People are getting outdoors in droves, all in flight — at least mentally — from the pandemic. Under stay-at-home orders, they're also bringing the outdoors to the indoors, finding comfort and knowledge in books, movies, podcasts and more. Here are how some of Outdoors Weekend's contributing writers are getting their nature fix:
• • •
I've been riding a bicycle 14,000 miles from Oregon to Patagonia with Jedidiah Jenkins, whose memoir "To Shake the Sleeping Self" chronicles his 2013 adventure — and enlightenment. It's been quite a roll so far, and not so much about the cycling itself. Jenkins writes with candor, humor and humility about the spirit quest and surprises that come from "exceeded expectations, lazy biases and half-thought thoughts." No flats with this book. – Bob Timmons, Outdoors Weekend editor
• • •
I have rediscovered a CD of the original score of the University of Minnesota/TPR-produced series, "Minnesota: A History of the Land." Written and performed by Minneapolis resident Peter Ostroushko, the documentary recounts the story of all the people and the landscapes of this place we call Minnesota. The music is by turns sweeping, sad, merry and lastly, at peace. When I listen to this music, I can take a broad view, I feel my place in the great scheme of things. – Sue Leaf
• • •
I've gone down plenty of rabbit holes over the years chasing stories about famous explorers — Ernest Shackleton, Edmund Hillary, Lewis and Clark, Roald Amundsen. Anyone who has accomplished great feats, especially if in great peril.
Not much left to explore these days, but there are great feats. My latest obsession is Alex Honnold, the first rock climber to free solo (without ropes) El Capitan, the 3,000-foot wall at Yosemite — an achievement beyond compare.
I've been watching and (and re-watching) the masterful documentary about the climb, "Free Solo." There are books on the subject but nothing comes close to the movie. Watching it, you have no choice but to view the climb as something truly unbelievable. – Jeff Moravec
• • •

As a way to celebrate the spring bird migration, I'm rereading "The Snow Geese" by William Fiennes, a British author. I spent an enjoyable spring afternoon driving the countryside with Fiennes in the late 1990s when I was working for a daily newspaper in Aberdeen, S.D. As part of his book research, Fiennes was following the birds' arduous 3,000-mile-plus journey from their wintering grounds in the southern United States to their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. Fiennes had read a column I wrote on the snow goose migration and stopped in the newsroom for a chat. His beautifully written book is part memoir, part natural history, part travel writing. Above all, the book is about the human longing of going home — just like the biological drive of snow geese to push north to their breeding grounds near Churchill on the shores of Canada's Hudson Bay. – Tori J. McCormick