Street and Nye.

[Neil]

Pictures (http://neil.webcentre.ca/outdoor%20pursuits/index.html) from Street and Nye.

[Skyclimber]

When does the Trip Report follow?

[Neil]

When does the Trip Report follow?
Right about now. :)
For a couple days before leaving on this hike I'd been checking the weather. It looked like it might rain on us all day and I decided that these two fit the forecast quite nicely. There were no TR's or trail condition reports so I planned for the worst and hoped for the best. We were ready to bushwhack the summits if there was no discernable snowshoe tread over the herd path. I thought it possible that we would find ourselves knee deep in wet, soggy snow and that it could even require 2 seperate day trips. I had the gps all loaded up and various maps printed, the compass(es) handy etc.

We were getting set to go when who pulls into the parking lot but Julie and Pete Hickey. If you want beta on the state of the Street/Nye trail it's hard to beat having Pete at the trailhead on the morning you're heading out. So hearing that Tom Rankin had done it the day before and had left a firm smooth path lowered the potential difficulty level down quite a few notches and opened the horizon for a bigger hike the next day.

Round trip was 7 hours and navigation was a no-brainer. Crossing Indian Pass Brook was not a problem. This hike is a little bigger than I remembered and the trail is steepish as it gains the col's headwall. The lower reaches are through beautiful open birches along the creek and you get nice views of the cliffs on Nye. The blowdown near the col would have made bushwhacking a memorable experience indeed but I think even without a fresh track we would have been able to stay on the herd trail easily enough. Near the col there are nice views of Cascade. We ditched the packs at the trail junction and were on Nye within 10 minutes. I took a 360 deg. panoramic picture from Nye's summit and as soon as I figure out the software will post it. There are at least 500 trees visible. Then we had some fun:

We were carrying a RINO gps each, my old one and the new 130 I got for Xmas. (guess who carried the new, fancy one?) While I was taking my panoramic picture Dom busied himself fooling around with both units. Then he started to laugh and handed me one. He had just shot me! We went running down the trail playing a game called "Waypoint Bomber" where you point the arrow pointer at an opponent on your screen and "pull" the trigger. The opponent gets a warning that an incoming bomb is headed his way and tries to run away in time. A true wilderness experience that made me feel like a teenager. You sure can't do that with M&C. :twisted:

The best part of the hike was on Street and again I was glad not to be bushwacking through thick forest with tons of wet snow on the trees. Water was coming off the trees like rain but it was all quite pretty. The views from Street are better than I remembered and the mountains were like huge ships floating through the clouds. From our vantage point we could see from Seward around to Gothics. I think the shwack over to Lost Pond Peak would best be done when there is a crust and ideally with less snow on the conifers. As soon as I stepped into the fresh snow I sunk up to my waste in a soaking wet structureless mess.

The trip back was uneventful other than Dominic getting a conversation going on the RINO near Heart Lake with a sweet sounding girl.
That evening we stopped by the Hostel and made plans with Peter and Julie for the next day's hike.

[Mavs00]

Wow, great report.......... I'm envious. How did you like your RINO 130. I got a eTrex vista (the same unit I had). But I keep hearing great things about the 130's. Should I switch it up?