My love of nature started young. I was often outside climbing in, talking to the trees, and talking to the plants and animals. Going camping with my parents, we would drive into the most remote places our vehicle allowed, rarely seeing other people. More often than not, I would find myself hiking off trail with my dad. He always said he was taking a short cut. The short cut inevitably turned it to the steepest, hardest terrain and always took longer than the trail but was almost always much more fun. As well as much more challenging for a 6 year old to keep up with her 6’ 3” tall dad! * I didn’t see many camping trips during my younger adult life. Some summer weekend car camping in pay to use camp grounds and a few stints of camping in the desert for Burning man. Not the kind of camping in a location that felt like I belonged there. The mossy, pine scented forest held my heart all those years while I was a city dweller or living in other states that didn’t even have real forests.