Camping Out

We've got the Prepper thread that covers what preparations people are making for which disasters, but this thread is to discuss those occasions when people deliberately eschew the comforts of the civilised world for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Whether it's wild, stealth, "Survivalist" or Historical camping; backpacking, R Vs or campgrounds; ultralight, minimalist or glamping; summer or year-round, a lot of us enjoy "getting away from it all" and "communing with Nature".

What styles do we prefer, where do we go, what do we take?

Equipment, tips, anecdotes and cautionary tales.

I'm primarily a backpacker - usually in a tent but I've slept under the stars a few times and stayed in a tramping hut a couple of times.

Not an ultralighter - I do aim to get the most compact and lightweight gear I can afford and gradually replace my gear with lighter stuff as time goes on, but I do carry a lot of stuff to make things easier while I'm out in the bush.

Haven't had the opportunity yet but me and some friends are planning a coast to coast road trip. We've got a popup camper that sleeps about 4 And I'm looking at some small ones that sleep 2 that my little Hyundai can reasonably tow.

All of my camping is normally done with cub scouts of boy scouts. Generally, we're in tents, but with cub scouts you're not more than a half a mile from the vehicles, so it's fairly easy to bring along more comforts. Boy scouts tend to do longer hikes, where you have to bring stuff along with you. Gear has gotten a lot lighter in the last 20 years since I was doing backpacking regularly, so I need to replace stuff like my sleeping bag and mat to be both smaller and lighter.

Our campout last weekend, we had two guys from another pack's sponsoring organization show up on their motorcycles with just what they could fit in their little saddlebag storage containers. They camped out with us just fine.

I'm a minimalist, so here's my standard kit:

Backpack with aluminum frame (25 years old)
Two man tent
One man sleeping bag
A large plastic garbage bag
A smaller plastic bag full of small plastic bags
Flashlight
Swiss army knife
Sheath knife (4 inch)
Folding saw
Hand axe
Mess Kit
Cigarette lighter
Canteen
Non-perishable snacks
Map and compass (if necessary)
Camera

That's what I carry on my back when hiking. More typically, though, I camp by canoe. If I have a canoe or other vehicle nearby, then I can add the following:

Camp stove plus fuel
Cooking pots and pans
Gallon jug or two of water
Perishable food in insulated container
Water purification kit
Small first aid kit
Small sewing kit
Binoculars
Container for samples (I like to collect things)
Phone (if I expect coverage)
If the weather is cold or wet, add the appropriate clothing and gear.

edited 23rd Jan '14 10:46:37 AM by demarquis

You forgot duct tape for essential items.

edited 23rd Jan '14 10:57:32 AM by Ekuran

You're lucky. Your Scouts may hike further than the Cubs but the troop I belonged to when I was younger was dead useless.

For our troop, "camping" was driving a fleet of vehicles (mostly stationwagons and pickups) into a farmer's paddock and unloading a pile of useless crap - staves and ropes to make little fences around each platoon's tent, wooden boards with the platoon names burned into them to put over the openings in the fences, huge canvas tipi-style tents (that they didn't know how to put up properly, but that's another story), trestle tables, bench seats etc.

As to "Be Prepared", that meant ensuring you had your uniform on at all times regardless of whether or not it was appropriate attire for the weather, because "a Scout must always be in uniform".

I did once, years after I left our Scout Troop in disgust, encounter another group of Scouts staying in a hut on Mount Tongariro. As far as their leader was concerned, "in uniform" meant "you've got to be wearing your scarf and woggle" and "Being Prepared" meant wearing clothes appropriate to the terrain and climate (which, being Mount Tongariro, was big on very non-regulation woolen and fleece mountaineering clothes), so it was obviously just our particular leaders that were a pack of useless fucktards.

Just the luck of the draw. I'd had the bad luck of living in an area where the leaders of the local Scout Troop were scarcely more intelligent than the dairy cows they usually worked with.

They really did sour my experience with the Scouts as an organisation, though - obviously someone in the organisational heirarchy deemed these useless pricks to be "suitable".

Great kit. Way more compact than mine.

I go with a modified "3 Tier" system - my "EDC" (Swiss Army knives, Leatherman Wave, lighter, paracord bracelet), "Survival" stuff carried on me at all times (canteen and cup, sheath knives, survival pouch containing a few essential things) and "Sustainment" stuff - tent, sleeping bag, warm/spare clothes, food etc.

