The hunt is over!

Josh tells everyone that I only said yes because he asked me to marry him on top of a mountain, and he could push me off if I said no. But here’s what I remember: I woke up from a doze as we were driving to our cabin in Linville, NC, Luke Combs playing on the Bose Speaker in the truck. Josh said that we were passing near Grandfather Mountain and asked if I wanted to try and hike it today. It was supposed to rain but he thought we had a two or three hour window to make it to McRae Peak and back. I perked up. We hadn’t planned anything for the first day of our trip and this sounded better than sitting around the cabin. When we made it to the trailhead parking lot dark clouds loomed in the valleys beyond Grandfather Mountain. People were running by getting into their cars and park staff warned on the trail being nasty and dangerous in the rain. The storm looked imposing and thunder rang through the mountains, sounding like it came from all around us. We decided to wait out the rain because radar made it look like the rain would be short lived. It poured so hard we couldn’t see the next car in the lot and lighting lit up the dramatic cloudscapes. But the rain stopped. The sky was suddenly clear as the rain clouds glided down the side of the mountain. We set off up the soaked trail, scrambling up rock and boulder paths and scaling ladders anchored to the cliff faces. As we ascended we were greeted by the lush green fabric of the landscape below and awed by the vastness and depths of the countryside from so high up. We finally found the last ladder to a massive granite boulder perched atop the mountain: McRae Peak. We scaled the last sheer bluff with a climbing rope bolted to the rock and sat and took in the views at 5845 ft. I turned to look at Josh and he whipped out a little box - with a ring inside. He hurriedly asked, “Will you marry me?” I broke into a giddy grin and said, “Yes!” We took the “easy” ladder-free trail back down and made it back to the truck just as it began to pour again. We’d been given just enough time.