CDT Day 6 – Shineberger Creek

Date: 6/19/20

Daily Miles: 15

Total Miles: 109

Our zero day ended up turning into two days once we learned that the bad weather from our prior hiking day was going to be dumping 5” to 12” of snow in the area we were heading into. We figured it was a good idea to give the new snow a day to melt off.

Staying in Idaho Springs worked out really well. We got to eat some good food, were able to buy some trail supplies at the local stores (including new shoes for SweetPea), mailed our next resupply, did some work for our business and managed to get in a bit of relaxation.

We felt pretty well rested as we came back out to the trail this morning. Bonnie dropped us off at the trailhead around 9am and then we started in our day.

The hiking today can only be described as a Rollercoaster. There were A LOT of ups and downs as we worked our way along a fence which marks the border between Idaho and Montana. It was pretty exhausting as the slopes were usually pretty steep. Even though we didn’t hike a normal “full” day, we were still exhausted.

Most of the day we were hiking above treeline. It had been hours since we had been close to any tree, and we were a little curious as to whether we would be back in the trees when we were ready to stop for the day. Luckily we descended low enough to be back in the forest at the end of the day.

Shortly before we camped, we came upon a small clearing where four elk had presumably bedded down for the evening. It was strange because they didn’t seem too bothered by us, while we stopped and just watched them. Eventually they got up and trotted off. Usually elk as so skittish and they run off before you can get much of a glimpse of them.

Today is our 21st wedding anniversary. While we do like going out for a special dinner, it does seem appropriate to celebrate our anniversary by spending time doing something we love to do together…and backpacking usually tops the list. We did have a fancy freeze-dried PadThai dinner and then MountainMan and Ace gave us some anniversary chocolate for dessert. Seemed like the perfect day.