Speaking of Marriage

Nate was going through some old photos the other day and ran across the new ones posted below (I can't figure out how to post photos within a post, so until I do, you'll have to scroll). We took these photos on our honeymoon. We spent our honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, specifically in the mountains of the Banff and Jasper National Forests (by the way, that's where Benny's middle name comes from - our honeymoon - Benjamin Jasper Brown). The Jasper National Forest was the site of what was supposed to be a five-day, four-night hike. Neither of us had ever been out in the wild that long and we were excited to do it together.

Until we met up with the mosquitos. When we started our hike, we happened upon a nice couple who didn't speak English. We smiled and exchanged whatever pleasantries translated and then the guy started saying "BUG! BUG!" We smiled and waived and went on our merry way. Yes, there are bugs in the wild. Thank you very much man from somewhere else.

It wasn't until we arrived at our campsite (which is another adventure story for another day) that we realized why the foreign man had put so much emphasis on BUG! There were mosquitos everywhere. We wore long-sleeved everything, hats, etc. We couldn't keep our shoes off and had to wear mittens over our hands. We didn't spend much time outside of our tent because my face began to look like pepperoni pizza and then like one big red welt. We figured that the higher we climbed throughout the trip, the less we would have to deal with mosquitos.

Wrong. On our third night we stayed at a campsite that was even worse than the first night. We arrived at the site in the early afternoon, which meant that we had few options: 1) being that we hiked to pass time, and 2) being that we stayed in our tiny two-person tent until the morning. We decided to go with the latter (hey, we'd already been hiking for six hours with 30 pounds on our backs).

We woke up the next morning thinking that once we started on the trail our mosquito woes would be behind us for the day's hike. Wrong. Again. Hordes of mosquitos followed us up a pass. We were covered from head to toe in clothing, but the mosquitos swarmed around our faces. So, we hauled ass up the pass. We were in awful moods and just wanted to get out of the mess. Once we got to the top of the pass, the mosquitos disappeared and our moods lightened. We stopped for a break, removed the packs from our back, and decided to get naked. The pictures are a result of that break.

That day we were supposed to stay at our first campsite again. Once we got there we decided that we would rather hike all the way out than deal with mosquitos for another night. So, we ended up hiking 22 miles out - still with 30 pounds on our backs. What a honeymoon story, eh?