Why do we go to the woods?

loug

loug

Joined
Feb 5, 2007
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283
From another board, for what reason(s) do you like going into the woods/bush)?

Once I saw two mounted police going through the city. The horses started to get spooked, too much noise and too many cars, people etc. So the riders backed them into the overhang of a driveway in a building, where the garage comes to ground level. They sat there for a while, the horses calmed down then they went on their way. Sometimes I get to feeling like one of these horses. The woods is my garage overhang.
 
It gives me a peaceful feeling that I can get few other places.Helps me re-charge and relax.
 
I like the garage overhang analogy. I work in a high-stress, high-speed profession. My wife (when she was my girlfriend) was with me during one of my most stressed-out times, when it had gotten so bad that my mental state was in a constant foul mood, stressed and mean. That was when she went for her first hike with me of more than a quick mile or two in the woods. As soon as we could no longer hear cars, we were out range for most day-hikers, and were breaking through the trees on the top of the first ridge...she saw the blood pressure drop, the batteries recharge, and the smile that comes from getting away from it all, and back to what matters.
 
smokelaw1 said:
I like the garage overhang analogy. I work in a high-stress, high-speed profession. My wife (when she was my girlfriend) was with me during one of my most stressed-out times, when it had gotten so bad that my mental state was in a constant foul mood, stressed and mean. .
Click to expand...

Yep, been there done that. One of the reasons I'm not married anymore.
 
To escape from the concrete. I don't know how else to say it.
 
To be close to the creation....and not man's fully paved and digital hi-def version.
 
The woods simply feels like home. It is an environment that I am familiar with, and feel safe in. I am very uncomfortable around crowds of people, and urban settings are not something I am familiar with.
 
I also go into the woods to escape the modern world. What I mean is that I try to learn skills dead to modern civilization. Trapping, bushcraft, blacksmithing, furnituremaking, etc. Its about self reliance.
 
I go into the woods because its my playground, It lets me do as a please as long as i respect it. It also gets me away form the modern world and its ignorance. Nothing bothers me more when I'm out side in my back yard starting a fire with my bow-drill, and the neighbours give me that cow staring at an on coming train look. But if i was in the woods and some hikers came by while doing the same thing, they would be interested it what I'm doing, and not think I'm a moron for not just using a lighter.
 
It isn't natural for me to live, where nature isn't. I lose my way spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. A visit to GODs creation brings me back home again, where I can rejuvinate. For many, that's a city park, a hiking area or maybe even a forest, it seems to give us what we need to go on for another short stay in the concrete world of the cave dwellers.

We are in the process of a move, from the country, where I could re-energize with a short walk through the small village we lived in. Now, we live in a city, but our backyard and the greenbelt that it opens up into, is awesome and is just what the doc ordered for this woodsman.

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Nice pic Longbow. Did you sneak up on those deer and get a pic before they knew you were there?! Good stuff.
 
A lot of reasons for me. The most improtant is that's where I feel really at home and that's because of the second reason, God. I'm a religious man and to me there is nothing as pure and beautiful and as close to God as His perfectly created natural world. There is no place that I feel closer to Him than the forest. It's like the old hymn "This is my Father's World;" there's also no other place that I feel so at peace.

Sorry if I got too philisophical.
 
The woods is one of the only places you can find true solitude. I love my job and I love my wife, but I also need to be alone. there's no phone, no computer, no kids just me and God's creation. Good for the soul.
 
To rip off a quote from the Hawbaker's trapping supply catalog- "If you're lucky enough to be in the woods, you're lucky enough." That pretty much sums it up for me.
 
I believe that there is a hidden flow or rythym to life...Most people are unaware or have lost it through thier apiration to dominate...I feel like the only way I can experience it is to get back to where it is strongest....But that's just me and I'm wierd
 
Couple of reasons.

-Solitude and peacefulness that cannot be attained in the city.
-Being closer to a natural habitat not yet defiled by modern man, the former of which has been my dream home since I was a kid growing up in one of Oklahoma's biggest cities (Tulsa).
-I prefer studying animals, plants and the patterns of the natural world more than I do cars, modern architecture and the like.
-It helps me to develop the mental and physical skills I'll need to one day live in the woods, having no childhood experience to go on.
-Lastly, it just feels like the right place to be, every time I go there.
 
I think its something thats hardwired into us. A need to go back to the woods now and then to "re-charge".

Look at any bunch of suburban kids. There may be a very nice playground right there, but look at how many, and how often they will go play in the woods, or just go explore. Especially if there is a creek to play in. If there is no woods, then they will get on their bikes and go where ther is some. Its something in our DNA.

When we enter adulthood, and our jobs take us to live in a city, we'll spend big bucks to go on a backpacking vacation someplace. Look how crowded campgrounds get in national parks.

Man has walked this earth for a million years, but civilization is only 5 or 6 thousand years. Deep down inside man has not forgoten the cave, and the hunt. You can't shake 500,000 thousand years of hunter-gatherer evolution in just a couple thousand. Look at how at night people love to sit by a campfire and stare at it. Go on a picnic and watch people behave. The women (gatherers) will set up the checkered cloth and set up the stuff out of the basket, the men will go fish in the river or lake, the kids will go play in the creek to catch crayfish.

I really believe 99% of human behavior can be explained by the hunter-gatherer therory. We just can't help it.
 
Because deep inside our souls we know our ancestors should have never left them to begin with......

Read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.
 
WHen I read threads like this it makes me realize that I'm not alone in the world...Thanks guys.
 
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