The modification is that some of the "sustainment" things that would either make survival a bit easier (warm hat, light windbreaker, flashlights, extra plastic bags etc) or I'm likely to want quick access to (lunch, cigarettes, camera) are carried in a separate "day bag" that I can carry with me on day hikes or if I'm going for a wander away from the campsite.

It gives me a degree of flexibility and ensures that I don't have to repack if I'm going for a day's hike rather than an overnighter - just grab the day pack and survival gear and go.

Or I can wake up in my tent, get dressed, put on my day pack and explore the area.

ARGG, I FORGOT THE DUCT TAPE! I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT THE DUCT TAPE! What if... my backpack tore???

When I was in the Scouts, my scoutmaster was a retired French-Canadian fur trapper. With one arm. He used to take us up north to the lake district where his trapping grounds were and we would spend a week there canoeing and hiking. It was awesome.

I'm officially jealous.

I started camping when I was 12 or 13 in Form 2 ("Year 8" in modern reckonning or "Seventh Grade" in US parlance) at Port Waikato School Camp. Therein we learned how to pitch tents, light fires and cook over them and other essential skills.

Then I joined Scouts - having learned at Port Waikato that I really enjoyed camping and keen to have more opportunities - and rapidly learned that our troop was worse than useless at anything other than putting silly fences around the tipis and pretending to be soldiers. I suspect the cow-cockies that were running it had had dreams of joining the Territorial Forces (NZ's part-time Armed Force) but were rejected due to not measuring up and so became Scout Leaders so they could pretend that they were Napoleon.

Fire lighting: make a big pile of large bits of wood, pour kerosene over it, throw match at it. If it starts to die down, slosh more kero over it straight from the tin.

Kerosene was known as "Scout Water" in that troop.

I could've done a better job of lighting the fire but, since I hadn't been "properly trained" in firelighting by the Scout Leaders, I wasn't allowed.

If it couldn't be reached by the average 2-wheel-drive family stationwagon, it was too far to go for a camp.

So, on to the tipis. Huge canvas things with a long central pole.

We got to our campsite large cow paddock bordered by boxthorn hedges and 5-strand wire fences and took off our backpacks emptied the stationwagons and pickups then got to the important task of putting up our shelter erecting fences with staves and rope around our allocated areas and fastening the sign to the top of the opening.

Then, while the sky was darkening due to increasing cloud cover and approaching dusk and the wind was starting to pick up, it was time to put up the tents.

So one guy assembled the long pole and shoved it up inside the tipi and a couple of them lifted the pole up while others grabbed guy lines and tried to peg them down while the tent was being buffeted by the rising wind, pulling the ropes out of their hands.

I told them, politely, three times that it'd be easier to peg out the groundshape first then put the pole up and secure the guy lines with the tent securely pegged to the ground.

Of course, since I was a newcomer and had not been "properly instructed" by the Chief Cow-Cocky, ahh, Scout Leader, I was ignored.

So I folded my arms and pulled back, not wanting to have a bar of their stupidity, and watched them performing a frantic spastic version of a maypole dance around a huge canvas sail.

I was wondering if the wind would pick up enough to blow the tent away - I was looking forward to the spectacle of half a dozen kids being lofted over a boxthorn hedge while dangling from the guylines.

They finally got it secured to the ground with creases, ridges and valleys in the canvas due to the guy lines not being properly spaced and tensioned.

I won no friends when I honestly answered their "why didn't you help?"

I did, however, gain a reputation for being "uncommonly tough" by wandering unconcerned around the "camp site" first thing in the morning in just my pyjamas while the others were shivering and huddled around the fire. (The fact that I was still wearing warm pyjamas that I'd slept in all night while they were dressed in cold uniforms that had been sitting on top of their gear all night may have had something to do with my lack of concern about the temperature...)

Aside from all that, I found the troop generally badly run - I passed my first aid and axe handling and never got issued the badges I'd just earned.

Their stupid stipulation that we had to be dressed in our light cotton uniform shorts and shirt no matter what the conditions (I think that the Scout Leader I met up on Mt Tongariro had a much more sensible outlook towards uniforms) was also a factor - you can't preach "Be Prepared" and practise stupidity.

