Hiking has been a huge part of my life since I was about 20. One year I spent almost every dollar I had on equipment and every Christmas present that year had something to do with camping. A few years later I was leading hiking trips for teenage students at a camp in Northern California. I always knew I would create an outdoors type candle but did not which route I wanted to take. Alabama runs rampant with Pine (loblolly, slash, longleaf, shortleaf, Virginia, spruce, all being native pines to Alabama) and Oak, so I was planning on creating a fragrance around these types of tree, until I hiked base camp at Mt Rainer.

The forests in the Pacific North West (Damn, that term used to be so rad. It used to represent a region with an ideal climate for an outdoors paradise before it became such a stupid hashtag for the amateur photographer who desperately wants in on whatever they think the hip PNW life could be.. This also goes for the blatant mockery of the Northwest (Im looking at you Socality Barbie) They are both robbing this incredible region of the heart and soul that imbeds itself in you upon seeing its dense forests and beautiful skylines. Forgive my rant) are full of a wide range of fragrances. We were on our way back to camp when I stopped the group and just sat there and we all sniffed around recognizing notes of wild mint, rosemary, fir, and so much more. I took notes in a notepad and got to work a few weeks later when I landed back in Alabama. 

Our forest candle is a culmination of the fragrances I took note of that day. Believe it or not that was also the first day I ever saw a bear in the wild. I suppose I had their blessing to create a candle that forces me back into that hiking trip.