11 Outdoors Hacks for City Dwellers

11 OUTDOORS HACKS FOR CITY DWELLERS

By Sarah Knapp. Originally posted on The Clymb's blog here. 

So you moved to a major urban cen­ter like New York City and worry that you will now only be able to expe­ri­ence nat­ural places through your dirt­bag friends’ Insta­gram feeds. As a city-dweller, access­ing the great out­doors isn’t impos­si­ble; you just need a few good hacks.

Here are eleven tips to help urban­ites get outside.  

TIP 1: THE HYDRA­TION BLAD­DER SPACE SAVER
No place to hang out wet hydra­tion packs to dry? Throw them in the bot­tom of your freezer to stop bac­te­ria from grow­ing and save closet space.  

TIP 2: USE PUB­LIC TRAN­SIT TO FIND THE OPEN ROAD
Check out your city’s rules regard­ing bicy­cles on pub­lic tran­sit. In New York, you can buy a $5 bike pass (no expi­ra­tion) to trains that go from the cen­ter of Man­hat­tan to over 60 miles north of the city. That means more explor­ing and less traffic.  

TIP 3: DEC­O­RATE YOUR WALLS WITH YOUR FAVORITE MAPS 
Car­tog­ra­phy is trendy these days, so store your maps on the wall. Your new art will serve as a daily reminder you need to plan another trip, plus the dirt and rain dam­age will give your new dec­o­ra­tion a “vin­tage” look.  

TIP 4: CRE­ATE YOUR OWN BUS ROUTE 
Do some research on bus route options in your area. While it’s rel­a­tively easy to get a bus dri­ver to drop you off at an unplanned stop when you’re already on the bus, it’s trick­ier get­ting a pickup that after­noon (or the next day after camp­ing out). Bring a smile (and maybe a six pack) on the way to the trail­head. Chances are he’ll be doing the route again the next day and if you ask nicelyhe’ll make an extra stop on his ride back to town tomor­row. Get there early, wave him down, and bam: you have your own camp­ing chauffeur.  

TIP 5: GET COM­FORT­ABLE IN YOUR SLIP­PERS 
Are you really sup­posed to car­pet your entire apart­ment? That sounds expen­sive. Grab your down slip­pers and your down­stairs neigh­bor will never know you spent your money on a new rope instead. 

TIP 6:  INVEST IN A MULTI-USE HEL­MET 
You have lim­ited space and a lot of gear. Next time you’re pur­chas­ing a hel­met look for one that will cover you for more than one of your sports.  

TIP 7:  MAKE YOUR BIKE MULTI-PURPOSE 
Speak­ing of multi-use, invest in a bike that fits your city-self and out­doorsy alter ego. For­get the fixie. Use your moun­tain bike to slay local pot­holes dur­ing the week and single-track on the weekends.  

TIP 8: CON­CRETE TRAIN­ING 
What cities lack in rugged sum­mits they make up for with stairs. Finally, make work­ing in mid­town worth it and use your office secu­rity key to access the build­ing on week­ends. Fol­low the emer­gency exit signs to the stairs, lace up your run­ning shoes and push your VO2 max. Plus, if it’s a new­fan­gled LEED build­ing you can hit the stairs before work and be show­ered and ready to go before the boss gets in.   

TIP 9: GET INTO THE HOS­PI­TAL­ITY GAME 
You live in a city so you prob­a­bly pay a hefty amount of rent. Why not use some of that for your next trip? Sign up with Airbnb and have a fel­low adven­turer stay in your pad and help finance your white­wa­ter trip.  

TIP 10: STUFF YOUR BOAT UNDER YOUR BED 
Fold­able kayaks & canoes mean easy access to the water. Unpack, unfold, inflate, and pad­dle. You can even find a put-in acces­si­ble by pub­lic tran­sit and pad­dle back.  

TIP 11: THE COR­PO­RATE OUT­ING 
Non­cha­lantly float the idea of kayak­ing or climb­ing as a great team build­ing expe­ri­ence to HR. Next thing you know, your com­pany will be pay­ing you to hang out the crag.