Cascade, Grebe and Wolf....

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7:03 am - Wednesday - August 16th - 39º F, humidity 77%, wind 3 mph out of the east southeast...clear skies with a forecast high of 77º F here in Gardiner, MT, and 71º F in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY.

I was up before 6 am Tuesday as we wanted to get an early start  on our hiking......TLE had us driving all the way to Canyon Village, then turning right on Norris Road to reach the Cascade Lake trailhead about 1/4 mile  from the junction.  We were at the trailhead before 9 am.

We began Tuesday's hike with rather modest aspirations....we thought we would hike the 2.5 miles to Cascade Lake, but when we got to the first mileage sign we decided on the spot we would hike all the way to Wolf Lake.....it was a little further than this sign indicated.....😋

The sign shows Wolf Lake 6.5 miles distant, but as is often the case, it was wrong....it was 7.45 miles distant.  The mileage to Grebe Lake was spot on at 5, but whoever measured the distance after Grebe Lake lost a mile somewhere...

It had rained most of Monday, and, as is often the case the day after a storm, the temperatures at the beginning of our hike were quite cold.....TLE was really bundled up to begin the hike......

 It was cold!

......gradually we began to warm up, although the temperatures remained in the high 50's for quite some time......

....we found ourselves continually transitioning from heavily forested sections to expansive meadows......

Heavy overcast

 Cascade Lake at the 2.5 mile mark just as the sign said

....we reached the Observation Peak Trail after 2.5 miles exactly, and it was time to shed at least one layer as it was beginning to warm up finally.....

 TLE shedding a couple of layers of clothing

  

 Grebe Lake

There were a number of stream crossing like this one.....TLE has very good balance......thank goodness for hiking poles!

......we reached Wolf Lake around 11:40 am having covered 7.45 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes of elapsed time.  It was a good place to turn around, as to continue on the trail would have required that we ford a 70' wide river to do so.....

 

 The trail continues on the other side of the river......we decided to stay dry and not to ford it......we turned around at the 7.45 mile mark

 Wolf Lake!

.....after taking a few pictures of Wolf Lake we did an about face and began our trek back to the Cascade Lake trailhead......

 We stopped for quick Power Bar snack about 1/2 mile after turning around

 Back to Grebe Lake

.....we managed to avoid the rain which was obviously falling in the distance, but did get hit by a few small hail stones.  By the time we the final corner and spied our car we were bone tired......there is nothing like seeing your car after 14+ miles of hiking, and knowing you will be OFF your feet in just minutes......

......we reached the car around 2:45 pm after having covered 14.9 miles just as it began to rain.....we stripped off our Camelbaks and got inside the car just in time.....it only rained about 10 minutes, but had we still been on the trail we would have arrived at the car soaking wet......whew! 

Our Strava results

You will note that we covered the 14.9 miles averaging just under 3 mph for the entire distance......we averaged 19 minutes and 50 seconds per mile.......in addition we gained some 1,077' in elevation, and burned 2,674 calories.  If you had asked me to describe the hike before I saw the Strava results I would have told you it was a mostly flat hike.....not so much, apparently!

Our 'out and back' route

We have found that the distances shown on most of the mileage signs for the hiking trails are accurate up to a point, then they become very inaccurate.  On this particular hike the mileage to Cascade Lake (2.5) was spot on as was the mileage to Grebe lake (5.0), but from Grebe to Wolf it was 2.45 miles instead of the 1.5 miles the sign indicated.  So, instead of hiking 13 miles round trip, we hiked 14.9 miles round trip.....almost a full 2 miles further than we expected.  Of course, at 14.9 that is now the most miles we have covered in one day hiking here in Yellowstone.  This is the also the longest single hike TLE and I have ever done.  We have now logged 75 of the 100 miles we need to complete our goal for the '100 Mile Hiking Club'!

We were home by 4:30 pm relaxing and wondering how we'll spend 8 hours on our feet at work on Wednesday......thanks for stopping by!

When you need to buy something from Amazon, think of us.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.