Call of the Wild

Now this might seem strange to some of you reading this, but I enjoy the wild. As a kid I went to Conservation Camp and learned how to hunt, shoot guns, bows and arrows, learned how to survive in the woods, ate MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), and made shelters out of tarps... Needless to say it was great fun.

In school my favorite books were "Call of the Wild", and "Hatchet", both books about either a dog or a boy who knew nothing about the wild and ended up in certain circumstances where they either rise to the occasion or shy away from it and die. Both the dog (which I believe to be a metaphor for a man who has been pampered all his life) and the boy survive the great outdoors by themselves. They learn more about themselves then I think most of us ever do. Just like Tom Hanks in "Castaway" it's a testament to the human spirit and will. The power of the greatness that lies inside each one of us, if we choose to unleash it.

Now I lost that around... Um... 8th grade we'll say. Sound right, liking girls, getting involved in drama club. Surprisingly enough, I did not join drama for the girls, I did it to act. ANYWAY! I lost this need to be in the wild. Years later I met my wife to be Jenn Morgan and she took me to the state where she was from, a mythical land named Montana. Yup, visiting Great Falls once started to awake something inside of me. When we left, I missed it, the beauty, the "AHHH" of it all, the SPACE. In LA there isn't much space, heck in Vermont there isn't much space, all the mountains are so squished together.

All of a sudden I wanted to go hiking, camping, watching shows of Discovery about wilderness'. I still held on to that "I'm going to be a city boy" mentality, until we went to Yellowstone and then Glacier. I was set. I wanted adventure in my life, I wanted to see the wild in me. That's when I learned about the Bob Marshall Wilderness and it's--
--China Wall. It's a thirty mile hike to this amazingness, and it's been calling my name. There of course is a lot of work to prepare myself and my Mrs. for this journey, but we'll get there.

Along with this call to be wild, I have the urge to capture it all through the lens of a video camera, hence my video blog "Adventure Awaits". It's part of my passion. It's part of what makes me, me. The need to test myself, and get it on tape. I wonder if Bear Grylls feels that way?

To wrap this up, Jenn and I went around the other day just collecting footage of nature (birds, waterfalls, clouds, ect) And it was one of the best times I had. There is just something about nature that excites, and calms the soul. If I didn't live in Montana I wouldn't know about this side of me, that I truly enjoy. So without the wild I would not be whole.