A simple infographic about microadventures!
While sitting at a campfire in Maine recently, we were listening to a podcast featuring a guest named Alastair Humphries, a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, talking about his latest project - microadventures. While Alastair is better known for riding his bike around the world over a few years, he recently was compelled to show naysayers that anyone can have an adventure, not just those of us who are independently wealthy or who work 60 hours a week for two straight years to save their cash. Adventures don't have to be large or expensive to qualify. In fact, you could have an adventure tonight in your own backyard! Let me explain a little more.
Microadventures can be as simple as setting up a tent in your backyard and camping with your kids tonight. It can be as easy as getting in your car after work, driving to a nearby state park, and taking a hike before heading home for dinner. They can also be as complex as taking a weekend road trip and not making any plans for the drive. A microadventure is only as complicated as you make it!
When we started discussing it, we realized that microadventures are common in our everyday lives. When I lived in Knoxville, TN, sometimes I would take my dog on spur-of-the-moment trips to Ijams Nature Center in the middle of the day and take her daily walk on nature trails. Something that simple counts as an adventure! Here in New York, we often make trips to local parks and ride our bikes on the Erie Canal or go hiking in the Camillus Unique Area and these also count. Under the terms of a microadventure, pretty much any new outdoors experience can qualify.
Our next microadventure is going to be a trip down south. We will visit friends in Kentucky, go to Mammoth Cave National Park, bike ride in the Smokies, hike with our dog, and explore the Blue Ridge Parkway. We have a loose itinerary of where we want to go and now we're going to do it! This will set us up for our next large adventure, a 3-week thru hike of the Long Trail in Vermont. I hope this blog has inspired you to get outside and do something new this summer. I know the whole concept of microadventures has really gotten us excited and we definitely will try to incorporate it into our lives when we get back to "the real world" after our summer of fun. If you're looking for ideas, check out the hastag #microadventures on Instagram or Twitter!