Thank you for this! Do you have any advice for those who are severely immunocompromised and want to find community outdoors, but others aren’t willing to take precautions (like testing beforehand, masking etc).?
I've been thinking a lot about this question the past two days as I've been at a trail conference. Many of my suggestions in this post--and the very conference I'm at right now--require people to be in close quarters with strangers in order to find the "spark" of a hiking buddy, which can be incredibly limiting. I have a suggestion for finding hiking buddies when immunocompromised, but it feels paltry in comparison to the previous list. My guess is that the existing groups of people who are already taking the precautions you mentioned keep their groups small and invite-only so that it is hard find them if you don't already have a connection to someone in the group. As a result, you would have to reach out to groups that may be able to make that connection for you. For example, emailing the local trail organizations and "Friends of" groups for your parks and seeing if they know of any members/volunteers who run such a hiking group or are also in need of hiking buddy who is willing to take precautions. Then approaching it from the other side, you could reach out to your healthcare providers or even online support groups and put out that same feeler. Basically, you're trying to find that friend of a friend who can be the connection point and will basically vouch for each of you to the other so that you can limit your risk on that first meeting. It's a lot more work and likely won't pay off immediately. But hopefully in a month or three after reaching out to various groups and people, someone else will have a similar conversation with one of those same people and they will be able to bring you together. I feel like this is an unsatisfying answer, but maybe I will have a conversation in the coming months that will bring me better ideas and if so, I pass them along then!
I’ve hiked with some great strangers that I met on hiking Facebook groups for my area. Some have turned into friends others were just so we could complete our hike goal that was more remote than either one of us felt comfortable doing solo.
That's such a good reminder that not every hiking friend has to be a "forever" friend. Sometimes the best hiking buddy is just the one that is available at that moment!
Thank you for this! Do you have any advice for those who are severely immunocompromised and want to find community outdoors, but others aren’t willing to take precautions (like testing beforehand, masking etc).?
I've been thinking a lot about this question the past two days as I've been at a trail conference. Many of my suggestions in this post--and the very conference I'm at right now--require people to be in close quarters with strangers in order to find the "spark" of a hiking buddy, which can be incredibly limiting. I have a suggestion for finding hiking buddies when immunocompromised, but it feels paltry in comparison to the previous list. My guess is that the existing groups of people who are already taking the precautions you mentioned keep their groups small and invite-only so that it is hard find them if you don't already have a connection to someone in the group. As a result, you would have to reach out to groups that may be able to make that connection for you. For example, emailing the local trail organizations and "Friends of" groups for your parks and seeing if they know of any members/volunteers who run such a hiking group or are also in need of hiking buddy who is willing to take precautions. Then approaching it from the other side, you could reach out to your healthcare providers or even online support groups and put out that same feeler. Basically, you're trying to find that friend of a friend who can be the connection point and will basically vouch for each of you to the other so that you can limit your risk on that first meeting. It's a lot more work and likely won't pay off immediately. But hopefully in a month or three after reaching out to various groups and people, someone else will have a similar conversation with one of those same people and they will be able to bring you together. I feel like this is an unsatisfying answer, but maybe I will have a conversation in the coming months that will bring me better ideas and if so, I pass them along then!
Great list, and what a helpful post to mark your 50th! Congratulations Alice.
Thanks, James!
OK there are really no excuses now for the person who asked the question, haha! Great list.
I’ve hiked with some great strangers that I met on hiking Facebook groups for my area. Some have turned into friends others were just so we could complete our hike goal that was more remote than either one of us felt comfortable doing solo.
That's such a good reminder that not every hiking friend has to be a "forever" friend. Sometimes the best hiking buddy is just the one that is available at that moment!
Great advice! I would encourage people to keep asking. I've found that it takes time for people to say yes, even when they want to.
Excellent advice...👍