The ups and downs......

8:20 am - Wednesday - August 2nd - 54º F, humidity 65%, wind 3 mph out of the north...clear blue skies! Forecast high in Gardiner today is 77º F.....

We were in the Beetle by 8:05 am on our way to the Bunsen Peak trailhead just 5 miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs on US-89.  By 8:40 am we had begun our hike to Bunsen Peak......our ambitious mileage goal for this day was lucky 13.....read on to find out how that turned out......

 The Golden Gate bridge

 Starting to gain some elevation

 This pano take at Bunsen Peak is about 350º

  8,564' Elevation!

.....we reached the summit about 9:50 am.....an hour and ten minutes.  We felt really strong for the first time since we joined the '100 mile hiking club'.  We departed the summit abut 10 am, and were back at the trailhead by 10:58 am.  I forgot to turn on my GPS tracker at the beginning of the hike, so I turned it on at the summit for the hike back down to the trailhead.   From there we began our 'out and back' hike to Osprey Falls.  Our friend Kirsty highly recommended this hike,and we were not disappointed.....initially we thought it was about 4.3 miles to the falls, but it is was exactly 4.65 miles!

The first 3.1 miles was like this.....mostly flat, but then we came to this ominous, cryptic sign.....

If only we had known how steep!

.....from here the double track road became a single track trail which was steep....maybe 10-12% most of the time.....very rocky, and difficult to keep from sliding due to all the lose, pebbly rock.....

This sign does not lie

.......we probably averaged about 1 mph going down....after what seemed an interminable amount of time we rounded a corner in the trail to find Osprey Falls in all her glory....

 At last!  Osprey Falls....some 150' high

 YAY!!!

......in all we descended some 1,442' to the river before sighting the falls......it was actually easier to climb back up the trail, than going down from a traction point of view.  Of course we were climbing 1.4 miles of 10-12% grade, which necessitated frequent stops in the shade to cool down, and catch our collective breath.....

  That's the Gardiner River way, way down there!   We had to hike down there to see the falls!  Total drop of 1,442'!

....by the time we reached the flat area again my legs felt leaden, but eventually we got into our stride again and were walking at over 3 mph for the final 3.1 miles back to the car.....

 TLE stylin' in another hiking skirt....and still smiling after almost 12 miles!

.....in all we covered some 13.5 miles on this day.....that is the most by far we have ever covered together in one day of hiking, and we still felt like we could have gone a few more miles!  But, even if we had  wanted to hike further we would have needed more water.  At beginning of our hike we each had approximately 85 oz. of water.....at the end we each had less than 5 oz.

We stopped briefly at Rustic Falls to snap this picture, and to take pictures of the 'Golden Gate'.......

 Rustic Falls near the 'Golden Gate' Bridge

.....originally back in the late 1800's this bridge was wooden......the sign gives you a brief history of this bridge.......

 24.24 minutes per mile average going downhill from Bunsen Peak

  We averaged 21.02 minutes per mile going to and from Osprey Falls!  I forgot to turn on my GPS tracking device at the beginning of the Bunsen Peak hike, but ran it going back down.  4.2 miles total and 756 calories no longer exist.  In all 2,426 calories in flames for the two hikes.

.....after a brief stop at the Gardiner Market to pick up a few supplies for our beer tasting party that night we were home by 4:30......around 5 TLE made me breakfast for dinner!  What a woman!

 Breakfast for dinner

.....by 7 pm our guests were arriving for some beer tasting......Mark, Paul, Susan, JR, Sandi, Susan, TLE and moi......not pictured....'Dodge' (Kristen), Linda and Barbara who had not arrived yet.......

 Beer tasting party

.....in all we sampled 14 craft brews, and had a great time getting to know each other a little better......

14 beers tasted

........everyone began to drift home about 9 pm thanking us for a great time.....we had a good time too....always fun to share some of our craft beer finds, and now my Norcold refer has room for some new finds!

We were in bed before 11 pm......what an amazing day!  Thanks for stopping by.....and I mean that!  Thanks!

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