Items

• 
  2025-02-01

  Hiking Boots

  If COVID had not happened, I would not own these hiking boots. As lockdown stretched into the late spring and summer of 2020, my friends and I missed being able to see each other. We lived in Vermont at the time, which was both politically and socially strict on social distancing and masking protocol to limit the spread of COVID in the state. In order to spend time together, three of my friends and I started hiking at least once a week, as this allowed us to be together while also being socially distanced. Prior to the pandemic, none of us had been particularly interested in outdoor physical activities like hiking, and we were not in particularly good shape. By the end of the summer, we had all hiked at least 200 cumulative miles. As winter crept in, we did not want to stop hiking. The microspikes next to the hiking boots allowed us to continue hiking together and remain social through the lonely winter months. The second picture was taken on February 21, 2021. It is of two of my friends taking a break on one of our winter hikes. They both have masks around their ears which they would put on when another person passed us on the trail. It was a cold day, but we prolonged the hike as long as we could so that we wouldn't have to leave each other. A month after this photo was taken, we got all got our first dose of the COVID vaccine which, a month later, allowed us to finally be together indoors again. When I think of COVID, I think of the joy of hiking with my friends, a hobby which we continue to this day, but I also think of the pain of not knowing what the future would hold for us. I think of the feeling that time was standing still and the mix of peace and fear that brought me. As the vaccines began to be rolled out and the world started to open back up, the four of us decided to move together to Arizona to escape the cold and the memories of lockdown. I left most of my possessions behind, but I kept these hiking boots and microspikes, just in case.
• 
  2022-06-13

  Arches National Park

  Once COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted, my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I went on our first long-distance road trip together. We wanted to see Arches National Park. This was the start of our checklist to see all 63 National Parks in our lifetimes. The key memory for this trip is that I almost proposed. We’d been talking about marriage, and the timing made sense. She likely expected it that weekend. We hiked out to one of the arches which was gorgeous. The scenery was perfect for a proposal, but it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I was sweating a bit already and she was glowing. Upon reflection I decided it was too hot outside for a proper proposal. Thus, I proposed after the trip in an indoor location. That is a story for another time. Overall, it was a wonderful visit to the park, and our first trip together of more than four hours. The park visitor center still requested masks as a courtesy. That said, there was ample room for social distancing once outside of the building. Trips like these were the safest for tourism at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, because of the vast open air. I felt much better at this National Park than I would have felt in densely populated areas.
• 2024-03-09

  A Trip to the Algarve

  In October 2021, my wife and I went to Portugal for two weeks. It was our first trip since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We went to the southern coast of Portugal, the Algarve. Our purpose was a reconnaissance with an eye to relocation. We'd been toying with the idea of moving overseas for several years. Spain had long been at the top of our list––we spent almost three months in Andalusia a decade earlier and fell for the place––but the Spanish tax and import regulations were a bit difficult, so we looked next door to Portugal. Portugal had inviting tax and import regulations. By that October, Portugal's COVID-19 travel restrictions had eased. You just had to have up-to-date vaccines and documentation of a recently conducted, negative test. That was easy enough, so the time was right for getting on a plane. The more difficult thing was returning to the United States. For that, we had to get another COVID-19 test within hours of travel, it had to be of a certain type, and it had to be administered and certified by an approved agency. Fortunately, a company had cracked-the-code on meeting the requirements through online monitoring of a self-administered test. We bought and took with us three tests each––backups to the backups. The strangest-feeling part of the whole trip was the hours-long layover in Newark on the outbound leg. People were walking around without masks on, and we reluctantly took our masks off to eat. We had both received boosters of the Moderna vaccine, but we felt naked and vulnerable. We left our masks on throughout the flight. After landing in Lisbon, we got our rental car and drove a couple hours to Albufeira. It's a coastal town about dead-center on the southern coast. We stayed in a house, which we rented because we wanted to make our own meals. Portugal is not much of a culinary destination––the best meal we had in a restaurant was a simple margherita pizza. On top of that, we are vegetarians, and my wife has a shellfish allergy, neither of which works well in a food culture based upon seafood and pork. Also, because this was a reconnaissance with an eye to establishing residence, it was important to shop around and see the pricing and availability of goods. An unexpected opportunity to do some shopping came early in the trip. My wife and I had packed for the typical Algarve weather for this time of year: cool, windy, occasional rain. Instead, what we got was very hot and very dry. So, it was off to the mall to reconfigure our wardrobe. We found that we dislike Portuguese malls just as much as we dislike American malls. But we like beaches and long hiking trails, and the Algarve coastline has plenty of that. This is where Portugal shines: miles and miles of walkable beaches, and miles and miles of coastal trails. Our days were spent driving to, and then walking trails and beaches at, coastal destinations along the entirety of the Algarve coastline. We also like friendly people, and the Portuguese are definitely that. My wife and I have travelled extensively, typically staying in each destination a month or more, and the Portuguese are at the top of the friendliness scale. Two days before our departure, we took the US-mandated COVID-19 tests. We logged into an online teleconference system and self-administered our tests at the direction of a talking-head on the screen of our laptop computer. We both received negative test results, which we forwarded to the airline. Then we drove to Lisbon, where we spent our last two nights in a downtown hotel. We walked around the city for hours, quickly discovering that we had arrived on one of Portugal's many holidays. But we were impressed by Lisbon as a city that felt safe and walkable, much unlike typical American cities of similar size. Our return flight was easy on the Portuguese end. On the American end, we met the lines and discourtesy typical of the US customs process. Then we caught a connecting flight to Richmond, Virginia, and from there drove a couple late-night hours to our house in Tidewater Virginia. A year after this trip, we moved to Portugal. As I type this, we have been residents for seventeen months. We currently live in the Algarve, a twenty-minute drive from the house we rented in 2021. The long beaches and friendly people more than made up for the bland food and the trip to the mall.
• 2022-06-30

