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7:52 am - Thursday - August 3rd - 50º F, 82% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear blue skies.....wow, CALM and clear blue skies.....each is a rarity, but both at one time....double WOW! Forecast high for Gardiner is 81º F (Mammoth Hot Springs - 76º F).

So, what do you do after an epic 13.5 mile hiking day?  Well, follow along to see.......after a very full Tuesday we slept in until after 8 am getting over 9 hours of sleep.  We had both intended to be up early again, but at 6 am my eyes refused to open, so I just went back to sleep for 2 more hours.  I was surprised that I was not really sore.....just a little stiff.  After just a few minutes of being up and moving around the stiffness seemed to recede to the background.  We did want to take another hike Wednesday to add to our '100 Mile Hiking Club' mileage, and to get us over the 45 mile mark, so around 10:30 am we headed back to the Swan Lake Flat area, which is just across US-89 from the Bunsen Peak trailhead.  On the other side of the road is the Glen Creek trailhead which runs about 2.1 miles to the 

Snow Pass/Fawn Pass Junction just 2.1 miles distant.  Our plan was to hike at least out to the junction and turn around giving us 4.2 miles to add to our mileage log......

.......the trail was mostly flat with a couple of gentle ups and downs, and we found ourselves at the junction sign within 50 minutes.......

.......it occurred to us if we just hiked another 3/10's of a mile that our round trip total would be 4.8 miles and that would put us just over the 45 mile mark, so on we continued....

........3/10's of a mile further put us at the beginning of a long climb which, we decided was a perfect turn around point......

 At the 2.4 mile mark.....time to turn around!

......the hike back to the Glen Creek trailhead was mostly a slight downhill walk.......

.....we arrived back at the car to find that our GPS tracker showed us having covered 4.9 miles......doh!  If we would have walked just another 20th of a mile we could have hit 5 miles exactly!  Nonetheless, we were happy to have added a short hike to kind of loosen our legs up from Tuesday's endeavors, and it was just perfect.

The Glen Creek trailhead is just 5 miles south of Mammoth Hot Springs.....as we crept down the final grade into Mammoth Hot Springs we couldn't help but notice how many people were out and about.....the traffic slowed to a crawl, and we soon discovered the reason......

.....an elk cow grazing just outside the General Store.....just past the General Store we noted that the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is finally open for business after a lengthy remodel.....now to see if business picks up at the General Store!

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel open for business

TLE suggested we stop at 'The Corral' for a burger.....Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars on 55reviews, while TripAdvisor gives them 4.5 on 147 reviews.....we would be solidly in the 4 star camp.  This place is quite pricey....$11.95 for a burger.....add cheese and bacon and you're over $14.  TLE got their Salmon Burger.....add two beers and you're right at $38!  Now, to be fair, their hamburgers are amazing.....I chose bleu cheese as the cheese on my burger, and the bacon was thick, and lean.....the hamburger patty was enormous!

The Corral (Yelp picture)

 TLE's salmon burger

What puts them over the top is their alfresco dining, which is all they offer.....fine with me!  The outdoor temp was in the high 70's which made it a perfect day for sitting outside.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on our way up to Swan Lake Flat we stopped off at the USPS  to pick up a package our daughter Kate had mailed me......a bag of my favorite cigars, which can only be bought at Rite Aid drug stores.  There are no Rite Aid drug stores within a 100 miles, so she agreed to buy them and mail them to me.......it's a good thing because I smoked the last one I had a couple of days ago!

The Panetelas!

We were home by 2:30 at which time I changed clothes and took a nice long nap.  TLE went to the store while I napped and returned just as I was waking up around 3:20.  We lazed around the rest of the day gearing up for our return to the working world Thursday!

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.

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!

P.S. - Just a reminder, we do derive some income from our blog.  The first source is via Google Adsense.  You have probably noticed various ads in the right hand column of our blog, and in between the daily blog entries.  If you are interested in any of those products and click on any of those ads we do get a few cents for each click.  

Secondly, we have an Amazon Affiliate account through Amazon, which means if you click on this link (Amazon Affiliate link) and do your Amazon shopping using that link we will receive a small commission on each completed purchase, and we will be so ever grateful for the addition of a few extra coins to our checking account!  Using this link does not add one penny to your purchase price, nor does it affect your Amazon Prime account status.

'Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future......'

