Someone once related a story to me about moving to a town in the Yukon Territory. He was driving along through this amazing scenery (that phrase is dull compared to what he was seeing) when he topped a peak and lay eyes on a scene so achingly beautiful, he cried.
I understood exactly what he felt because when I am in the woods or even driving through the woods or hills here in my own state, I am gripped with feelings just shy of that. It's a response Ive had since my earliest recollections. My family was always taking off on a Sunday to picnic somewhere woodsy. Once I even told my family I wanted to live in the woods and asked what would I do there to which I replied "I would just dwell". They laughed uproariously which strangely didn't bother me.
The PBS special "National Parks" has outlined the political as well as the human side of the formation of our national parks and I appreciate knowing the work and effort put into protecting them and the reasons these awesome lands were chosen for preservation- "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People". It made me want to pack a bag right now and take off to see each and every one of the parks.
One of the men they profiled during the show was Horace Kephart who settled in the Appalachian mountains and wrote accounts of the people who inhabited the region. I hope to find some of his books to read because the excepts from his books that were read on the special made me feel like he had written exactly what was in my heart when I am in the woods.

Toodles.
Time to wake the chillen.