  The Road Trip 2022

  Road Trip During the heat of covid, the spring of 2020 through the fall of 2022 I worked for our local school district in Arizona. My family and I did not do a lot of traveling beyond the necessary during the mandated restrictions. After the bulk of the restrictions were lifted and vaccines were widely available I participated in a work trip to San Diego to attend a convention. My partner and I decided to springboard off this and turned the summer into a west coast road trip to visit with friends and family. We started in San Diego and the highlights of this trip were Portland, Oregan, Seattle, Washington, and San Jose, California. On our jaunt along the coast there were still precautions being taken. Many people still wore masks out and were positioned with more space in public. Of the people we visited and stayed with on our journey, some were still social distancing, and taking precautions when going out. Our adventure was a good way to reconnect with the people we hadn’t been able to see during the lockdown. My partner and I were able to visit some important places from my childhood and have some epic picnics. There is a lake and small national park near my Grandparents’ home that is open to the public. The tree cover and water line is cut with an easy hiking path. We got to traverse about a mile of it. Taking in the beauty that could easily have been featured in a fairy tail description of an ancient forest. It was a great way to break the isolation and share some of the past with my partner.
• 
  2020-05-08

  Scaling Mountains - Overcoming Obstacles (and New Englands peaks) During the Covid-19 Pandemic

  During the pandemic, I was lucky that I didn't lose anyone close to me. I know many people around me and in the world who watched their loved ones die from COVID-19. It has also had long-lasting health effects on many people as well. It is an ongoing conversation because people are still contracting the virus daily. Lockdown was a surreal moment for many in our ordinarily fast-paced world. The entire world stopped, and for once, we couldn't rely on our usual entertainment and schedules for distraction. This led to the development of new habits, which, unfortunately for me, were not just board games and binge-watching Netflix. Alcoholism had been at my doorstep since my senior year of high school, with my dependence on the substance worsening as the years passed. This is a genetic condition, and I have had countless family members struggle and die because of substance abuse, mainly alcohol. When the pandemic hit, I drank nearly every day, and this continued during lockdown with my roommate and a few friends. Not only was this dangerous because of the spreading pandemic, but it also worsened my mental health. Soon, my college shut down, and I had to move back home, where my substance abuse continued. My relationship had fallen apart when my ex moved back to India as he was on a student visa. The drinking and emotional isolation/strife led to a breakdown wherein intrusive suicidal thoughts plagued me. Something had to change; one night, I quit all substances and contacted my PCP about a mental health evaluation. I know my diagnosis was wrong, but it got me on the medication I needed to forget the intrusive thoughts and piece my life back together. My saving grace was my father and, eventually, my friends, who decided to pick me up and give me a distraction. This distraction became hiking mountains, a shared hobby of previous substance abusers. The chemicals released in the brain during these hikes and the physical exercise filled the void alcohol used to. It served it and began to heal the void left by years of mental health struggles and abuse. Like in this picture, the world's problems and my own seemed small when I was on top of a mountain. Not only that but also hiking is a very social-distance-friendly activity. The love for hiking fostered in my childhood was rekindled during the pandemic and remains one of my favorite things to do. My father and I are attempting to walk up all New England's notable peaks.
• 
  2021-06-09

