I have many goals in life. Some are honorable and intended to help me grow, others are, shall we say, odd. One of my more odd goals in life is to see a mountain lion out in the wild in person. I may have achieved that goal this week.

Friday afternoon, I was invited to a campfire up Green Canyon. In attendance were several ladies, a couple guys about my size, and a couple brawny, muscular fellers. Ya know, the kind where if something tragic happened, they would be the ones people turned to for help.

Anyway, as darkness settled in the canyon, and we were a good ways up the canyon, past the more crowded and loud areas, people began to scare each other. A small group of us even headed down the dark and wooded road in search of another campsite to scare, though we failed to find one and only ended up scaring ourselves multiple times. After plenty of noises that startled people around the fire, I hatched a plan with one of the men of larger stature. There were over a dozen of us there, so I would quietly slip away with my hoodie and stand off in the trees in the dark. Then, he would say he heard something and shine his light on me. A dark, hooded figure in the trees, coming seemingly out of nowhere, would freak everyone out, including, by his own admission, the guy who wanted to shine the light on me. As I took a step back to casually leave the fire, I heard rustling in the leaves behind me. At first, I believed someone had already taken my idea and was going to jump out of the trees at us. The rustling got louder. Another member of the group heard it as well and stood up to look around. Assuming it was still a person who was terrible at sneaking about, I shone my light. My heartbeat shot up when I saw two, bright yellow eyes glowing sharply back at me from about twenty yards away. They seemed small, so after my initial taken abackedness, I picked up my fire tending stick and, as everyone else backed away, I walked up the hill towards the trees where the eyes were. When I got within about eight feet of the animal, which I now thought to be a fox or lost domestic cat (it did not occur to me I was miles from anywhere a domestic cat would reside), I stopped. The beaming yellow eyes reflected my light back and we just looked at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us seemed afraid of the other. We were both curious. Perhaps the animal was more curious than I, because he began to move around the small cluster of bush and trees that separated us. As he turned to the side to walk, my illusion of a small fox or kitty cat vanished instantly and a bit of terror entered my body as I saw his three to four foot long body which was now approaching me. I backed up a bit, then started screaming "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" as I barreled down the mountain toward the rest of the group, who were gathered below watching me. Already on edge and half scared to death from the earlier events of the night, they wasted no time in reacting. As I ran down towards them, I saw the funniest sight I have seen in a while. The group, who, mind you, saw little more than eyes and part of the animals head, were in a complete state of panic. It was every man for himself. People were throwing each other out of the way, tripping over themselves, scrambling in sheer terror, with arms flailing, and shrieks piercing the night as they ran for the safety of their vehicles. When I reached the fire, nothing remained but a cloud of dust and me. I knew I had kind of overreacted and I had really wanted to see what kind of animal it was, so I turned around from my safer distance to shine my light, but, alas, the panic from the group had scared our guest away. The group returned to the fire, all of them hilariously huddled on the side of the fire so their backs were not to where the animal had been. A couple minutes later, the big macho men, who we discovered had little bravery after the sun sets, decided "it was getting late", and they left. To the group's shock, I walked back up the mountain with a hot dog offering in the hopes my friend would return, but, he was probably long gone, never to be seen by me again.

Based on what I did see, I believe the animal was a young mountain lion. He was obviously not in search of eating us, because he was blatantly obvious in approaching our campsite. I think he was just walking in the area, heard some noise, and went to see what was up. I hope he was as amused by me as I was by him. Though if he understands humans, he too is probably telling his family and friends the story of how he scared a bunch of young adults half to death.

I ran through a small microburst that caused a sandstorm today. A couple weeks ago I ran through modest sized hail. A week or so before that it was stinging sleety ice. Apparently, whenever I run, bad weather happens. Today's microburst was rather awesome, despite the discomfort of it.

The sun was abundant throughout the day until this evening. As I prepped for my run, the clouds blew in and the wind picked up a little. Throughout the valley, you could see areas where dust was blowing around. As I got about a mile from home, I could see a few good dust clouds blowing above the route home. The closer I got, the more the dust blew. Then, out of nowhere, the wind went from a nice 5-10 mph to out of control. I estimate it was a good 50 mph or more. Trees were bent down about 45 degrees, metal signs were banging around, and for every 10 steps I took running hard, I only moved about 5 feet. I fought my way forward and looked up and saw a rather alarming sight. A wall of dirt and dust, the sandstorm, completely obscured the road ahead. Like a fool, I ran into the wall of dust. Visibility was a few feet inside the mayhem, which spanned a good 30 yards through. On the other side, I emerged out of the thick of things only to find more dust blowing for another block or so. Exhausted and somewhat disoriented from all the sand in my eyes, ears, mouth, and now runny nose, I stopped my run, regained my wits, snapped some photos, and walked the last half mile home.

