Will you be setting your alarm for 3 a.m. on Black Friday? Piling in the car and heading to a big-box store to get a pre-holiday deal on a big-box TV? Are you already exhausted, anticipating the bargains you will encounter?

We have a novel idea for you: Try something different this year — skip the shopping and head outside.

On Friday, Nov. 25, Friends of the Wissahickon is joining outdoor retailer REI in a national movement to reconnect with family and friends in the outdoors on Black Friday. We’re continuing our focus on gratitude and thanks and we’re heading into nature for #OptOutside. As stewards of Wissahickon Valley Park, we want to support and encourage the community to experience nature and get outdoors.

We all spend too little time outside. And even for those of us who live in Northwest Philadelphia, and are lucky to live near the amazing resource that is the 9,200-acre Wissahickon Valley Park, we still don’t experience nature nearly enough. 

Friends of the Wissahickon encourages you to take your family, your friends and loved ones and head outdoors this Black Friday. Take photos and celebrate your decision to go outside instead of engaging in commerce. If you’re in the Wissahickon, tag Friends of the Wissahickon and let us know about your decision to #OptOutside — we want to support you and highlight you as a supporter of this effort. Tell us what you see in your natural explorations — and we guarantee there won’t be any long lines of people waving credit cards to hike the upper trails!

#OptOutside and join us for from 1 to 3:30 p.m. We’ll hike the Monoshone Trail along the Monoshone Creek and visit RittenhouseTown, Hermit’s Cave and Lover’s Leap. For info and to register: www.fow.org/events.