  Professor Vanlife

  In the summer of 2021, I accepted an adjunct job at a college back East. Rather than spend half the salary on rent and in order to socially distance from others, I fixed up a Toyota Sienna minivan so I could live in it for the summer. This was the first trip I had taken since the late winter of 2020. On the drive out from California, I stopped to climb a mountain in Wyoming and had the trail to the summit mostly to myself. Here's what I wrote about it on Facebook: "View of Laramie Peak (elev. 10,275) in present day Wyoming, an important landmark on the Oregon Trail. For those emigrants not from Appalachia or northern New England, it was the first really big mountain they’d ever seen and it loomed in front of them for several days as they approached it from the plains. Mark Twain passed by here in 1861 and recollected later, speaking about the mountain in the third person: 'Looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.'"
• 
  2020-05-11

  Desert Plague

  Once summer hit Arizona and all the clubs and pools remained closed due to the pandemic, my friends and I were forced to get creative. We managed to find several hiking trails outside of Phoenix that led to glorious water (a treasure out here). We would spend hours at the little pools and waterfalls, talking about what we missed from our previous lives. Sometimes we would bring packs of White Claws- a COVID hit, and pretend we were in Vegas at the dayclubs. Back then, everything was a big ‘what if.’ We all thought that by September of 2020 we would be back in classes, moving on with our lives and not giving a second thought to the mayhem the pandemic brought on. We had no idea what the future held, but we were able to escape to our desert oasis and enjoy one another the way we deserved.
• 
  2020-03-31

  HIST30060 Lockdown #1: Activities and Alcohol

  On 31 March 2022, the first lockdown was initiated in both Melbourne and Sydney. I was in Sydney at the time, having arrived a few days prior from Melbourne as border restrictions were starting to be introduced. I am slightly ashamed to say, now, that I really enjoyed this first lockdown. I hadn't lived at home since 2018, and it was a unique experience to enjoy time together that wouldn't have normally happened. We've always been pretty close, but the lockdown forced an intimacy that we'd never had before (it helped that my teenage brother was required to be at home and boredom had driven him to start having conversations with us again). I think mum and dad were consciously trying to keep lockdown interesting, and soon a weekly cocktail night (with a required lounge formal dress code), bi-weekly painting lessons via zoom and daily yoga with mum, nightly music sessions with dad, lego competitions with the old dusty lego sets, and weekend family walks were introduced. I had never done so much exercise in my life, and yet I had never consumed as much alcohol, either. Even when I lived in a flatshare as an eighteen-year-old. Alcohol quickly became a problem for me, one that I have yet to fully address although I have started to cut down. The taste of wine became associated with fun times with the people I loved, so of course, I loved it. And when the lockdown eventually lifted, I returned to Melbourne nearly friendless (having left before I got the chance to settle in and with little opportunity to meet new people), a cheap bottle of pinot grigio and I became good - if slightly toxic - friends.
• 2022-04-20

  Oklahoma Outbreak: an okie boys experience with COVID-19

  Looking back at the beginning of the pandemic seems surreal. I remember hearing in December 2019 or January 2020 about some sickness in China. However, I had lived through the Ebola scare and multiple different flu outbreaks and my life had not changed day to day. People would get scared and then it would pass after a couple months with little effect. This would turn out to be different and unlike anything seen in the developed 21st century world. I left my school for Spring Break and though I would return to my final days at Mustang HS and the fun events that came with graduating. My family and some friends traveled a few hours from our house to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and stayed nearby in Medicine Park, Oklahoma. It was a sleepy turn of the century resort town that had seen better days when the rich and powerful of Oklahoma had made it a vacation spot. Although not as popular as it once was, it is being rediscovered by local people for its natural beauty and relatively cheap costs. It seemed like a normal vacation, and we did not see very many people as it wasn’t yet summer and there are not that many locals. We hiked trails at the wildlife refuge and went into town for food and trinkets. It was a nice quiet start to the week. Then all of the sudden everything began to change. We watched the news and saw on social media that the virus that was a world away had now made its way to America. We still were not very worried because we were pretty isolated, and either were hiking outside on trails with little activity or tucked away in our cabin playing games and hanging out. Then cases started to explode, the economy started collapsing, people were getting sick everywhere and no one knew what to do. We went into a restaurant in town and did not know how to act; we were all rubbing germ-x all over ourselves and keeping our distance as best we could. At this point we still figured it would all blow over after a few weeks. As our spring break drew to a close, our school let out a statement that we were not going back the next week. This was exciting news and I figured it was all just a precaution and I would be back in class the week after with all of this just a big laugh and some extra time off. Boy was I wrong. On the drive home my dad, who is a semi-prepper, was coming up with all sorts of scenarios and making plans for if the world collapsed but it honestly still felt like we were only entertaining ourselves. As we rolled back into my town, it looked like a beehive had exploded. People were driving crazy, every gas pump was full, and the Walmart was almost wiped out. That is when it started to sink in that things might be worse than I first thought. Then the first deaths started getting reported and it really seemed serious. I never went back to a high school classroom. My whole life changed from that point on. My first 2 years of college seemed almost fake and as of right now I have had COVID 3 times; the original, delta, and omicron. My family has also had it multiple times. We were some of the lucky ones to make it through with no lingering problems and for my older family members, with their lives. It is now April 2022 and things have finally started to go back to somewhat normal, but another wave could happen at any time. Corona Virus has changed our world and is going to be with us forever.
• 
  10/27/2020

