Street and Nye

May 21, 2018

I slept a good solid nine hours last night and woke up feeling very refreshed despite the sufferfest from yesterday. The day was also beautiful, so I decided to complete a short hike before heading home. I had a bone to pick with Street which defeated me last spring, so that was the destination. I packed up camp and my day pack, but skipped the snowshoes this time. I did bring microspikes for high elevation ice and water shoes for low elevation rivers. I hit the trail just a little bit after 07:00, and though it was cool starting out, the temperature quickly rose and I was stripped down to a t-shirt. At the register I saw one other group had signed in for S&N yesterday, but had written beside their entry that the river was impassable. This was an omonous sign, but I decided to push on and have a look for myself. After hiking through some lovely woods for another half hour or so, I arrived at Indian Pass Brook. It was high, but much lower than the near disaster crossing attempt I made last year, so I was quite relieved that the hike was on. I changed my boots for water shoes and plunged into the flow. Eye-yay-eye it was cold! I quickly waded across, never more than knee deep, but let out a quite the yelp due to the bone chilling heat loss from my twenty seconds of immersion. Spent a few minutes sitting on a log on the far bank allowing my feet to dry and feeling sensation to return before lacing my boots back on. Onwards and upwards! For the most part the trail was easily followed, however I did get side-tracked in a few places as there was quite a bit of debris from the winter which obscured things. Nevertheless, I never lost the herd path for more than a few seconds and once above 3000' the trail becomes obvious as there is only one way to go in the dense upper forest. I arrived at the S&N junction, where more than one tree had been carved showing the direction to go. Since I was the first on the mountain, I decided to get out to Street first and have some solitude for my lunch. This north aspect ascent had some significant snowspine and I wore microspikes for pretty much the entire way, but fortunately the snowpack was supportive and I avoided the dreaded creation of postholes. At the summit, various spider trails head off in all directions to poor view points, which I finally sat down to a sandwich at the southern most and best of them, enjoying a view of MacNaughty and the Santas as I sat in the sunshine. After returning to the junction, Nye was really just a formality, as it only took about eight minutes to the top of this snow free spur trail. While descending I noticed a side trail just below the summit which climbed onto a big rock giving a good view of Street and the Macs. Never have noticed that one before... Nye is now is a destination! I resisted the temptation for a yoga pose, and instead just snapped a picture of Street in all its forested glory. On the descent proper I stopped for a photo at the traditional lookout rock and heard voices, meeting the first three hikers of the day. Further down I met another couple of guys who inquired about finding water up higher, and then near the bottom a fellow asked me if he was near the top yet. Following him was a friendly couple with a very nervous dog after which I arrived at IPB and made another fridgid crossing. I spent some time relaxing on a large rock in the sunshine as I ate a snack and allowed my feet to dry off. On the way back, I decided to continue around Heart Lake via the South Camp trail as I had never hiked this section. I was hoping for better views of the water, but unfortunately this trail just goes through the woods with the occasional glimpse of the lake through some dense brush by the shore. I did manage to find a spot by the water for a photo as I threaded through the campground on my way back to the hiker parking lot. Total trip time was six hours.

Mist over Heart Lake in the morning

IPB looks pretty tame, but has a nasty cold bite

Snowspine on Street

South view from Street summit

View of Street from Nye lookout rock

View of Macs from Nye

Ski hill on the walk around Heart Lake

Mount Jo. Only the bravest mountaineers climb this one.

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