Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let’s hear it all.
A lb on your feet is the same as 5 lbs on your back. And bring light shoes for when you’ve set up camp.
And the chair kit for your thermorest is the best investment you will ever make.
Hammocks are the best tents, especially for solo camping. Some pack up so small I can fit the hammock, tarp and bug net into the pockets of cargo pants.
Thermo-rest is your best friend, even in a hammock. Having a wind pass under your body will make you real cold.
Scout campsites thoroughly for poison ivy, poison oak, anthills, wasp nests, etc.
Pay attention to sleeping bag ratings and remember that a 0°C rating just means you won’t die at that temp, not that you’ll be comfortable. Sleeping bags are one of the few things with a strong cost/quality correlation.
Always have rope. Bring lots of rope. Know what makes a good rope.
Pool Noodles - Place them like this in your canopy so they add tension to the roof. This will prevent rain water from collecting near the edge and weighing down the roof.
I always place the entrance to my tent under a canopy. This allows me to to stay dry when entering the tent. It also protects me from the sun. And I can put a rug down in front of my tent to wipe my feet.
If you are using multiple canopies, considering some canopy gutters. They are basically 1 foot by 10 feet strips of tent material that you attach between two canopies. This way you don’t have to avoid the drip-strip under two canopies.
Outdoor rugs can help to prevent the ground from becoming a muddy mess. They sell large, lightweight plastic rugs that work very well for this. They can be folded down to a portable size and are very light. They allow water to pass through, so they don’t soak it up and become heavy.
I’ve learned to not put a tarp under my tent, that just traps water between the tent and the tarp. Put a tarp down inside your tent and then put a rug (or towels) on top of that. Nice dry comfy rug in your tent.
Apparently it rains every time I go camping…
- Don’t go to bed with the same clothes you wore during the day. The perspiration will make you really cold at night
- Even though it’s warm during the day, don’t assume it’ll be warm at night. The temp differences can be quite drastic
- pack your clothes for the next day in your sleeping bag so they’re warm in the morning. I usually either roll them up and use them as a pillow, or put them deep inside my sleeping bag by my feet.
Tarps are your friends. Obviously get the footprint sized ones for your tent but bring extras. I like to have one in front of my tent for shoes and things to keep it cleaning going in and out. Or I like to use it to change on if my tent is too small. Great to throw over or wrap things to avoid the dew in the morning. Got to bring a tarp
Plus you don’t have to even buy the manufacturer’s special ground tarp for your tent. I picked up a huuuge tarp at a yard sale for like $5. And cut a footprint-size piece for my tent and had oceans of tarp left over for other camping and household uses.
Good point. I got to do that. I have one that’s a little too long for my footprint. I’ll have to cut it to make it exact
For the newbies, you don’t want your footprint tarp sticking out from under your tent if you can help it. It will wick water under your tent (rain, dew). Even waterproof fabric can fail given too much water exposure.
Best time of the year to camp is spring and fall. The nights are cool while the days are warm. You are either too early or too late for mosquitos. It can be less busy as well.
Summer camping gets too hot both during the day and at night.
If you’re car camping or RVing, I started bringing my tree limb shears with me camping to cut up kindling from dead branches. So much faster and easier on the shoulder than a hatchet. If they’re small enough, breaking them over my knee is fine, but I sometimes find good thick ones and I can’t break that sucker down without a sharp tool.
Bring a bucket. Buckets are useful. I have 2 different collapsible kinds, but I also keep a good ol 5 gal paint bucket from the hardware store. It carries wood, water, is a trashcan, can be a seat, used to wash clothes or dishes, can be used as a toilet in an emergency (ideally with a trash bag liner and some kitty litter)…I love buckets.
Use a pill organizer to bring a variety of cooking spices in a tidy lightweight caddy.
Have a good first aid kit always.
That most camping gear is horrendously expensive and over engineered.
Get old and used gear, repair things, and make your own if you can.
A good bug net and a tarp are going to be just as effective as a modern tent, and breathe better.
For a backpack, those old aluminum a-frame packs are so easy to repair, and you can clip/tie things to the frame.
