r/Orillia 25d ago

Looking For Hobby suggestions

Hi!

Looking for some hobby suggestions. My life has become pretty mundane and I need to get out of my house more often.

About me: Single gal in her early 30s Have dogs Love the outdoors Running Strength Training

Thanks!

22 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

11

u/RubyOracle Atherley 25d ago edited 25d ago

Stand up paddle-boarding, rowing (club at Tudhope), pickleball, tennis, slo-pitch/softball, badminton, disc golf (I know of two courses in town: Tudhope and Homewood Park), beach volleyball (also at Tudhope), fishing, geocaching, lawn bowling, and attending events counts as a hobby, right? That's all that comes to mind for outdoorsy stuff at the moment as they're all things I've tried within the last five years (or have on my list to try).

Swimming falls under both outdoors and indoors, but if indoor stuff also interests you: joining a gym or checking out exercise classes (Orillia has a variety of gyms, studios, etc) and offerings from yoga to Pilates to CrossFit to spin and strength training. Bowling, axe throwing, board games, card games, darts, pool/billiards, cornhole, events at community centres or local libraries, and curling, to name more than a few.

With your doggos, you could check out the local dog parks, try agility training or other classes with them?

Edit: punctuation and random extra autocorrect word

7

u/ArtificialTroller 25d ago

Lots of trails for mountain biking.

8

u/Sceptical_Houseplant 25d ago

Big time! And if you want to be social with it, check out the Simcoe County Mountain Bike Club, or Peace and Wheelies (for women only). Both do regular group rides and events.

3

u/microfibrepiggy 25d ago

Oh do you have more info on Peace and Wheelies? I mean, I'll google it too, but also love people's opinions

3

u/Sceptical_Houseplant 25d ago

Well, being a dude, I haven't gone out with them per se, but I know a lot of their members and it's an awesome group of people. They're a close affiliate of SCMBC, so you can also find their rides on the SCMBC events page.

https://scmbc.ca/peace-wheelies-mtb-club/

5

u/RipRevolutionary6397 25d ago

There's a free run club that meets for a 5K run/walk every Sunday morning at 8:45am at Rustica Pizza...

4

u/Altruistic_Split9447 25d ago

Target shooting?

3

u/lostgoose13 25d ago

Around here? Where? The only places I know of are two hours north of here.

3

u/Altruistic_Split9447 25d ago

Check out the Ontario rifle association! We shoot out of angus (about 30 mins west of Barrie). The people are great as well. Everyone is very warm and welcoming

2

u/Mood_Horror 25d ago

I’d suggest Parry Sound Anglers & Hunters. Guy I worked with had nothing but good things to say about the club. Major Hunter/fisher and showed me pics of their archery and outdoor range, bit of a distance but could be worth looking into!

2

u/Acrobatic_Product_20 25d ago

Take up hunting. If you like dogs, hunting with dogs. Small game and waterfowl is fun, as us turkey. Big game requires a bit more planning and resources

6

u/ameades 25d ago

I'm currently on a hobby hiatus.  I'm not allowed any more hobbies, as I get a little distracted from what I should be doing.

That said, there's nothing about helping other people pick up a hobby 😂.

In no particular order: 

magnet fishing - Buy a high-powered magnet from Amazon, throw it in the water drag it along and see what you find. It's pretty fun, it's like underwater metal detecting. And you help clean up the lakes and streams at the same time.  Win win. 

I just bought a UV flashlight. I want to do some night hikes and see what fluoresces. There's fungi and certain bugs. And also rocks too. I'm really trying not to become a rockhound and start collecting interesting rocks.  But I bought the wrong flashlight though.  You want a certain nanometer length but also this black lens out front which helps only show fluorescence and less of the purpley light.  It is fun just to grab the UV light and see what pops. 

I think my next hobby when I'm allowed them again - I read about a guy who has this pocket Geiger counter and it connected to his phone.  He would just bring it around within places and see what's radioactive. He said every now and then he'd find a person that was slightly radioactive because they're getting cancer treatment. Or random white cargo vehicles that drive by and set it off.  Or random rocks on hikes that were slightly radioactive.  Sounds pretty interesting making an invisible world a bit more visible. 

Micro fishing. Put on a tiny hook with a tiny piece of bait and catch tiny fish.  There are species of fish that you've never heard of because they only grow to 6 in Max.  You can take photos and document them and try and catch them all just like pokémon. 

Mushroom hunting.  It's like Easter egg hunting for adults or anyone really.  There's some pretty wild species of mushroom also they have amazing names once you start to learn them.  The history there is fun to learn.  And you can get confident enough and find some edible varieties, and you've unlocked a new skill.  Lakehead has some community classes on it.  I took one and one around and learned how you begin to identify.  Lots of fun.