  Henry Wathan Oral History, 2020/10/27

  This interview was recorded as part of The Covid 19 Oral History Project, a project of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute associated with The Journal of a Plague Year: A Covid 19 Archive. This interview was conducted through the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of credit for HIST3158 under the supervision of Dr. Rebecca S. Wingo.
• 
  03/19/2021

  Jeff Litsey Oral History, 2021/03/19

  Jeff Litsey is a resident of the Fountain Square Neighborhood in Indianapolis with his wife and two children. Jeff discusses how the pandemic has affected his family life and schedule while also discussing how the neighborhood dynamics have evolved during the pandemic. Jeff talks about the challenges of running a small, locally owned, coffee shop during the pandemic in the Fletcher Place neighborhood of Indianapolis. This includes revenue, business plan evolution, government assistance, adjusting employee’s hours and pay, and helping employees and customers feel safe during the pandemic. He also illustrates how the neighborhood community helped his employees through tips that rolled into a community employee assistance plan. Additionally, Jeff discusses his anxiety that increased during the pandemic from running a business and worrying about how his shop could affect others and himself. This extended to worrying about his family. He discusses how the hobbies of art, hiking, and birdwatching helped him feel better. The interview ends with his hopes for all people to have healthcare and a home.
• 
  2020-05-27

  Osvaldo Perez, Jr. Oral History, 2020/05/27

• 
  2020-05-05

  Forgotten Nature

  During the pandemic, I've noticed a good number of people take steps to deepen their connection with nature by hiking, gardening, and even just sitting outside for a while. I took a few short trips around Arizona and found great viewing and hiking spots. This here was in Prescott, Arizona at Thumb Bute.
• 
  2020-05-10

  Repetition in Quarantine

  The first days to even weeks of the pandemic for me, consisted of a very repetitive pattern: wake up, zoom into classes, work out, nap once or twice, binge watch Netflix or Hulu and repeat. This monotonous lifestyle of the same thing every single day in quarantine, quickly started to wear me down. At first, I, like most people, had assumed it would be like an extended spring break, but as the coronavirus continued to spread, doubt started to creep into my mind, and it began to feel like it would never end. Two major events underlined this feeling for me and made me feel as though I was missing on an important part of my life and my “college experience”. First, I was unable to attend my youngest sister’s graduation, then quickly after I was informed that my internship for the summer was probably not going to be able to begin. These two things back-to-back, sent me into an even bigger funk, where I started thinking about all the things, opportunities, events, etc. both big and small that I was missing out on due to the pandemic. This lasted for several days, where I would do nothing but stay in my room, watch TV shows, and feel bad for myself. Finally, sometime in mid-June, one of my friends suggested to go on a hike while wearing masks. This turned out to be a pivotal moment for me during the pandemic, as it showed me that I could continue to do things that brought me joy even during the pandemic. All of a sudden instead of gloomily sitting around my room, I began to think of things I could do or try with this “new normal” we were all subjected to. I realized how normally I do not get to spend much time with my family due to school and work, so I began to make it more of a priority to spend time with them, even if it was just watching a movie together at night. It also reignited my love of nature and just being outside, something that I had not prioritized since I was a young kid. I started taking hikes with my dogs, exploring new trails, and playing soccer again. Although my life, like pretty much everyone else’, had been completely turned upside down my the coronavirus pandemic, I was able to put a somewhat positive spin on it, by enjoying my time with my family and the chance to get outside.
• 
  2020-03-01

  Increase of Outdoor Participants since the Pandemic's Onset

  Since the start of the pandemic, I've begun to both run and hike when I get the chance. After talking with people who have done the same since before the pandemic, they've noted how there is absolutely an increase of people outdoors. For me, it's a great way to escape and improve mental health, and I think it's worth noting how many are trying to find ways to improve themselves and keep going through various ways during such a tough time.
• 
  2021-11-24

