Code of Conduct for Outdoor EnthusiastsWritten by Chuck Fitzgerald
My favorite outdoor related quote comes from John Muir, father of our national park system and founder of Sierra Club. He said, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to rest of world.” This quote means more to me today than it did twenty years ago and will undoubtedly mean more to me still as I spend an increasing amount of time out of doors. Muir is telling us something of great importance - we are attached to nature too. Therefore, how we think and act while visiting wild places today will ultimately determine amount of enjoyment by outdoor enthusiasts for ever more. So how should we think and act?A code of conduct exists for outdoor enthusiasts. It is called Principles of Leave No Trace. This set of best practices was designed specifically to ensure our outdoor recreational activities are sustainable over long periods of time. Leave No Trace is an organization dedicated to educating people on how to minimize their impacts while enjoying outdoors. Here are their seven principles. 1. Plan Ahead and Prepare 2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces 3. Dispose of Waste Properly 4. Leave What You Find 5. Minimize Campfire Impacts 6. Respect Wildlife 7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors
| | Awesome Ways to Get Outdoors!Written by Chuck Fitzgerald
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 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 same-ole-routine and into 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 fresh air.One of first things we notice as we step outdoors and into nature is that we are not alone. Life surrounds us. So 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 first bird with color blue on it? How many ducks are on pond? Are they all same kind? You get 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 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 rest of your life. If you need a sport that’s a little more high tech, give geocaching a shot. Geocaching is 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 sport is active in over 200 countries, most geocachers enjoy playing game in their own neighborhoods. It’s awesome!
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