"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
- John Muir
I suppose I can speak for everyone here at Fontenelle Axe Restoration when I say that I never feel as alive, as aware of my place, significance, purpose, or humility, as I do when surrounded by the vast beauty of nature. Living in a city, even a typical midsized Midwestern city as Des Moines or Omaha, it is all too easy to find comfort in our rituals: morning commutes, work, meals, chores, end of night drink, and repeat. But deep within all of us, whether we're aware of it or not, is a primal urge to ditch our routine, to go back to our ancestral homes, to get outdoors and escape ourselves, to tear down the walls that surround us and shelter us and discover the true comfort that only nature provides. Our houses and our paved roads tell us that we have conquered nature, that we are the designers and the masters. But only once we allow ourselves to be surrounded by the ancient trees of a sprawling forest or surrounded by the cliffs of a mountain valley do we shatter our illusions of mastery. We are small, finite, powerless, and humble. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the only truth that matters, and it's totally awesome.
It is this realization that prods the crew at Fontenelle Axe Restoration to take an annual trip, an excursion that resets the soul and cleanses the urban palate. Last year we hiked the unassuming yet beautiful Nebraskan Northeast along the powerful banks of the Missouri River. The year before that, we crossed the buffalo plains and camped the breathtaking back country of the South Dakotan Badlands. This year, we shadowed the footsteps of our pioneering ancestors, crossed through the gateway to the west, and followed our Manifest Destiny to the great land of Northern California.
In the next few posts, we'll be sharing some of our favorite parts of the westward journey. Stay tuned.
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