As you know, my nephew Antione got married just a few months ago, and he and his new wife Christine departed for a honeymoon in Hawaii right after the ceremony. After checking out their vacation videos at the recent family Thanksgiving gathering, it was clear and admirable to me how the two embraced the local, wild environment as a big part of their new connection to one another as husband and wife. The following video shares the good humor and ecology they experienced while visiting the Kahua Institute in Haiku, …

Why not talk about the elephant in the room? This has to be the MOST funny video I have seen about African Americans and their experience while hiking in wild places. I wish it was totally fictional, but there is more truth here than you might imagine!
Thanks for sharing Marica Woods! — and great job Blair Underwood!
We have work to do!
Blair Underwood, Pacific Cinerama Dome

Black Hiker with Blair Underwood from Blair Underwood

Roberts Kids
I met the Robert’s family recently at a conference in Atlanta. Their courage to camp for the first time in the sublime terrain of the Florida Everglades is an inspiration for all families — and they are terrific people to be around as well! Watch all three parts!
Part I

Part II

Part III

Outdoor Afro just received a note from Arthur Bronson, President of the International Federation of Black Bass Anglers (IFBBA) to let us know what his organization has been frying up these days. The IFBBA’s members are comprised primarily of people of color and its membership and outreach spans the globe. The organization also targets and mentors urban kids of color to participate in various fishing derbies and clinics.
Arthur Bronson and IFBBA members Ed Hasse and Reynaldo Anderson
Mr. Bronson says that fishing for African Americans is not new, “we have …

Chelsea Griffie
I took a climbing trip with Outward Bound in my early 20’s, and it changed my life. It was a physical accomplishment I did not think I was capable of achieving – and my awareness of possibility and faith from that successful experience remains with me today.
Chelsea Griffie was similarly inspired by rock climbing and the outdoors. Her Chicago parents were not campers, so she climbed for the first time as a young adult on a trip to Brazil, and was hooked. In the years since, Chelsea’s skills …

We just got back from 8 days of Northern California bliss with some of the most fun and fantastic Bay Area folks who all had the same vacation idea: Feather River Camp!

Each year, I meet up with the self titled “Stumpers”. We converge on the camp’s Folk Dance Week theme, and are notorious for our daily all-inclusive Happy Hour, around a big old stump that doubles as a lounge table. Evan and Willa, our resident bards, came up with a theme song some years back (“Here at …

After getting married and starting a family of my own, camping took on a new meaning. For just a short drive and little money, I found camping was one of the most economical ways my new family could take a vacation. During these years I collected essential camping gear, like our first family-sized tent and propane stove from local garage sales and eBay — my family still uses these items today.
But as my family grew, so did the effort of camping. Thus the city of Oakland’s Feather River family camp, …

A Seattle Times article from 2005 explores why blacks are not camping in this Pacific Northwest region with 250, 000 acres of parkland.
“One former ranger, who worked at Deception Pass and other state parks that each hosted up to 400,000 visitors a year, reported seeing fewer than 50 blacks over a 10-year period“