I grew up on a farm in western Illinois. Our 160 acres was a combination of corn and bean fields, pasture, and woods. I always enjoyed walking the cow paths through the woods and pastures and did that more than anyone else in my family. There is virtually no public land in the area, and backpacking and camping never occurred to me back then. We had a big canvas tent that we set up in the yard about once a year, but I never slept in it overnight. After I moved to St. Louis, I happened to see a guidebook about area trails in a bookstore. The book mostly covered local parks and even city neighborhoods, but I found myself immediately gravitating to the longer and rougher trails. Then bought more guidebooks and did internet research to find more places to hike. I finally decided to start backpacking because of one-way trails that I could not hike in one day.

I think being on the farm had a lot to do with my enjoyment of walking/hiking. I remember as a kid seeing farms where the house and yard were completely surrounded by corn and bean fields, and thinking I would not want to live there with no nearby woods to walk in. I still think about that when I see those farms.