My Mountain Trail

Starting From Scratch

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Wedding Pictures

I'm still working on the pictures from the wedding, but I have posted a few on Flickr. Click here to check them out.

Cataract Trail


For our honeymoon we stayed at the ranch a couple of extra days and then came home to the mountain. It took us all day on Tuesday to clean the ranch house, load all the stuff in the Jeep and camper, and then drive home.


The last few days we hung around here. We went to the beach. Rode our mountain bikes on the mountain, enjoyed the sunsets, grilled yummy food, etc. Yesterday we went for a hike on the Cataract Trail. I had never been down the trail to the waterfalls. It was really beautiful. And a great workout coming back up the mountain. Lori took the picture of me using the G9. I shot mostly with the Hasselblad, so we'll have to wait a while to see how those turned out.


Anyway, lots of fun and a fantastic trail. Oh yeah, a fantastic week too.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Trail Junctions and Wedding Bales

Over the last five years my mountain trail has crossed and re-crossed the trail of a very special person. I met Lori by chance at a triathlon/duathlon race in Bend, OR . After subsequent running, biking, and dinner dates in Mt. Tamalpais country, I knew our trails would join. At long last, that happened this weekend at a friend's ranch in Middletown, CA. Lori and I were married at about 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, November 1, 2008 in a hay barn!

Lori and Dan

We had planned to get married under the wisteria arbor in the yard at our friend's ranch house. It was a magical place. Despite perfect weather for a month leading up to our wedding, Winter set in and it started raining last Friday. We had three inches of rain over the weekend, so it wasn't just a little storm either. Anyway, scrambling for a backup plan, we decided to get married in the Hennessey barn on a neighboring ranch. It was loaded with hay, but otherwise pretty clean and dry. The only hitch was the very muddy road down to the barn. So, with three 4x4 SUVs and our Jeep we hauled the entire wedding party (no one was "just" an observer -- all had a role) down to the barn and we got hitched!

The whole adventure fit our personalities well. Afterwards we four-wheeled our way back to the ranch house for an amazing dinner put on by one of Lori's catering friends.

So now, Lori's and my trails have merged and my mountain trail includes my permanent companion and her dog. :-)

Cool!