I’ve always felt connected to nature. When I was only five, my mother would pack a lunch for me, and I would roam the fields and woods near my house in a small town in Massachusetts.

On my wanderings I noticed the colors of the leaves in the fall, the animal tracks in the snow in winter, the texture of the bark of the apple trees, and the changing patterns the clouds made in the sky. When nature was harmed, I cried.

When I was in fourth grade, the schoolyard of my elementary school was paved. I was shocked. How could the teachers expect us to play on the unforgiving black asphalt? The oak tree was trapped in a square of soil surrounded by tarmac. The lovely dirt yard was lost forever.

Across that yard I had galloped astride my imaginary horse exploring the Wild West. I had read about that fabled land in a series of biographies of people such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull.

I decided I would grow up to be like Jim Bridger and spend my life roaming the wilderness.

You can catch some of my childhood adventures in my book, In the Thrill of the Night. If you want to read about some of the real-life adventures I have today in the wilderness, visit, http://climber.org/roster/Debbie_Bulger.html