6:07 am - Tuesday - August 1, 2017 - 48º F, humidity 63%, wind 3 mph out of the east southeast.....clear skies.....sun is just beginning to crest the eastern mountains.  Forecast high in Gardiner is 87º F today (83º in Mammoth Hot Springs).  Up early as we are going hiking this morning before it gets too warm!

Once again we come full circle to our 'Friday' (Monday) and the 'MID' shift (11 am to 7 pm).  While I love having bookend 'MID' shifts (Thursday and Monday) I always come up short on those mornings as we have to begin getting ready for work at 10 am so we can be ready to leave for work at 10:30......I get used to getting ready to go to work at 12 pm so we can leave at 12:30 pm.....I really like having those extra 2.5 hours in the morning.  Ah well, you can have it all, but I would like to have it all.

I'm sitting here looking at my wall Cedar Key, FL Sunsets calendar (RV sized) that we buy each year from Chris and Cherie at Technomadia through their Zazzle Store wondering how we got to August 1st so quickly.  It was just the beginning of April when we began our 3 week trip up the California coast on our way to South Lake Tahoe for the summer.   On April 23rd we arrived in South Lake Tahoe at Tahoe Valley Campground for what we thought was going to be the best summer at TVC ever, only to see the death of that vision within 5 short weeks.  That was just 4 months ago, but it seems much, much longer.  That is the wonder of this lifestyle, is it not?  We have wheels on our home and can move our home at a moment's notice.....well, maybe a few dozen moment's notice.  Nonetheless, we can change our view and circumstances without going through escrow......we just give our notice, find a new circumstance and go!  We have recaptured our desire for the 'new'......the unexpected, new vistas, new friends, new experiences.  We once again relish the thought of exploring by foot new trails taking us to places we always dreamed of visiting.

  

The weather trend, as I have written previously, is for cooler temperatures over the next two weeks......below you can see the forecasts for Tuesday through next Monday......

August 1-7

.....mostly 70's with a couple of 80º days......then the next 7 days with all 70º days.....even a little rain perhaps

August 8-14

.....the night time temps are getting back into the 40's again, and by the time we depart in October they will be back into the 30's no doubt......yup.....'Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future......'!

Monday the General Store was rockin'........from about 12:30 pm until we left at 7 pm the customer line at the 'Fountain' was non-stop.  I worked a 1.5 hour stretch as cashier (1:30 to 3) where I was processing one customer every 10-15 seconds for the entire time.  Then the stretch from 3:30 to 6 pm where there was never more than a 60 second break in the line for 2.5 hours.  The typical transaction runs from $3.47 (one scoop of ice cream including tax) to $6.94 (2 scoops of ice cream plus tax).  Customers are tendering $5, $10 and $20 dollar bills and I am making change at a furious pace, or they are presenting credit and debit cards to cover their small purchases.  You get the occasional large group of 5-10 folks on one bill, but it is mostly one, or two people at a time.  You are counting out change for one scoop.....$1.53 ($5 tendered), $6.53 ($10 tendered), $16.53 ($20 tendered).  You must keep track of your dwindling penny, nickle, dime, quarter inventory, and make sure to call a floor supervisor for more change before you run out, while continuing to process one customer after another.  At times you feel like you are in a 'high wire' act, and one false move will send you tumbling.  Actually, I find that kind of exhilarating!

All too soon, once again, we were on our way home in the Beetle at 7 pm......we sat out side for about 90 minutes enjoying our cocktails, and then headed inside to watch a movie on Netflix entitled 'The Imitation Game' (2014) about a group of 6 British mathematicians who spent the early days of WW2 trying to break the encryption code of the 'Enigma' machine the Nazis used to send coded messages.   They were, of course, successful.  It was a very good movie and we both highly recommend it.

We were in bed a little after 11 pm dreaming of hitting the hiking trails once again Tuesday.....thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Just a reminder, we do derive some income from our blog.  The first source is via Google Adsense.  You have probably noticed various ads in the right hand column of our blog, and in between the daily blog entries.  If you are interested in any of those products and click on any of those ads we do get a few cents for each click.  Secondly, we have an Amazon Affiliate account through Amazon, which means if you click on this link (Amazon Affiliate link) and do your Amazon shopping using that link we will receive a small commission on each completed purchase.  Using this link does not add one penny to your purchase price, nor does it affect your Amazon Prime account status.   

"Life moves pretty fast...."

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8:21 am - Monday - 52º F, humidity 72%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast.....partly cloudy....forecast high in Gardiner of 88º F (Mammoth Hot Springs - 83º F).  Wow, I slept in until 8 am! Wow, TLE was up before me....double wow!  Wow, I guess I was tired!  

