Saturday mornings of my childhood had a rhythm. I was up before the rest of the house, sneakers by the door and my mind halfway to the woods. But first, a heaping bowl of Froot Loops with either the Flintstones or the Jetsons coming through the Magnavox.
Neither offered particularly progressive portrayals, but as a kid, I was simply hooked on the magic of each environment. One family lived in the Stone Age, the other in the Space Age. Fred sliding down the dinosaur's tail at quitting time. George pushing a single button and calling it a hard day's work. As the credits rolled, the screen door slapped shut behind me, and I was gone until lunch: climbing trees, turning over rocks, coming home muddy, scraped and completely happy.
Fast forward to today, one line keeps finding its way into my conversations: the more the world rushes toward The Jetsons, the more we miss The Flintstones. In 1962, the Jetsons imagined life a full century ahead, in 2062. We now stand closer to Orbit City than to Bedrock. We’ve got the buttons, the screens, the effortless convenience. And like Jane Jetson, whose doctor diagnosed her with "buttonitis" and ordered her away from it all, many of us are tired in a way that no new gadget can fix.
The difference is that Jane's doctor had nowhere on Earth left to send her. We still do. The trails, rivers, forests and coastlines are still here, still open, still waiting to share their abundance. Our intention at Great Outdoor Provision Co. is to help others remain grounded while the world seems to spin ever faster.
This fall has given me three vivid reminders of why that matters.
GOPC Summit Camp
Like my colleagues at GOPC, I chose a vocation in the outdoors. A bit out of the ordinary. (Even spell-check wants to correct that last sentence with “vacation”.)
Our job, if done right, is not a luxury we earn after the real work is finished. Supporting access and stewardship of the outdoors is part of the real work. Outdoors is where we mend, where we remember what our bodies are for, and where we recover the kind of attention that a screen can never give back.
So, in August we loaded up the gear and headed to Pisgah National Forest for a company camp out with our friends from OSM and AMG, two leading representatives of outdoor clothing and equipage.
These Summit Camp experiences are not a conference with a campfire bolted on.
It’s pitched tents, campfire conversations and putting gear through honest use, the same gear we recommend to customers every day. A 90 second Video recap underlines shows there is no substitute for knowing how a boot feels on the trail, or a fly rod can send a line zipping through the air under the proper cast. That knowledge earns trust on the sales floor that no product sheet can.
But the gear was only half of it. Something happens to people when they share a trail and a fire ring. Titles soften. People working nine different locations in two states discover they are one crew. I watched our team laugh, help each other set up camp, and linger long after the coals burned low. That is our culture at its best, and Pisgah gave it room to breathe.
NC State University: Where Science Meets the Trailhead
While our "practice" of time in the woods restores our foundation of health. NC State University backs up intuition with serious science. The students and faculty are working on the data bricks that support that foundation. We recently joined the conversation alongside the Nature & Health Collaborative, a campus-wide network housed in NC State's Global One Health Academy that brings researchers together around a single, powerful idea: the health of the natural world and the health of people are bound together.
Our discussion centered on the intersection of wellness and North Carolina's outdoor economy. These are not two separate conversations. When a doctor writes a nature prescription, and NC State's Campus Health has begun doing exactly that for students, someone still has to help that person lace the right boots, find the right trail, and feel confident enough to go. That is where the outdoor economy and public health shake hands. Outfitters, guides, land trusts, parks and local businesses form the last mile between a good intention and a life changed.
I left inspired by the researchers in that room, and convinced that retailers like us have a seat at this table. We are not only selling products. We are part of the delivery system for one of the most effective, affordable forms of medicine there is.
Welcoming Virginia's Director of Outdoor Recreation
At the end of September, Governor Abigail Spanberger appointed Heather Barrar as Virginia's first-ever Director of Outdoor Recreation. It was a proud moment for everyone who has worked to make the case that the outdoors deserves a seat in state government. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, outdoor recreation added $14.4 billion to Virginia's economy in 2024 and supports more than 126,000 jobs.
We were honored to host Director Barrar at our Charlottesville store. There was something fitting about gathering among the packs, paddles and trail maps that our team uses every day to help people get outside. A state's outdoor strategy is written in capitols and council chambers, but it is lived in places like ours: at the counter where a family plans its first camping trip, or where a new resident asks which trail to try first.
To Director Barrar: welcome. You have partners in Virginia's outdoor retailers, and Great Outdoor Provision Co. is ready to help.
The Common Thread: We Help Others
A camp-out in Pisgah, a collaborative session at NC State University, the creaky wood floor in Charlottesville. Three very different places, and one idea running through all of them like a blazed trail: we help others.
That simple phrase has guided Great Outdoor Provision Co. for over 50 years. It is why product managers rely on trail-tested gear for our customers. It is why we pay our “civic rent” alongside researchers, public officials and conservationists asking what the outdoor community can contribute. And it is why our team, across nine shops from Virginia Beach to Greenville, take the time to ask a nervous first-time backpacker what they are hoping to find out there.
Helping others outside has never just meant selling the right tent. It means helping someone sleep better under the stars, breathe deeper on a ridgeline, and come home a little more whole. Health, community and economy are not competing goals. On a good day in the outdoors, they are the same goal.
I am proud of a culture that understands this without being told. Our team lives it every day.
An Invitation to the Trail
In the weeks ahead, I will join The Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University on November 5 to talk about the case for a more sustainable, just and wild world. I will be sharing their stories here and on social media, because the people doing this work deserve to be seen. I hope you will join us, in the room or in the conversation.
And I hope you will do one more thing. Get outside this week. Not to accomplish anything but simply to be there. Walk a greenway at lunch. Sit beside moving water. Let the light change around you without reaching for your phone.
The Jetsons had every button in the universe and nowhere left to go. We still have the woods, the rivers and the mountains. That is a gift, and a responsibility. Let us take it, share it, and protect it for those who come after us.
See you on the trail.
- Chuck, President, Great Outdoor Provision Co.
