It’s a strange world out there. Schools across the country have moved to virtual learning, restaurants can only offer take-out, and ski areas, movie theaters, concerts, and sporting events have been cancelled. There will be no March Madness. The streets of big cities are eerily deserted. Our hands have never been cleaner.

We are in new and uncharted territory. As everyone practices social distancing and self-quarantines, it’s easy to binge on Netflix, mindlessly scroll through Instagram and Twitter, and glue your eyes to a video game. All these things are fine in small doses, but in excess have proven to be detrimental to health.

May we at Adventure Treks make some suggestions for the next few weeks?

Avoid emotional contagion

A lot of fear is floating around, which is natural when you are told to “shelter in place” for an indefinite time. Science shows that stress is contagious. By remaining positive and focusing on what you can control (social distancing and and your actions, for example), your mental health will be your own and cannot be brought down by others.

Get outside

(Following social distance protocols, of course.) Hike, walk the dog, run on trails or at the park, skateboard, mountain bike—whatever you can, as much as you can. A 2009 study showed that during the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak, “A combination of fresh air, sunlight, scrupulous standards of hygiene, and reusable face masks appears to have substantially reduced deaths among some patients and infections among medical staff.”

Spending time in nature may be more important than ever. Fresh air may kill the flu virus and other harmful germs, and we all know conversations are better when you are doing something active with friends in the outdoors (and it’s easy to stay six feet away from each other in the woods).

Read a book…

… An actual, this-came-from-trees book. Reading books may be a long-lost art, but it can open all kinds of new worlds. Reading is quite fun, and books make for a great temporary escape.

Eat well, get enough sleep, and stay hydrated

This advice should apply every day, but when illnesses are spreading rapidly, it’s more important than ever to eat a balanced diet (don’t forget fresh fruits and veggies), get enough sleep every night (the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 9–12 hours for kids 6–12 years of age, and 8–10 hours for teenagers), and drink plenty of water (9–14 cups a day for kids ages 9–18).

Start a project or learn a new hobby

When you aren’t engaged in distance learning or working remotely, research something you don’t know, build something with your hands, fix something around the house, pull out the dusty board games and puzzle boxes, set up an easel… keep yourself busy and your brain active.

Check out online resources

Hundreds of virtual resources for those quarantined at home have popped up so that kids and adults alike don’t go stir-crazy. You can take online tours of:

• National parks
• Museums around the world
• Famous sites and landmarks

Find free projects and lessons for kids of all grades through Scholastic. Take a free kickboxing, dance cardio, or Zumba workout on YouTube.

Help out the elderly in your neighborhood…

… But remember to avoid direct contact. Offer to do their food shopping, and leave groceries or other helpful supplies on their porch. Mow their lawns, bring in their mail, shovel snow, or do anything else that would otherwise put them at greater risk or exposure. Social distancing and self-quarantine may be hard on healthy families, but it’s much harder on older and immunocompromised folks, especially those who live alone and don’t have support networks.

Be your best self

National or global disasters can bring out the best in people, but apparently pandemics bring out the worst. This is the time to be extra kind and do more than our share when we can (this includes not buying all the toilet paper in Costco). Let’s hope that kindness ends up being more contagious than COVID-19.

And, of course, get ready for your adventures this summer

We’re hopeful that warm weather and humidity will minimize the potency and transmission of coronavirus during summer months. As long as we aren’t forced to shut down, we think outdoor adventure camps will be one of the safest places that kids and teens can be. With efficient and thorough hygiene and sanitation practices, we can create and maintain a healthy community—and a community where all contagious emotions are positive!

Adventure Treks students spend their entire trips in nature. Our community is filled almost exclusively with students and instructors in the age group that’s minimally affected by the coronavirus. Because we have very limited contact with the general population, Adventure Treks might be the most fun “quarantine” ever, as we won’t have to worry much about interacting with or possibly infecting people in at-risk demographics.

We think after this anxiety-filled start to 2020, summer camps and travel programs will truly be an antidote—a place to remember what is right in the world, and a place where we can practice being our best selves. We think we’re unique in that we provide a fun, freeing, active, tech-free, friend-filled, and outdoors experience filled with new challenges and successes, and that’s something we can all look forward to.

