Recently I was telling a friend how much I love the trails in Eagle River and the beauty of the Alaskan outdoors in general. I talked about how much I enjoyed walking last winter -- the crunching of the snow under my feet, the glittering snowflakes falling softly from the sky. He gave my outdoor exercise a label: "wilderness therapy." He said I had unknowingly found my own path of therapy and healing just by using the outdoors for exercise.