Urge to get outdoors

[Belsnickel]

(05-29-2018, 12:53 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I never used to appreciate the great outdoors as I do now. After years living in a big city and wasting away at a desk job, being outside at a lake, hiking trail, camping, etc., is where one can truly find that inner balance if that makes sense. And to be honest, I think if everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and actually do so, then this world would be a better place. Not trying to preach or rant, but too many people are caught up in the artificial world created around them, that many seem to forget that there is a real natural world out there.

I think I took it for granted when I was younger. I spent so much time outside when I was a kid and into my teens. There wasn't a weekend where I wasn't hunting, fishing, hiking, or camping. Whether it was with family, friends, or Scouts. Where I live, I can drive less than thirty minutes west and be in a national forest, same distance to the east and I am in a national park (with a stretch of the AT), and that isn't taking into account all of the other forested land surrounding me. I live in a "city", but it's surrounded by agricultural land and forests. We have some of the best trout streams, wild and stocked, just down the road (unfortunately, Mossy Creek is a bit high and muddy, right now). We get so many deer in the parks the city issues archery permits for taking some out each year, which considering it is illegal to fire a weapon of any sort in the city is saying something. Our county has the highest bear kill each year. We have I don't know how many camps in the county that operate all summer long. Golf courses, shooting ranges, ski slopes, you name it.

Tl;dr: I live in a great place if you're a fan of outdoor activities.

I got fat(ter) and lazy as I got older, and I need to reverse some of that and get back out there.

Just so you can see what I was dealing with this weekend and why I couldn't really get out there: