WalkingCarrot

We slept in some, to recover from town, where we didn’t sleep enough. The early going today followed the divide closely, so it was filled with lots of steep ups and downs. We weaved in and out of green Lodgepole forest and areas that were burned in 2003.

After Big Hole pass, the trail followed an occasionally-used forest service road right along the divide for a mile or so and ten the CDT veered off onto relatively new trail tred on the Montana side, traversing the headwaters of several small creeks. After a couple miles the trail came back to the divide at a No Name Pass, the new tread ended and we descended steeply on an ancient jeep road into a basin in Idaho. Strewn with ankle twisting rocks at a knee jarring pitch, this road was a far from satisfying downhill experience. The road bottomed out in a narrow, dark gulch with a few possible campsites but we pressed on to get a few more miles in.

Up we went, climbing, steeply in places, on old trail tread along the South Fork of Sheep Creek. Ripe Huckleberries slowed our progress some. The last time we saw Huckleberry bushes was about 350 miles back, in the Bob Marshall wilderness. At that time there was only the occassional small, hard green berry.

Hiking later than we wanted, we finally made camp in makeshift site on a sloping bench above the creek. The rapid descent of the narrow valley sends the creek’s waters rushing over the rocks, providing a serenade to send us to sleep.

Miles 14.6