The other major adventure that has defined our relationship was our first backpacking trip. Only 12 miles one way, All Trails said. There would be water halfway, said the research I did. Boy did we get a shock.

We started bright and early in the morning and by the time we got to the halfway mark, we had already clocked just over 8 miles. This was when we knew that All Trails was a liar. On top of that, the spring at that point was gross and had not fully filled in for the season yet meaning no water fill up for us. This really should've been when we made the smart decision to not go any further and just camp there. But, as you can probably guess, we did not do that. We still had water and knew that there was a year round water source at our destination, so we pushed on.

We ran out of water around mile 12. Our bodies were breaking down and losing momentum with the constant uphill slog. It got to the point where we were very concerned for our safety. At about mile 15, I magically managed to hear running water that we scrambled down to and partially filled our bags with right as the sun was setting. We did the last two miles in the dark and when we finally made it to camp we were shivering so bad it was hard to function. We got water, ate food, and went straight to bed.

The next morning, we did the whole thing in reverse. We both cried when we saw our car at the end.

We say this was a defining trip for us, not necessarily for the physical things we went through, but because we made it through together and without fighting. We could've been at each other's throats for being tired, hungry, dehydrated, for planning the trip in the first place, and so many other things, but we weren't. We worked together. We did major problem solving. And we made it home still in a relationship. We figured, if we could make it through the stress of that, we could make it through most things and still come out the other side holding hands.

J&K

Here's a peek at our magical day!