A good bug net and a tarp are going to be just as effective as a modern tent, and breathe better.
No. Maybe better than a cheap tent from Walmart.
Don’t buy cheap tents or sleeping bags and take care of them.
I’ve been using the same net and tarp for like 15 years and on more trips than I can count.
No problems yet, just a few repairs that cost next to nothing.
Minivans and specifically the no longer made grand caravan (the ruined the design a bit with the pacifica). For two people you can do no prep camping. Throw whatever you think you might want in the back. Get to site and backup to the firepit. Throw all the stuff you brought in the driver and passenger seat and open the back. If its raining you can sit on the rear seat facing backwards and the rear door gives you shelter. At night you can just sleep in the back of the van since everything you brought is now in the front seats. Because you can flip seats up and down and such you can sit as you like and easily get the sleeping room. Done some very low prep camping this way. On another note the minivan has about as good a mileage as you get from a non car.
Headtorch.
Instructions unclear. Applied fire directly to forehead.
HEADTORCH APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD! HEADTORCH APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD!
Get some sort of 5 gallon jug that has an on off valve for water. Helps if you want to wash hands or balls
Coffee. If you are a coffee drinker, get a way to make half-decent coffee.
Or tea, or hot chocolate if you hate caffeine. Nothing beats the feeling of a hot cup of something after a short, noisy, miserable night.
What’s your go-to brew method for camping? I find the Aeropress tough to beat.
Although my favourite camping coffee memories are with my parents’ beat-up old moka pot and pre-ground beans from the grocery store. I love me a good cup of coffee, but sometimes the best cup isn’t about the beans or the brew. It’s about the time, space, and people you share it with. Some of my all-time favourite cups of coffee came out of that piece of crap moka pot.
Mine is a small mokka/Turkish coffee pot with a removable handle. On a recent trip, someone bought a portable espresso thingy and it was a really nice alternative to the bottom-of-the-shelf cheap instant coffee we had otherwise. But to be honest, non-terrible instant coffee is fine for me, just don’t get the ultra cheap crap.
At the end (or rather beginning) of the day I settle for “hot, caffeinated, does not make me want to spit it out”. I’d rather drink the shitty cheapest possible instant coffee on a cool trip with nice people than the other way round.
There are some surprisingly decent instant coffees out there nowadays; a fancy third-wave roaster in my city even does instant now.
For the coffee drinkers: https://velo-orange.com/products/soto-helix-coffee-maker?keyword=coffee. We use these as daily drivers with a really good manual coffee grinder. Added bonus: our coffee can be about the same as we get at home.
Watch some primitive/bushcraft survival videos on YouTube. There’s a lot of good tips and tricks, especially for when you aren’t exactly prepared for camping (emergency situations) and need shelter, fire, food, water, etc.
Favorite channels:
- Bertram - Craft and Wilderness (off-trail camping videos)
- Coalcracker Bushcraft (lots of good info)
- Donnie Dust’s Paleo Tracks (primitive tools)
- Primitive Technology (fire by friction, primitive crafting)
- Survivorman - Les Stroud (survival, cooking, history, etc)
- Woodsbound Outdoors (good info and demo)
Know where to pitch a tent.
If you are close to a stream, pitch the tent a few meters above the water. If it rains you don’t know how quickly it can rise.
In the same wake, if you are pitching on a plain, pitch your tent on a relative rise. If you pitch in a relative depression rain will drench you.
If you pitch on a slope, and there will usually be slight slopes, pitch your tent so, that your head is facing upwards when sleeping.
If a storm is expected you might be inclined to pitch under a tree, but be careful. If a branch breaks off and hits you, that can be very bad.
If you pitch your tent in the open and it is a hot summer, the inside will get very hot very quickly. Make sure to get up and out early, don’t get wasted at night and bring reflective covering. People died at festivals when they stayed in their tents when getting wasted and then getting roasted in their tents.
Being able to read a campsite is a skill to find the best one and where to place everything. Tent placement is key.
Put on some John Waters movies and load the karaoke machine with lots of Cher and Elton John.
