pioneers were lonely people, out there on the edge, forging forth, discovering, exploring, trying out new places, plants, animals, wondering what works and doesn't, and missing out on the railroads, the towns with general stores and saloons, the parades and dances. you don't get those things when you're first. You get there, and either you move on, or maybe you do get to experience all the stuff that follows from a pathfinder, all the people that found the path, but then, you're no longer a pathfinder, are you. but to have been there 5 years ago, and seeing others come to it, now, and actually thinking if I had stuck with it, it might be me teaching them now, but that's 5 years of what ifs.