“I have some good news,” said Bonnie Combs, marketing director for the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. “Nature is not canceled.”
Combs said this back in March, when the lockdown had begun and things to do began to fall by the wayside, one by one. But the one thing that was still available to the public also happens to be the one thing that the coronavirus couldn’t touch: the great outdoors.
“Fresh air and sunshine are good for you. Just practice social distancing,” Combs told the Metro West Daily News.
It seems people took her advice because outdoor activities have surged over the past few months. Retailers in Michigan said that kayaks, bicycles, fishing equipment, and other outdoor gear are hard to come by, and recreational boats are being reserved weeks in advance.
“We’re definitely seeing a big increase in sales,” Tiffany VanDeHey, owner of Riverside Kayak Connection, told the Detroit News. “We’ll probably be out of boats in a few weeks. People are looking for rec boats all over the place. There’s just so much outdoor activity these days.”
This move outside is the best possible option for those eager to return to some sense of normalcy. Health experts have confirmed that COVID-19 doesn’t pose nearly as great of a threat outdoors as it does for indoor, enclosed spaces. Even light wind can quickly dilute transmission of the virus, and studies seem to suggest that sunshine and warmer temperatures help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, according to the New York Times.
And more importantly, being outside is simply good for human beings in general. Especially those who have spent months indoors, seeing very few people. For Kate Wathall, a Los Angeles television producer, taking a hike down Trail Canyon Falls was the first time she’d felt “normal” again.
“It was like being back to normal life,” she said. “Obviously, it’s not. But it’s a day where I forgot what was going on.”
