Waterfalls make a great object for outdoor exploration. If there are hills or mountains and rivers, there are probably waterfalls. I written about several in the eMagazine including: Sun Creek Waterfalls Vidae Falls Plaikni Falls Stuart Falls These are all in or near Crater Lake National Park, but you don’t need a National Park to […]
Many of us need an excuse to get outdoors and be active and many times that excuse needs to be altruistic. Sometimes the altruistic motive is all it takes. Perhaps the opportunity to volunteer to clear a trail on National Trails Day or help with some other kind of project on National Public Lands Day […]
When I was a kid I loved to find unusual things wherever I explored. I think I found my first fossil near Wyalusing State Park at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers in the southwest corner of Wisconsin. It was a rock with many snails and other small water creatures peeking out. Most interestingly, I found […]
By “recreational foraging” I don’t mean looking around for recreational activities, but rather foraging for food on public lands as a recreational pursuit. A lot of people wonder what’s the point of walking in the woods to see the scenery, it just seems a waste of time to them. They need another sort of motivation. […]
Basis of The Isaac Walton League As the author of The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton’s (1594-1683) name is synonymous with fishing. He thus became the perfect namesake for The Isaac Walton League, an association originally formed to preserve fishing opportunities for future generations. The group was founded in Chicago in 1922 and by 1924 had […]
The East Coast Greenway Instead of a wilderness trail, how about an urban trail. Not just a small trail either. How about one that stretches all the way from Key West, Florida, to Calais, Maine, at the Canadian border – 2,900 miles. That’s the idea that was born in 1991 and is growing to become the East […]
To do their thing, explorers first learn everything they can from those that have come before. Several years ago the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) delivered some results from their explorations that gave us more to know about Crater Lake, located in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, the deepest lake in the United States. A lake once believed to […]
If climbing hills with your mountain bike doesn’t appeal to you, perhaps riding downhill does. A sport called “gravity assisted mountain biking” takes place in remote areas that have trail systems. Riders first get to a high elevation, often riding in a helicopter or fixed wing plane. Then they ride down the trail system. These rides […]
After surveying 2000 parents across the United Kingdom, adventure blog Go Ape decided that the current generation of kids should be called the “Closeted Generation” because they are spending too much time indoors in front of a screen. They found that 22% of parents put their kids in front of a screen “because its easier” even though […]
It’s a simple concept really. Take a walk in the woods and, if you wish, enhance the experience further by breathing the scents of essential wood oils. This outdoor activity has become a recognized relaxation and stress management technique in Japan over the last thirty years. There, it goes by the name “shinrin-yoku.” That translates to “forest bathing” in English. […]