Building Outdoor Equity & Access with MicroAdventures
How MicroAdventures will help Build Equity for New Entrants to Outdoor Recreation
I look over the water as I saw the sheet of rain slowly approaching me over the water, like a fog rolling over an open lawn in the morning haze. With nothing more than a swimsuit, I rushed to grab attempt, and solemly fail, to prop my hammock up into a makeshift tent to hide me and my fluffy husky-mutt under cover in a race to escape the Paddleboard float into shelter out of the lightening storm. I foolishly had left the raincoat at home , so instead I wrapped around the big beach towel I had to keep warm. At least until the rain would sop through on my back where the hammock provided no reprieve. The clouds laid out its fall as I watched my lunch sodden where it laid on the rock landing where the paddleboards are tied off. I clutch my paperback on "Rock Climbing Techniques" between my knees and chests hoping it'll come out dry on a prayer.
I sound like I'm in the wilderness on a grand excursion. And I am.
An hour from my front door.
With a road hidden on the hill above my campsite, not five minutes a walk away.
Only a 30 minute paddle back to my car. Or a 30 minute walk by the hiking trail 10 feet away from my hideaway from the elements.
And I had only planned this excursion, to read by a lake and eat prosciutto & brie sandwiches just the night before.
My MicroAdventure Attempt
Sunday: Wake up, drink coffee, text a friend a question about the area, and be on the water in the woods (and soon in a torrential downpour) by 2 pm.
I’m lucky enough to own a board. For those who don’t, the lunch site had a hiking trail in, as well!
THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A "MircoAdventure."
The concept was developed by Alastair Humphreys in hopes of establishing a means of better integrating an adventurous lifestyle into the normal lifestyles of the average citizen who doesn't have the resources or capability to do a grandiose and epic excursion. Humpheys was inspired by the fans and participants that would attend his speaking events after his own expeditions. As he highlighted in his recent interview with The Outside Podcast, he was taken aback that so many had done extraordinary journeys of their own, but that those same people felt their feats of exploration did not count in the narrative of what "Adventure" is to the Outdoor industry. In fact, they discounted themselves as adventurers at all.
Humphreys wanted to flip the script. The purpose of a MicroAdventure is to simplify for someone to plan something, anything, that provides the reach to obtain fulfillment through being in touch with nature, being in touch with one's exploratory drive, and ultimately interacting with the world outside of day-to-day life. This concept doesn't just break down qualifiers for already adventurous people.
This is a game changer in breaking down barriers.
How We Discover Our Interest in Adventures Anyway…
There was an interesting study accomplished in 2019 [1]. In the study, the researchers gathered data on the "how" people learn about the outdoors and using forest service land. Their study was intended to distinguish what could encourage racial and ethnic groups in metropolitan areas to get more involved with outdoor recreation as new participants (Note: even though the United States in on track to be a less-than 50% White population by 2045 the outdoor industry participant rates have not kept up with the growth. Hence why so many researchers are getting into this topic) [2] [3]. The study was conducted in several metropolitan areas across California.
Here's what the study found: The #2 and #3 driver for the participants was exposure from friends and family. The internet was #1 (so here we are inspiring!)[1]. But that #1 source, I argue, comes with a caveat... the person had to be interested in the outdoors in the first place to be encouraged to find it on the internet. The researchers took a slightly different line of thought: they had concerns that the communities in which they were interviewing had inequitable access to computer systems. The result in both hypothesis is the same: the internet requires ACTIVE engagement.
Queue the close second option: Family and friends. Don't know you should be asking about that close-by hidden swimming hole? Don't worry, Cousin Rickey will tell you about it at the Barbecue! Never knew a picnic spot surrounded by the trees in a meadow could sound so enticing? Don't worry, at lunch your gal pal will tell you all about where her boyfriend took her for their date night.
The point is that exposure is everything. Exposure FROM LIVING LIFE in a normal way.
Back to the "MICRO" in MicroAdventures
Adventure Awaits
Right in your Backyard
Photo by Nick Kwan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-man-sitting-while-overlooking-a-city-2693290/
The average citizen is not spending years saving up money to go hike across a country or selling all their worldly possession to do van-life across Northern Canada. It's not sustainable. People have jobs and bills and maybe a cat. But what they often still have is a thirst for trying new things and getting out of the pigeon hold of day-to-day minutiae. MicroAdventures redefines the purpose of having to "plan" that big thing and get more people to experience adventure in a way that it fits into life on a daily basis. MicroAdventures de-stigmatize the need to go big… and encourages you to just stay home! And Locally source your need for nature and adventure.
How does that tie into all that entrant/participant academic jargon?
Fairly simple really. The more people are out there, the more they have stories to tell. Stories that are bite-sized. It's no longer about watching Bear Grylls take President Obama climb on an Alaskan glacier (yes, that did happen ).
“MicroAdventures de-stigmatize the need to go big… and encourages you to just stay home! And Locally source your need for nature and adventure. ”
It's about how Colleen from accounting knows of a great little off-road site that she was able to take her Camry up and cook s’mores JUST because she can. And now she's telling her friend Aisha about it.
Now Aisha wants to try S’mores for the first time. So she packs up her Subaru to go watch the stars from a hill she's seen on her commute every day, and decides to try her first hand at melting a marshmallow.
Ensuring people feel like the "adventure" sphere and the outdoors is a welcoming place can be hard. The visuals and media of professional athletes and explorers are inspiring, but can also be daunting and intimidating in a way that seems unattainable for the average person. What Humphreys accomplished by just writing his book -- about a word that he made up! --changes the narrative. Flips it on its head. It brings adventure back to what its origin is about... exploring beyond the boundaries of what we know.
And as individuals... isn't it exciting that we always get to re-discover it all, in the light and lens we see those experiences through?
Time to pack the Jeep. I opened Google Maps over coffee this morning, and it looks like I have a new lake to go swim in before I have to be back for dinner.
