Weekly Quest · Adventure
Outdoor Skills Relay
The Outdoor Skills Relay turns your backyard into a friendly competition where kids pack bags, tie knots, haul water, and light lanterns as a team. It is Week 49 of Outside's 52-week family quest calendar, built for an afternoon that sticks with everyone long after the gear is put away. Earn the Relay Crew badge by completing the quest inside the Outside app.
This page is a public web guide for Quest 49 of Outside's 52-week family adventure calendar, published by Outside, the family adventure app and brand. It covers the Outdoor Skills Relay, a 90-minute medium-difficulty backyard relay race in which families practice practical outdoor skills including packing a bag, tying a knot, carrying water, and lighting a lantern. The guide explains how to set up and run the relay, how to adapt it for ages 4 through 14, and what skills and memories families build in the process. Completing the quest in the Outside app earns families the Relay Crew badge and 450 XP.
| XP | 450 |
|---|---|
| Week | 49 of 52 |
| Badge | Relay Crew |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Estimated time | 90 minutes |
Why this relay deserves a spot on your calendar
By Week 49 of the Outside quest calendar, your family has covered a lot of ground together. This relay is a chance to put all of that accumulated outdoor confidence into a single, satisfying afternoon. It is not a test. It is a celebration dressed up as a race.
Packing a bag correctly, tying a knot that holds, moving water without spilling half of it, and coaxing a lantern to life are the kind of skills that compound over a lifetime. Run them as stations in a relay and something changes: the skills stop feeling like chores and start feeling like powers. That shift is exactly what Outside is built for.
How to set up your relay course
Choose four stations spread across your yard or a nearby open space. Each station needs one task and one prop.
- **Pack station:** An empty daypack, a checklist of five items (water bottle, snack, rain layer, headlamp, first-aid kit), and a pile of gear to sort through. - **Knot station:** A length of paracord and a post, tree, or chair leg to tie around. A bowline or clove hitch both work well. - **Water carry station:** A full water jug or bucket that must travel from one cone to another without using both hands or spilling past a marked line. - **Lantern station:** A battery or fuel lantern that must be switched on, adjusted to full brightness, and set on a flat surface.
Mark the handoff zones clearly with bandanas or tape. Keep stations close enough that the energy stays high between legs.
Making it work for every age in the group
A four-year-old and a fourteen-year-old can absolutely share a relay, but the stations need a little tuning.
For younger kids (roughly 4 to 7), shorten the water carry distance, pre-load the pack so they only need to zip it shut, and let them do a simple overhand knot instead of a clove hitch. The goal is a genuine win, not a workaround.
For older kids (10 and up), add a time penalty for any item missing from the pack, require a specific knot from memory, and set the water carry over a longer or uneven path. Let teenagers run the course in reverse order or design an extra challenge station of their own. Ownership of the event is its own reward.
Running it as a team, not just a race
The relay format works best when the family runs it together before running it against the clock. Walk every station once as a group. Name the skill out loud. Talk about where that skill actually shows up in the field: a knot on a bear hang, a packed bag at a trailhead at six in the morning, a lantern when the sun drops fast.
Then let it rip. Cheer at every handoff. The Outside reflection prompt asks what your favorite moment was, and nine times out of ten it will be the handoff moment: one kid sprinting toward another with a full water jug, everyone coaching from the sidelines. That is the frame this quest is built around.
What your family takes home
Outside tags this relay with three ambient skills: teamwork, skill practice, and fun under pressure. All three are real, but the last one is underrated. Learning to move quickly and carefully at the same time, to stay calm when the knot slips or the pack zipper sticks, is a genuine outdoor capability. It shows up on trails, at campsites, and in small ways in everyday life.
Complete all four stations in the Outside app to earn your 450 XP and the Relay Crew badge. The app will walk you through the in-quest steps, including the opening conversation about what you hope to discover and the closing reflection that helps the afternoon land. Log your favorite moment before you pack everything away.
Draw or describe each station in order. Which skill felt hardest, which felt easiest, and what would you add to the course if you ran it again next weekend?
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a big yard to run this relay?
Not at all. A standard suburban backyard is plenty of room for four compact stations. You can also use a driveway, a neighborhood park, or any flat open space. The stations only need to be a short sprint apart to keep the relay feel intact.
What kind of lantern should we use?
A battery-powered LED lantern is the easiest option and works well for all ages. If your family is comfortable with fuel lanterns and your kids are old enough, that version adds a useful real-world skill. Either choice works for the quest. The point is operating the lantern correctly, not the fuel source.
Can we do this quest if we only have one child?
Absolutely. Run it as a solo time trial and let your child set a personal best on the first pass. Then run it again and try to beat the time. Parents can join as relay partners or serve as the official course officials and timekeepers. The quest scales down to a team of two just as well as it runs with a full crew.
Where do we log our completion and earn the badge?
The Relay Crew badge and all 450 XP are awarded inside the Outside app. Open the app, find Quest 49 in the adventure calendar, and follow the in-app steps through setup, the relay itself, and the closing reflection prompt. The badge posts to your family profile once the final step is marked complete.