Camping. And questions.
I. love. camping. I love it. It completely recharges me more than just about any vacation. It’s the complete disconnection from technology and the world, really, for an extended period of time. A hike is nice n’ all, but I still find myself anxious. It takes a day or so for the new-world anxiety to leave my bones and I can really relax and “commune with nature” and whatnot.
So Gos and I are going camping this week. We leave tomorrow to head to a little private campground in the pine barrens. It’s nothing hardcore and they have bathrooms n’ all, but it’s just getting to hang out in the woods and cook food over an open flame and read a shit ton and maybe do some canoeing.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Read more for two questions for The Scrabbled at large.
1. What are your must-have camping trip items? Obviously a tent and a sleeping bag and whatnot, but what else?
2. What are your favorite things to do whilst camping? And yes, smores. We all know smores. But what else?
I am, at the moment most pumped for reading a ton of books and building/using an open-flame smoker and smoking some ribs all day.
Comments
Magic mushrooms are always fun.
I am too old an unhip to know where to get those anymore.
1) A flask filled with whiskey is very important. And I have a foldable camping chair that I cart around because sitting on rocks for hours can make my butt hurt. There’s a little first aid kit that we bring along, since I’m often prone to trips, scrapes, and whiskey-soaked headaches and need to keep my cuts free of dirt.
2) I like swimming in lakes. I like hiking around at night and gawking at stars. Camping is all about impulse for me, I guess. My brain suddenly decides it wants to hike around, swim, drink, eat junk, run around with a frisbee, and it does so.
3) I’m leaving out a major fun component of what I enjoy about camping, but you already know about that.
I would like to have some music playing, but I guess that doesn’t fit your plan of getting away from technology. Some beers would be nice, though.
And how do you define a “ton of books”? I would think reading more than one or two would get in the way of doing other things.
A hammock is key.
My cousin has a 3-person slingshot, which is the greatest invention ever. Also, we used to camp at a place on the Delaware, and one day playing with it, my dad, out in the river asked for a beer, so we launched it out there, it hit the water, floated to him, and was barely even shaken.
Beer.
If you’re somewhere with a large field, an aerobie is good times.
Beer.
1. Musthaves: tarp in case it rains. Flashlight and gas light because I’m still scared of the dark. Warm socks and my KU sweatshirt because I always get cold. Beer to chill in the nearby creek. I second Justin’s camping chair in that I keep mine in my car year-round. I also sometimes bring some crappy sneakers so I can walk around the creek without fearing stepping on fish hooks or sharp rocks. Oh, and toilet paper. Because while I could use a leaf, I could also reach for some poison oak (in the dark) and then there’d be a mess on my hands. And ass.
2. I like making baked sweet potatoes and hot dogs. Ohhh and UNO.
Indoor plumbing, electricity, AC, a comfortable bed, TV, Internet.
Since my house is already equipped with all of the above, I see no good reason to go live in the woods.
A knife is a must-have for me. It comes in handy for countless reasons, but I also enjoy whittling quietly while camping.
I prefer a campground near some body of water. I love swimming and canoeing and even bathing in the wild waters.
I prefer to sip on whiskey than to pack a ton of beer.
Reading is an excellent activity for camping.
I have a pair of hiking boots that are indispensable. I picked them up last year before my California trip and they can comfortably handle pretty much whatever terrain I throw at them: mud, mountains, etc.
But they didn’t come very cheap and you don’t have any time to break them in. But something to consider if you start going regularly.
Docs have always served me well for camping. They’re comfy and take a hell of a beating and don’t melt when I stomp on burning logs.
I’ve never done whisky whilst camping, but honestly, it sounds gross. It’s too hot! And there’s nothing quite like a cold beer on a hot day. Maybe if I could make juleps…
John said:I’ve never done whisky whilst camping, but honestly, it sounds gross. It’s too hot!
We’ve been camping with you 3 times and all 3 times we drank whiskey.
hahahhahahahahah! I’m laughing because I legitimately don’t remember that. Which, really, is the punchline here.
Well, either you drank the whiskey with me or you sucked down the thermos of cosmopolitians that the girls brought along. You choose how you want this to be remembered.
You should have the 10 essentials for safety. They vary depending on who you ask but here they are. LINK. I would highly recommend the headlamp because then you have two hands available for peeing two handed, cutting stuff, choking bears, etc. A lantern is useful for recreation…like when you’re playing cards at night.
When car camping a comfy chair with a cup holder is ESSENTIAL. Another essential thing is a metal rod of sorts for marshmallows or hot dogs. You can find a stick in the woods, sure, but it won’t be as good. You can find these anywhere from Target to an outdoor shop.
