Was it love at first sight?

This is a story of the first day Chuck and I ever met.

I had been going to Shadow Mountain Community Church for a while. I was part of a singles young adult group called Vantage Point. We had a young, fun and adventurous Pastor. He was always coordinating camping trips in Yosemite, backpacking trips through the Grand Canyon and day hikes in our own local mountains.

Well, on this special day in the history of Pam and Chuck, it was labor day and we were trying out a new trail near Julian. We met up at the church to carpool. There were probably around 20 of us going. I vaguely remember a new guy hanging out on the fringes.

**hmmph...whatevs!**

We climb into all our cars and head out to the trail. From the city it took about an hour. I had a small pickup truck at that time so I borrowed my moms car so that I could be a driver.

**Yeah, I'm a control freak like that.**

When we got to the trail head everyone started getting their stuff ready for the hike. It quickly became apparent that most of them did not bring water at all or else not enough. I was on a fasting diet at that time so I had over 2 gallons with me. One was frozen, meant to be left in the car for after the hike. The other one was dispersed amongst anyone who could find an empty container in all the cars.

**did anyone catch on to the fact that I was fasting and had no right to be giving up my water? I pay the consequences later!**

The trail was about 2 miles DOWN a canyon. There was supposedly a pool of water with a water fall at the bottom. There was not a tree in sight. It was blazing hot. We headed down.

When we got to the bottom(with no problems because going downhill is never where the problem is!) we did find the water. There was no waterfall. It was too late in the season for running water. The water in the pool was stagnant. It was GREEN! As in radiator fluid green. You know the color I'm talking about? People were jumping in and swimming in this water. Some of the guys from our group were jumping in too...including the skinny new guy.

I had taken my camcorder with me...you know, cause the girl with no calories in her system needed more junk to carry. My camcorder was one of those old clunky big ones. It was about the size of half a loaf of bread...but heavier. Everyone wanted me to shoot our guys jumping off the cliff walls into the green water. I actually have on film(somewhere) me saying quietly to myself "come on guy, jump already".

**hehe...I was refering to hubs...I didn't know his name yet**

The skinny guy was sure taking his time setting up his jump. I was getting tired of pointing the camera at him. I was a little grossed out that the guys would swim in that water.

After an hour or so, a few people in the group decided to start heading back up the trail. I could tell it was going to take me a while so I decided I needed to leave with them. I didn't get far before I knew I was in deep doodoo. I peeled off from this group so I could rest.

I was horrified when another group came up behind and passed me. I was not making good progress at all. At some point, someone took pity on me and offered to carry the camcorder up the hill for me.

I kept getting sicker and sicker and yet I could see the last of our group coming up the hill. This truly scared me. I didn't know if I could make it and I was afraid of what would happen if they simply passed me as all the others did. I would be alone.

Thank goodness, our fearless leader was in the last group. He was also the only other one to bring lots of water. He did not leave me alone...thank goodness. Somehow it came out that I had a bottle of water in my car so the other 2 people walking with us ran the rest of the way up this 2 mile trail to fetch it and bring it back down to us.

In the meantime, our progress up the hill was super slow. I would go 10 feet then drop to the ground. If there was a bush where I dropped I would roll under it as it was the only shade to be found. It was quite embarrassing but I was so sick I didn't even care. Poor Marc was so understanding.

Eventually, the water made it back down to us. It was ice cold and the best tasting water I ever had. We may have been about half way up at that point. Once I had the water I started to perk up quickly. The going was still slow but much faster then I had been going.

**I was not the only severely dehydrated one. I was the only one who got sick due to my lack of calories and water intake.**

Well, we made it to the top...finally. The plan was to go to Julian for dinner. So we did. The skinny new guy was completely off my radar.

**The only thing that may have put me on his radar was that I was the sick girl.**

I went home no more the wiser that I had met my future husband!

So the answer is...no, not love at first sight!

❤❤❤


P.S. I think this story needs a moral. The moral of this story is:
1. Don't go hiking when you are on a super low calorie diet...especially in the high heat.
2. If you do go hiking, don't share your precious water with all the idiots who were stupid enough not to bring their own!

The end!