We may not hibernate like bears during the cold winter months, but the harsh winter chill and snow often find us in our modern dens, preoccupied with indoor activities.
But come Spring, we have a chance to re-connect with nature, and let it invigorate our spirit and body. Orange County in upstate New York has awe-inspiring scenery and, for nature lovers, staying indoors is not an option when there’s so much to experience.
Fred Harding runs The Hub Hikers hiking club. An administrator for the public computer center of the Port Jervis Library by day, he cannot imagine life without exploring the outdoors. He has been doing it with his three brothers since he was 7 years old, at a time before computers or video games.
“Our parents would give us sandwiches and water and send us into the woods to run around and play. We would leave in the morning and have our lunch in the woods, and we would be back in the afternoon,” he told Epoch Times.
“It was a totally different era,” he said explaining that he grew up in the country, surrounded by dairy farms, “so that’s what little boys did.”
And his parents weren’t unique. Harding mentioned that it was in the early 1950’s and most people didn’t even have a television so the kids played sports and spent their time outdoors.
Four Young Boys Make a Lot of Noise
He speaks with an air of calmness that turns to amusement at the mere suggestion that it might have been dangerous considering the wild animals that inhabit the Orange County forests. Black bears, coyotes, and even mountain lions come to mind.
Harding has always been around wildlife and, even as a young boy, there was no fear associated with wild animals. Unsurprisingly, he also emphasized what most nature-lovers know—that animals are more afraid of us than we are of them.
But as a young boy, Harding and his brothers were blissfully following their instincts, and since four young boys make a lot of noise as they walk through the forest, he said that animals would mostly run away from them.
If during those times he and his brothers ever had a harrowing experience, he didn’t say, but the fact that he remains an avid hiker is testimony to the fact that nature is a good and safe place to explore.
