Hi, I’m Chris, the Casual Outdoorist. My family and I love spending time outside and I enjoy sharing that experience with others. I have a wife, a teenage son (“Soccer Boy”), a toddler daughter (“Nature Girl”) and two dogs, Kiah and Wicket. Ironically, my day job is sitting in front of a desk working in IT, so that makes it even more important to enjoy the great outdoors when I can. Living near the coast of North Carolina, we have access to some amazing environments to explore within a few hours of home. My interests include camping, day hiking, kayaking, nature photography, environmental education and conservation, and DIY home improvements.

My Experience

Growing up, my family had a pop-up camper for years, and we loved taking at least a few trips every year, always to areas we had never been. After marrying my beautiful wife, we started tent camping and spent our first anniversary weathering the remnants of a tropical storm in a small tent that we were sure was going to blow away, with us in it! For the next several years, most of our vacations involved camping and hiking in the mountains. When we adopted our son, he joined us on our adventures, and started some new ones with the cub scouts. I led his scout den for four years, teaching ten boys everything from knots to Leave No Trace. Now that our daughter has come along, we have a teenager and a toddler, and we do our best to instill a love of nature in both of them.

So why the “Casual” Outdoorist?

Many sites target hardcore campers/kayakers/photographers/survivalists — the ones who wouldn’t think twice about dropping a few thousand dollars on “essential” equipment and seem to feel it’s the only way to go. If that’s what they enjoy, go for it. This site is for the rest of us, the weekend warriors whose goal is to simply enjoy the outdoors in a more casual way. Sure, it may involve investing in some equipment; most lifestyles and hobbies do. But my $100 kayak does just fine getting me out where I want to go.

What will I find here?

If you love being outdoors as much as I do, you’re going to love it here. Here are some examples of topics you can expect to see as the site grows:

• Camping tips and tricks
• Campground and state park reviews
• Nature photography
• Backyard oasis projects
• Outdoor activities
• Outdoor cooking and recipes
• and more!