They both met on the trail. Actually she was already out there. He had yet to start. All the things in her life had burned down around her and she was shoveling her way out of the wreckage despite the fact others were working against her. She was in the process of trying to rebuild and it seemed as though everybody else around her was trying and in some cases successfully thwarting her efforts.

He saw her out there rebuilding but had no idea what it was all about. Actually she wasn't so much trying to rebuild as she was trying to gather all her belongings, get them organized and move on. As he heard her talk about her trials, he certainly didn't know it then but he would soon be going through the same thing.