Who Showed You the Way?

Bryce Bekar
12 minutes ago
3 min read

There’s a quiet moment that happens sometimes before the world starts asking things of you.

No phone. No noise. Just cold air in your lungs, or the outline of a mountain in early light, or the smell of wood smoke still clinging to your jacket. It’s not excitement. It’s not adrenaline. It’s something else. If you spend enough time outside, you know exactly the feeling I’m talking about.

That feeling is what Season 2 of the Wild Place Adventures podcast starts with.

This episode isn’t about gear, tags, trophies, or photos. Those are just the tools. Those are the things we do. They’re not the reason we do them.

For a long time now, the land hasn’t felt new—but it’s never felt old either. It still humbles me. It still teaches me. And it still has a way of stripping things down to what actually matters. Your ego, your excuses, your pretense—they don’t survive long out there. The land doesn’t care who you are or what you think you deserve. It just shows you what’s real.

Somewhere along the way, the outdoors stopped being recreation for me. It became a teacher. Not always a gentle one.

Injuries take longer to heal now. Hard trips hit harder than they used to. But even in the frustration, even in the cold, even in the discomfort, I’ve never wanted to be anywhere else. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just something I did for fun anymore. It was part of who I am.

At some point, you notice someone is watching—not in a strange way, but in a human way. Maybe it’s a kid. Maybe it’s someone new to the outdoors. Maybe it’s your own children. You realize they’re not just listening to what you say. They’re watching what you do. How you move. How you react when things go wrong. How you treat the land. How you treat other people.

The people who first took me outside never gave me speeches about values. They didn’t sit me down and explain ethics. They lived them. They showed them. That’s how real mentorship works. Quietly. Through actions. Through consistency. Through example.

The longer you spend on the land, the more you realize it isn’t about you. It never was. We don’t own these places. We borrow them. We get a short window of time here—and how we act during that time is what matters.

That’s especially true when kids are involved. They don’t learn respect from lectures. They learn it from watching how you move through the world. How you handle frustration. How you treat animals. How you talk about the land. How you act when no one is keeping score.

Actions don’t give you a second chance. That’s why mentorship matters. Not the formal, “let me teach you” kind. The quiet kind. The kind where someone is watching how you live, not just what you say.

This is what Wild Place Adventures is really about.

It’s not about pretending things are easy. It’s not about pretending we get it right all the time. It’s about being honest about the lessons the land teaches, the mistakes we make, and the responsibility that comes with loving wild places. Because loving them means protecting them. Protecting them means understanding them. And understanding them starts with respect.

So as we kick off Season 2, I’ll leave you with the same question I asked in the episode: