There and back again: A Cross-continental Dating Service

Towards the end of her first season at Bryce, Kate was offered a job to stay and work as a field technician and travel all over the country to document night sky quality. Hau was offered a job in the Florida Keys for the winter. Hau was offered the job only a week before he had to be in Key West for training. So he had to leave real quick.

Thus began two years of exciting and tumultuous times. Some of the highlights of these times are as follows:

Kate visits many National Parks, climbs to the high points within, and takes pictures of stars. Here she is measuring wind speed before starting the camera.

Hau approaches thickets of invasive trees with a handsaw. Shown here is a Brazilian Pepper tree, which can give a person a mighty rash.

Kate sees lots of snow fall at Bryce in the winter. This is the view from her bedroom window.

Hau plays beach volleyball... in December.

Hau returns to Utah and works at Bryce with Kate in summer 2007. He works at removing invasive species from the park. Here he is eating a weed and carrying all his equipment.

Some of Kate's family came to visit at Bryce that summer.

Hau and Kate bought a house in Teasdale!

Hau returns to Florida in Fall 2007 to control more weeds. He also enjoys some nice weather. Here he is swimming in the Caribbean.

Kate spends a lot of time turning
<-THIS
                        into
                                            THIS->

with a snow shovel.

Hau shakes his fist at feral Key West chickens.

Kate moves to Fort Collins, CO for her job, where she spends a few months working. She also rode her bike in the Tour de Fat!

Hau moves into the house in Teasdale and goes back to working at Capitol Reef National Park. Kate traverses the Rockies to come home whenever she can for a few days and they hike together.

They meet up in Moab while Kate has a few days off from field work she is doing there. They hike in Canyonlands National Park.










Soon after the Moab meetup, Hau is offered a permanent, year-round job managing a new field station set in Capitol Reef National Park and working for the university that runs it. Kate decides to resign her job in Ft. Collins to move back. In November 2008, she does just that. Hau and Kate are living in the same place for the first time!

Meeting of Monoceroses

Every year, Bryce Canyon National Park holds an Astronomy Festival, where thousands of visitors come to enjoy various astronomy related activities. After working a rigorous schedule during the festival, park rangers get a much needed three day weekend. Having just interacted with thousands of people and talking non-stop to them, Kate decided she was due for some solitary time. A friend mentioned a nice hike in Capitol Reef National Park, called Upper Muley Twist Canyon. Kate set out to visit the main part of Capitol Reef for an evening before traveling to the canyon.

Ranger Kate at Bryce Canyon National Park.

The drive was/is long and incredible.

 Kate drove into the park, secured a campsite for the night and walked over to the visitor center. There, behind the desk, stood this person:








Ranger Hau interpreting the historic schoolhouse at Capitol Reef National Park. Not the visitor center, but you get the idea.







They chatted, laughed and talked about hiking. 
Hau was thinking, "oh, who IS this cute girl with the dreadlocks and the red shirt?" 
Kate was thinking "Does this guy ALWAYS hit on all the hikers who come in to get back-country permits? I like his smile."
Hau discovered that Kate worked at the neighboring park. Kate discovered that Hau had an interest to do the hike with her, if only she'd wait a day until his day off. Kate nicely declined, still interested in completing the hike herself.

The back-country camping permit Hau issued to Kate. Luckily, Kate rarely cleans out her car and so she found this in the trunk a year or so later. It is now framed as a relic of their relationship and as a record of the day they met.

That night, Hau was conducting an evening program about Uranium exploration at Capitol Reef in the 1950s. Kate was the first to arrive. During a skit that was demonstrated how radiation was discovered, Hau gave Kate the role of 'mystery element.' It turns out, she was radioactive!

Hau reading off the weather forecast before conducting his evening program.

The next day, Kate got up early and packed her things in preparation for her solo hike. She drove down the east side of the Waterpocket Fold, up the Burr Trail switchbacks and up to the trailhead.

A view of the east slope of the Waterpocket Fold.

Burr Trail switchbacks from the top.

