Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors.

One quick note before we get started, November 24th is Small Business Saturday, where holiday shoppers are encouraged to patronize

small, locally owned businesses. We'll be offering 30% off on all Out There merchandise that

day only. Just head to Out Therepodcast.com and click on the merch tab. If you want a reminder

about the sale on the day of, just sign up for our email newsletter

or follow us on social media. Oh, and I should note, we just got a new shipment of Out

their t-shirts in, so we're fully stocked, and we have some new long-sleeved options.

All right, on to our story for today. We've all heard the paradigm of the country mouse and the city mouse.

But for many of us, we're neither, or we're both.

We're weekend warriors who live in a city, or we enjoy living in a bucolic suburb,

but only get into the backcountry a couple times a year.

That's the thing about wilderness. It wouldn't be wild if we lived there. But what happens

when you discover the depth of your love for the outdoors only after you move to the country's

most populated city? How do you find outdoor adventure when the only nature you have access to is divvied up into

city parks? And how do you ward off boredom and maintain a sense of excitement and wonder

when the places you play or exercise become overly familiar? Halima Marcus has the story.

I have always been a person who loves the outdoors. Growing up outside Philadelphia, I spent summer days playing in the creek that ran by our house, making forts and climbing trees.

In high school, I spent nearly every afternoon riding horses.

But in college, my work-hard, party-hard lifestyle

left little time for anything else. Even though my college was in the gorgeous Hudson Valley,

I never visited the Catskill Mountains once. And after graduating, I lived in Philadelphia,

which is not exactly the wilderness.

...