Five Ways to Adventure in Your Backyard during COVID19

Hiking for the first time in Glen Helen Nature Preserve

All things as it is while we can’t go explore and travel like we normally do I wanted to share five ways I have adventured in “my backyard.” They have really given me a new outlook on how we can adventure EVEN during a Stay at Home Order that maybe you can do as well to spice up your workouts or tame your wanderlust! Keep in mind I live in an urban city and don’t actually have a backyard. Metaphors friends!

2024 Author’s Addition Note:
This article is a lifestyle piece and intended to reflect the feelings and emotions from us during the early stages of the global pandemic. It won’t be updated to accurately reflect the words that were shared when they were shared.

By now it’s pretty clear that you are supposed to stay at home. Most of the time. If you can. Or is it okay to leave now? Well you can leave your home if you go to a restaurant to pickup curbside food or Target to get a toenail clipper, storage bins, or whatever else one seeks at Target but after that PLEASE go back home. You can hang out with 9 people but not 11, from six feet away. At Standard Hall in Columbus you could get a little closer though until they closed :). The list goes on and on and I don’t know about you but it’s a bit cloudy and confusing to me. BUT one thing has been clear to me during the entire COVID19 pandemic: WE ARE allowed to work out/adventure by ourselves within a close proximity to our homes in the outdoors!

These are practices I plan on keeping after we can experience our “new normal”. Which is what I am calling life now. I don’t think things will ever go back to the way they were personally and “return to normal”.
To me it’s part of the beauty of life. Nothing is promised nor easily predicted and the old ways of being sometimes never return.

1. Go for a run in a cemetery.

Safe for social distancing. Eerie enough to appease the endorphins. And running with the spirits will satisfy even the crunchiest of us seeking connection with more than just our physical bodies.
Running in a cemetery can create an emotional release for you as well. It can create gratitude for still being alive. Finally the different ways in which tombstones are created and built/displayed also fascinate me. From a running standpoint they mix in gravel and pavement, are often big enough to score several miles, and are very peaceful places to run.
Give it a shot and let me know what you think! Walking is welcome as well.

2. Explore an area you have NEVER been to.

Albeit I will start with the fact that on my visit to the Glen Helen Nature Preserve my friend Matt and I went in a random way and didn’t know that the nature preserve was actually closed. I would recommend you checking before you go to places on their website, nonetheless exploring an area on foot you have never been to because it’s “so close” is the lamest excuse ever!
I have been to three different spots and have more to cover close to Columbus that I just had never made it to for one reason or the other. It’s been a special treat.
The Glen Helen State Nature Preserve outside of Yellow Springs might be the most gorgeous hike I have done in the state of Ohio. I have only lived here 37 years now before I went. (Reminds me of my Red River Gorge saga!)
In closing on this point, go explore an area so close that you have always ignored it due to its proximity to you.

Amazing statue and story about a Columbus resident in the 1800’s I had never heard of!

3. Bicycle in a downpour.

Or at least a heavy rain. Be safe but give it a try. Don’t do it on a windy country road without lights though!
You will FEEL ALIVE! So alive. My friend Jenny and I talked about this concept of making lists of things that make you feel alive a year or two ago, biking/walking in downpours was on both of our lists. Consider it to be on yours too, it’s a magical experience.
The feeling is hard to describe. But you will know what I am talking about when you have the chance.
Since it’s been raining continuously in Columbus since COVID19 started it’s pretty easy where I live to take this experience in. If a spring shower is on the way get that helmet out and hit the road.
It will be a soaking wet adventure you could have never imagined. When we do the unusual and the uncomfortable it’s amazing what can happen.

4. Take it to the (ART) streets.

Pretty much every city has got some street art graffiti and wall murals that is worthy of visiting. Planning a renegade never ending street run through an area well known for it and stopping to admire the art that has been created along the way is a great way to take in your city scape that you might not have considered before. I have sought out and found more pieces of graffiti art and street murals than I could have ever imagined!

A Columbus Ohio mural I had never laid my eyes on.

5. Find something a tad ridiculous in your region and go do it!

I mean Amy K and I have done a podcast sharing random outdoor adventures for EVERY STATE in the US.
Adventure is everywhere.

Here are just a few examples:
a. I already did my 3 legs of the rescheduled Buck Fifty by myself for a total of 20 trail miles back to back to back instead of over 24 hours. I was spent!
b. I am contemplating biking North to South along the state of Ohio on the 320 mile Ohio to Erie Trail.
c. The Arc of Appalachia is my friend Marcia’s go to hiking spot in the state of Ohio and I have NEVER been there yet.
d. There’s a HUGE National Forest an hour away I haven’t visited in three years.

My list could go on. And so could yours. Find something a little ridic and wild and train for it.
Sure it might not be the International Trip you had planned this year or even the family beach vacation, but GUESS WHAT?
Us not being able to travel the way we used to is a privilege. My friends in Kenya are being cut off from food due to COVID19 (you can help HERE) and thousand in Columbus Ohio are as well (you can help HERE) and I know dozens of friends who have lost their jobs and millions have around the world.

Do I still miss traveling? Hell yes.

Do I understand that my trip around the world I was planning and had to postpone is a big privilege to even have considered doing? Hell yes.

Am I still bummed it’s not happening? Hell yes.

Find some adventures in your backyard. Practice gratitude. Drink Less. Bitch Less. Get on Social Media Less. Watch the News Less.

Run more. Walk more. Meditate More. Create more. Bicycle in downpours more.

Be safe and healthy and smart during all of it!

Wash your hands and wear a mask,

Mike R