The tale of our engagement hike, with pictures to prove it.

It started auspiciously - the sign at the trailhead stated that due to flooding in the area several footbridges had been swept away and that to ascend Table Mountain our party would need to "ford" a "fast moving stream" in at least three places. After a quick consultation, the Love/Reynolds + Gerhardstein team determined that we could (probably) hack it and pushed off at the timely hour of, uh, 11:00 am. Our goal was somewhere up there...at just over 11,000 feet.


We made excellent time, stopping to goof off between the bursts of all out hiking effort.

After we had "forded" the stream approximately 4 times (aka walked across on rocks and tree trunks) we stopped to eat lunch, and at this juncture, about 2/3 of the way up the trail, Joe and David decided that they had had enough, and turned back. Laurie, Katy and I pushed on.

After a couple miles, it started to thunder and rain and then hail. Rather than ascend the exposed, mile long ridge to the summit, we decided to wait out the storm. I know it looks sunny, and it was at times, but the thunder demons also threatened.

After a couple spells of waiting, the storm passed over and we were blessed with a weather window for the summit bid. We charged off, me first, Katy second, and Laurie third. The ridge to the summit was as exposed as exposed can be, but the wildflowers were gorgeous and the weather seemed to be holding. Upon reaching the summit, I snapped this shot of the ridge. The road to the trailhead is visible in the valley below.

I quickly fished the ring out of my backpack, and after a couple of lonely minutes, Ms. Katy Love appeared. YAY!

Heart pounding, face smiling. Is that a ring box in my pocket or am I just happy to see Katy? That is the Grand Teton and the Middle Teton behind me.

And then Laurie arrived! GO MAMA!

Laurie stayed around for about 1.5 minutes and then hightailed it down the mountain. Some oncoming clouds (and their noises) were making her anxious. I convinced Katy to enjoy the moment with me, and then I demanded that she marry me. I said "marry me" and I handed her the ring box (and accidentally a piece of tissue I had picked up along the trail and put in my pocket!). She was very surprised and didn't really know how to react. But in the end, she agreed that marrying would be a swell idea. We consummated our love by taking this picture (note the storm clouds in the background).

Then we got the hell off that summit and caught up with Laurie. It took several minutes of chit chat before we could summon the courage to tell Laurie that we were now engaged. But we did. And she cried. And it was quite touching. And then she wanted to take some pictures.

We continued down, with about a billion new topics of converstaion to keep us busy. I stopped to document the site of our engagement.

After a while though, with our hike approaching 12 miles, and having gained and lost about 4000 feet of elevation, we were tired and wanted dinner. We arrived at the car and I passed around the warm champagne (of beers)!

And that is the tale of our engagement hike. Cheers!