend on Street & Nye
SUMMARY:
What do you do when the forecast calls for unusually warm weather and clear skies in late September? I've been looking for opportunities to get away and spend time with my daughter, Liz. Her brother's travel hockey season is well under way, and weekends are absorbed through March by hockey, hockey, hockey. Although we have ski season to connect, that's still almost three months away!
With the busy schedule of an active family life, it's been two years since our last ADK hike. So, with the weekend forecast anticipating 90°F temps, I floated the idea of a father-daughter camping and High Peaks hike. "If your school work is caught up, and we're both healthy, we'll go!" Liz agreed, and we hatched a plan for driving up Friday night, camping all weekend, and hiking Street and Nye mountains. We enjoyed a bluebird weekend of camping, hiking, bush-whacking, and just hanging together.
For this hike, we went no frills. No GPS. Just a map, compass, and camera. The details below are followed by 52 pictures.
STATS SUMMARY:
Date of Summit: 09/23/2017
Team: Mike, Liz
Location: Adirondack High Peaks
Street Summit
Elevation: 4,150'
GPS: 44.1793303,-74.0359287
Nye Summit
Elevation: 3,888'
GPS: 44.1873093,-74.0937758
Vertical Ascent: 2,913'
Approach: ADK Loj, Heart Lake, non-maintained trail
Trail Head to Summit: 4.5 miles (round trip 9 miles)
Time to summit: 4 hours
Weather: Sunny & Warm, really HOT in the sun with temps in the
high 80s!!!
Trail Difficulty: Easy start that you pay for with 1.5 miles of steep herd-path terrain later.
Trail
Conditions:
Clear. Muddy in the flats. Leaf coverage made herd paths difficult to follow at times.
DETAILED STORY:
We left home about 3:30pm after school on Friday for a 5-hour drive to the High Peaks. We stayed at Draper's Acres campground, formerly known as Whispering Pines. I was told that the prior owners of Whispering Pines "let it go" and that the grounds were in a state of disrepair. Since we planned to stay in a tent, I didn't think there would be an issue since we only needed the earth. The bathrooms definitely look like they were neglected at some point, but they were clean with fresh soap, and hot water. There was only one shower in each bathroom, and they were always occupied when we wanted to use them.
On our first night, we settled in and got a camp fire started. We were relaxing by a roaring fire, enjoying the stars. Then something strange occurred. The camp fire...died...and the camp wood was hissing. On closer inspection, the wood was soaked. We tried in vain to get the fire to keep, but it kept going out. "That's OK. We need to get up early. How about we turn in for the night?" Our plan was to wake up early, head to the Loj, eat breakfast, and hike.
We awoke at 6:00am, and headed straight for the ADK Loj. Unbelievably, we arrived at the ADK Loj at 6:20am, and we were the 2nd-last car in the parking lot. WOW!!! It was crazy-early to have the lots fill up already! It was a lucky break to get our spot! After parking, we unpacked our breakfast, the WhisperLight stove, our new coffee percolator, and a bag of fresh ground coffee. We had several people tell us they could smell our coffee brewing from the parking lot. When the High Peaks Information Center opened, we discovered it had been completely remodeled, so we spent some time checking it out. In fact, we spend almost three hours hanging out before we started hiking. But...hey! This was father-daughter time. ...And we were in the heart of the Adirondacks. No need to rush things.
We began our hike at 9:15 am by heading to Heart Lake to check out the mountain and take some pictures. There were several people sitting on the dock, drinking coffee. They were staying at the Loj and had no plans to hike. "We just enjoy being here!" One of them offered to take our picture. He asked "so where are you headed?" I pointed across the lake, "Street and Nye." He snapped off a couple pictures, asking "Is it a hard hike?" My response... "Nah!"
Note to the reader... Rule #1 in any hiking situation. You never tempt fate by dissing a hike as easy. Street is ranked #31 in elevation in the High Peaks, and Nye is #45. But the hiking is via non-maintained herd paths, and approximately 1.4 miles of the trail is steep.
