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- Aug 9, 2007
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- 12,955
June 2006
Shingle Creek. It's one of those places you drive past all the time on the way to the High Uintas but never really think about stopping. The snow was still keeping us from the higher elevations so we decided to take a couple of days and see how far we could go. Earlier this year I took my split board up the trail a bit so I had already had a little taste.
On the drive up... can you tell Nikita has been stuck in my apartment for nearly a week straight?
The Shingle Creek trail was awesome. The temperature was a nice 71 degrees, it was just a little overcast, and the trail was immaculately maintained. Overall lightly traveled for such a beautiful day.
This is where it started getting a little tougher, also near the entrance to the 'narrows' section.
Me posing on the sweetest backcountry bridge ever. This was the last river crossing before the snow started to get thick."
Not far past that bridge we started running into more and more snow.
This would be home for the rest of the trip. This was a nicely hidden spot well off the trail. There was a single, small cairn stacked near the trail a few hundred yards from here. We followed it and were quite pleased with the result. The river was deafening, great to sleep to though.
Nikita LOVES snow. It was interesting to watch this patch of snow shrink dramatically over the short amount of time we spent here.
Now that's a messy fire ring...
Much better. I don't know why but I rather enjoy improving existing camp spots.
That's it. It's official. I am the master of the self-portrait. Here we are pumping water out of a nearby creek. It was nice to drink filtered water opposed to the water treated with my Miox purifier, the filtered flavor just can't be beat.
That river was great to have so close.
Since we got cut off so early by snow we were left with more than enough time to sit around and relax. This was just what I needed.
We didn't do much after finding camp... a little reading, a little wandering, a lot of fire wood gathering. After night fell I decided it would be fun to play with different exposures in the campfire light. I'm easily entertained.
Its too bad I wasn't in picture-taking mode when we were sledding down snow drifts on our camp mattresses in the middle of the night. Good fun.
Now that's a self-portrait.
Morning. And a cold one at that... I woke up around 6am to a chili 39 degrees. Thank god Nikita was willing to crawl into my sleeping bag to warm me up! The bag hanging from the tree is our food... testing our bear preparedness I suppose. The morning was nice, peaches and cream oatmeal with a huge cup of coffee. Very chill.
Yet another beautiful hike out on the Shingle Creek trail.
Heading home.
Shingle Creek. It's one of those places you drive past all the time on the way to the High Uintas but never really think about stopping. The snow was still keeping us from the higher elevations so we decided to take a couple of days and see how far we could go. Earlier this year I took my split board up the trail a bit so I had already had a little taste.
- trip date: 6/3 - 6/4/06
- distance: 8 Miles
- starting point: Shingle Creek Trailhead on the Mirror Lake Highway (Map)
- destination: As far as we could go, it turned out to be just a few miles before snow line
- elevation: The trailhead was at 7,654', we stopped at 8,760' due to snow and mud.
On the drive up... can you tell Nikita has been stuck in my apartment for nearly a week straight?
The Shingle Creek trail was awesome. The temperature was a nice 71 degrees, it was just a little overcast, and the trail was immaculately maintained. Overall lightly traveled for such a beautiful day.
This is where it started getting a little tougher, also near the entrance to the 'narrows' section.
Me posing on the sweetest backcountry bridge ever. This was the last river crossing before the snow started to get thick."
Not far past that bridge we started running into more and more snow.
This would be home for the rest of the trip. This was a nicely hidden spot well off the trail. There was a single, small cairn stacked near the trail a few hundred yards from here. We followed it and were quite pleased with the result. The river was deafening, great to sleep to though.
Nikita LOVES snow. It was interesting to watch this patch of snow shrink dramatically over the short amount of time we spent here.
Now that's a messy fire ring...
Much better. I don't know why but I rather enjoy improving existing camp spots.
That's it. It's official. I am the master of the self-portrait. Here we are pumping water out of a nearby creek. It was nice to drink filtered water opposed to the water treated with my Miox purifier, the filtered flavor just can't be beat.
That river was great to have so close.
Since we got cut off so early by snow we were left with more than enough time to sit around and relax. This was just what I needed.
We didn't do much after finding camp... a little reading, a little wandering, a lot of fire wood gathering. After night fell I decided it would be fun to play with different exposures in the campfire light. I'm easily entertained.
Its too bad I wasn't in picture-taking mode when we were sledding down snow drifts on our camp mattresses in the middle of the night. Good fun.
Now that's a self-portrait.
Morning. And a cold one at that... I woke up around 6am to a chili 39 degrees. Thank god Nikita was willing to crawl into my sleeping bag to warm me up! The bag hanging from the tree is our food... testing our bear preparedness I suppose. The morning was nice, peaches and cream oatmeal with a huge cup of coffee. Very chill.
Yet another beautiful hike out on the Shingle Creek trail.
Heading home.