Stay optimistic: This is the year people will need Adventure Treks more than ever, and we are working hard to be ready for our students to arrive to their second home once the “all clear” is finally sounded!

During my childhood, I often watched my dad, uncles, grandfathers, and male cousins head off for weekend camping trips and annual deer camps. They spent their days outside or in a rustic cabin, building fires, cooking meals over a fire, using outhouses, and “roughin’ it.” My brother taught me the knots and outdoor skills he learned as a Boy Scout. I watched movies like Jeremiah Johnson, Old Yeller, My Side of the Mountain, Far From Home, Cast Away, and Alone in the Wilderness—movies featuring men and young boys who freely explored the land around them, possessing the skills to survive in remote wilderness areas.

As a teenager and throughout college, I badly wanted to experience that freedom to explore, to have the confidence to have adventures, and to thrive in the exciting, unknown outdoors. Movies like Touching the Void, Grizzly Man, Into the Wild, The Way, 180 Degrees South, 127 hours, and The Grey—another handful of films featuring men exploring the outdoors—gave me pangs of desire, made me feel that I must do or be something more than I was at the time, and take grandeur adventures and truly “live.”

I’d never seen a female lead one of these movies’ plots, and none of my friends were having these experiences. At the time, I felt incapable of any type of outdoor adventure.

Imagine if that’s where my story stopped. Really—take a moment to think about that. A female-identifying child who grew up watching movies showing only men in the outdoors, telling us only men were capable of this type of survival and independence. She had only men as her role models. She was telling herself she was not capable of achieving a goal, of obtaining adventure in the outdoors.

Unfortunately, that is the reality for many young girls and teens. Thankfully, my family recognized the positive power of the outdoors, and throughout my teen years, I attended a summer camp and went on backpacking, kayaking, and canoeing trips led by female counselors. I was a sponge, soaking up their skills, resilience, strength, and independence. My confidence grew by leaps and bounds, and I realized how capable I actually was by facing challenges in the outdoors—bad weather, taking wrong turns, minor injuries—and I learned how to adapt and overcome.

Those early female role models inspired me to become a trip leader for that summer camp. When I graduated college, I set out to complete another goal: a solo thru-hike of the 2,186-mile Appalachian Trail (read about what I learned during that hike here). After my thru-hike, I settled into an office job I thought I was supposed to have, the kind your parents want to tell their friends about, and I got comfortable. Then professionally removed from the outdoors, I used all my paid time off on backpacking trips, seeking that feeling of confidence and fulfillment that I lacked at work.

Eventually, when the realization hit that I was happiest working with youth in the outdoors, I came to Adventure Treks. This is what has made me happy and provided fulfillment: helping create an environment where confidence grew in a way that is difficult to find amid all the pressures of teenage life.

I came across this great article by J.S. Kovach at Utah Valley University recently, :

“The potential benefits of participating in physical activity in the outdoors are known to be highly therapeutic and empowering. The last two decades have seen an increase in outdoor recreation research focusing on the social, mental, and physical implications for women in particular (Bosteder & Appleby, 2015). Inequities regarding participation in outdoor recreational activities exist between men and women, and women face constraints unique to their gender. These constraints include but are not limited to: societal and behavioral expectations, perceived low body image, self-consciousness, misrepresentation in the media, and a lack of appropriate gear designed for women…”

“… When women are able to overcome these barriers or even simply dare to step into a canoe in the outdoors (as an example), research has found that positive outdoor recreational experiences dramatically increase a woman’s self-valuation, self-confidence, and belief in her ability to lead.”

Other studies have shown that the majority of individuals who engage in outdoor recreation, regardless of their initial level of perceived body image, experience an improvement of self-value and positive body image. In Kovach’s study, “persistence in making and pursuing personal goals can influence potential implications for a female participant, including a recognition that her body is strong, that she is capable and competent, and that positive body perception is important.” In other words, outdoor activity makes a huge difference in empowering women and girls and how they see themselves and their abilities.