Street mountain is named after Alfred Billings Street (1811–1881), a poet and New York State Librarian. Nye mountain is named after William B. Nye (c.1815–1893), an Adirondack mountain guide.
We set off and arrived at the Indian Pass trail head by 9:30am. Within 5 minutes, we reached the Old Nye Ski Trail. So far, so good. Nice and flat! A few moments later, we reached another sign that reads "Trail Not Maintained Beyond This Point." We were finally, officially, on our way. After thirty minutes of gentle and easy hiking on leaf-covered trails, we arrived at Indian Brook. The water levels were low due to the lack of rain over the past few weeks, and the brook was easy to cross. (I've read trip reports that describe this brook as treacherous when it rains hard.) About 20 minutes after crossing the brook, we arrived at a fallen tree that people use to cross when the water is high. Fortunately, the water was low, and we simply walked across. The trail turns up the mountain at this point, sometimes in the brook, sometimes on the side of it. After a half mile or so, the hiking became more challenging. The trail steepens significantly with narrow trails, black Adirondack mud, and a lot of fallen trees that we had to climb over or under. We were on all-4s several times. It was a very different hike than the hikes we've done in the past, almost like a bush-whack at times. Liz and I call it the "miracle mile" in deference to its difficulty. Despite the bush-whack nature, there are signs of trail maintenance. In several areas, there are cut trees, and there are places where maintenance crews piled brush to guide hikers to "preferred" herd-paths.
We arrived at the junction between Street and Nye at 12:05pm. Although we saw no one on the trail, there were a large number of people at the junction, and then two more groups joined us there while we were resting, eating, and talking. We were hanging out with a group of boy scouts, two groups from Montreal, and another group from Bloomfield, NY. The boy scouts told us that Nye was a quick hike, and the French Canadian group described the final ascent of Street as laborious. So we dropped our backpacks, and headed to Nye first. It was 10-minutes to the summit, and 10-minutes back. The summit marker is affixed to a tree about seven feet above ground.
The final hike up Street Mountain was indeed laborious. There's a quick dip early for maybe .1 miles. The final .6 miles are continuous-grade elevation gain hiking. We started the final ascent from the junction at 12:43pm, and we arrived at the summit at 1:11pm. Like Nye, the summit of Street is wooded. There is a lookout SE of Street's summit with good views of the MacIntyre Range. We talked with the boy scout leaders, stretched, and ate more granola bars for nearly a half hour, and then proceeded to head back to civilization.
We arrived back at the junction point by 2:05pm. By this time, my knees were showing their age, screaming at me. The hike back was a quick 2.5 hours, but the "miracle mile" tested my knees and Liz's sore feet. We arrived at the trail register by 4:30pm, and Heart Lake beach approximately 10 minutes later.
We planned to cook a steak dinner at the camp site, but we were both pretty exhausted. Instead, we headed to the Lake Placid Brew Pub for dinner. Home of Ubu Ale!!!
Overall, this hike was terrific. We saw few people on a very busy weekend, and the forest around us was beautiful! Although the summit is treed, there are good views of Algonquin in several places. The hike is challenging, and could be treacherous during periods of heavy rain. Also, I wouldn't want to be caught on the trail in the dark, especially in the fall when the leaves cover the herd paths.
MAP:
The following map was
captured from my phone's All Trails app. We did not use our phones for any part of this hike, except to take pictures.
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| Topo map and elevation chart for Street and Nye hike. |
VIDEO:
This video is from the outcrop on the SE side of the summit of Street Mountain.
PICTURES:
And finally, here are some of the pictures
we took along the way!