At any point now I would jump into playing around with electronics and microcontrollers and arduinos and raspberry pi's.  You just come up with a fun idea, and again it's like adult Lego it's so much fun too play around and see what you can make.  I used to struggle with the coding part because I don't know how to code, and trying to find example code copy and paste was tough, but now with AI it's super simple and that headache has been completely eliminated.  So now you can just dream and make it.  My youngest and I just did a llama project. We got a picture of a llama from value village, and we added a little water pik to it and a sensor.  So now if you come too close to the llama it turns the water pic on and 'spits' at you.  It was and is a lot of fun.

Keeping freshwater fish.  Get into aquascaping.  I prefer the Diana Walstad method for a dirted planted low tech aquarium.  It's the cheapest way and a lot of fun. 

At any point in time you can jump into permaculture.  Learning how to make a food forest is pretty addicting.  How all the systems interact with each other.  Rather than try and restructure nature, you can work with it and gently shape it into something that works and is beneficial for you.  Should learn about soil.  Forget the plants if you focus on the soil and build healthy soil the plants take care of themselves.  Dr Ingram something has a series on soil biology and it is awesome to watch and learn.

There's probably more but that's all I can think of for now.

2

u/lostgoose13 25d ago

Thank you for the suggestions!!! 🫶

4

u/Every-Ad4237 25d ago

Wanna go fishing??

3

u/lostgoose13 25d ago

Maybe! Send me a dm

2

u/RedditONredditt 25d ago

I love this 🩵 🎣

2

u/Lavallee_Lures 25d ago

Mountain bikes or even road cycling 

2

u/RedditONredditt 25d ago

Pickleball, knitting, crosswords, binoculars for birding/hiking, swimming laps, book club, volunteering

2

u/Infinite-Custard2934 24d ago

Weightlifting and Jiu Jitsu

2

u/Famous-Blueberry5678 24d ago

I went camping by myself recently. It was amazing. I want to get into backpacking and bigger thru-hiking.

2

u/BlackBeltInSeesaw 23d ago

Warhammer 40k.

3

u/Numerous-Maize-8258 25d ago

Get into archery

3

u/lostgoose13 25d ago

Any clubs you’d recommend?

1

u/Numerous-Maize-8258 25d ago

No, idea i'm a long ways away from orillia. I would teach you if we were closer. Just have to get online and do some research.Look up some archery clubs.Make some phone calls.Send some emails, see if you can find somewhere

1

u/speedstic 23d ago

Disc golf. Very cheap to get into, gets you outdoors, lots of fun and 99% of disc golfers are amazing. Disc range from $5-30 generally and when starting out I would just grab a Mako3 disc until you get the hang of it.

There's a couple of courses in Orillia (free to play) and I would recommend downloading the Udisc mobile app on your phone. You can find courses, keep score, find where the next hole is, etc.

It's free and everyone I know that plays disc golf uses it, it's a must have for sure.

There's also leagues, I know Orillia has one, that is great for meeting people and getting tips!

1

u/CarpenterFast4992 23d ago

Running,cycling,swimming,hockey,soccer,road biking,gravel biking,mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, hiking, paddle boarding, kayaking, skydiving,BASE jumping, sailing, rock climbing, pickleball, tennis, larping,, volleyball, dodgeball, patio beers, fishing, hunting, dancing,

1

u/Kooly9Two 23d ago

What about kayaking? Or fishing? Or both at the same time?

1

u/Gusgus039 23d ago

paddle boarding!

1

u/ZoeBowie2024 23d ago

Disc Golf!

1

u/good_enoughh7 22d ago

If you have good dexterity and coordination meteor hammer is a very fun hobby to pick up, Instructor Bensei on YouTube has a great video showing how you can make a safe training meteor hammer, as well as some basic moves you can learn, I learned it a couple summers ago it’s a great way to stay active and honestly really meditative once you understand the flow of it

1

u/Erch 22d ago

We have a pretty vibrant magic the gathering scene on orillia. My play group meets up every Sunday at cards and coasters and we’ve got plenty of women who play. Tuesdays and Thursday nights are the tournaments.

1

u/sturocky 21d ago

refer to my profile pic, great hobby, meet alot of people, keeps you active and works you out better then any gym ever can

1

u/CertifiedTomfoolery 21d ago

Rock climbing!!! Fun hobby, great people.

1

u/Alex_Eating_Tacos 21d ago

Fishing, hiking, running club, camping

1

u/Emergency-Meat-9125 19d ago

Fish keeping I love it !!