Articles
Awesome Ways to Get Outdoors!
by Chuck Fitzgerald C2005. All Rights Reserved.
Are you looking for fresh ways to spend time with your friends
and family? Outdoor activities getting a little boring are they?
With your fast paced life gaining speed all the time, it's easy
to stick to what's familiar; but is that any way to live? Let's
take a few minutes and look at how easy it is to break out of the
same-ole-routine and into the new with wholesome activities near
home and out of doors. Read on to see why it's tough to beat
having fun with friends and family outdoors in the fresh air.
One of the first things we notice as we step outdoors and into
nature is that we are not alone. Life surrounds us. So the
first thing to do is to slow down and have a look around. While
you're looking, why not do some bird watching. It's fun, easy to
do and inexpensive. All you need are birds and they are
everywhere. Make a family game out of it. Who can find the
first bird with the color blue on it? How many ducks are on the
pond? Are they all the same kind? You get the idea. But be
careful, once you start bird watching you'll find it difficult to
stop. Before long you'll have a good pair of birding binoculars
and a field guide for your part of the country. Then you'll be a
bird watcher with birding fever. The best part of bird watching
is spending time with others outdoors; and birding is a hobby
you'll love for the rest of your life.
If you need a sport that's a little more high tech, give
geocaching a shot. Geocaching is the sport where you use your
handheld GPS receiver to find caches hidden by others using their
GPS receivers. This is something you can do by yourself, with
friends or with your children. Geocaching teaches outdoor
navigation in a fun and interactive way while allowing you to
explore your own neighborhood and beyond. You'll learn new words
and phrases such as cache coordinates, travel bugs, micro-caches,
benchmarking and geoteaming. All you need is internet access and
a GPS receiver; some GPS receivers retail for many hundreds of
dollars but many models are available for around $100. Although
the sport is active in over 200 countries, most geocachers enjoy
playing the game in their own neighborhoods. It's awesome!
If a GPS receiver isn't in your budget right now, perhaps you
might give Letterboxing a try. Letterboxing is similar to
geocaching in that you are searching for a hidden treasure, but
in this case it is called a box not a cache and you use clues
versus coordinates to locate the treasure. There are other
components to the Letterboxing game such as rubber stamps and log
books. Letterboxing is inexpensive, loads of fun and addictive.
So what's next? How about the oldest of all outdoor hobbies?
That's right, stargazing. If you live in a large city and spend
all of your time there, it's easy to forget about the night sky
because you can't see it. But it's still there and provides
breath taking views that are impossible to communicate. So grab
a jacket, a pair of binoculars and a loved one and go somewhere
nearby where you can have an unobstructed view of the night sky
with as little light pollution as possible. With a pair of
binoculars you should be able to see man-made satellites, the
moons of Jupiter and craters on our own Moon. Once you catch the
stargazing fever you'll move up to a telescope where you can
point it virtually anywhere in the night sky and be awe struck.
There is so much available to us outdoors. Try something new
like bird watching, geocaching, letterboxing or stargazing. Each
of these activities has a large on-line community ready to share
its sport, its tips and its passion with you. Visit our on-line
education center and we'll point you in the right direction.
Not everyone has the skill or desire to climb Mount Everest, hike
the Appalachian Trail or sail the world's oceans. But there is
something everyone can do near their own homes that will open the
eyes and their minds to the beauty of nature. Take a few hours
this week and spend it outdoors with someone you like. Use
this information and you'll Get It Right The First Time. Get
Outdoors!
About the author: Chuck Fitzgerald is the owner of Arizona based
BackCountry Toys, an online specialty store with the "Best Gear
Out There" and dedicated to helping outdoor enthusiasts to "Get
It Right The First Time" with timely educational information.
Please visit www.BackCountryToys.com to find great gear and to
receive the Fact & Tips e-newsletter, "FreshAir." (800)
316-9055.
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