"You get out of life exactly what you put into it.  No more - no less" - Vince Lombardi

You always hear - 'experience is the best teacher.  So what does 40 years of hiking experience teach a Coffee Ridge Hiker?  We asked Tom.  Our chief field tester and consultant.  Tom is a 4 season - year round hiker.   And a 3 season hunter.

"I don't hike so much for health and fitness.  Honestly?  I hike because I have too.  If I go more than a week or two without really getting outdoors - I don't feel right.  I begin to feel out of balance.  Out of balance with myself.  Out of balance with the world.  Out of balance with God.  And that's really the simple reason I hike."

Tom says - "At about age 5 and a half.  Dad took us boys out for a walk in the woods.  Along the way - he taught us about poison ivy.  And poison oak.  Warned us about wild mushrooms.  Showed us what wild berries we could eat.  And which ones to leave alone.

Walking slowly up and down that ancient deer trail - Dad pointed out the trees.  Red oak, white oak and maple trees.  Red pine, white pine, tamarack and juniper.  Birch tree.  Poplar and aspen.

Somewhere on that trail.  We heard about the glaciers.  Granite boulders.  And the Canadian Shield.  We got lessons on identifying quartz and flint ( chert ) and sandstone.  Fossils.  Petrified wood.  Native copper.  Indian arrowheads and Indian burial mounds ( effigy mounds ).

I remember - chipmunks and squirrels everywhere.  White tailed deer were always just a little ways out of sight.  Fresh deer tracks and droppings preceded us.

We spotted lots of birds.  Crow.  Hawks and owls.  Redwing blackbirds.  Bluejays.  Cardinals, Baltimore orioles, robins and chickadees.  Kingfisher and bittern and great blue heron.  And I think we saw - or heard - a piliated woodpecker.  And kicked up a grouse or two.

We also learned the delicate art of walking across the tamarack swamp.  And how to drink water from a spring hole.  And eating watercress.  We learned some things about cattails and lily pads.  Leopard frogs & tadpoles.  Painted turtles and snapping turtles.  About water beatles.  Water strider and dragonfly.  And - we learned what to do if we got ourselves stuck in the mud (first - don't panic).

And - We learned how to deal with other things too.  Like mosquitoes.  Deer fly's.  Horse flies.  Bees, wasps, hornets and wood ticks.  And I'm pretty sure we also learned about skunks racoon possum and rabies.

I - we learned a lot that day.  Over forty years ago.  After that - we three kids were more or less turned loose!  Turned loose and free to explore.  And play.  And run around the woods.  And climb hills.  Go looking for arrow heads.  And fossils.  And petrefied wood.  Free to go tracking deer.  And spotting game and birds.

We mostly stayed away from the springholes - unless really thirsty.  Too tricky getting to them.  You couldn't be careless or impatient - or you got stuck in the mud.  But - we also knew how to get ourselves out of the mud.  And with our tennis shoes still atttached!

Well - We all survived childhood!  And just recently - Dad mentioned that long ago when we kids were little - he took us 3 boys for a walk in the woods.  Dad knew that piece of real estate.  He also knew it would be impossible to keep track of three small boys in that big awesome playground of a woods.  Dad said he purposely took us to the most dangerous places!  Like the swamp and springholes.  Knowing full well that we would find these natural 'kid trap' places on our own.  Well - he taught us what he could.  And trusted to Providence that that days common sense lessons would stick.  They did!