  Walking at Bear Hole with Dad

  I took this photograph with my dad when we went for a walk one day at Bear Hole, the reservoir in my town. Since the pandemic started, my dad and I would go for walks with each other, exploring new places and talking about life. My dad had recently gotten laid off, and I had made the decision in early October to study remotely instead of on campus, so we both had some extra time on our hands. We had our set of usual places that we would go to walk, but the pandemic allowed us to venture to some new spots. Even though we knew Bear Hole was so close by, neither one of us had gone to explore it much. We would plan our walks around my class and work schedule, being sure that we made time for each other a few times a week. Although making the decision to study remotely was a difficult decision because I was a senior and would be away from my friends and professors, I got to spend time with my dad in a way that we were never able to before.
• 
  2020-04

  Hiking

  The pandemic left me feeling very depressed and alone after losing what was left of my senior year. This all changed though when my family and I started hiking. Every day we would hike a new trail in the town in which I grew up in. On these trails is where I truly strengthened my relationship with my family members. We truly bonded with one another throughout our long hikes. These hikes made also gave me time to reflect on myself and where I was at that point in time. Throughout these hikes I was able to set some goals for myself on where I wanted to be in my future. It is definitely safe to say that I have achieved these goals as well up to this point. In all, I truly would not trade these long hikes for anything in the world. These hikes they really changed my outlook on life and it was here that I truly was able to strengthen my relationship with my family members.
• 
  2020-09

  Covit-19 and the outdoors

  What do you do when you cannot do what you normally do? In Arizona the guidelines of the Governor have been pretty light except for a couple of weeks on April 2020, otherwise he was very proud to say that Arizona would follow the CDC guidelines “the Arizona way”. Meaning? We recommend the mask but is up the business to decide the extent of the enforcement; six feet distance, the same; stay home if you feel you have symptoms, of course. I have to say that the business, for the most part, have taken a more responsible posture than the authorities. Even today April 2021, when the Governor remove any obligation to wear mask, I continue to see most of the business, and population at large, that continue to wear the mask in public. So, with these light restrictions what do you do when you cannot do what you normally do? The answer for many Arizonians, and visitors, has been outdoor activities! Hiking, biking or simply going to the park. My story is of last September 2021. I too decided to resume my mountain biking activity in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve and I sent my bike to a shop for routine maintenance and replace of my old tires. What I find out is that the shop could not find any tire of my kind through their suppliers in fact, they told me, it is getting difficult even to buy a new bike, the bike market just exploded . . . I was not alone. They suggest for me to go to Amazon and look for tires and I was lucky to find my tires from a pool of only 7 in all US!!! Silver line: thank to Covint-19 the US population is finally exercising, I’ll take it
• 
  2020-06-01

  Cleaning up during quarantine

  During quarantine, I spent quite some time walking trails and exploring the great outdoors. The first trail I started out on was located on the Red Mountain campus of Mesa Community College. It was here that I noticed the large amount of trash scattered along the dirt trails. While on these quiet walks, I would have a lot of time to look inwards to heal myself, and yet look outwards at the trash building up. I then decided that I wanted to try and clean up as much trash as I could during my quarantine walks. I thus spent large amounts of my quarantine time cleaning up the desert alongside my loving fiance. We even turned cleaning up trash into a game; the person who collected the least amount would have to cook dinner when we got home. We had wonders spending time outside cleaning up miscellaneous trash scattered everywhere. This made me realize that we depend heavily on the earth, however, we sometimes forget to take care of our planet. My REL101 class helped me see that we can use our resources to help out, no matter how small the contribution. So please, spread the love and have fun while cleaning up our earth!
• 
  2020-04-15

  That fleeting moment of Solidarity

  In those first few weeks of lockdown I just remember a feeling of solidarity with my neighbors. We were all separate, all isolated, but all working toward the same goal. Throughout our neighborhood people had written with chalk on the sidewalk, we took walks every day and saw painted rocks, teddy bears sitting in windows, art and signs of hope and comfort. For a homeschool art lesson I had my sons do chalk splatter painting on our driveway and then taught them about Jackson Pollock. I wrote lyrics to Bob Marley songs and drew pictures of rainbows on the sidewalk. We baked bread, cinnamon rolls, all things warm and cozy. Our family was together in a special way, we appreciated the time together. We went on hikes and fished in the backyard pond and although there were zoom appointments and conference calls, life was moving at a slower more relaxing pace. We were hopeful and confident that by doing the right thing we were saving lives.
• 
  2021-02-26

  #JOTPYPhoto from Rebecca Wingo

  Late to the game, but I wanted an even number of #JOTPYPhoto posts for my students. (Sorry, #ucincyPH students). In my desperation to leave my house, I took up hiking. Over my birthday week in July, I hiked 45 miles! And I kept up the habit all winter, even on icy days like this one. #TwinValleyTrail
• 
  2021-02-25

  Longing to go Outside

  Like people, my dog seems to miss going out to public spaces (like an out door mall, hiking, the patio of a restaurant, even the Pima Air and Space Museum) and getting attention from all the humans that pass by. He too is missing out on the social experiences that he used to enjoy before the pandemic.
• 
  2020-12-23

  COVID-19 The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly….

