it's a love story

JESSICA'S VERSION Jessica crawled out of her tent one morning after sleeping on the patio of the infamous “hikertown”. This is a creepy little hostel in the desert where PCT hikers recharge and catch bed bugs before tackling the notoriously hot and dry aqueduct section of the PCT. Jessica and her hiking partner had rolled in late, hitchhiking in with a couple of trail runners, who’d also bought her an ungodly amount of junk food. Alden was sitting at the table not far from where she’d haphazardly pitched her tent, enjoying the pancakes and coffee provided by the hostel. She noted he was the first attractive man she’d seen on trail and offered him her leftover chili fries from the night before. He noted she seemed to be part of a cute lesbian couple, and ate the questionable chili fries. They became trail friends for the next hundred miles. Later, they became trail lovers for the next two thousand. ALDEN'S VERSION When I first saw Jessica Lin Way she was emerging from a dusty backpacking tent, pitched outside a dusty hostel, somewhere on the western edge of the dusty Mojave desert. She was followed closely in emergence by her hiking partner Melanie, so naturally I assumed she was a lesbian, and went on with my afternoon. Later that day, as hikers conversed around the common table, she proffered some leftover fries, and I eagerly accepted the free calories. As the conversation flowed amongst the burnout hiker trash gathered around the table, I slowly began to realize that this one was not like the others. She was 29 years old (I was a mere boy of 25 at the time), and she had worked as a humanitarian in war zones like Iraq and Lebanon, she was a fan of such literary works as The Road by Cormac McCarthy and she didn’t reek of marijuana or have Twinkie wrappers falling out of her backpack. I was intrigued. Along the next segment of trail we grew closer. And then, quite suddenly, we were in love. We summited Mt. Whitney together, braved the rest of the Sierras side by side, and spent countless nights splayed out like homeless vagabonds together under the unadulterated backcountry sky. Long Story Short: Falling in love in the high country will alter your brain chemistry permanently. As such, Alden and Jessica have found themselves to be irreparably bonded and are pleased to invite you to their wedding.