Written October 2019
This day, will be a day that I remember forever, and at this time, is the happiest day of my life! On this day, Norina and I became engaged! But let’s back up a little bit…as I said in the prior page, this wasn’t the original plan or day. When we had cancelled our Painted Hills trip, which was supposed to be 2 weeks after this, I needed to come up with another plan. I was between doing it on a hike with just the 2 of us, or somewhere with her family nearby. After some deliberation, I decided to go with the hiking route, since that was becoming our thing. I was planning on doing it the week after this though, based on the weather forecast. But a few days beforehand, the forecast was looking perfect for this weekend, and not so much for the next, so I asked Norina if she felt like going hiking this weekend, and so said sure! She of course had no idea what I had in store. Only that we were going to see some wildflowers in the gorge.
To try and beat the really high heat for the day, we took off pretty early in the morning. Packed up our day pack, which included a new addition this time around – a small tripod so we wouldn’t have to fumble around setting up our phones on rocks anymore! I timed this purchase for this moment to make sure I could capture our moment without worrying about the phone falling our anything…but Norina just figured it was for our hikes in general (which was true too). Oh, and there was the ring in my pocket, which I put in a small sunglasses bag, and not in the case, so it wouldn’t stand out.
Since Dog Mountain was becoming a very popular hike, we needed to get passes…but they had already run out online, so we needed to take a shuttle from a park and ride about 15 minutes away. We had a little trouble finding the place, looking around Skamania Lodge for a bit, but we eventually found it a little way down the road…probably getting there around 9ish. At this point, there was already a line of people waiting, so we probably waited 20 minutes or so for the next shuttle to pick us up. I forgot that it was Mother’s Day weekend, so that may have added to the popularity of the day. Plus, it was beautiful out.
Anyways, we finally got started around 10, and the hike definitely makes you start working right away, as you start right off going up a the steep trail. For the most part, it was all shady going up to the first viewpoint though, and here, we got to see the first of the wildflowers on the the mountain, and it was beautiful, especially with the backdrop of the Columbia River gorge. We first tested out our tripod here…and unfortunately, it was a failed test. After fumbling around with getting it set up right, we got in position…and it fell over. I was a bit nervous for later now…hopefully with a little more practice and more stable ground or branches, we could get it right later. For now though, someone helped us out and just took our pictures for us.
After admiring the view for a bit here, we continued on the trail, and back under the trees…where we were hit with a decision on the trail. The sign pointed to one direction being hard, and the other being harder….great! I was already tired and hungry…good thing we had some clementines to eat along the day though! We decided to only go the hard route…and man was it…not sure what the harder route looks like!
Once we got out of here though, it was an even more gorgeous site. So many wildflowers!! We were out in the sun now, but it was such a pretty sight out here, and Norina was loving it…so that made me happy! Tough hike…but at least a visual reward!
A little more hiking on the ridge, and we made it to another nice viewpoint, and here we saw my co-worker Max and his family coming back down the mountain, out for a Mother’s Day weekend hike. We were close to the top now though – and I was hungry and ready to propose…so I wasn’t in the mood to talk too much, so we chatted a bit then continued on our way up.
Not too far from the top now, Norina noticed that she had forgotten to restart her Strava from some point mid-hike when we took a break, and she was pretty upset about it because she wanted credit for this hard hike! I would’ve been sad about it too, but I needed to get her back in a happy mood before we got up top! So I did what I could to get her back in better spirits! Thankfully it didn’t take much. So just a bit more, and we were finally at the peak…I think it took us around 90 minutes or so…so actually it wasn’t that long…I think around 3 miles.. just steep!
First things first up here at the top though…I needed to eat! So we found a spot on the hill and proceeded to eat our packed subs. I was busy scarfing down my sub, but in the back of my mind, I was wondering where I would be able to propose. I was pretty crowded up here, and I really didn’t want to do it in front of people. After we finished eating, we took some pictures here, and also found a wild turkey just hanging out up at the top!
Now I needed to find the right spot. So I guided us to some different areas around the top here, under the guise of exploration of more views…but really, I just wanted to find a nice quiet spot for us (that also had a nice view). After going around a corner, I got what I wanted…a spot all to ourselves overlooking the river…it was perfect! So I asked Norina to sit out on below the trail on the hill, pretending that we would take a picture looking out into the gorge. I set up the tripod above us carefully, and turned on a new timelapse app that I had downloaded and would be trying out for real for the first time now. I set it up to take pictures every second to try and capture it all for us!
Ok…I was really nervous now…I made sure the ring was in my pocket…easily accessible…and approached her with my heart beating like crazy. When I finally got behind her, I knelt on a knee and asked her to turn around. The rest was a blur…as I fumbled through the words that I had prepared in my head over and over again beforehand….was tearing up….but eventually…I made it to the good part – presented to her the ring and asked for her hand in marriage…and I heard the only words I needed to hear…”Yes…of course!!”
Slideshow of Select Photos from the Proposal Timelapse
The rest of the hike was great…we were happy…engaged….going downhill! We talked about how she had no idea and was absolutely surprised…how I really didn’t that I was going to do it here until just a few days before…we took ring pictures…we laughed…it was probably our best return hike of any one we’ve ever done! And then funnily enough, Norina ran into someone she knew on the way down as well, so she got to be the first person that knew about our engagement!
And just like that…we were back at the trailhead…and shuttled back in a hot bus…but we were too happy to really care too much about that. Like I said above…best day of our lives to this point!
The Dating Life of Norina and Jonathan 