After more than a year of lockdowns and all sorts of restrictions on where you can go and what you can do, this summer and fall will be the first time for millions of people to spend a lot of social time outdoors with friends and family. If you’re the type of person who looks forward to getting the most from the great outdoors, it’s time to start thinking about all the fun activities to take advantage of before winter sets in.
Here are eight ideas to get you started. Just remember, if it’s been a while since you’ve been physically active, start slowly and always focus on being safe. When possible, take one or more people along with you when you venture outside for walks, riding e-bikes, long walks, or open-air exercise.
Go Orienteering
If you’ve ever been on a scavenger hunt, you know what orienteering is about. Clubs sponsor friendly competitions in which participants search for specific locations called control points with compasses and topographical maps. The object is to touch base with all the control points before crossing the finish line. It’s much more fun than it sounds, and is an exciting way to get fit, socialize, and learn how to make your way through outdoor terrain with basic camping equipment.
Get an E-Bike
After many years on the market, e-bikes are at last making major inroads into the retail consumer market. The combination of reasonable prices, multiple styles, and long-range battery power has created a huge demand for modern e-bikes among all age groups. If you decide to get involved in the fun, remember to follow all local rules about where you can ride, speed, and safety. Of course, no matter what the law is in your area, it’s always smart to wear a helmet because safety is a priority everywhere now. Learn the facts about e-bike safety by reviewing a guide on why you should wear a life-saving helmet.
Find an Open-Air Fitness Class
When the COVID lockdowns went into effect, many indoor exercise courses moved outside. That way, they could meet local restrictions about social distancing and avoid the risk of transmitting the virus. But so many people enjoyed outdoor exercise, lots of instructors have made open-air training the standard way of conducting classes. Some of the most popular outside workouts include yoga, martial arts lessons, aerobics, tai chi, dance, and traditional calisthenics workouts. There’s something invigorating and exciting about exercising in the fresh air. Try one or two sessions and you’ll likely never want to go back indoors for a workout again.
Take a Walk
Since the Tuesday night walk craze began sometime after 2010, the social walking groups started popping up virtually everywhere. Spurred on by social media hook-ups, the TNW is one of the most accessible and fun ways to socialize and turn walking into a real workout at the same time. Most communities either have a TNW group or a variation on the theme, with some focused on specific age groups or another night of the week.
Fly RC Planes
Remote-controlled (RC) planes arrived on retail shelves long before modern drones. The major difference between the two is that RC units are built to fly, soar straight up and down, coast on their wings, and do aerial acrobatics stunts. Flying RCs is part art, part science, and has many loyal members in clubs all over the world. Before you buy a plane, consider doing some practice flights in a local club. There’s usually a small fee involved, but a couple short sessions will give you a good idea about what kind of plane to buy and whether the hobby is something you want to get involved with.
Learn Survival Skills
Whether you’re a long-range hiker or just enjoy being outside, one of the most educational summer activities you can do is to take a survival class. You can sign up with online clubs or work individually with an instructor. Group classes are low-cost affairs and are typically conducted on evenings and weekends in wooded areas. What will you learn? Lots of interesting, potentially life-saving skills, including how to find drinkable water when you’re stranded in the woods, and how to identify edible fruits, nuts, berries, and roots.
Join an Astronomy Club
The recent renewal of interest in space travel has sparked a secondary effect, and that’s the growth of astronomy clubs all over the world. The first surge in these kinds of social educational groups was in the early 1960s when the first Russian and U.S. satellites orbited the earth. The new clubs have a huge advantage over the old ones. The quality of equipment has literally exploded in the past several decades. An added bonus is the cost of many of the best high-definition telescopes is no longer the major financial commitment it once was.
Try Drone Photography
The price of high-definition drones has plummeted in the past five years. That’s good news for amateur photographers who enjoy mounting their favorite cameras to powerful drones. There’s really no better way to get shots of nature from above, at angles and distances that were once only available to plane and helicopter passengers.
Get into offroading
Offroading can be an extremely fun outdoor activity, whether you choose to use ATVs or UTVs. Getting started can be a little bit of an investment, but you can also rent them to try them out for the first time. Just make sure you maintain your machines over time using a reputable utv service shop to keep them running over the long haul.