Kate strapped on her pack and started walking. It was then that a strange thing happened. She began thinking about Hau's offer to do the hike together. She also heard her friend, Albert, in her head saying over and over again, "Kate, don't hike alone!" (Albert had actually said this to her after a solo trip into the Rincon Mtns outside Tucson) After a few hundred yards, Kate turned around and walked back to her car. She drove back to the visitor center. She knew Hau was giving a geology talk at a certain time and she planned to meet him.

Kate walked into the visitor center and saw Hau giving his geology presentation. They made eye contact from across the room. After the talk, they met up and made a plan for the hike the next day. Hau cooked Kate dinner. They looked at stars. They had a very nice hike.

As the summer continued, they drove the highway in between Bryce and Capitol Reef, meeting each other on their shared day off. They did many lovely hikes together. They decided they liked each other.

Hau and Kate a few weeks after they met, hiking in Horseshoe Canyon.

The Unicorn

 Kate's love of Mysticalus monoceros started at a young age. She surrounded herself by unicorns as soon as she could make the choice to do so. As an adult, Kate has not altogether shaken her association with the mystical beasts, nor does she want to.

Exhibit A: Proof of early unicorn interest.

Kate was born December 2, 1981 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After a short stay in the hospital, she moved to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, where she spent most of her first 18 years.

Kate at four months.

Kate in 1st grade.

Over the course of her formative years, Kate became involved in various activities...

Kate and her cousins Erin and Sean at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Kate and her sister, Kellie dressed fancy for a Girl Scout function. Note the iconic cow skull on Kate's shirt.

Flying a Kite.

In the far left, Kate can be seen in this picture of her first Astronomy class, in high school.

Becoming a broody teenager.

Kate always had a fascination with maps and learning about new places. She had the urge to go West. So, she did.

Kate and her mom in Tucson, AZ.

Kate decided to attend college at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, AZ. She saw lots of cactus and eventually acclimated to the heat. She studied Astronomy and Anthropology and did a lot of hiking.

Kate with her dad and Rach at her college graduation.

After graduating and a lot of wondering about what was next, Kate got a job as a Park Ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park. She enjoyed introducing hundreds of visitors to the splendors of the dark night skies of southern Utah. She came to know high plateaus and the inexhaustible desert canyons of the Colorado Plateau. And, one day, a weekend hiking trip took her over the mountain to Capitol Reef National Park...

The Narwhal

When Hau worked with inner city kids, it quickly became apparent that his usual name was too disruptive to the kids. He then went by the alternative, "Fontaine." The staff at the program then realized THAT name was too disruptive to the staff. A compromise was reached, and Hau was thenceforth known as "The Narwhal."









Hau, born March 13, 1970 in Saigon, Vietnam, came to the US in 1975 with his family. Hau's parents and two brothers, along with many members of his extended family settled in Bakersfield, CA, where he grew up.

Young Hau, artistically rendered by older Hau.

Growing up, Hau developed a taste for many of the finer things, such as chess.

Hau's school ID. He won a trophy for chess in the 4th grade!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hau attended college at UC Davis, to study engineering, of all things. It was during that time that he began to dapple in art and the outdoors.

 

 

 College Hau

After college, Hau painted a bunch of pictures while he searched all over for a job as an engineer. Realizing he wasn't going to find one, he embarked on a many year journey into the lifestyle of seasonal work. Some of the things he did was:

• Work as a wilderness field guide at Manice Education Center (Berkshires) and Aspen Achievement Academy (Loa, UT).
• Pruned trees for the city of Boston.
• Managed a youth hostel in Nantucket.
• Got lost on a long hike in Hawaii, where he was volunteering for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
• Tracked predatory birds in Belize.
• Got a job as a Park Ranger at Capitol Reef National Park (good move)

 

 Check out that jeans jacket!

Rowing while visiting some friends in Washington.

 

 

 

 

 Riding a recumbent bike!?

 

Hau started working at Capitol Reef in 2001.

A bunch of Rangers out for a hike.

First Seasonal training, when they hiked Lower Muley Twist Canyon!

Hau attending a Hawaiian dinner at the Teasdale Cultural Hall.

Little did Hau know what his choice to hang around Capitol Reef would bring...