Hard to believe Sunday was the last Sunday of July......August 1st is Tuesday......A famous person once said......"Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.  We are really looking forward to our off days to we can stop and look around.  As we were driving up the final 7% grade into Mammoth Hot Springs I slowed the car so we could drink in the big view looking north toward Gardiner, MT.....it is such a big, beautiful glacial valley.  We are trying to stop and look around before time passes us by, and it is time to roll our wheels once again.

Just a few weeks ago we walked into the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store for the first time.....everyone we met was a stranger.  Now those strangers have become friends whom we greet each day by name as we walk through the store to the lunch room to get ready for another day of cashiering and ice cream scooping.  On that first day we felt like strangers on the outside looking in, but now we are part of a big family of hard working folks who have each other's backs.

Our Sunday 'CLOSE' shift was a little busier than Saturday, and time went by quickly.  I spent most of Sunday's shift as cashier in the fountain, and once again we surpassed $80 in tips.  At 8:30 we closed the 'Fountain' once again, cleaned up and then I pulled my drawer around 8:50 pm to count it down.  TLE followed about 30 minutes later to count down her drawer and we were on our way home by 9:30.

Classic Ferris Bueller

I'll leave you with the above YouTube video from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.......watch it....I know you'll smile!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Just a reminder, we do derive some income from our blog.  The first source is via Google Adsense.  You have probably noticed various ads in the right hand column of our blog, and in between the daily blog entries.  If you are interested in any of those products and click on any of those ads we do get a few cents for each click.  Secondly, we have an Amazon Affiliate account through Amazon, which means if you click on this link (Amazon Affiliate link) and do your Amazon shopping using that link we will receive a small commission on each completed purchase.  Using this link does not add one penny to your purchase price, nor does it affect your Amazon Prime account status.   

Parking patrol......

8:09 am - Sunday - 53º F, humdity 76%, wind 3 mph out of the east southeast......sunny with a forecast high for Gardiner of 85º F, and Mammoth Hot Springs of 79º F......clouds on the way, but no rain forecast for today.

For the first time in 4, or 5 days it did not rain Saturday.....it looked as if it might rain, but the moisture never materialized.  Saturday was also our 'hump' day, so it is downhill to Monday (our Friday) now.  The weather has been so nice this past week we have been leaving most of our windows open all day and all night, and have not had to use our A/C at all during that time.  In fact, we should have good hiking weather by Tuesday as we continue our quest to hike 100 miles in Yellowstone.

The customer traffic continues to slowly decline as families with school age kids are making their way home to finish 'Back to School' shopping, and put their kids back in school by the middle of August.  The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, which has been closed most of the summer for renovation and repairs will be reopening August 1st, so that may have an impact on our customer traffic, so we shall see if the slowing trend is only temporary, or permanent. 

During the middle of the day we have this ongoing battle with desparate vacationers invading the employee parking lot in search of a parking spot.  TLE has made it her personal mission to thwart them, and she can be seen occasionally chasing parking miscreants from the lot, as well as moving orange cones around to block unused spots.  In addition to the orange cones each site has large block lettering proclaiming the site  'RESERVED', and there are numerous signs throughout the parking lot proclaiming the site for 'FOR EMPLOYEES ONLY', but that does not deter those whose motto seems to be 'It is better to ask forgiveness than permission'.  At the peek time of day which begins at 1:30 pm when the 'CLOSE' shift folks arrive we need every single one of those parking spots as for about 90 minutes we have the 'OPEN', 'MID' and 'CLOSE' shift folks all on site at the same time.  I get a kick out of her confronting the occasional scofflaw as we arrive for our daily shift.....there is almost always at least one person trying to park illegally in our lot when we arrive.

I spent my 'CLOSE' shift scooping ice cream and talking with my co-workers when the periodic lull in foot traffic occurred, which was often.  We still managed to scoop a lot of ice cream, and our customers rewarded us with over $90 in our tip basket.  The foot traffic dropped off significantly after 6 pm, and as a result we were able to begin cleaning the 'Fountain' area early resulting in us finishing our cleaning by 8:40 pm.....just 10 minutes after our official close time.  I spent time 'merchandising' around the store which essentially means straightening T's, sweatshirts, and jackets on their hangers, as well as 'fronting' other retail merchandise.  'Fronting' means pulling stock on shelves to the front to create a uniform appearance, and make the product visible to customers as the walk down the aisles.

