Crazy Hikers

Did you all already know that Alex and I are crazy? Or at least we are when it comes to hiking.

We're counting down our last "weekends" here, so we're trying to fit in all of the hikes in the Mammoth area that we haven't done yet. We had a slow start to our hiking season as we adjusted to the new standing jobs and recovered from our various illnesses brought on by communal living, so we are still only physically able to comfortably complete about 8 miles a day of our weekend. Plus, we've been pushing to finish the 100 miles of Rec Center's 100 Mile Hiking Club. Thus, we've become crazy hikers, doing hikes beyond our ability as if we're in a panic that we'll never get to go hiking again once we leave YNP.

Last weekend's hike started with a rumor of moose, a more rare siting in YNP than in the Grand Tetons, on the way to Cache Lake. So, off we went, unwittingly choosing the path that started off with 2 miles straight uphill (there was a flatter option). The day started overcast, so we told each other, "We can turn around at any point." We met a couple of horseback riders who had told each other the same thing! On the way uphill, we ran into a large group of hikers with a ranger (it's rare to run into any hikers, much less large group, so this was a rare sighting). "There's a large bull elk on the trail ahead. Be careful," warned the ranger. He was a giant elk with a huge rack, but, alas, Alex missed the good picture. As mile after mile passed, we entered into a valley with a creek and wetlands - perfect moose habitat. "Let's go a little bit further," we kept saying, in the hopes of spotting the bull moose that was spotted by co-workers the day before. Finally, it was just a few more miles to Cache Lake, so we decided to push ahead, reaching the 7 mile point at the lake, where we met up with the horseback riders again (they'd had some trouble with some fallen trees across the trail that we were able to crawl under, but the horses couldn't step over). Note that we were at our mileage limit, and still had the 7 miles to hike back. Fortunately, Alex and I have set up the precedent to take a nap mid-hike. While the riders ate lunch, then rode away, Alex and I settled in for a snooze under the now present sun. An hour later and somewhat refreshed, we hit the trail on the way back. Back in the valley, Alex looked down a dry creek bed to see a nice-sized female moose. He snapped a couple of pictures, then promptly started up the trail. "Wait a minute," I said, "You wanted to see a moose and now you're not even going to watch it?" So we paused. The moose turned and headed down to creek bed, followed by her calf that emerged from the bushes. They rounded a corner, so we climbed a hill adjacent to the creek and watched them until they disappeared into some trees. For some reason, I was cranky the rest of the hike back, and lagging on the uphills. We missed both dinner and the archeology in YNP talk we'd been waiting to go to.

This weekend, we decided it was time to hike Ospry Falls. I wanted to bike to the trailhead from Mammoth, but Alex didn't feel like getting on his bicycle. It's a good thing that we didn't take the bikes as the road that I thought was a gradual downhill was actually mostly a steep uphill. We would have been walking anyway. The falls were great and we had a wonderful hike, culminating with startling the elk herds (antlered bulls included) grazing in the area and spotting 2 horned owls sitting in the trees. Once again, we missed dinner (darn), and just had to go get steaks and beans in Gardiner. Our "quick hike", at 10 miles, ended up being the long way to Ospry Falls, but it rounded out the last miles we needed to finish the 100 Mile Hike Club.