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| Our campsite at Draper's Acres |
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| Soon, we has a roaring fire. ...Or did we? The fire lasted about 5 minutes, and faded out with the sound of hissing wood. The firewood we purchased from the campground was saturated with water! |
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| We had fun anyway. Cracking jokes, talking about school, work, soccer, and the hike tomorrow. |
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| We arrived at the ADK Loj trail head parking at 6:20am. See the car 2nd from the end on the left? That's us! The Loj is a popular hiking destination, especially in early autumn. When we left at the end of the day, cars were parked over a mile down the road. Incredible! |
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| This was the beginning of a nice, relaxed 2-hour breakfast. We got everything unpacked and set up quickly. The MSR WhisperLight stove heated the 12-cup coffee percolator quickly! The entire area around us smelled of coffee! |
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| Apples and Cinnamon Quaker Instant Oatmeal, orange juice, maple cinnamon hot tea, and BLACK coffee. |
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| Breakfast was quite the production... |
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| Getting ready to clean up... |
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| ...because the High Peaks Information Center was remodeled, and we want to check it out! |
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Heart Lake is BEAUTIFUL in the fall!
The mountain ridge in the distance behind the lake is our objective.
Street Mountain is the cone on the left. Nye is the ridge in the middle. |
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| Obligatory pre-hike picture of the non-weary trail blazers! |
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| Liz signs us in at the trail register. |
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Time for a quick trail head selfie!
Note to self... Beware of leaving camera in selfie mode on hikes because... |
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...You never know who, or what you'll come across in the Adirondacks!!!
(I left the camera in selfie mode and tried to take a pic of Liz. Oops!)
Notice...I lost the jacket already. It was a HOT day for hiking! |
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| We arrived at the Old Nye ski trail very quickly. Being a "ski trail" meant Mike *HAD* to hike it! |
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| Liz reading the sign warning that the trail isn't maintained past this point. |
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| Liz - entering her first ADK herd-path. |
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| Hey, Look! A GOOFY dad pic! |
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| This is a good view of what the trail looked like all day - foliage and leaf covered. |
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| Liz reaches Indian Brook. |
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| Moments later - "SPLASH!" I won't tell you who got the hot foot. (But her name begins with a "L") |
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| Liz showing off her soaked foot! |
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| This is the tree referenced in the write-up above. It's a popular crossing point, especially when the water is high. |
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| Back to easy-peasy hiking in the forest. |
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| A section of dead trees and swamp... |
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| The dead trees aren't particularly tall or thick. |
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| Although it's a non-maintained trail, there are occasional signs of maintenance. |
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| Liz reaches the trail junction between Street and Nye. If you look carefully at the tree, you can see directions to each summit carved into the bark. |
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| At the junction point between Street and Nye summits. |
When we arrived at the junction point between Street and Nye, we found a lot of hikers resting, eating lunch, and planning which mountain to hike first...
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| We ditched our bags to scramble up Nye - a 20-minute round trip. |
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| Liz reaches the summit of Nye Mountain! |
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Liz and I on the summit of Nye!
Nye Mountain is a treed summit with no views. The summit survey marker on most mountains is made of metal and pounded into the summit rock. On treed summits like Nye, the summit is marked by a sign. |
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| For those of you paying attention, this is NOT the *same* picture as above. Here, we're back at the junction, ready for the 0.7 mile hike up to the summit of Street Mountain. |
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| Liz reaches the summit of Street Mountain! |
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| Summit of Street Mountain! |
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| This is the best observational point on the hike - a ledge on the SE corner of the Summit of Street Mountain. |
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| On this trip, we experimented with the food. We only brought granola bars. Here, Liz shows how happy she is to be eating yet ANOTHER granola bar. I suspect we'll get back to our normal lunches going forward... |
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| That's Wright Mountain in the center of the picture. To the right (somewhat obscured by the tree) is Algonquin, border, and Iroquois. |
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| Getting closer to the trail head. Not far now! |
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| These two don't look tired at all. |
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| Back at the Old Nye Ski Trail. It won't be long until we can SKI this trail! |
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Liz signs us out at the trail register. She doesn't look one bit tired, does she...
"Dad... I could really go for a..." |
