Steven bought the ring in March 2016. He knew that Tory was finishing up her Master’s program and was trying to juggle a tough semester and gearing up to switch departments at work. So he decided to wait a few months for her to finish school. In June, Steven started asking Tory if any days coming up worked for them to go on a hike together but with Tory switching shifts and Steven’s rotating work schedule no dates seemed to really work out. Finally, Steven got their work calendar out and made Tory choose a day that worked for both of them and put it on the calendar, she choose Monday, August 1^st.

That morning, Tory woke up tired due to having family over the day before but Steven insisted that they still go. They choose to go to Maryland Heights Trail that overlooks Harper’s Ferry, WV. It was about a 2 mile hike, on a hot summer day, in the middle of the afternoon so by the time they made it to the overlook they were both drenched in sweat. A few hikers were up there, including a mother with her child and she offered to snap a few pictures. Tory and Steven stayed a few minutes longer at that overlook and then moved to a different overlook a few feet away. They decided to sit down and take in the view, which is normal for them on hikes. They talked about the view, work and other normal topics for several minutes.

While they were sitting at the second overlook, Steven kept looking over his should at the one hiker that was left at the overlook mentioning that he wished she would leave. Tory didn’t think anything of it at first. They kept sitting and eventually Tory was ready to go and started getting up but Steven stopped her and said he wanted to stay a few minutes longer. At this point, Steven was looking over his should at the other hiker every 30 seconds or so. At one point, Steven was leaning in such a way that Tory saw a box shape in his right pant pocket and immediately knew why Steven wanted this hiker to leave! Luckily a minute or so later that hiker left. Steven and Tory stood up, Steven walked away from Tory back to the first overlook. Tory nervously asked “can I come too?” Steven directed her to the overlook and she faced the city, he then tapped her on the shoulder to turn around. When she turned around, Steven was on one knee and ask Tory to marry him! They were able to celebrate in private for 3 or 4 minutes prior to another group of hikers arriving. With the exception of the last few minutes, the proposal was a complete surprise to Tory. Afterwards, they called family and friends to tell them the good news and then went out to dinner to celebrate!