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Thank you for the services you provide to our nation. I live with my father, who is an 83 old man who has been fully vaccinated and received a booster shot. I am a fully vaccinated 49 year old man who received a booster shot because I fall under the CDC underlying medical conditions criteria. I am attending groups that go hiking. The CDC outdoor criteria states:
The outdoors environment is safer than indoors because of the vastly improved ventilation of the outdoors compared to the closed spaces of the indoors. However the outdoor space can become crowded in settings where people will be relatively stationary and in closely approximation to one another (e.g., outdoor crowded concert or sports stadium seating). Hiking in the outdoors represents one of the most safe activities because you will not be crowded against one another and will be moving. It’s great for your health too! Try to keep some distance between yourself and others while on the hike and don’t share food and drink. However, you can increase safety by wearing a mask and having others around you wear a mask. The return for wearing a mask while hiking may not be worth it because of the increased breathing with physical activity. And, I personally enjoy the long conversations that can be had during hikes with friends, so the masks may diminish your ability to easily converse—you may find that you have to walk closer together just to hear each other and this can negate the physical distance that you could achieve while hiking within masks. I believe you and your father have done the greatest measures to ensure your health—being fully vaccinated and completion of your booster vaccine.
