Spend More Time Outside
I’ve been slowly easing to a new lifestyle since the beginning of Covid. Even after (temporarily? Who knows?) moving back to Philadelphia full-time where I have an entire house with a backyard, I’m still desperately in need of space. (Who isn’t?) I also, like most, spend entirely too much time on the internet these days so distance between myself and others (so much more than just social distance—sorry everyone, I have full-blown “consumption” fatigue) is more important than ever. Now that the hottest, most humid days of the summer seem to be behind us, I’ve been embracing the practice of spending as much time in nature as possible.
If you follow along on Instagram, you’ve probably seen that I’ve been working on a campaign with LL Bean. This is been a great reason for me to practice some new skills, which makes my outdoor time even more enjoyable. I want to share them with you because I want you to spend more time outside as well. At this point, why not spend some time far away from everyone?
Make campfire coffee
This starts with learning how to make a campfire. For this, I’m going to say the key is patience, patience, patience. Remember: tinder, kindling, and fuel. Paper makes great kindling. Also, one thing I’ve learned from watching prepper videos on YouTube is that redundancy is key when selecting your firestarter. Having a lighter is good, but having a lighter AND matches is better. They don’t take up a whole lot of space and having a backup is important because you just never know what might happen.
Once your fire is ready, it’s time to fire up the percolator. Mine was gifted to me by LL Bean and I’d highly recommend it but they’re pretty easy to find in any size for every budget. I put together a quick video but I’d like to supplement that with some tips:
Normally I have a scale and stick to ratios, but I just kinda guessed for this one because In was tired. You can see my coffee was weak as hell. For this reason, I'm going to tell you to use more as well.
It may be difficult to see in the video but once the liquid bubbling to the top of the percolator is coffee-colored, that means it’s go-time and you can take your percolator off the heat.
Get a grate to bring with you. I wrongly assumed the campsite would have one for the fire ring and I had to improvise. The skillet method didn’t conduct enough heat, as you can tell. I ended up hanging the put on a stick and holding it over the fire. It worked but but wasn’t fun.
I didn’t have filters so I improvised that as well—I used a twice-folded paper towel. It worked just fine and was better than having to keep track of one more thing. Just be sure to tuck the paper towel so it doesn’t catch fire.
I’m not sure about you but I love the feeling of learning something new and putting it to practice—even though it wasn’t the best coffee I’ve ever had, I made it, and that’s something special.
Try your hand at fishing
While I love seafood, I’m not yet at the point where I can clean, gut, and fillet a fish so I’m sticking to catch and release for now. To complement my memories of fishing with my father as a kid, this article was a huge help to get started. Living so close to the shore, I like to fish beachside—try going before dusk—but anywhere there’s a stocked body of water is a good spot to try this.
Before anything though, make sure to check with your local municipality for license requirements and such. While you likely won’t get caught or called out for not having one, it’s better for your conscience and the environment, as over-fishing has become a real problem.
Go for a hike
This is the simplest to learn, requires no equipment (other than a pair of sturdy, reliable shoes or boots), and can be done pretty much anywhere. Hiking can be an incredibly meditative activity, making it good for your mind, body, and spirit. It might seem obvious, but I’m including it here because who can’t use a reminder every so often?
AllTrails is a great resource for discovering hiking near you, which is, of course, a great place to start. Especially if you’re a beginner. There’s also an app, which has an option to add friends. I actually learned about this feature because my mom asking me to enable this feature so they’ll be able to track me on a hike just in case something goes wrong and I get injured or lost. (Especially because the best trails have spotty cell service, of course.)
Like any other skill, hiking is just that: something to learn that will get better with practice. Elevation gain, rock scrambling, and navigating all take time. I promise though, these will be wonderful additions to your repertoire and are worth it.
Excited for you to get out and explore the great unknown. Be well.