I will eventually let you know if this was a mistake ...

[warch]

I'm envisioning an airconditioned bedroom. Must follow path....

[tw]

Some additional items to consider. A $5 package of rope to string a clothes drying line and make additional connections to trees that may be necessary.

A plastic tarp sufficient to completely fit under the tent floor in one piece. That keeps ground moisture out of the tent and keeps dirt off the tent when packing up. Better also to have some kind of tarp that can be suspended over the tend. Walmart (hardware section) may still have those (what look like) wide alligator clips to clamp onto a suspended tarp and to attach via ropes to adjacent trees. Otherwise, a driving rain will push right through the tent.

Bring a small trowel or other trenching tool to dig a rain water channel around the tent. A wide and shallow trench goes a long way to feeling better in the morning after a night's rain.

Always (religiously) keep the tent screens closed. Those bugs have a nasty habit of not going home for the night.

Find a nearby bar that also has a TV connected to the Weather channel. Once a day, the information is most relevant and dispells those rumors about the weather forecast.

Additional plastic makes convenient coverage such as covering a nearby picnic table that is otherwise dirty from overhead trees. The plastic (held down with rocks) also keeps things temporarily dry from morning dew.

Large trash bags that serve as dirty clothes containers, collect your trash for removal, and dispose of clothes you now find are no longer worthy.

Flashlights. I have modifed mine to be recharged by the car. Also bring matches - an easily overlooked item.

Do not shower in the morning if being in sun that day. The skin produces the best sun screen. A morning shower only removes natural sun burn protection. Any skin exposed to the sun should not be 'soaped' for up to three days. The burn will then turn into tan rather than peal off. Rinsing sun exposed skin is more than sufficient bathing. Soap is only required in locations that don't get sun (underarms, crotch, etc).

A small pile of stones adjacent to your tent is good planning should the skunks visit. They will generally seek your trash, or be coming down from the hills to visit the river or lake. Small rocks can be very convincing to shunks that have little fear of people. Little fear because most people just run away.

Someplace secure to hold keys and other items normally not used frequently in the camp site. I have a plastic container with a rope and screw-on cap so that money, the swiss army knife, and keys will remain dry, where I left them, and float. Even a will hidden spare key magnetically attached somewhere underneath the car can be helpful since lock smiths are so much more expensive (ie $120) in camping country.

A small bandaid box with some neosporin (or equivalent), a few bandaids (preferred are the sport type bandaids that stay attached longer), some apsirin, etc.

[BigV]

Do you actually camp much, tw?

I camp a lot (20 nights / year in the woods, +- 5), and I found your advice kinda hit and miss. Did you do the things you talk about or have you just read/heard about them?

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'd really like to trade useful camping tips.

Originally Posted by BigV

Do you actually camp much, tw?

I camp a lot (20 nights / year in the woods, +- 5), and I found your advice kinda hit and miss. Did you do the things you talk about or have you just read/heard about them?

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'd really like to trade useful camping tips.

A lot depends on the part of the world you do your camping in. TW's advice sounds like it might be useful back east. I DO question the wisdom of suspending a piece of tarp over your tent. Sounds like a great technique for collecting 20 or so gallons of rain water and having it pour down on your tent when the tarp gives way under the weight of all that water. I'd suggest an application of water proofing - mainly along the seams of the tent. Make sure the fly of your tent isn't touching the sides of the tent proper. I've never bothered with "trenching" a tent. I generally just look around and avoid pitching my tent in a gully or a draw - works out here in the Rockies and desert Southwest.

In my part of the world, water is your best friend. Bring lots! I usually have at least 20 gallons stashed in various containers in my vehicle. I love my coleman lantern - best light source around for off road camping. I always bring at least a couple of packages of spare mantles with me and extra propane. A coleman stove is nice, but not a requirement out where I am. I've made many a camp with only my trusty hibachi for a cook stove. I throw some pinon or, best of all juniper, into it and I've got great coals for cooking in 20 minutes or less. Which brings me to my next tip. ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT SMOKEY THE BEAR! Do you really want a lot of feds in yellow shirts running around your camp site? No? Well, then watch what you are doing with your campfire. Don't leave it unattended around here. If you don't use the hibachi technique, make sure you build your fire on a cleared area of ground where it won't catch and smolder and burst into flame a few feet away. Fire rings are a good idea if you are going to be at that place for a while. When you leave, make sure your fire is completely out. Throw dirt on it and any spare water you might have from washing your cooking utensils. Kick the rocks aside from your fire ring. Leave your camp spot looking like it did when you got there. Remember, search and rescue may be closing in on you! Give 'em something to search for and vanish without a trace.

Never go off road anywhere further than you can walk out of in case of vehicle failure. Know your limits. Mine is 20 miles. I know I can walk 20 miles back to the main road if I have to. If I'm alone, I don't go further away than that. An inexpensive GPS unit is a girl's best friend, along with a nice sharp ax. Lots of topo maps are fun too, so you can pretend that you know where you are. I recommend what I fondly call, "The big bouncing book of Colorado maps," and what the rest of the world calls the Colorado Atlas and Gazeteer." Its a bound volume of all the 15' quads for the state and bargain priced at only $19.95. Get one or get lost!

