Nye and Street

December 30, 2009

Six of us (Katharina, Wendy, Andy, Bridgette, Zoe, and I) got up at Keene Farm for a 07:00 start. We drove to the Heart Lake trailhead and suited up for a -16 degree morning. I did not know where the Indian Pass trail started so we hiked down the road to the Lodge, hit Heart Lake and found the trail there. We snowshoed around the lake and found a marker that marked the beginning of the unmarked trail up the mountain. The trail was easy to follow as a couple of people must have been up the day before. At first we walked down for a while into a small ravine where we crossed a frozen creek. Then the ascent began. We climbed a gentle grade slope for a while and then the tracks stopped. The trail was still easy to follow as some old snowed in tracks were visible. The way got steeper as we progressed. Breaks were quick because of the cold, and on one of them a woman from Quebec passed us and helped break the trail in the fresh snow. I chatted with her for a bit as we ascended. She had completed all 46 peaks before, and now was working on her winter ascents of them all. She was faster than us, so went ahead and tracked out both peaks for us, so we did not have to do any navigation. We reached a clear junction, and took the right hand fork up to the summit of Nye. A few views of Lake Placid were noted along the ascent, but the summit itself was fully treed in. We had a quick snack and then descended back to the junction and then up to the summit of Street. We met the French woman again on her way down, thanked her for breaking trail, and then continued to the top. There was a lookout point just past the summit which had a slightly fogged in view of the MacIntyre range. We met another fellow who came along slightly later who was working on his 46 peaks in winter, and only winter. We began our descent which went fairly quickly as in the powdery snow you can slide for a bit with each step of the snow shoes. We met two other parties ascending as we went down who were getting a fairly late start. In short order we were back at the creek and took one final break here. The day was now warmer, but slightly cloudy and a gentle snow was falling. We finished at seven and a half hours, and then went out to supper at a little restaurant near Hurricane Mountain.

The crew starting out on a cold morning.