- New Ecology, New Nature, New Adventure
- New Gear, New Kids…Old Fun in a New Way
By Forrest Fisher
Summer is warmer and starts earlier, winter is warmer and shorter. We have a longer rainy season each year. Modern generations are convinced that nature is changing.
New forms of fun have evolved to welcome millions of millennials to the outdoors where they escape to thrills with a welcome rush of fun, sometimes for just a moment or two.
The “new kids” bungee cord, hike, run, breathe fresh air, hear the surf crashing, ski downhill on snow-covered mountains, skin dive to photo-shoot fish on coral reefs – any of these a short flight from home. A usual manner of departure for their modern millennial day. They enjoy the wind moving through their hair, are protected from UV rays with modern sunscreen and meet accepted new standards of our apparent new age.
Outdoor participation is in a state of change in our modern outdoors, but it is about the millennial modern perspective, insulated within a well-planned, undeterred call for momentary adrenaline through nature. Then it’s back to work. Some millennials work 20 hour days, mostly on a keyboard.
As we approach Thanksgiving, is it time to rethink the feast of nature?
There are times when the truth of the woods, nature itself, is under question by the city folks, many millennials themselves. The new nature includes getting lost and resting easy to find yourself, sometimes in solitude, sometimes with a friend.
A roll-up air mattress that fits into the backpack with comfort to be found in a pop-up camp tent to enjoy a great night of sleep under the stars.
In your backpack, you remove your Pinnacle Dualist, it is the ultimate mess kit with stove and tiny isobutane fuel supply – total weight: 27 ounces. The kit integrates everything for hot meals and warm drinks in an impossibly small footprint.
No plastics allowed, no cigarettes, just filtered stream water, sustainable supplies, all with efforts to provide for a better future in nature and time away.
A clean future.
A green future.
A sustainable future.
Maybe these “new kids” reached their campsite on a rock-proof mountain bike. New products today can provide increased range for adventure.
Silence is the special gift of such new adventure, interrupted only by the sound of a lazy campfire, glimmering fireflies from a nearby field and woods. There is expectation for surprise looking skyward for a meteor to zoom across the night darkness.
That’s a moment to make a timely wish for peace in the world.
Nature by itself is a natural celebrity. A place where your internal clock is secure and a new secret to sync your body system is discovered. The “new kids” live true with such adventure.
There is time to write a handwritten letter to someone you know that needs a letter. A sip of purified mountain water from your Microlite water bottle that keeps liquids hot or cold for all day. Delicious.
Nature is truly grand.
Morning light provides a new connection to the day ahead. It’s hard to miss the “new day” vindication of mixed color, hues of yellow, orange and red. It’s a beautiful planet you think to yourself. You sense a new and sudden perfection with nature at this moment. You welcome your relaxed state of mind.
Friendship, wildlife, nature, conservation – all linked at this moment.
Your mind wanders a bit, then you think back to mankind centuries old to realize the bonus, this is the same morning sunlight that people 5,000 years ago watched come over the horizon. So times have not changed, you option in thought. You do know though, that this overnight experience has provided an uplift for you.
Nature is truly grand.
Human nature is a bit like Mother Nature with the seasons of spring, summer, winter and fall, you imagine. The seasons restore each other. Maybe Mother Nature has not changed all that much then or, you option, maybe it has. There is time to ponder this question.
Can there be a new algorithm to slow down this latest “new kids” generation that seeks to find instant solutions through the assortment of so many keyboard tools.
Jeans, T-shirt, sneakers, ball cap and sunglasses is all you really need to “fit in.” Soong as you have a battery cord and charger.
So we ask, “Is this the new nature or the old nature? “The “new kids” nature is…you accept, extraordinary.
Sunset arrives with an orange glow.
The clouds rest.
The wind is silent now too.
An owl hoots in a nearby tree.
It’s time for millennials to join up with nature to find adventure in the outdoors. It’s time for millennials to understand why hunting and fishing are important to our future and our ecology.
Us older folks could use the new leadership, don’t be afraid to ask us for a match.