At Adventure Treks, we see this firsthand in our students; in fact, it’s one of the best parts of being an instructor. We get to see a total transformation in spirit and mindset as students start to believe in themselves as they rock climb, backpack, or mountain bike for the first time. Of course, we see this in all of our students, but it’s especially impactful in our female-identifying students in a male-dominated industry.

Beyond witnessing their growth, seeing students recognize that transformation in their end-of-trip evaluations is simply incredible. Year after year, student say they:

• realized they were more capable than they thought,
• were surprised at how much they enjoyed being out of their comfort zone,
• felt more confident in their ability to go back to school and try to stay true to themselves,
• were excited to try new things because of their newfound confidence,
• and felt much stronger, both physically and mentally.

Without a doubt, participation in outdoor recreation (and an Adventure Treks trip!) increases a girl’s self-confidence. As a result, these girls develop a belief in their ability to attain and excel in new challenges and leadership roles. Most important, they dare to believe in their ability to succeed in other aspects of life for years to come.

We often hear students say after arriving home from Adventure Treks, “Everyone is so nice at AT… why can’t it be like that in the real world?!” Of course, we’re thrilled to hear the feedback, because it means we’re doing our jobs in providing the close, inclusive communities we promise to everyone. The culture of kindness is a key part of our program design, and the cornerstone of the community we’ve been building for 27 years.

Everything we do at Adventure Treks emanates from a place of kindness and respect. But being kind is more than just a good way to live; research shows that kids who are nice actually finish first, in that they become more successful adults.

A 2015 study by Damon Jones, a senior research associate at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, tracked kindergarteners’ success over 20 years in four major U.S. cities based on the prosocial skills they exhibited in kindergarten. It found that children who demonstrate more “pro-social” skills—those who share more, demonstrate more empathy, and who are better listeners—are more likely to have good jobs and stay out of trouble as young adults. Furthermore, generous people have higher incomes and get better performance reviews than those who are less generous.

Concern for others also promotes supportive relationships and reduces the chance of depression. Students who care about others tend to see their education as preparation for contributing to society rather than making money, an outlook which encourages them to persevere even when studies seem dull.

These pro-social characteristics (empathy, cooperation, perseverance, and self-control) are malleable skills that can be taught. While we naturally attract nice kids at Adventure Treks, it’s nice to know that our environment and culture can actually help already nice kids improve these social skills, continuing to help set them up for success.

Our emphasis on kindness is important because data shows kindness is in decline in the U.S. (though not in Canada). This matches a long-term decline in empathy, community affiliation, group membership, and use of words like “love,” “gentleness,” “kindness,” and “goodness” in modern discourse. Use of these words have declined 50 percent in the modern age as have conversations about purpose and morality (Journal of Positive Psychology, 2012).

Some of this decline in kindness may be an unintentional change in our parenting styles as a result of trying to prepare our children for participation in a competitive global economy. From a December 2019 Atlantic article about the Making Caring Common Project: “If you survey American parents about what they want for their kids, more than 90 percent say one of their top priorities is that their children be caring. This makes sense: Kindness and concern for others are held as moral virtues in nearly every society and religion. But when you ask children what their parents want for them, 81 percent say their parents value achievement and happiness over caring…

“Kids, with their sensitive antennae, pick up on all this. They see their peers being celebrated primarily for the grades they get and the goals they score, not for the generosity they show. They see adults marking their achievements without paying as much attention to their character.”

Annual surveys of American college students also show a substantial drop from 1979 to the present in empathy and in imagining the perspectives of others. Over this period, students grew less likely to feel concern for people less fortunate than themselves—and less bothered by seeing others treated unfairly.

As parents, we know that if we want kindness to be a key value, we must give it support. The Road to Character author Dave Brooks talks about two sets of virtues: résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. In life, the skills we need for the job market, the attributes “essential” for our external and financial success, are often at odds with the virtues that we hope others would attribute to us at our funeral.

These are the elements of our character, our virtues—the relationships we maintain, our kindness, humility, gratitude, sacrifice, concern for others, morality, integrity, responsibility, and resilience.