It was exciting, I'll admit, though probably a bit dangerous. The sandstorm was caused by all the loose, dry dirt from a house construction site at that particular spot. Fields of hay or wild weeds cover most of the undeveloped areas along this running route, but the area of the sandstorm has a dirt road plus no vegetation as a result of the construction. Two cars that seemed to have been caught right when it happened drove through the 30 yard sandstorm, everyone else actually pulled over and waited for it to let up a bit before passing. They likely thought, as I did, of the sandstorm in Nevada a few days back that caused similar conditions over a larger span of road, which resulted in a 27-vehicle pile up and took a truck driver's life.

Aside from needing an immediate shower, I was ok and now have a good story to tell. Here are some pictures I snapped. The microburst was past by this time and while there was plenty of dust about when I took these, it is nowhere near the sandstorm I had just run through.

A not so great panoramic of the area..ironically, the area with all the light just above the horizon is right where just minutes before a microburst blew sand to create zero visibility

Crazy clouds going on

Lots of dust as the sun set

Song of the Day is..."You'll Never Walk Alone"...because it talks about walking through a storm :)

This evening I had the opportunity to do the "Bigger or Better" scavenger hunt trading game with friends in the ward at church. The game is simple. Divide into teams. Each team is given the same small item, such as a paper clip, or, in our game, a toothpick. They must then go out and trade the toothpick for something bigger or better. The goal is to continue to trade up your items to attain the best possible treasure in the allotted time. Our trades went like this: We traded the toothpick for a 12 inch glass fish bowl. The bowl was traded for a huge fall wreath. The wreath was traded for a full framed window. The window traded for an outdoor patio umbrella. The patio umbrella gained us our final treasure, a hand-embroidered decorative tapestry from South America, traded by a retired journalist who got it decades ago and had no use of it anymore.

The tapestry

The evening was fun, we met some great people willing to trade with us, and we ended up gaining quite a nice treasure. But, of course, as seems to be my way, after all the fun and games, I looked back on the experience and a life lesson was learned.

The entire experience only happened because my team members made a choice. I was on the fence about going to the activity tonight. Ultimately, I decided to go. The other members of my team made the same decision and we all ended up together. If you were to remove one single member of our team, the entire outcome of our trades would be altered. Had I not gone, we would not have had to clear stuff from my car to fit people, and thus we would not have traded for the fish bowl from my house. The wreath was from my neighborhood as well and the team would not have been there if I was not there. Now, assume I still went, but, the girl who chose to direct us to the house where we found the wreath did not. We would not have gone to that home if not for her. The entire outcome is altered. Keep thinking. I still went, that girl still went, but the guy who lives in a wealthier neighborhood did not. On our way to his neighborhood with our wreath, another girl directed us to the house where we got the window. Remove either one and our direction would have changed, and the outcome is altered. Every member contributed to the exact course of events that only came together as a result of all of us being there. Now I would like to apply this to your life.

Do not ever suppose that you do not make a difference. Your very existence alters people's lives. I promise you that the difference you make is significant. You can be the difference between a bad day for someone and a good day. You can be the difference between someone making a bad purchase and a good investment. You can be the difference between someone finding reason to live when they felt they wanted to take their life. Every one of you matters. There are no nobody's in the world. Remove any one of you and thousands of lives are altered.

I am grateful for everyone in my life, for every single influence that has miraculously come to me and led me to where I am today. I have been fortunate, but there are so many who are less fortunate, who have not had as many people be the difference for them. We need to be that difference that helps someone go from a tiny wooden toothpick to a beautiful masterpiece of art.

The cool, wetness of spring is starting to dissipate into heat and abundant sunshine. Yes, summer is almost in full spring in Cache Valley. So far, I have been to a couple cook-outs, a couple campfires, played frisbee a few times, hosted some outdoor movies, been climbing, hiking, canoeing, played many games of bocce ball, improved my jumping serve playing volleyball, and, of course, I have run a good few miles. All in all, it is a great start to the summer. Next weekend is the first demolition derby, and only two weeks to Ragnar!

I don't have tons to say today, but here are some pictures from a recent hike up the beautiful Crimson Trail.

Mountain stream cascading towards the Logan River

Logan Canyon

Many gorgeous flowers along the trail.

Me being dramatic in a group photo.