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Get Outdoors Day promotes outside exploration

No matter the weather, Get Outdoors Day always seems to thrive.

Blazing hot temperatures, rain, hail or just an average June day. It doesn’t seem to matter much what it feels like outside, people keep coming back by the thousands. That was the case at Saturday’s National Get Outdoors Day, which had its Clark County iteration at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. This time around, temperatures stayed in low to mid-60s, with intermittent peeks of sunshine.

“We’ve had 90-degree weather. Last year we had hail. It doesn’t seem to matter,” said Gala Miller an organizer of the event with the U.S. Forest Service. “People in the Northwest always seem to come out. If it rains they’ll just step under a tree for a while and then continue on. It’s great to see all these people who are passionate about the outdoors.”

Saturday’s event had 38 different organizations represented, Miller said, all with some kind of outdoors theme. There was an archery booth, a fishing area, an outdoor rock-climbing wall, a horse kid’s could pet, cross-cut sawing and even “Pokemon Go,” which Miller said is technology that promotes leaving the couch and exploring.

“The purpose is to get people excited about and learning about the great outdoors and public lands and things they can do to stay healthy and active, and connect with nature,” Miller said. “It’s really about generating a greater appreciation of the outdoors.”

Coler Geren, 11, of Vancouver took some time to perform archery at the Get Outdoors Day event commended its diversity of activities.

“There’s so many different events and so many different things to do,” he said.

The National Park Service partners with the Forest Service to throw the event at the Fort. National Park Service Supervisory Park Ranger Bob Cromwell said Get Outdoors Day is a great opportunity to inform people about all the great outdoor recreational opportunities that are within a few hours of driving distance.

There was also a Brigade Encampment re-enactment, which is an 1840s-era celebration of the return of Hudson’s Bay fur brigades after they had spent nine months traversing the U.S. while trapping.

“Thematically, we join it together because Get Outdoors Day is about trying to get the public outdoors,” Cromwell said of the re-enactment. “The brigade encampment shows that the Hudson’s Bay Company’s whole lifestyle was outdoors. We do that today for fun. That was their lifestyle. We just try to show what it was like in the past versus today.”


Source: https://www.columbian.com

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