Outdoor Diary: We’re Sick, But the Outside Is Still Safe

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Amy and her family are under quarantine and battling through COVID-19. But they’re still headed outside every day for at least 20 minutes, and know that doing the same is key to staying safe, sane and getting healthy.


Hear more on this week’s episode of the Humans Outside podcast.

Some of the good stuff:

[:35] Humans Outside is quarantined!

[:45] How everyone’s feeling

[1:20] Why getting outside is still important

[2:00] How the Bushatz family is getting outside

[3:08] What’s coming up on Humans Outside

Connect with this episode:

Register for our newsletter to win a decal: https://humansoutside.com/newsletter

Follow us on Instagram and share your outdoor life with the hashtag #humansoutside365.

Here’s an edited transcript of this installment of Amy’s Outdoor Diary. Listen to the episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

The Humans Outside household is under quarantine, but we’re still going outside.

I’m not sure how we got it. I’ve narrowed it down to either an asymptomatic kid who brought it home from school, or a chance encounter in the grocery store. No matter how it happened, COVID-19 is here in our house.

We’re doing a good job of hanging in there and our symptoms are, blessedly, pretty mild. For the most part we all just feel like we have a flu bug, except for my 11-year-old, Dave, who tested positive but is as happy as a clam, with no symptoms at all. He’s bummed that he’s stuck at home some more after several weeks of quarantine already due to being a close contact at school. But otherwise, attitudes remain good, and we’ve got about a week more of quarantine to go.

Whenever we get any kind of bug, my big question is always around making sure we still get outside. After all, being sick at home hardly seems like a good reason to me to abandon over 1,100 days straight of heading outside for at least 20 minutes.

Like any other time, it comes down to a decision. When you’re not feeling well every single thing is that much harder. And as if matters weren’t already challenging, of course it’s also cold outside, making going outside harder to start with sick or not.

And so when we’re sick, getting outside bumps up to the most important thing all day. If nothing else gets done and I dont have the energy for any other task, I will get outside. I will go for a walk or sit in the hot tub.

And so that’s what we’ve done. Each day since we started feeling unwell, we’ve bundled up and gone for a slow but steady walk in the woods. I’m still riding my bike each day to keep my surgery hip moving, so after I’m done I shower and go sit in the hot tub — that’s two sets of outdoor times instead of one. It’s been soothing and rewarding in all the ways going outside is always soothing and rewarding. And it’s a good, living, breathing reminder of the life-giving ways the outdoors make us feel.

But even if we weren’t sick, so many in our communities are. Here in Alaska we’re experiencing quite the COVID outbreak. I’m going to reserve commentary on what’s caused this, because that’s not important here, although you can probably guess my thoughts.

Instead, I’m going to remind us that getting outside is always a good idea, no matter the time of year. As we worry about health and safety in our communities, the outdoors continues to offer a safe place for us to literally retreat. Get out there, friends, breathe a little. Find a new trail, or visit a space you’ve been meaning to head back to. It’ll be worth it, the way getting outside is always worth it.

I’m excited as we head into Thanksgiving because I’ve spent countless hours putting together a really fun holiday gift guide for you, complete with seven different gear giveaways featuring products we use and love. This week’s Thursday episode will tell you more about that, and you can watch for the giveaways starting Nov. 19, with a new one open to enter daily through Nov. 26. We’re giving away a Klean Kanteen thermos, a Noxgear Tracer360 visibility vest, Goodr sunglasses, Humans Outside swag, a SCOTTeVEST vest, a pair of Combat Flip Flops and three pairs of Balega socks. All of these items are pretty great, so make sure you enter each day.


And we’ll remind you to enter on our Humans Outside Instagram and Facebook pages, where I also share a picture each day of what I’ve been up to outside, tagged with #humansoutside365. I’d love to see your outdoor photos, too. Tag them with #humansoutside365 so we can see what you’ve been up to. Stay healthy, friends — and until next time, we’ll see you out there.

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