Micro-adventuring is the corner stone of adventuring like a rock star. Becoming a rock star doesn’t happen overnight. There is the constant practice in the garage. Learning to sing or to play an instrument has a cost associated with it that is so high only mothers can calculate it. Once a budding rock star has a band they have to deal with people grimacing, heckling, and throwing beer bottles at them while they try to perfect their art. Standard rock star growing pains. The backyard is the adventurer’s practice field. Dodging beer bottles, absorbing heckling, and occasional shot gun blasts all just add to the overall excitement you will feel when micro-adventuring and perfecting the art of adventure.
Tip 2: Practice adventuring in your backyard. Often referred to as micro-adventures
The first thing you need to do is define your backyard. You should not limit yourself to some fenced property behind your casa. I define my backyard as anything I can reach via vehicle in two hours. This gives me a pretty good practice field as I can reach many mountains, wooded areas, rivers, and even the pacific ocean in two hours. Not bad for a backyard. I suggest buying a local map and using your kids old school compass to draw a circle with a two hour radius around your home. This will give you an excellent idea of the possible adventures in your backyard.
Think of your backyard as the testing ground for the epic adventures. Say you have caught the fishing bug or as in my case you have two young boys who have it and you need to guide them through the processes of aleaveating themselves of said bug. First, you will have to go fishing hundreds of times before you can actually cast your own fishing rod. Thus, it is imperative to have multiple types of fishing areas to explore and in my case to practice conservatism by not catching anything, within your two mile radius. Obviously, you can see the cost benefits to having a good back yard. If you were to purchase a guide for each trip or even drive outside your backyard for the trips your cost-to-adventure ratio would be astronomical.
I’m constantly finding new adventure opportunities in my backyard. New bike paths and hiking trails are being added and not just the ones I create by getting lost and crashing through the brush and trees. Sections of streams I kayak prove to be good fishing and hunting spots.
I recently got a tip from a hiking friend of mine that a piece of property labeled as an arboretum on local maps was good for hiking. After I stopped laughing hysterically and threw out a couple of remarks about what kind of hiker he was toughing it through arboretums instead of the wilderness, I decided to check it out. Only because it was in my backyard and I reasoned I should know as much as possible about my backyard. Turns out there is an actual arboretum there but it is surrounded by miles of great hiking, mountain biking, and horse back trails. Perfect for honing my skills at falling and crashing.
So, there are two huge money savers from tip #2. First, perfect your skills for your epic adventures in your backyard. This way you can lower your adventure-to-cost ratio but upping the adventure part of the equation. Second, playing in your backyard allows, sometimes force-ably, you to meet new people. You can then leverage their knowledge, by asking intelligent questions like, “Have you seen an arboretum around here?” thus saving you money on research and possibly helping you in implementing tip #1.
