Run to "B"

I have lived in my little city for over 20 years now and I have never touched the B on the mountain.  I see it many times a day, and even though I have been right up next to it on a four wheeler, I have never actually sat on or touched the paint.  My boys have hiked up there many times in their lives, but not me.  

The other day as I walked out my front door to go for a short five mile run, I decided at the spur of the moment to do my run on the mountain.  I like running on the mountain in the spring and the fall.  Not so much in the summer because I have a huge fear of rattlesnakes and they are in abundance up there, and not so much in the winter because I have an even huger (is huger even a word? ...it is now!) fear of mountain lions and they come out in the winter to gobble up the deer (or runners, if given the opportunity!)  So I tend to stay off it during those seasons.  Well, most of the time anyway.  I still end up there quite a bit, but it's not a usual daily thing.

So off I go for my run on the mountain, which btw,  is in my backyard.  As I started going along, I decided instead of the five planned miles, I would head up towards the B just for fun. I immediately realized I had never actually sat on the B or touched it.  That settled it. I was going to finally do that!  

There was still some gorgeous fall foliage to enjoy on the way up.  

It is not an easy hike by any means.  I tried to run most of it, but those straight uphills were killers!  I had to stop and rest several times or I was going to have a heart attack on the spot!  

I took this from the second bench.  Gorgeous view!

Even though I had never hiked up there before, I managed to find my way to it.  I know you're thinking,  "Well how hard is that, it's so so huge you can see it!"  But it's the trails up to it that you have to figure out.  There are so many deer trails too.  I was tempted to take a few of those because it would have been a faster route, but I stayed on the beaten path.  

 I made it!  I was so happy!  But when I got there I saw that you can't just easily go sit on the paint.  It's another hike of it's own to get to the actual B! This picture does NOT do it justice. Those rocks were HUGE and very steep and loose and unstable!  Imagine me as a little squirrel and that will give you some idea how large they are.  I started to go up on them and lost my footing several times.  But that wasn't what scared me.  

As I started my obstacle course of boulders, I started to panic thinking that was the best rattlesnake heaven I have ever seen!  It was a perfect resort for them!  Rocks and rocks and holes in between all the rocks.  I started to breath real heavy.  I was ready to bag it because my fear was escalating.   

When I saw this painted rock that had fallen down from the actual B, I thought, "Okay I can just touch this and call it good since it came from the actual B!"  I was so tempted to do that, but really wanted my picture on the actual B while touching it.  So, I took several deep breaths and continued on. I kept saying to myself, "If you can jump out of a flippin' airplane you can get to the B!"  But then I would hear something and just know it was a snake!  I tried to just quit thinking about snakes and just go as fast up as I could.  It was one of the longest 10 minutes of my life!  And... I hadn't told anyone that I was going up there and I had no cell phone service.  Real smart!  So, if I did get bit or injured I knew I would be some hungry mountain lion's dessert. 

Success!

I got braver once I reached the paint.  I put my phone on my camera timer app so I could get a photo of me higher up on it from below.     

What a lovely shot!  haha 

I DID IT!

It was an unbelievable view up there!  

You can see the temple off to the upper left.  My house is even in this photo!  

Coming down!

I love this angle of it. ↓

I wanted to take a short cut coming down and so I found the quickest one.  The water trail straight below it.  Baaaaaaaaaaaaad idea!  It was so stinkin' steep and unstable that I biffed it real gracefully (not!) a couple times.  I really hit hard twice.  But, I still didn't learn my lesson and kept on going down.  Actually at that point I was kind of committed so I continued.  

Since I hadn't planned on going to the B, I had on my running shoes with virtually ZERO traction!   Yeah, I basically skied down that trail! 

While running back home, I saw the remains of a deer that had been torn apart!  The work of a mountain lion no doubt!   I'm still hoping it was from last winter but who knows?  I immediately picked up my pace after seeing that!

Look! I even brought home a souvenir (or at least proof) that I made it to the B!  White paint on my shoes!

I can now check that off my Bucket List!  It wasn't really on it, but after I did it I wrote it on it and checked it off anyway!  =)

Sidenote:  Dave reassured me it was too cold for any snakes to still be out.  I am not convinced though as I saw one just as few days before (freshly dead) in the middle of the road on one of my runs.  As Indiana Jones would say, "I hate snakes!"