Soon it was once again 9:30 pm and time to haul anchor and head for home port.....we were home before 10 pm putting our tired feet up, and sipping adult beverages.  I fell asleep in my recliner waking up about midnight to go to bed......:-)

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Just a reminder, we do derive some income from our blog.  The first source is via Google Adsense.  You have probably noticed various ads in the right hand column of our blog, and in between the daily blog entries.  If you are interested in any of those products and click on any of those ads we do get a few cents for each click.  Secondly, we have an Amazon Affiliate account through Amazon, which means if you click on this link (Amazon Affiliate link) and do your Amazon shopping using that link we will receive a small commission on each completed purchase.  Using this link does not add one penny to your purchase price, nor does it affect your Amazon Prime account status.   

'Funky'......

7:46 am - Saturday - 50º F, humidity 86%, wind 4 mph out of the south southeast....partly cloudy, as it almost always is.....forecast high for Saturday is 79º F here in Gardiner, and 76º F in Mammoth Hot Springs.  The only temperature I am really concerned about is the one in Mammoth Hot Springs as that is where we are each day, even on our days off sometimes!

We both slept until after 8 am Friday.....normal for TLE, but not for moi.....nonetheless I enjoyed getting up a little later than normal.  The air was cool, 50º F, which is an indication that the weather is beginning to cool as we are now past the zenith of summer here in Montana/Wyoming.  It's kind of weird knowing that we work in one state, and live in another.  Back in South Lake Tahoe we would drive over to Carson City, NV once every 3-4 weeks, but here we drive into Wyoming pretty much every single day.

Before work I spent some time puttering around in the trailer.  I had ordered some new tubes (700 x 32C) for my Cannondale Bad Boy, and had planned to replace the tube in the rear tire as it had a slow leak, however, when I opened one of the tube boxes I discovered that I had mistakenly ordered tubes with Schraeder valves, and I need Presta valves.....doh!  So I decided to repair the tube, and then return the tubes I had bought from Amazon for a refund.  The cool thing about Amazon is that you just go to the item purchased and click on the box entitled "RETURN ITEM", answer a question as to why you are doing that and then print a mailing label.  Since it was my error I had to pay $5 postage to return them.  I then ordered the correct tubes, and they should be here by Monday, or Tuesday.  Whilst repairing the leaky tube I also discovered I was almost out of tube patches, so I ordered some more of them, also.

By then it was time to begin getting ready for work.....we have the 'CLOSE' shift Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we don't have to leave for work until 1 pm, which I love.  I can get up later than usual and still have hours to piddle around before work!

Once again things were slower than normal in the store, but that is to be expected as things do tend to wind down near the end of July, and here we are now at July 28th!  I once again pulled a cash drawer and spent a couple of hours of my shift taking payment for ice cream, coffee, hot chocolate, chili, hot dogs, etc.  The best part about being cashier is being able to converse with each customer about their day without the pressure of scooping ice cream.  During one of the many lulls in customer traffic I snapped a few pictures of my Lovely Elaine interacting with a customer......

 That's our friend Genie to TLE's left

......all too soon it was dusk and time to close out another day.....I say 'all too soon' as we really do enjoy our jobs, and the people we work with.  I stepped out side on the front porch of the General Store to capture the evening sites looking toward the hot spring terraces....

.....we were on our way down the Gardiner River Gorge by 9:45 pm......we stopped off at the Rusty Rail to have a drink with our friends Genie and Roscoe.....this has become a regular Friday night thing, and we enjoy it.....the Rusty Rail is our kind of funky dive bar......we were home by 10:45 relaxing and getting ready for another day of fun.

 Yeah....funky

On a side note, my Dodgers are having a wonderful season......they are now 40 games over .500 for the first time since 1973.....they are now 71 and 31 (wins/losses).  Looking forward to the post season this year!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Just a reminder, we do derive some income from our blog.  The first source is via Google Adsense.  You have probably noticed various ads in the right hand column of our blog, and in between the daily blog entries.  If you are interested in any of those products and click on any of those ads we do get a few cents for each click.  Secondly, we have anAmazon Affiliate account through Amazon, which means if you click on this link (Amazon Affiliate link) and do your Amazon shopping using that link we will receive a small commission on each completed purchase.  Using this link does not add one penny to your purchase price, nor does it affect your Amazon Prime account status, if you have one.