  COVID-19 The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly…. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck I was in the spring semester of my second year of nursing school. Being naïve and not having experienced a pandemic before, I expected COVID-19 to breeze in and out like the flu every year. What I didn’t expect was a deadly virus that would leave behind it a path of death, despair, and devastation. One of the biggest areas in my life that was impacted by COVID was my education. As classes moved to virtual platforms there was a major learning curve for both students and professors. CDC guidelines and social distancing made it difficult to find areas on campus to study and next to impossible to study in groups. My friends and I worried about our lack of clinical experiences and how that was going to impact our future. Since I had virtually no clinical hours during my specialty rotations, not only was I unsure of my skills, I was also unsure of where I wanted to take my nursing career. Returning to work over winter break was also very challenging. I am a patient care assistant and medication technician at an assisted living facility. All throughout the summer I worked with the threat of COVID looming above my head like a dark cloud. It was the first time in my life that I felt people really depended on me. I understood that my actions impacted the health of others. Fortunately, my residents all remained safe. However, I was not prepared for my return a few months later. The residents were no longer allowed to have visitors and they started testing positive for COVID. At one point we started to run low on personal protective equipment, but we were still trying to take all the precautions that we could to keep us and our residents safe. It was heart breaking to be the one holding a residents hand as they passed away due to coronavirus. My job became a lot more difficult having to communicate with families and watching their final moments with their loved ones. The residents that were lucky enough to not contract the virus were lonely and couldn’t understand why they had to quarantine. They felt abandoned and afraid. It was a very trying time for all my coworkers since we were all working overtime due to our staffing shortages. Working overtime was both physically and mentally draining. Even on my days off I was called in because staff members were getting sick and were unable to come in. It was mentally exhausting because every day I would come in to work and be nervous to walk in to report and see who had passed in the hours I was gone. COVID-19 also brought about some remarkable changes. I have spent a lot more time with my family as we have discovered our new passion-hiking. My co-workers and I have a new appreciation for one another and take the time to have meals together and support one another to make sure we are doing okay mentally. I have been part of innovative changes like my COVID-19 remote patient monitoring job and positive experiences at the COVID vaccine clinic. I have seen the medical and scientific communities collaborate on treatment guidelines and the development of a vaccine. It has also been an incredible period for change and innovation.
• 
  2021-02-07

  The Hiking Experience during a Pandemic

  The pandemic and the increase in teleworking mean that people are able to go to the great outdoors much more frequently than they were able to do so previously. My experience hiking during this pandemic has been different in many ways from hiking pre-pandemic. Many more people on the trails every day of the week and at every time, problems finding a parking spot at the trailheads, and a general reluctance for people to stop and talk with you. In addition, people seem to discount social distancing practices on the trails; they rarely wear masks yet they walk within a feet or two of you, and they also talk while in close proximity to you. Hiking has always been a refuge for me, a chance to escape from people and noise. Now it’s more like walking on a city sidewalk. I hope that this appreciation of the great outdoors continues after the pandemic but along with it goes respect for the land and for fellow hikers.
• 
  2021-01-17

  Potato Chips, Prana, and Perambulation: My Favorite Things to Weather the COVID-19 Storm

  This submission is a description of the five favorite things I have used to help me get through the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as I have had to transition to working from home.
• 2021-01-07

  How Christmas was Different

  Every year at Christmas time we have family over to celebrate. We would have skied at Mammoth Mountain California this year. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions my family was neither able to ski at Mammoth nor have family over. This made the holidays very different. We did not travel over the Christmas break, rather we spent the holidays, hiking and going to the beach. On Christmas Day my family hiked the Sandstone Peak trail. The peak is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains this made for a great view, especially of the ocean. Another hike that my family went on was a hike up a mountain called Mt. Boney. We went to various beaches during the break, where I surfed a little. Overall, it was a different Christmas due to Covid-19 and we could not do some of the things we usually do in order to protect ourselves and our family members.
• 
  2020-10-11

