Getting outdoors provides opportunities for fun and exercise with a countless number of possible activities. Using those exercise machines in the den or basement is all well and good, but riding your bicycle or walking an equivalent distance will provide opportunities to meet people and see what is going on in the world, outside of your home. Even better, join a group to bike or walk with and increase your circle of friends while you keep in condition.

If it’s upper body exercise you want, try a canoe or kayak for your workout. Forget that it is a workout; just get out on the water and paddle for some pure exhilaration. Any body of water over a few feet wide and a foot or more deep will do. Take along some fishing tackle and catch your dinner while you are at it. No fish market can compete with the freshness.

If kayaking or canoeing becomes your passion, join a club and take tours of the waterways. Include some camping gear and really make a weekend of it. There is a wide variety of locations from long distance touring in an ocean kayak, to day trips on a river or lake. All that fun and a group to do it with will provide safety in numbers, while you learn from each other.

There are parks and conservation land everywhere, just waiting for you to hike. You can just go out for a couple of hours and do some bird watching, or travel the Appalachian Trail for a mile or two, or for a couple of thousand miles as you experience the wild from Georgia to Maine. Opportunity and adventure abound in the great outdoors.