Beautiful Interruption + #MyPostMonday Curating The Week's Best Original Content

Today my husband and I took the longest hike I've taken this summer! I hiked 9 miles total and I wasn't initially completely on board with it. But knowing how excited he is when I go with him and seeing the effort he went to in order to make sure that I would definitely be with him this morning as he carefully woke me up at 5 am, was something I couldn't turn down. (He even made me breakfast!)

We got to the trailhead at around 7 a.m. and due to it being MONDAY, no one was around. The destination was Lake Desolation. It doesn't sound too inviting, does it? Right now I'm suffering from a few maladies, all on my left side. The one that was bothering me today was my left achilles tendon. It has been injured in the past and has visible scar tissue built up. I've been doing some H.I.I.T. lately and my achilles doesn't like it. 

So we started out, with me baby-ing my poor achilles and not really sure what to expect, since I'd never been to Desolation Lake before. I was surprised that this was one of the prettiest and well kept trails I've been on. Sure, there were a few steep parts, but nothing I couldn't get up using some care and caution. 

We walked virtually the entire 4.5 miles to the lake without seeing a soul, until right at the end. There were 5 hikers that came up behind us and caught up to us right as we got to the lake. If you have been to the lakes in either Little or Big Cottonwood Canyons, this lake is a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. But a 5 is gorgeous in comparison to most lakes. It's just that the alpine lakes here in the canyons are so beautiful and pristine and so spectacularly gorgeous. 

Seeing this lake for the first time, I could see that the extremely dry winter had taken its toll and the water level was way down. But "desolation" is not a word I would use to describe this lake. It was still absolutely beautiful! 

In another effort to keep our hikes fun for both of us, my husband got us a set of two-way radios to keep us connected, even if he wanted to hike up even further and summit a peak, which is not something I will be doing any time soon. He left me at the lake and we communicated through the radios for the rest of the time. 

Desolation Lake

This turned out to be one of the most enjoyable hikes I've had yet. There were a variety of reasons that made it so fun, but how tragic if I had rolled over and said that I didn't want to go this morning! I could have used any number of reasons to NOT go--my achilles was bothering me, I have so much to do before school starts up again, I've already been on the minimum number of hikes I said I would do this summer, I have goals that need to be met, etc. etc. 

But I know that interruptions happen, and this interruption happened to be a beautiful one. I learned that goals can still be met, even though they might happen in a different order than you originally planned!

Image - Betsy Kasper

Today is "My Post Monday!", a curation of the week's best original content. It's all about posts from Crafts to Camping, Wellness to Wealth, Fashion to Food, and whatever else is on the brain!  I  open up with a post of my own and then follow it up with a linky of the week's top original blog posts! It's all about what the writer thinks, believes, and knows--in other words, they are active, writing blogs. If I happen to find a great original, non-sponsored post, I'll link it up and share it with you here and on Twitter via the #MyPostMonday hashtag!  I can miss some amazing posts, but I don't want to!  So, in addition, if you'd like to link up yourself, you can do that too!  I'll visit your site, comment, promote and publicize(Affiliate links welcome)