We all fall in love at sometime in our lives. With a person, or a place or a thing. We might have called it noun love, but a name like that takes the romance out of the word love.
Sally and I have been blessed with friends that have stayed with their partners over the years, who genuinely care for each other and who strive to keep a little or a lot of romance in their relationship.
We have also been blessed with nearly 40 years together. We understand each other; finding ourselves thinking the same things at the same times and finishing each other's sentences. But we also discover new things about each other, too. We find romance even after all these years. Nothing spices a relationship like being apart and when Sally was in Yosemite two summers ago we realized how much we depend on, care and enjoy each other's company.
But romance can cover the other aspects of a noun, a place. Our jump forward on the trail 180 miles has brought us to place we both love, the Sierra. It started today as we left Kennedy Meadows and walked among pine trees, a flowing stream nearby, a cool breeze blowing and bright sunshine illuminating every nook and cranny. We now have 250 miles of trail in front of us to cover in the next 30 days as we walk from Kennedy Meadows to Tuolumne Meadows, or about ten miles each day with some zero days thrown in. We both breathed a sigh of relief tonight as we found a grassy meadow to camp in with a view of craggy peaks after hiking through meadows and timber most of the day. At 8000' we expect to see frost in the morning as it is cooling rapidly tonight.
There is romance on the trail with the couples we meet as well. Horizon and Backup have a wedding planned for August of next summer. We enjoyed their company while we shared the trail in April and it was fun to be with them again at Kennedy Meadows. They hike much faster than we do, so we know they will pass us again in the next day or so.
Today we met Short Step and Too Close, a couple that met while counselors at a zip line camp in Alaska. Too Close employed the help of Scout (the man that picked us up in San Diego and got us to the trail head monument at the border) to help him set up a marriage proposal event at the Mexican/California border-the southern monument-to sweep Short Step off her feet. It must have worked, because they have arranged for a Washington ordained friend to marry them at the Canadian/Washington border-the northern monument in October. The monument is 7 miles from Manning Provincial Park in Canada, the closest road so a repeat of the ceremony for family and friends will take place the next day at the park. It will be a five month, 2650 mile walking engagement. Both Sally and I were very impressed by both Short Step and Too Close-very sweet kids.
Speaking of Scout, he commissioned a gold ring with a relief of the two monuments and various prominent mountains along the trail for Frodo, his wife of thirty years for their thirtieth anniversary. He presented it to Frodo at the monument and it is the source of her trail name as she bore the ring the entire distance.
With only a month left I am finding a feeling of loss as if our journey is about to end when in many respects it is just beginning as we enter our beloved Sierras. Where most people I know would die for a month long hike it now seems too short. I will do my best to stretch the time out as long as possible, but, like any love affair, they always go by too quickly and end too soon.
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