  Visitor guide at Canyonland National Park

  This object is an informational poster that provides information to visitors at canyonland, allowing them to choose hikes and plan their visit without having to interact with rangers. This information could be useful to future historians studying how outdoor recreation and the parks service were affected by Covid. Because so much was shut down, and because experts recommend being outdoors if you’re going to spend time with friends, outdoor recreation has been one of the sectors that have been positively affected by covid. Because of this, the way the national parks responded to covid is a significant part of 2020, even if it might not seem like it at first glance.
• 
  2020-12-07

  Tweet: Ontario Safety

  "In Ontario, It’s unsafe to walk outdoor hiking trails But It is safe to walk to aisles in Walmart & Costco Because science"
• 
  2020-11-16

  Pandemic Hiking, Guadalupe River State Park

  I had not gone hiking since before the pandemic so I was nervous about this first trek out. I had to wear a mask when entering any buildings but other than that things were the same. I chose to go to the Guadalupe River State Park since it was one I had not previously visited. I was surprised at how many people were at the park on a weekday but it was easy to be away from people the farther you were from the water. I had a mask on anytime I had to walk near someone, but hiking on the Barred Owl and Bauer Trail I didn't run into anyone. Attached are photos from an isolated pocket I found where I could spend time with my feet in the cold river. For the first time in months, I felt a sense of normalcy. Besides the mask and the need to make reservations beforehand, nothing about this hiking experience was exceptional, and yet I felt completely renewed as I huffed and puffed back to my car. I hope that people still take precautions when they can.
• 
  2020-08-20

  Get Out!

  Even in a global pandemic when everything is shut down, there are still a million things to do and see. This was our family’s trip up Kennebec Pass, which is only an hour from our hose. Covid is the perfect opportunity to explore your own back yard, provided you do so safely!
• 
  2020-06-01

  Take this time to explore your own town

  Staying home all summer when you’re used to travel and exploring can leave you weary and unable to think of things you can do. I turned to google for some ideas and happened upon a website that gave great ideas for exploring locally. I live in Monterey, California and spent last summer exploring antique shops, boutiques, and interesting restaurants. I’ve never considered myself someone who enjoys the outdoors, but I had to try some of the ideas on this webpage because I was simply tired of being cooped up. There are so many places to explore. I took the time to explore 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach early in the day when few people were there. I must’ve stayed for hours just walking along the beach or the little trails.
• 2020-10-27

  A long hike

  Through the beginning of the pandemic, the smell of baked goods was wafting through the house whether it be cookies cakes pies, or something else entirely. This mixed with being inside for a long time and no longer having the physical activity and weight on my back school provide my weight was steadily rising. for much time I had ignored this minor inconvenience until I finally stepped on the scale and found that if compared to my previous weight I could now multiply it by 1.5 G’s. at this point, I decided to get back to something I hadn't done for several years to find a trail and hike it to the end. The next day I woke up earlier(and I am already a morning person) and walked by the hills until I found a trail that looked like it would have a decent length. I don't remember the exact location or name of this trail but it took me through the hills at the high points and a forest-like area on the low end. The path continued for miles and whether on an incline or decline was almost always very steep with a few more level areas to the top. After walking for hours I checked google maps to get a vague idea of how far I went and I learned I was 12 miles into the trail with no end in sight. I was also more than halfway through all the water I bought and didn't think to bring anything to snack on so at this point I decided to head back home but rested more frequently in the shade of trees I found on the path and enjoyed the breeze and view as I walked I heard birds chirping and while the heat made masks annoying it seemed to fade away. While I had not realized my goal of finishing a trail I still had done much that one day I walked more than in the past few months and it gave me the jump start to keep walking and even started running through the start of school witch I hate to say has hindered my efforts. Some teachers are blameless while others have made it so I don't have time in the day to relax even with my schedule that contains next to no sleep
• 
  2020-08-07

  More outdoor time

  We had to find ways to beat cabin fever, and that was hard because it was the hottest summer on record in Arizona. We took mini trips to Sedona, Tucson, and Camp Verde. We hiked and did as much outside as we could on cooler days. The kids enjoyed taking trips, because they couldn't see their friends or play with them during the lockdown.
• 
  2020-04

  Hickory Run State Park

  Since I work and go to school full time, it can be hard to find time to get out into nature. However, since the coronavirus caused my job to be furloughed for a time, it allowed my fiancé and I to use our newfound time to explore the amazing beauty of Pennsylvania's state parks.
• 
  2020-07

  Finding Beauty in a COVID World

  I thought I would upload these photos to share how I found beauty this summer despite everything happening right now in the US. It serves as a reminder that although things are not normal and probably won't be for a long time, there is such immense beauty that exists in this world. If it weren't for COVID and losing my job I would not have experienced many of these moments that I captured in these pictures. Perhaps the silver lining of COVID is that for a lot of us, it has forced us to literally sit back and reflect and these photos illustrate the "COVID -friendly" activities I chose to do this summer with all my free time. Some of these photos are some scenic landscapes in NYC, where I live. The rest of these images are from various scenic places throughout the country, mostly in the west, where I began my roadtrip back to NYC a few weeks ago.
• 
  2020-04-12

