On a very cold morning (-20 degrees celcius) at 7am we made the drive in Marc's Subaru from Keene Valley up to Heart Lake. None of us had ever left heart lake from heading towards Mt Jo and Street and Nye but we quickly and easily saw the trail signs and marched towards the trail register aside Heart Lake.
Having just come off a 5 day Christmas over-indulgence marathon, I was extremely happy to get my body back in action and burn off some of these extra calories. The temperature was very chilly but it made me optimistic that the brook crossings might be easier because of the frozen river. I was wrong. We arrived at the brook and found some ice covered rocks to jump from and the river totally open and running at a normal level.
We were able to negotiate the river in the end-I had to put on my microspikes for extra grip- and on the second cross we used a down tree to cross over. We then continued on the trail towards the junction with an ever so slight gradual rise in elevation. I was very surprised that even 2 hours in I hadn't de-layered yet!
Made it to the junction and decided to head up to the shorter summit first-Nye. I couldn't believe that less than 5 minutes later we were standing on Nye's summit. We were sharing the summit with two other young guys. We took the obligatory summit photos and headed back down to the junction and ate lunch. One thing that I learned on this trip is that guys (like Marc and Glenn) eat so much more than me and therefore my chances of freezing to death from hypothermia and frostbite exponentially increase. When hiking with Debbie, our lunch breaks last half as long!
I broke trail up to Street, which seemed like only a 10-15 minute hike up to. We found the little lookout just beyond the summit area and were able to take some nice photos. There was no summit marker on Street so we took photos in an open area just next to the lookout and where my GPS said the summit is. I'm always so disappointed when there isn't a marker!
The trip back down to the brook was very enjoyable. We met up with a few more groups, and Glenn and Marc and I chatted and got to know each other better. I can totally see us hanging out with Marc more often. A very easy-going guy!
Heading back over the brook in the afternoon was a different story. Temperatures had rose to -11 degrees celcius and our ice covered rocks were now water covered rocks. We accepted that we were going to get wet feet and quickly rock hopped over to the other side. Despite stepping into 3 inches of water repeatedly, all 3 of us were dry on the other side! I attribute gaiters and my excellent snow-sealing of my boots!
We finished back at the HPIC parking lot and had a leisurely snack in the building to warm up. Street and Nye are never described by anyone as fantastic peaks but I was pleasantly surprised. All in all a very enjoyable leisurely day.
Hike totals: 6 hours, 50mins. 14.3km, elevation gain 3310ft.
