She Said (Is this for REAL) Then “Yes”

I was made in the outdoors, and for the outdoors. When I decided to hike the PCT, I had no clue that it would change my life.  It has changed me in several ways: self-confidence, meeting new friends but the biggest change, was to ask my girlfriend’s hand in marriage.  This is the story from the beginning. 

            Outside of Idyllwild I had run into a lot of snow and had to backtrack. My parents and Krista, my girlfriend, had come and stayed with me for a couple days there. After a nice relaxing weekend, my parents dropped me off in the desert on the other side so I could avoid all the snow.  On the drive down the hill to the desert, my mom asked me, “Do you miss Krista?” Of course I had missed her very much, then she had asked me, “When are you going to propose to her?” I had always thought I was too young. I feel like I gauged off of my parents, because when they got married they were 30, so I said I thought I was too young. My mom’s response was shocking to me, “No you are not too young,” and that was exactly what I needed to hear.

            Over the next couple of months when I was on and off the trail, my mom and I planned and designed a ring, in secrecy from my future fiancé. In fact I was very smooth about getting her ring size; I showed Krista some rings and said my mom was trying to figure out what ring to give her for her birthday.

            I was planning on proposing somewhere on the trail. For many months she had planned on joining me for my birthday, July 5, to do a two-week backpacking trip together. Now, with the proposal and ring, it adds a whole new dimension. I had imaged asking her somewhere incredible like the highest pass on the PCT, Forester Pass, or one of the most beautiful lakes I had been to before, Rae Lakes.  Forester Pass was my first choice but it would all depend if there were people on the pass or not.  So on July 7, we started our trip together where I had last left the trail, at Horseshoe Meadows. We were a few days into our backpacking trip and we got closer to the first potential spot. We started to see more and more people, we were traveling north on the PCT but the majority of people we saw were hiking south the JMT, which shares the trail with the PCT. Everyday we played a little game, “Count the People” because it was so entertaining to see how many other people we passed after being alone, well with each other. We were seeing between 30 and 40 people, (but one day 90 people) passing us going south. With this in mind, I had no idea if there would be people on Forester Pass, which meant it would have to happen on the spot.

            On July 11, we made it finally to the base of Forester Pass, which is where camped that night. We endured one of the scariest thunderstorms I had ever experienced in the backcountry. We were bundled up together inside the tent, talking and playing Blisters while the strike of lightening cracked and echoed around the bowl of mountains we were in.

The next morning, July 12, we packed up early, and headed up the pass, the pass is 13,200 ft. of elevation. We had camped at 12,500 ft., so we only had to go up 700 ft. that morning to the pass, but we started early because we had to do 11 miles that day, which at that point would be our longest day.  We were heading up the pass, which was really scary and steep. A couple times Krista asked to film with the Go Pro, because it was pretty intense, but the battery was low. I wanted to make sure there was enough battery for what, could potentially could happen at the top.      So we finally got to the top and thankfully there was no one there. I looked down the other side and saw that there were people coming but I knew that they wouldn’t get there for about 30 mins.  So I tried to set the camera up stealthily, after we had done our film for the pass, but I set down the camera for our “food and packs off break” she knew that it wasn’t off and she told me, and I had to turn it off in front of her, so I then had to go make a lot of noise and turn it back on and set it up with out her knowing.  I then turn around blocking the camera, walked over to her and embraced her. I told her that I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and that I knew that she was the one for a couple reasons but one because she has proved to me that she could keep up with me in the outdoors.

What happened next was a funny combination of events. When I reached into my pocket to try to pull out the ring in the box, my hand got stuck on the Velcro so it took me two attempts to get the ring. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.  I don’t actually remember saying any of this because I was nervous, but Krista does. I had been planning out a speech for her the whole trip but when it came down to it, I was anxious and I forgot everything I was going to say.  Her reaction was first dropping the snack bag she was carrying, and give me kiss. In my mind I don’t know what that means, yes or no, because she never answered. She was smiling and starting to cry with joy, “Is this for real, is this for real?” So I said yes, and then asked her, “Is that a yes?” Finally she said “Yes of course it’s a yes!” Then I told her that I just had gotten it all of film, and she went over the camera and showed that the altitude had made her fingers swollen and the ring didn’t fit her. Then after our special moment followed by photos and giggles, I made her walk eleven more miles.

So the PCT has changed my life. If it weren’t for the PCT I might not come to that decision probably till later, and not made a badass ring, designed around the elements of the earth.  I would have not hurt myself but with doing so I learned that I could push past the pain and push my body an extra 700 plus miles. I can now tell people yes I have hiked the PCT. I may have not hiked the whole thing, not yet, because it will be a work in progress, but I hiked enough of it to find the way of life for me. I hiked over 1,000 miles, which enough of it to make me a thru hiker. I hiked enough of the trail to find the one I want to spend my life with.