  Park Closures

  All New Jersey county and state parks have been closed to ensure the public safety. Due to the park closures it has been hard for us to go out for walks and to play.
• 
  05/13/2020

  Sam Hauke Oral History, 2020/05/13

  Sam Hauke, a high school senior, initially learned about covid 19 from online memes and jokes, then saw it come to the US and started to take it more seriously. Sam then talks about online school experience and how there is almost no live interaction with the teachers and that they just watch videos and this isn’t the best way to learn. Sam stays connected with friends via online games and zoom meetups. He also describes the challenge of having to seek another job as his usual summer jobs were pool related and the pools are all closed. Sam describes that a positive of the pandemic for him has been that it has brought his family closer and that other people have been spending more time in nature. Sam then talks about how he gets most of his information about covid from one of his friends and from advertisements and commercials on social media. Lastly, Sam describes how he feels he took for granted hanging out with friends and will spend lots of time with them when the pandemic is over.
• 
  2020-06-12

  A Quick Getaway

  My husband, two daughters and I drove up to Flagstaff, Arizona for a few days of relaxation and fun. Less than 2 hours from our home, Flagstaff is a mountain town and about 30 degrees cooler. As Arizona is opening up the state after the quarantine, there is evidence of safety precautions and practices everywhere. At the hotel, the seating area in the lobby was blocked off, and the free breakfast was a sack breakfast that you requested from the front desk. Even the bar area where there is usually a free happy hour was closed. The front desk staff wore masks, and they even had a sign up suggesting handshake alternatives. Housekeeping staff did not do a daily cleaning as a way to limit contact with guests. While out and about, most stores and restaurants were open, but with new policies in place. Every store and restaurant required masks for customers and had signs stating such at entrances. Some restaurants still only offered takeout, but others had patio space and limited indoor seating available. The first night we had dinner at Beaver Street Brewery and sat outside. We ordered our food at the bar before we were seated, then it was delivered to our table. There was very little interaction between guests and employees. The second night we did takeout from another local place, The Lumberyard, and took it to a local park for a picnic. Stores were limiting customers, requiring masks and encouraging social distancing by having barriers by the cash registers requiring distance between the cashier and the customer. In the downtown area, all public parking meters were covered, so customers could park for free while venturing out to stores and restaurants. The most important recently opened area for our family was the Mt. Humphry trail in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness. My husband climbed the mountain while we enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery. There were no special restrictions on the mountain, but all of the hikers maintained space and were considerate of others. After being at home for so long, getting away for a day or two was wonderful. It also allowed us to get a glimpse of what the next few months could look like, and how we will adjust to lives with masks and restrictions. I refuse to call it a new normal, but a temporary adjustment is just fine.
• 
  2020-04-14

  Community member hikes Piestewa Peak after annual memorial sunrise service is cancelled

  “Piestewa was 23 years old and a mother of two young children. She was Hopi and Mexican-American and the first Native American female killed in combat when her convoy was ambushed. For her actions, she was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal… The annual sunrise service for Lori Piestewa and fallen heroes scheduled for March 23, which normally takes place at the base of Piestewa Peak, was cancelled because of the COVID-19 virus. However, some community members still hiked to the top of the peak in memory of Piestewa.”
• 
  05/01/2020-05/20/2020

  Empty Places, Silent Signs

  Images of Lehigh Valley PA showing the isolation and peculiarity of these times.
• 
  2020-04-08

  Suspending the Northville Placid Trail Challenge

  The Northville-Lake Placid Trail is the one long distance hiking trail (136 miles) in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Each year, hikers can receive an award for completing their hike of the trail, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Adirondack Mountain Club cancelled the challenge.
• 
  2020-04-29

  Warning to People Trying to Park in Local Neighborhoods to Use Peter's Canyon

  OC Parks closed the parking lots of their county parks, and encouraged people to stay at home and visit parks within walking distance. However, warm weather has led people to drive to parks such as Peter's Canyon to hike. Police attempt to keep these people away by forbidding parking in the neighborhoods surrounding the canyon.
• 
  2020-04-07

  Pandemic and Closing Trails

  This is the official response of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) regarding the closing of hiking trails during the pandemic. The PATC is a volunteer organization with responsibility for almost 1,000 miles of hiking trails in the mid-Atlantic region, including almost 300 miles of the Appalachian Trail.