High Sierra Topix

How many of you have either met your wife/husband, long term girl/boy friend
while in the back country? If yes, where?
Has anyone here gotten engaged, married or had their honeymoon in a back country, or
know anybody who has? If yes, where was that special place for the two of you or them?

Well, does a honeymoon count? My wife and I spent ours at Rae Lakes. Leaving from the Onion Valley trailhead, we camped our first night along the shore of Kearsarge Lakes. On to Rae Lakes the next day, where we stayed for three nights; we had to convince the Ranger to let us, but astonishingly we were the only ones there at the time, so we argued there was no impact from our layover, and we saw he needed some company. We used the base camp to explore 60 Lakes Basin and the JMT route northward on dayhikes. Weather was perfect, and having come from our home at 7,000 ft in Western Colorado, we were already pretty comfortable with the altitude. Hey, what could me more perfect than to share a piece of heaven with the gal you love the most? Especially when it was her first time backpacking; she more than rose to the challenge, she enjoyed sharing this new experience! I even carried in a bottle of good cabernet sauvignon so we could toast our future. It was a perfect way to begin our new life together.
Mav, your queries are almost always intriguing; you can join my campfire anytime!

Hmmm. Not technically the back country...but how about this for a story?

When I think of the most romantic moments of my life, one always comes to mind: a camping trip with the woman who became my wife, in a secluded campground at 7000 feet near Grant's Grove in the High Sierra on Memorial Day weekend about 30 years ago. It was cold, and there was snow on the ground around the campground, but we found a site that was clear enough to pitch a tent.

We had stopped for a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Merced, and I had brought two half-bottles of Rose d’Anjou that I stuck into a snowbank while we set up camp. And once the tent was up, the sleeping bags and air mattresses installed, and a small campfire was burning brightly, we sat at the picnic table, just the two of us, eating lukewarm KFC, and drinking the perfectly chilled wine from plastic cups in the almost empty campground. And yes, it was really, really, romantic.

I've told this story before but I met my wife at the entrance station at Grant Grove. Our first date was the Rae Lakes Loop. We weren't married in the backcountry but were married about 100 yards from where we met. The reception/steak dinner was outside the fire dorm at Grant Grove and the wedding Cake was strawberry shortcake. The wedding was sometime in mid may but I can never remember the date. Two old girl friends showed up at our Honeymoon accomodations in Giant Forest. One of them took one of my favorite pics of Kathy and I as we watched the sunset on Beetle Rock. It is a good thing Kathy has a great sense of humor!

Mike

Wow

I'm amazed that there is kind of link between myself and balzaccom and timberline. Must be something in the water. It certainly can't be great minds if I'm part of the calculation.

Mike

Timberline wrote "Mav, your queries are almost always intriguing; you can join my campfire
anytime!", thanks Timberline.

We met on a blind date.

She was a counselor at a Girl Scout Camp, I was assigned to a nearby Guard Station. My coworker, Bruce, was trying to get a date with one of the other counselors, Dusty. She finally agreed if he found a date for her coworker and double dated. At first I demurred. I recently had a bad breakup with my previous girlfriend, and was not real interested in resuming the dating scene. I took the job at the remote guard station for that reason. But Bruce persisted (pestered) until I assented, mostly to get him to stop badgering me.

He never had a second date with Dusty. Patty and I got married 2 years later.

Although Judy is my no. 1 wilderness partner we met at sea level at a dance party, but I did propose to her after a dayhike with her to Desolation (probably over fish frying on the stove top).

As related below on the "how we got started" thread, the High Sierra did in fact bring my cousin and a good friend together for their first "date" and they have been married for many years. This was in summer of 1981 and I was all in a lather because I had finally found the first girl who ever said 'yes' to going on a backpacking trip with me. There was only one catch: her parents wouldn't allow her to go on the trip with me unless another couple went along. She had this worked out: her cousin would go and a college friend of mine would go, too. This was fine until with two days to go, the girl I'm taking says the plan has hit a snag because her cousin's parents won't let HER go, so the trip was dead in the water. Big bummer. Quick improv was required. I could think of another girl to replace her cousin but this might lead to me getting killed---not an option. Then I remembered that my cousin, several years older than me, had gone on family trips years ago and had been a very strong hiker. Perhaps she would be a good sport and bail me out. I hadn't talked to her in years but I called her up and explained the situation. She did in fact consent to go on this trip on 2 days notice. The trip was a backpack to Treasure Lakes (Little Lakes Valley) with a climb of Mt. Dade. It went off without a hitch. I was totally smitten with the girl I took, but the feeling wasn't so mutual. My friend was totally smitten with my cousin, but I don't think she was really that interested. Some serious perseverance on the part of my friend eventually worked, and they were married a few years later (they now have college aged kids). One last postscript to this story is that sometime in the the mid 80's my friend goes to work for a firm in Palo Alto and finds that one of the geologists working there is none other than the girl that wasn't allowed to go on the Mt Dade trip.

QUOTE: "I'm amazed that there is kind of link between myself and balzaccom and timberline. Must be something in the water. It certainly can't be great minds if I'm part of the calculation."

Well, maybe not great minds, but great places. When we take people we love to the the places we love, good things happen!

I attended a wedding on the very top of Mt Shasta. In fact the only reason I was invited to the wedding (I had never met the bride) was that a fellow who was a friend of hers knew I was a strong climber and they wanted to make sure they had a few people up there for the ceremony. Thirty of us camped at Helen Lake. Fifteen of us started out at dawn. In the early cold, about a thousand feet higher, I warmed the bride's sister's feet on my belly! Wedding guests were dropping like flies. Near the top we ran into a newspaper crew- they were doing a feature story on some corporate outdoor program and found our story a lot more interesting! A handfull of us made it to the top, including the bride's sister who not only never climbed a mountain, but never had set foot on snow before! The bride and groom hunkered behind a rock and put on their wedding clothes - tux and long white dress. The bride stood in crampons, ice-axe and skirt of dress blowing horizontally in the wind. We uncorked the champagne. I recall only one other guest and I imbibed. The photo of bride and groom was featured on the sports page of the Sacramento Bee. We all ran and slid down the mountain to get to the 5PM reception at McCloud. Needless to say, all of us who made it to the top were snoozing in the corners while other guests danced the night away.