I stuck it out for a couple of years but ended up quitting.

edited 23rd Jan '14 3:36:44 PM by Wolf1066

My family liked to do tourist camping in general with few exceptions.

The first big not tourist camping strictly speaking was a long canoe trip to Isle Royal in the great lakes. Neat place to visit.

I have been to Yosemite and Yellowstone a few times each and camped mostly in the wilderness of Eastern Washington State, Western half of Idaho, North East Edge of Oregon, and various parts of Canada. A little bit of non-state park in Wyoming.

I did the most camping with my scout troop. We had two kinds of camping trips. Camping trips for training and education and working on advancement. This was static camping with pots, pans, and the larger white gas camp stoves.

Then there were hikes and canoe trips. We did 50 mile + Canoe trips and Hiking trips. Those were more minimalist because we could only have what we could carry.

After my first long scout trip I stopped using tents entirely. I used three tarps, 550 cord, some spare clothes, sleeping bag, light weight back pack stove, water bottles, and dry good/light weight canned food.

I carry a tarp and I've seen lots of awesome examples of tarp shelters but my early experiences with tent-and-separate-groundsheet setups forever put me off anything like them and I've used tents with enclosed "bucket" waterproof bottoms ever since.

I'd like to try a hammock under fly/tarp and I'd use a tarp and groundsheet if I was 100% certain that the weather was going to be fine and that all I need is something to keep the dew off but I'm in no hurry to renew my experience of water run-off coursing through my tent in the middle of the night.

My tarp is mainly carried to provide extra shelter or wind protection or for keeping my gear off the damp ground if needed but if the weather were really good, I'd sleep under it (knowing I've got the tent to retreat to if it hoses down and the ground becomes awash).

My tent's quite light - only 1.5kg or a little over 3lb - and very portable. Has a smaller footprint than my old A-frame tent, too.

Glad to hear so many people's experiences of the Scouts were better than mine - it's good to hear mine were the exception rather than the rule.

edited 23rd Jan '14 5:27:48 PM by Wolf1066

I'm stuck with a tent because mosquitoes really love me.

I used one tarp as a ground cloth with the edges curled up around my sleeping bag. Another wrapped around it from on top with the pack under it. The third tarp was the shelter formed often by just with single stake and tied down part and tucking the draped ends under the bundle.

Never got wet, never had snow collapse it, and never got bothered by the bugs or cold.

No place to tie it down I just bundled everything and used the extra tap to wrap my pack. If the weather was bad I created a pocket over my head while I slept.

Do you move at all when you sleep?

That sounds like a great setup. It'd certainly stop run-off from simply coming over the top of the ground sheet. Sounds a lot better than some of the ideas I've seen on youtube or in books - most of those would work best if you had some kind of raised bed to keep you away from water coming under the bottom edge (which means either carrying one or finding/harvesting enough natural materials to build one).

edited 23rd Jan '14 7:02:56 PM by Wolf1066

Demarquis: I do indeed move a bit when I sleep. I made sure my tarps were large enough that I could turn myself into a human burrito if need be.

Wolf: The double wrap idea I got from one of my parents old camping and hiking books. This set up let me worry less about where I set my bed or if I had to set up at night I was less likely to screw it up. A couple times I woke up in the morning after setting up at night to discover the area I had set up in was a bit wet but because I was carefully wrapped I stayed dry.

Started using tarps exclusively when our scout troop started camping in the wilderness more where ideal raised areas for tents were limited or not present pretty much the entire troop stopped using tents except for the few times we camped in touristy areas.

The real benefit of tarps is they are more affordable then tents. We had a lot of scouts in our troop whose parents were working class type families so not a lot of money for fancy camp gear.

With enough tarps and 550 cord you can build some pretty elaborate shelter set ups.

I stopped using tents when despite having a tarp and proper ground cloth I woke up in a puddle. Was not happy.

edited 23rd Jan '14 8:20:00 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Are you able to show us some pics or perhaps a youtube vid of how you set up most the time? I'd really be interested in seeing it.

