 Giphy Camping is a) perfect for social distancing b) surrounded by natural air filters and c) an excellent excuse to go offline. And, for my fellow single readers, in the words of Mary Bennet: "What are men compared to rocks and mountains?" Here are two ways to camp during COVID-19: - Frontcountry: Throughout the U.S., campgrounds where you pull up to your spot with a car are reopening, but you'll want to check the individual reservation sites. Yosemite, Glacier, and other parks are all keeping their availability pretty limited. You can also show up at 5am for campsite lotteries.
- Backcountry: No luck with designated sites? You can try dispersed camping, or popping up your tent off the beaten path. This USDA Forest Service guide explains it in more depth. And for multi-day treks, do your research: You might need permits and site reservations along the way.
If you opt for the road less traveled... Look for: high ground a short walk away from a water source (too close = bug invasion), with a level, dry area for your tent or tarp (if you're going al fresco). - Check the area for prints, tree markings, and yes, scat, to make sure you're not Goldilocks-ing the neighborhood. Here's a beginners' guide.
What to bring: This guide's a good place to start. But if I had to travel light? Tarp, sleeping bag, food, first-aid stuff, iodine tablets, lighter, flint, trowel, sunscreen, camp stove, extra fuel, knife, map, compass, headlight, and whistle. The rest is gravy. Highly recommended gravy. Get lost in a hole: Exercise your brain by trying some famous thought experiments. There's the trolley problem, as seen in The Good Place, and my personal favorite: brain in a vat. (Its progenitor is Descartes's Evil Demon.) You can also contemplate the age-old question: Why did the chicken cross the road? - Aeon is also full of mind-melting philosophy articles. My personal favorite? "Against cheerfulness" by Mariana Alessandri.
Level up: Learn about Native Americans from Native Americans on TikTok. Discover culture and customs with @the_land, hear how COVID-19 is impacting the Navajo Nation with @jojojaxn, and laugh with @brettstoise.  Two former pro athletes teamed up to tackle their most intense foe yet: CBD wellness products. Seriously though, CBD products have never been this good. beam uses nano CBD, a high-tech form of THC-free CBD that's much more easily absorbed by the body. The result? It depends on what kinda beam you're indulgin' in. "dream" helps you get mad zzz's. "revive" will help your body recover. "boost" will help soothe your sore muscles. Sound too good to choose? Don't stress, because that's not what beam's about. Instead, try "best of beam"—all of beam's premier products, valued at $58—for just $29 here.  Giphy Healthy-ish recipes: Salads should be more than Italian dressing drizzled on iceberg lettuce. This Twitter thread is a good place to start your salad-making journey, and here are two recipes I make all the time: - Simple: Spinach + little mozzarella balls (bocconcini) + grape or cherry tomatoes + pesto
- Less simple: Swiss chard salad with homemade bread crumbs
Lastly, you can add a poached egg to pretty much any salad. Yoga flows: Yoga to the People has a whole suite of donation-based yoga options I've been exploring. So far, my favorites are the podcasts, since I like to close my eyes when I practice anyways. Long listens: My favorite mixes to work to right now are both on SoundCloud: 1) Tycho's Burning Man performance and 2) this lofi Nintendo mix. For more DJs, head to YouTube. Cercle and Boiler Room are full of great sets from cool places, like Zhu's performance in Japan's Hakuba mountains. Have you ever finished reading a book and wished you could spend more time with your favorite characters? Well, fanfiction writers agree with you, so they've teased out the edges of every plot point and character arc out there. Some of the most famous examples: The Mortal Instruments is based on Harry Potter, and 50 Shades is spun off from Twilight. - Even classic stories have modern reworks, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Android Karenina, and the Odyssey-inspired Circe.
But you won't find Harry Potter and Malfoy's long and loving marriage among published works. For that, you'll have to head over to user-generated story sites like Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, or Commaful. And if you've ever wanted to write a novel but were scared off by Tolkien-sized world building expectations, put on some literary training wheels by writing your own fanfic. And please, please hit reply if you plan on telling the story of Legolas and Gimli's lifelong friendship.  Hannah Peters/Getty Images Ski season was cut short this year, and I cannot wait to get back on my board. Here's a resort in Cardrona, New Zealand, that I'm adding to my winter bucket list. Always honored when you've read this far, so thank you for spending some time with me and I hope you got a valuable link or two along the way. If you have any recommendations or suggestions for the newsletter (or for me personally), hit reply and have a great weekend. | 
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