Essential Outdoors
Creating connections between people and nature
I have spent a large part of my life outdoors. When I was young, that meant taking my shoes off and running through the woods of New Hampshire pretending that every moss-covered rock was a defensive location against imaginary invading armies. In my adult life, I have channeled my love of nature into planning and guiding outdoor adventure trips for friends and family.
We all inherently feel a natural pull but not everyone feels comfortable spending long periods of time outdoors. I help people increase their comfort and give them the tools to continue exploring on their own.
I think 2020 will go down as a year when many of us realized, or re-realized, how absolutely essential nature is for our emotional and physical health. Being outdoors is how we were still able to see friends and family. Nature calmed our weary and anxious hearts; brought us peace in the despair; belonging and connection in the isolation; beauty in the darkness.
For many parents with small children over the last year, or kids of any age who needed to learn from home due to school closings, the outdoors also became a classroom. Embedding outdoor, hands on, and natural habitats into children’s learning programs should be something we continue to expand moving forward, even after things go back to “normal.”
A re-integration of many of our daily activities back into the natural world may be one positive outcome of our experience with this pandemic. It is simply not safe to be inside with others. But outdoors, “the way nature intended,” so to speak, opens up many possibilities for us to continue living our lives.
2020 began as the year I was planning to launch an outdoor guiding service that would impart my knowledge of how to spend more time outdoors (beyond just my friends and family) to small groups of paying clients. I still did this, but I put the business model aside for now and instead launched a Medium blog where I posted free how-to guides for adventuring to some of my favorite places across the mid-Atlantic region.
I published 12 blogs with detailed stories, photos, maps, gear lists, and links for additional information. I categorized them into: day hiking, car camping, wilderness backpacking, paddling, and nature photography. The hope was that anyone could follow these details safely on their own and find some comfort and peace in nature, despite the grueling challenges of the year.
It’s hard to know just how much I’ve succeeded in my intent. But I know over 1,000 people have read these posts so far and a few have reached out over email and social media to let me know they successfully used my blogs to take trips.
I have many more “Hackman Guided Adventures” planned and will continue to write and provide these blogs free of charge until it is safe once again to lead trips in person.
These guides will teach you and your family where to (and where not to) fish, rock climb, camp, off road, mountain bike, see wild ponies, find solitude, take mountaintop sunrise photos, eat, explore the highest peaks and waterfalls on the East Coast, white-water kayak, leave no trace, learn the history of the first peoples of this region, and much more.
In addition, another equally important piece I infuse in every trip guide is my professional knowledge of environmental and land conservation.
For nearly a decade, I’ve worked to protect our nation’s public lands and waters. I’ve learned the differences between National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management lands and what’s allowed in each. I talk about National Recreation Areas and Wilderness Areas — why they were created and the critical resources they protect. I educate readers on the importance of old-growth forests and where they can still be found. Read these guides and you won’t just gain the tools to thrive outdoors, you’ll also learn how to comfortably navigate our incredible estate of public lands — as well as some of the threats they face.
As we’ve already seen, 2021 will bring new challenges. We will continue to need natural “resets” as the year progresses. Beyond our own lives, environmental devastation and climate change also threaten the balance of ecosystems.
In the face of it all, I think that the best thing we can do is deepen our connection to nature and the outdoors. It grounds us while showing us what we’re fighting for. We are part of nature. Creating connections between us and nature is simply about reminding us of this fact.
Will Hackman, Hackman Guided Adventures
Be sure to follow Will on Twitter @will_hackman for updates, Instagram @Hackman.Will for pretty photos, and Facebook, and subscribe to his blog to ensure you don’t miss out on future how-to adventures covering: Backpacking | Camping | Mountaineering | Cycling | Bike Touring | Photography | Birding | Yoga | Meditation | Paddling | Water Sports | Writing Retreats | & Wilderness 101s!
