When I was 14 or 15 I went on a camping trip with a church group. I brought two of my grandpa's horses.
We camped a bit under the snow line, and the second morning about half a dozen of us rode up into the snow to see a frozen lake. I vividly remember the ride back. Coming down the side of that mountain I looked out over the trees, smelled the saddle leather, the horse, and the smell of the wood-smoke from the camp fire... It's one of my most powerful childhood memories. In that moment I knew why some people chose to live like that a hundred years ago.