Adventuring During a Pandemic

In our state the world got locked down pretty quick. At first I didn’t think this would effect me much. I rarely get my nails or hair done. I avoid crowded kids places. Besides the climbing gym, I exercise outdoors. Then they closed the trails, the beaches, the mountains. While I completely understand and agree with the decision, I felt like my world just turned upside down. A big part of the outdoors helps manage my own anxiety, and my kids’. Now I’m working from home while my kids are cooped up in the house with very little opportunity to escape.

Stinging nettles. When harvested it makes a decent soup of sauteed vegetable. That sting has a serious bite though.

So what did we do? Believe it or not, it never occurred to me to explore the ‘backwoods’ in our town. I’m talking about those small areas of trees that you’ve probably looked at while driving by to something more exciting. I walked by one area every single day, multiple times a day, as I left our subdivision. In 12 years I never thought to explore those woods. The first day we found most of a deer skeleton and the kids brought home the head to reconstruct. The second day we focused on wildlife and found licorice root and made licorice and peppermint tea. The third day we harvested stinging nettles and made some sauteed nettles and some nettle tea. Next weekend we’ll head down the creek and learn GPS and map reading skills as we work our way down the green space.

Licorice Root is the root of those little ferns that grow on trees. It doesn’t take much of this flavorful root to make some tea.

What’s interesting is that now when I go on a run I notice these random spots to explore that I never really thought about twice. Our #microadventures have become extreme #microadventures.