When kids are praised for helping others, they are more likely to continue this behavior. Teaching children to care for others helps them live a more fulfilling life. This is what we do at Adventure Treks! Every day during evening meeting, we make space to praise people who helped others out. We create numerous opportunities to volunteer and make sure good deeds are noticed, appreciated, and praised. Kindness is contagious. Our culture builds on itself, and in an outdoor community, the competition changes from who can achieve the most to who can be the nicest kid!

Besides the fulfillment AT kids get from being a contributing part of a close, caring, and kind community, it’s great to know that they are building skills that will help them finish first!

The sun rises above the snow-capped mountains in brilliant hues of pink, orange, and purple. You get off your horse to take in the breathtaking scenery, hear the roar of a river below, and see the outline of a herd of elk in the distance. The birds begin to chirp louder as the sun rises higher. A golden eagle flies overhead. You take a deep breath, feeling accomplished for making it so far in this rugged terrain.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! The sound jolts you out of your peaceful daze. “REMOTE CONTROL BATTERIES LOW” flashes on the screen. The tranquil scene vanishes from the screen as the video game warns of impending dead battery doom.

I recently came across an article from Outside that reiterated an article Dock wrote a few years ago about video games and what makes them so captivating. As technology, faster internet, and budgets continue to grow, “today’s games are cinematic artworks,” writes Outside’s David Kushner. “They enable players from around the world to share digital adventures that are so immersive, so full of surprise and delight and realistic living things, that they can fulfill the core human need to explore.” Games like Fortnite, Minecraft, League of Legends, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are more than multi-billion-dollar businesses—they are an entire way of life. (To put the games’ success in perspective, when Red Dead Redemption 2 was released, it brought in $725 million during its first weekend, beating the strongest film opening of 2018, Avengers: Infinity War, by almost $100 million.)

Dock’s prediction around virtual reality becoming our biggest competition seems to be coming true as studies have shown that the same parts of your brain that get stimulated during a hike can get fired up by screen time in a digital wilderness. The Outside article echoes this verdict: “New science indicates that digital adventure may be just as thrilling as the real thing. An emerging body of research suggests that these virtual worlds can stimulate the same brain activity and physiological response as offline exploration.”

While video games may not actually bring about the end of the world, it’s important for us to understand the power, appeal, and effects of time spent playing them. We must work to find a balance of enjoying video games along with physical activity in the (real) outdoors, as taking these offline journeys without ever stepping foot outside can come at a price.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the World Health Organization has included “gaming disorder” in its International Classification of Diseases. And predictably, too much gaming can lead to health problems. The Endocrine Society found that heavy screen time and snacking can increase risk of heart disease and diabetes in teenagers. The New York Institute of Technology found that gamers who played between three and 10 hours per day reported a range of ailments, like eye fatigue and neck, back, wrist, and hand pain, and that 40 percent of these video game players “did not participate in any form of physical activity.”

Remember when Pokemon Go exploded onto the scene? Its goal was to combine gaming with actual outdoor activity… and while valuable, it’s not enough and doesn’t provide the same value as spending screen-free time in nature. So how do we compete with the allure of the digital outdoors? Imagine if “being in nature” was prescribed by our doctors. Would this not only spread the message of the benefits of nature, but also improve the well-being of teens and society?

Doctors have been encouraging their patients to go outside for millennia. Hippocrates called walking “man’s best medicine.” Han dynasty physicians encouraged outdoor “frolicking exercises” to ward off aging. And until the mid-1940s, tuberculosis patients were sent to mountain retreats to take in the “magic airs.” There’s a grassroots movement permeating doctors’ offices across America today: Along with prescribing necessary medications to cure ailments, doctors are also prescribing spending time outside as part of their patients’ care plans. Most credit the concept to Parks Victoria in Australia, which began to link the outdoors and human health through initiatives with medical providers in the early 2000s. Soon after, the first mainstream, provider-based outdoor programs in the States started to tackle common diseases.