Tarps are also quite a bit lighter and more compact than tents - I've got a cheap 8'x10' 80gsm tarp from "The Warehouse" (basically our version of Wallymart), not remotely a high-end ultralight Sil Tarp by any stretch of the imagination, and it's a fraction of the weight of my one-person tent and packs down into a plastic bread bag (standard 600g loaf of sliced bread). I can fit it into the mesh pouch on the outside of my pack - I can't do that with my tent. A couple of those or even a couple of smaller tarps would be negligible to carry.

And they're pretty much the same material as the bottom of my tent.

Was the tent that saturated you one with a built-in bucket bottom or one where you have the separate groundsheet and a shell? If the latter, that's exactly the setup I had that put me off having a tent without a built-in bottom.

edited 23rd Jan '14 9:05:44 PM by Wolf1066

I sadly do not have any pictures that I know of my typical shelter set up. If I can find something comparable I will share it.

I used the A-Frame◊ Or a variation. If I had only one tie point for a tree I tied a short bit of 550 for the high end and snugged the open end close to the tree and tacked down the other end with a stake or rock.

All I did for my ground cloth was have a larger then necessary tarp and roll the edges up around my sleeping bag and foam pad. I would sometimes use the third tarp to wrap over that and tuck the edges under the ground cloth so the sets of edges overlapped.

Stakes were heavier though. Usually those large heavy duty timber nails. The went deep, were cheap, and easy to repair or replace.

edited 25th Jan '14 7:39:57 AM by TuefelHundenIV

So the two ends are open? Wouldnt work for me. I have to sleep in a sealed environment.

On the A Frame yeah. The modified version typically I only leave one flap open to get in and out and tuck it under when I get in the shelter to sleep.

Wouldn't this fit better in Yack Fest?

Anyway I tend to prefer backpacking the most,regrettably I'm limited to my Dad's old 70's external frame,which is a real clunker.

My last backpacking trip was in August a few weeks before departing for school,which I did with my church. The best we've ever done though was a 30 miler on the coast not far from Eureka.

Though timing the waves wasn't all that much fun.

It is fine where it is in OTC. Keeps it well on topic.

The longest hike our troop undertook was 80 miles on part of the cascade mountain trail. It was originally supposed to be 55 miles but avalanches had knocked out several sections of trail forcing us to bypass large sections the long way.

There was one day where by the time we stopped we had covered 20 miles in one day. We were at our new location ahead of schedule. Some couldn't continue on due to blisters. We had a day of rest and a day of work then did the last leg of our trail.

Cheers for that info about the tarp setups, Tuefel.

The kids and I have just come back from an overnight's "glamping" in a campground at the base of the Tararua Range.

We took our two little tents (a Macpac Microlight and a NZ$40 "Jackeroo" 3-person tent from Kmart); my brother, Mike, and his partner, Kath, had a large 6-person dome tent; our brother, Stuart, borrowed Mike's little cheap 3-person tent and Mike's boss, Chris, and his partner, Sophie, had an enormous tent with front and rear vestibules.

Chris also brought along a gazebo, folding table and benches and a folding aluminium wash-stand for doing the dishes on. Mike brought along his large gas barbecue and between Chris and Mike we had more than enough folding chairs for all the adults.

Unloading that lot from the cars and setting it all up probably burned as much calories as backpacking up a mountain trail .

It wasn't exactly the "get away from it all camping" I prefer - we had other campers all around us with a variety of vehicles and accommodations including caravans (trailers, I think, is the American term) R Vs and house buses - but it was great to get out and be mostly surrounded by nature.

The kids had a swim in the river and after dark we took them out to show them glow worms.

It was also good to have a camping trip that Stuart could enjoy with us - his health precludes his joining us on backpacking trips.

On the whole, an awesome weekend and it was a good chance to test out the mods I'd done to the Jackeroo tent: when we tested it over New Year's Eve at Mike's place I found that the fly hung down against the mesh inner on both sides and the back, with the result that my sleeping bag got damp from condensation where it touched the mesh - so I sewed a webbing loop in the middle of the bottom hem of each side and the back and put some shock-cord loops through them so I could peg the sides out away from the mesh inner.

I was pleased to note this morning that my sleeping bag wasn't damp so I seem to have fixed the condensation problem.

Sounds like a good time.

It was excellent. Wish it could've been a longer stay but we all had work and other matters to drag us back to town.