Well, I could go on, but I seem to have mislaid my Silva compass.

I can't recall ever seeing a skunk at one of my camp sites.

[lookout123]

mistake or no? and pleeeeeeaaaaase tell me that you brought some of your clients from work with you for laughs.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by bluecuracao

Vacation...Ha ha!

They will put you to work, woman. You will be cookin', putting out food and socializing so much that you will forget all about "the internet."

Actually, I did not do much in the way of cooking, unless you count making really excellent coffee.

I was first assistant firekeeper.

During the hottest goddamn five days on record in Pennsylvania.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Hobbs

Hey Wolf, where are you doing this vision quest? My father-in-law participates in a vision quest somewhere in Death Valley or just outside. He has done several of these over the last couples years. He loves them. In fact he loves it so much, he has started to help out in running them.

I was very far from Death Valley ...

Just outside of Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

The campground people got a little freaked out when not once, but twice, during the quest, massive thunderstorms with high winds were heading right for us ... and diverted at the last possible moment.

It started raining just as we finished packing up camp at the end.

There are actually several different styles of vision quest ... this was in Taino (indigenous people of Puerto Rico and some other islands down that way) tradition.

The more commonly known quest is in Lakota style ... where the quester goes out for four days alone with a blanket and a loin cloth. The Taino way has you checked on by the Beikes (shamans) once per day, at which time they offer the questers some water.

Wolf! You're back! I missed you! Write something grouchy and acerbically witty for me!

[footfootfoot]

Hey Wolf welcome back. A couple of my friends are shamans http://www.spirithollow.org/welcome.htm and lead vision quests which sound like a combo of the Lakota and the Taino. Although one of them is quick to point out that "no man is a prophet in his own land" they are remarkalbe and stellar people. well worth the slog.

I wish i knew how to make text into a link. later. I'm actually making dinner now for the inchinchinch, so later maybe.

[Griff]

[url=address here]texthere[!url] change the ! to a /

[Trilby]

wolf--I was pretty sure you'd been forced into camping--guess that's not the case, eh? Glad to hear it.

[Brett's Honey]

Camping isn't that much of a culture shock for me. When I was a kid we camped several time every summer, and for two years - when I was 13 & 14 (my brother was 14 & 15 those years) we lived in Arkansas on Beaver Lake and had no TV, just the lake on both sides of the house, a flat bottomed fishing boat and dirtbikes. And I don't remember feeling deprived.....those are some of the best memories I have.

[melidasaur]

Welcome back, Wolf. Was it a mistake to go camping or not? I'm dying to know!

[tw]

Originally Posted by BigV

Do you actually camp much, tw?

My hoodge poodge experience is camping on the light. Using the car some as a distant and secure storage shed. Usually using a camp site that I can even bicycle to a bar for further mostly liquid necessities.

Camping for me is mostly a desperate hole to collapse after doing too much 'exercise'. Often by morning, I may still hurt so much as to be ready to go home. However for some reason, after a few hours, I find myself at it again - working too hard.

One item I did not recommend but that I find necessary - a short wave radio. Yes there may be plenty of roads out there, a shower facility, but still not much to fall to sleep to. The radio also doubles as an alarm clock. There is this slow, stiff rerise in the morning best accomplished before anyone else is concious.

BTW, two best parts of camping. One is sneaking off for breakfast and coffee at a diner some miles down the road. Second is that one night I really deserve the expensive steak at that roadhouse.

Notice how this differs from western rockies camping. All woods are safely bordered by rivers and roads - we can't get lost. Much too easy to do too much physical labor all day and still find fresh tap beer at night.

That shower facility is essential to semi rural camping. BTW, I also bring a 5 gallon bucket to wash sand off the floor just before I take a shower. Keeping a clean sleeping bag when you will be crashing soon is important.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I have a roof to keep the rain and sun off, walls to keep the wind and critters out, heat, A/C, plumbing, TV, internet and a nice soft bed. Why on earth would I want to go camping?
The answer is travel. Camping is an inexpensive (relatively) way to go where I want to go. Sometimes, the only way to go there.
Having done everything from a tarp stretched between the roof of the car and the ground, to tents, to trailers, to pickup campers, to a 28’ motorhome, I prefer a van.
Using a van as a sheet metal tent with a secure bed and a chemical toilet for urban areas, I can move quickly or leisurely, anywhere, in any kind of weather. Day hikes give me coverage of where the van won't go.
I’ve traveled most of the US and Canada this way, successfully.
Sit around the campfire, commune with nature, listen to the Whip-o-will, then crawl into my secure cocoon. Or if the weather really goes to hell make sandwiches and read or keep moving to better weather.
Next morning, I’m off and running without waiting for the tent to dry and an hour of packing. Just throw the crap in the van and boogie. I can even camp in bear country after Labor Day.
This makes me a......

wait for it

HAPPY CAMPER.