ABOUT

Brett Ramseyer, Private Tour Guide @ Ridges

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau from Walden

In Thoreau's spirit of adventure, conservancy, and love of nature, I say, "Welcome to Ridges." The forests of Ridges rise on family property near Hart in the middle of Oceana County, Michigan. I disappear for hours into these woods nearly every day, an activity I have enjoyed since I was three years old. I would climb the ridges, wade in the streams, pick the flowers, and lie in the meadows.

Now that I retired from 25 years of teaching English and history at Hart High School I work all four seasons on this property clearing windstorm detritus, creating new trails, mowing, plowing snow, and now planning to share the natural and man assisted beauty of this property. I believe in the power of nature to heal, soothe, and care for us if we allow it to flourish.  I want to share my love and knowledge of this land with you.

I feel in my marrow that I belong to this land as much as it belongs to me. I've lived full time on this property for 44 of my 49 years, I am of this earth and will once again return to it. When I'm scattered across it I will know I faced the essential facts of life, learned, and lived. I will be eternally grateful because I choose to live deliberately.