I came across a book the other day,  The Golden Book of Camping and Camp Crafts.  It was published in 1959 and I got it when I was around 8 or 9.  My happiest memories from that age and younger are all about outdoor adventures.  Whether it was playing cowboys and Indians (I was always […]

Outdoor News, December 20, highlighted a new video from Destination British Columbia and noted that they have also produced a virtual reality experience for users of Oculus Rift equipment.  They also produced a “making of” video about the virtual reality experience.  Destination BC has a mission to bring visitors to British Columbia.  If potential visitors can […]

According to Oxford Economics in a report for the U.S. Travel Association: Americans are taking less vacation time than at any point in the last nearly four decades. In 2013, employees entitled to paid time off (PTO) took an average of 16 days of vacation compared to an average of 20 days as recently as 2000. Among […]

“Nature deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illness.  The disorder can be detected in individuals, families and communities.” Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods. Need a cure?  Find some trees, take a walk – […]

If you wanted to get more people outdoors and you had $100,000 to do it, what would you do? The Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy in Bay City, Michigan got a $100,000 grant to do just that. They plan to: clean up an underused park that is overgrown with vegetation improve river access for kayakers and […]

The Adventure Travel Trade Association came up with a new way to categorize adventurers and did a survey to learn more about them. The Three Categories are: Adventure Grazers – Novice or first-time participants that are eager to try new adventures (24% of the U.S. population) Adventurers – Thrill-seeking repeat participants with a favorite adventure […]

Gharad Bryan, Dean Karlan and Scott Nelson of Yale University explored the notion of the ‘committment device’ saying: “Broadly, a commitment device is an arrangement entered into by an individual with the aim of helping fulfill a plan for future behavior that would otherwise be difficult due to intra-personal conflict.” American  journalist Stephen Dubner and economist  Steven Levitt of […]

With this post, I’m launching a new feature for Explore! readers.  It’s cleverly called “The Blog.”  In The Blog,  I’ll be discussing a wide variety of topics associated with health, wellness and the outdoors.  The posts will usually be short – I’ll need to fight my tendency for verbosity – and philosophical.  They may be topical, but […]