“Exposure to nonthreatening natural stimuli, scientists have discovered, lowers blood pressure, reduces stress-hormone levels, promotes physical healing, bolsters immune-system function, raises self-esteem, improves mood, curtails the need for painkillers, and reduces inflammation,” writes Outside’s Aaron Reuben. The theory goes that natural stimuli (like the sounds of birds and swaying branches, or the smell of pine trees, or a glimpse of a scampering chipmunk) active the “rest and digest” function, aka the parasympathetic nervous system. When children and teenagers are increasingly exposed to “threatening stimuli,” e.g. difficult homework assignments, bullying, or high-level athletic competitions, their health suffers. In this complicated and busy world, nature can actually shift our patterns of thinking, leading to a more restorative state and thus increased well-being.

Since the mid-aughts, when the first nature-based program in the U.S. began, “the movement has exploded,” said Betty Sun, the health-program manager at the Institute at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, whose mission includes coordinating knowledge-sharing within nature-prescribing programs. According to Sun’s most recent survey from July 2018, the U.S. now has 71 provider-based nature-prescription programs in 32 states, with the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of patients.

As the evidence grows, research institutes for nature and health will continue to open at major medical centers, and electronic health-record systems have begun to incorporate nature prescriptions just as they do pharmacological ones. If this continues, we may start to see more health insurance companies offering incentives for nature prescriptions. Those prescriptions take many forms, from general encouragement to get outside at least twice a week to specific instructions for activity, location, duration, and frequency. In a world where we increasingly live our lives indoors, says Robert Zarr, founder of the public-health nonprofit Park Rx America, “We are starting to think about nature not just as a place to recreate, but also as a social determinant of health.”

Hopefully we can continue to put a greater priority on getting outside more, whether it’s skating around the neighborhood, learning how to mountain bike, or joining a local hiking club. In fact, may we prescribe an Adventure Treks trip?

By Scott Silverstein, AT student from 2001–2003

When I think of Adventure Treks and its impact on my life, I think of a poem that I learned from former instructor Ben Mirkin: “Two Kinds of People” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. I’ve copied the poem at the end of this, but—spoiler alert!—the two kinds of people are lifters and leaners.

Adventure Treks taught me to be a lifter. In the backcountry, there’s really no option to be a leaner. You have to find water or you’ll be thirsty. You have to purify the water or you’ll get sick from Giardia. You have to make shelter or you won’t have protection from the elements. In a literal sense, you carry only what you need on your back—and nothing more. The complexities of life are reduced to a handful of well-defined tasks, and if you’re part of a group it quickly becomes obvious who is pulling their weight. Adventure Treks impresses this point gently through discussions of community-building and the self-reflection of plus delta (and, more celebratory, through hat presentations), so everybody learns to do their part, and the community almost always thrives.

In the real world, you can get away with being a leaner. You can work just hard enough not to get fired, you can leave chores to your housemates, you can fail to engage in political and social issues (I am so guilty of that last one)… all without noticing the consequences. But a big community suffers from leaners just like a small, 30-person AT community does—with every inaction it becomes dirtier, one-sided, and harder to live in.

What’s awe-inspiring is when you’ve spent time in the wilderness and seen the instant benefit of a community filled with lifters. There’s a big difference between doing just enough work to get to your campsite on time, and everyone pitching in so that you can get to your campsite early, set up tents and drop off gear, hike up a nearby peak, and have evening meeting with a Skittles game in front of a sunset. After experiencing the power of an AT community, it becomes much easier and more gratifying to build your community in real life.

AT gave me a lifelong love of the outdoors and a new set of survival skills. (Boy Scouts gave me some of the same thing, but the places I went with AT and the adventures we had were so much cooler.) I made powerful friendships, some of which I maintain to this day. I learned to value work-life balance, and I have managed to move to Vermont, get a flexible job (I’m a self-employed structural engineer), ski a ton, and choose a life partner whose values match mine. My life is immeasurably better thanks to AT… and I hope Adventure Treks is still around in about 12 years so they can have the same life-changing impact for my baby boy as they did for me!

“Two Kinds of People” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are two kinds of people on earth to-day;
Just two kinds of people, no more I say.

Not the sinner and saint, for it’s well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man’s wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter end each man his tears.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the earth’s masses
Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find, too, I ween,
There’s only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of labor and worry and care?