Street and Nye

Hi there,

I was out doing that hike yesterday (August 1, 2004). The herd path was extremely easy to follow, I made it to the junction cairn and started out to do Street first, I followed the path all the way to where you get a great view of Algonquin, but from that lookout point the trail just seemed to stop. There was another trail off to the left (East) but that went in a circle. My GPS was telling me the summit was .8 miles to the West but I had no idea where the trail was? Does anyone know the spot I'm talking about, where did I go wrong?

I had a regular compass with me as well, but it seemed so treed in i really didn't know if i had reached the summit or not. I've seen pictures of the summits and their signs so I'm assuming I didn't make it.

Then on Nye a similar thing happened. About 5 minutes from the Cairn the trail stopped as well, this time my GPS was saying the summit was .39 miles away to the North. I didn't see any signs or discs on any of the trails so I don't think I made it to the top (meaning my GPS waypoints were wrong).

Any pointers would be very much appreciated.... I was a little demoralized after reading everybody's reviews saying it was pretty easy to summit.


Kindest regards,

Shayne

The summits of Street and Nye are not properly labeled on most GPS mapping software. This may account for your confusion. However, when I was on the summits two years ago, there were signs at each. Maybe someone who was up there more recently can tell you if they saw summit signs or provide you with coordinates. See Adirondack Journey for a description of the herdpaths, along with maps and photos...

http://www.adirondackjourney.com/Street_Nye.htm

I'll try......

The spot you describe (on Street) sounds as if it is the "viewing ledge" just beyond Street's summit. There is/was a small clearing just before that spot that is the summit.

There actually was a "red disk" marking the summit when I was there last year, but it was way high in a tree. If you didn't look UP, you would have missed it. Don't know why the GPS said you were not there.

As far as Nye, same thing the summit's only about 5 minutes from the split and it's in the tree's Sounds like you made it. The GPS indication is easier to explain. On many older Map (including GPS topo software), there is a prominant knob North and slightly west, that is (Falsely) marked as the summit. Its supposedly only a few feet shorter than the real one. In any event, the ADK and 46ers recognize the spot you describe (where the trail ends) as the true summit. Again, last year it was marked with a red trail disc.

Hope that helps.

Did your GPS Datum match the coordinates?

The first time I used my GPS was on Street and Nye and I had similar issues. Shortly afterwards I was reading "GPS made easy" and discovered that the coordinates I had input were NAD27 (North American Datum 1927) but my GPS was set on NAD83. This can introduce several tenths of a mile in error.

Mavs had it right - the summits are marked, although a friend who was up there last Saturday could not find the markers either - perhaps they were "removed" by someone, although the Street marker seemed to be about 15 feet high off the ground.

The summit of Nye had a marker on it as of January. It was about 8' high from the top of the snowfall, so that's probably about 12' from the ground. I have a photo of it here. Just ignore the little stuffed duck

I recently received one of those National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps of Adirondack Park. Unlike the ADK map, it shows the herd paths for Redfield, Table Top, and Street and Nye, each keyed as a "primitive" path.

Neither fork of the Street and Nye path reaches either summit proper, as indicated by the map. As you say, Street is farther west, and Nye is farther North. I suppose the path goes to the former canister site on each mountain, but I guess the conclusion to draw is that neither canister was at either summit's exact highest point.

We already knew that as far as Nye was concerned; I didn't realize Street was screwed up, too.

Raymond said:

National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps of Adirondack Park.

Neither fork of the Street and Nye path reaches either summit proper, as indicated by the map. ......
... but I guess the conclusion to draw is that neither canister was at either summit's exact highest point.

We already knew that as far as Nye was concerned; I didn't realize Street was screwed up, too.

Click to expand...

Look again at your map. Don't just look at lables, but look at contour lines. You'll see that the peak to which the path goes, is indeed higher. Hight 4160+ These two bumps have been consistant on the 1904, 1953, and metric maps (althougth numbers have differed)

Nye, on the other hand is not at all clear. The 1904 map shows one distinct peak. The 1953 map shows more bumps, It indicates (survey wise) the elevation of the northernmst peak, however the one which containd the canister has the same number of contour lines. The metric map shows the current summit to be the higest, contour-wise.

Labels do not necessarily indicate the higest point

Was up Street and Nye three weeks ago. (See my report on 'Trail Conditions.') Nye summit is 5 mins from the cairn on the R fork, marked by a red trail disc with NYE MTN written on it in balck magic marker. Street summit is c. 30 mins from the cairn on the L fork, and is marked with a brown and yellow DEC sign. Both are about 10' up on trees. Maybe you should take your eyes off your GPS for a minute and look around.... Seriously, though, both the disc and the sign are easy to walk past if you're not looking for them. Both summits are wooded, so you don't really get a satisfying 'I'm here!' feeling.

thanks everybody

Thanks for all your speedy replies,

Knowing that I bagged the peaks after all was quite a thrill. It was my first unmarked hike of the 46 and it was the first hike I tried my GPS on. Many lessons learned...

Looking back on the hike I thought it was a pretty nice trail. Crossing the first stream was a blast. It had rained heavily the day before and the water was still quite high, in fact I helped the ranger take down the emergency rope he had thrown across the stream the day before. The terrain was quite nice too. The view from the ledge on Street was far better than the fogged in view I had on top of Phelps the day before!


-Shayne
13/46

Re: Street

Pete: You are correct.

The giveaway should have been that the elevation shown on the map* below the name Street is only 4016. I believe the Forty-Sixers have Street's elevation as being 4166, while Bruce Schofield's "High Peaks of the Northeast" has it at 4150. The primitive path shown on the map stops at the 4100-foot elevation line, which is the highest shown (the highest shown, on Street, that is).

Weirdly, the 3750-foot contour line does a figure-8 on Nye.

*That's National Geographic's Trails Illustrated map #742, "Adirondack Park: Lake Placid / High Peaks, New York, USA," for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.

Shayne,

KZK had it right with the use of the map datum. It's hard to believe, but the difference between NAD83 and NAD27 could result in a .8 mile difference. The bottom line is that if you got to the outlook, you crossed the summit a hundred feet before that. Good job!

Tom