Growing up camping

My Mother used to take us camping every summer as we didn't have the money to go on other types of vacations. It was either visit relatives or camping is all I remember. But our camping was in the Sierras up near Grass Valley and I loved it. There was swimming and laying in the sun, hiking and when I got into high school there were boys. The summer that I started high school I had my first summer crush. We went camping at the Oregon Creek campground and I had met some girls my age or a couple of years older and we were swimming and hiking and it was the first year I was allowed to go to the "falls" which was about a half mile from camp up sttream. It was a place where all the kids hung out to get away and the local kids were always there. I was very shy back then (no, really!) and more into nature than anything else, but I wanted to go. So we hiked up and spent the afternoon there. It was a glorious day of hot sun, cold clear water and fun. I am not a great swimmer (that would come the next summer when I learned to surf) and so I was not diving off the rocks. Some local boys showed up in a bright yellow pickup truck.
There were four of them. But one set himself apart as a 6'2" giant with huge feet and a big grin. His name was Bill Billington. He worked at the lumbermill that was the biggest business there. He was a senior at the high school and going off to college in a year. Played foot ball and was very shy himself. He kept smiling as he cavorted with his friends in the water, but eventually his friends made their way to meet my new friends. We all hit it off and Bill and I found we loved nature and he offered to show me some of the local spots. The drove us back that afternoon and he met my Mom and explained that he would like to take us all to Blue hole swimming and then for a hike. The rest of the week we would meet there in the campground after he got off work at 3 and go for walks to the natural spring, to a meadow where we watched for wildlife, seeing deer, a fox, and a bear foraging. And then to Blue Hole for swimming. A wide space that was deep and dark and cold but calm and sandy on the bottom with a beach. A little hard to find but close to a fire road so we had no problem getting to it. 
I had stars in my eyes and he was able to talk to a girl for the first time. I didn't know it at the time but he had always had problems talking to girls. He found it easy because he loved the outdoors and most girls didn't. He talked of wanting to be a forest ranger, and going to college to be one. He wanted to go to all the National Parks and we talked of the ones I had seen and the ones we both wanted to. It was an innocent summer romance ending with a few kisses. But he opened my eyes to the natural beauty that lay at my feet there just outside of the campground. I found that if I stopped to look I would find the most amazing things very close to me. He taught me that in just the 10 days I knew him.
I cried so much when I had to leave, with promises to write. We never did. But he left a piece of himself with me in sharing that love of his surroundings. I began to read books by people like John Muir then. And I guess that is when I became an advocate for saving the planet. And when you explore I try only to leave my footprints.
So, now when I travel, I have to thank Bill Billington for leaving that impression on a 15 year old girl. I hope that he became a park ranger, as I think he would have inspired many kids to protect the nartural beauty around them, if nothing else show them how to appreciate it.