Have you ever looked at a mountain and thought, “I’d like to go up there.” Well, that is just what I did the other day when driving my kids home from school.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, I was feeling a little bogged down. A lot of it could have been work (I quit my job editing for the local newspaper … yay!!), but the inversion that Utah has been experiencing has made it kind of mucky outside.

But, as I looked at the mountain in front of me, I saw a layer of haze and then it got clearer the higher up the mountain. At that moment, I decided that I wanted to get up above the muck.

I told my husband that I was going to go up there the next morning. He, having run to the highest peak before, made sure I knew that there was really no clear trail once I reached the ridge line.

That didn’t stop me. I just wanted to get up there.

So, Saturday morning, I filled my fuel belt; one side with water, and the other with a smoothie my husband made for breakfast, packed my phone and left.

I headed up a trail I normally take to the top, then headed along the ridge line. My husband was right about there not being a trail, but I found a pretty well packed deer path through the snow that I followed all the way up and over three peaks.

It. Was. Awesome.

I was about to go up the last peak, but found that I had caught up to the family of deer I was following. It was pretty cool.

As I headed down, I decided I didn’t want to double-back, so I started to head down a different way down toward the valley. And as I headed down, I met up with a trail. The part I was on was a trail I had never run on before, but as I rounded the corner, I looked down and saw … my own footprints!

They weren’t from that particular run, but one I had done a few days prior. The path met up with one of my regular trails!

I had found an easier access point to the top! I can’t wait to head up the mountain, again. This time I will make it all the way up :).

Here are some fun pics from the run:

My home 🙂

More deer tracks. A better path this time.

Looking down at the lake I ran across last winter.

The first set of deer tracks I followed.