Outdoor games are usually a hit. This depends on your sobriety and athletic skill. You can bring horseshoes, bocce ball, cards, baseball glove and ball, frisbee, soccer ball.
I’m not sure what kind of amenities are available to you besides bathrooms but a table of sorts is useful when cooking/eating/playing cards.
There aren’t any bugs in AZ but there are plenty in the pine barrens. Make sure you guys have some type of mosquito repellent. There are many options available from creams to sprays to candles. It makes for a more enjoyable night for those who are highly susceptible to mosquito ambushes.
I think that’s all I can think of for now.
I read the best mosquito repellent is BO so I’ll have that in full force. Also, deet for the less stinky Gosia. Pretty much the only thing I don’t have that you listed is the headlamp and I’m sort of immediately in love with the idea. I kind of want a headlamp at all times.
1. The obvious answer to this question, as it applies to a trip to the Pine Barrens, has to be a Jersey Devil costume that you can use to terrorize your fellow campers. Something tells me Hutch is capable of creating a pretty authentic JD screeching sound.
2. My favorite thing to do while camping is to build shit that makes me feel like I’m not camping. Like a house. Camping is for people who are too stupid to build a house.
Jay said:1. The obvious answer to this question, as it applies to a trip to the Pine Barrens, has to be a Jersey Devil costume that you can use to terrorize your fellow campers. Something tells me Hutch is capable of creating a pretty authentic JD screeching sound.
2. My favorite thing to do while camping is to build shit that makes me feel like I’m not camping. Like a house. Camping is for people who are too stupid to build a house.
if we place Oliver in the mask of my awesome prize-winning Jersey Devil costume from the past 2 Halloweens, we have a winner. also, you’re too stupid – not for anything in particular, just in general.
i actually haven’t been camping in many years due to a multitude of reasons. however, my family used to go camping just about every weekend growing up. i loved having a foldable comfy cup-holding chair (noted many times above), an old pair of adidas sambas, a nice sharpened stick or metal rod for marshmallows/hot dogs, a good, sharp knife (w/first aid kit), a recordable minidisc player with a surround-sound mic for recording nature (small and un-invasive), a still or video camera if i care enough to document things, a book or two, a small travel notebook and a few pens.
favourite things to do are read, play on the banks of the river, canoe, record sounds, sit & watch the fire for hours and try to have visions, sit and stare into the woods and enjoy the greenery, basically sitting, staring & thinking a lot. maybe sex, too. i have not yet been in a camping situation that involved a significant other.
I’m not a huge fan of camping… mostly due to bugs. I used to go with my church youth group, so the amount of fun that could be had was vastly limited by the lack of alcohol. However, I had some pyros as friends, and they would experiment with different ways to start a fire. For instance, one year they brought flash powder so that our fire had an initial fuse of sorts. Only problem with that fire was that the beer boxes we stole from other camp sites still had packing tape on them that caught fire and drifted up into the trees. No extraneous fires started, but it was still rather concerning.
John said:I read the best mosquito repellent is BO so I’ll have that in full force. Also, deet for the less stinky Gosia. Pretty much the only thing I don’t have that you listed is the headlamp and I’m sort of immediately in love with the idea. I kind of want a headlamp at all times.
Hey, that guy from Animal Collective uses one. ’Nough said? Hahahaha.
And that’s what I would look like if I were a cyborg pirate.
Yeah, this is pretty much the best thing I’ve ever bought. Actually, it was free! It came with my lantern. Best free thing I’ve ever not bought.
Justin said:
3) I’m leaving out a major fun component of what I enjoy about camping, but you already know about that.
Singing a round of 99 Luftballoons?
Hahahaha, Hutch, that’s ridiculous. What lantern did you get?
1. What are your must-have camping trip items? Obviously a tent and a sleeping bag and whatnot, but what else?
- Definitely some sort of padding for underneath the sleeping bag.
- It will get colder at night that you expect, even if the day is hot. Extra blankets are always worth bringing.
- Bug spray. Are you going to Bellplain? They are lousy with mosquitos because of where the river is
- Lots of socks, and make sure you change into dry ones before bed (Girl Scout tip to keep you warm.)
- Obviously a cooler with beer, water, other drinks.
- Some way to make sure your food is inaccessible to animals. Maybe lock it in the car…don’t put it in your tent with you. PB&J is really good non-perishable camping food.
- Flashlights and extra batteries for sure.
- Pail of sand to put out the fire in the end (they will probably have something for you, or directions on what to do at the very least.)
- Comfy chairs…eff sitting on tree stumps.
2. What are your favorite things to do whilst camping? And yes, smores. We all know smores. But what else?
- It has been so long since I have gone…but swimming in a lake is fun, fishing can be fun, canoeing, hiking.
- Unless you get that padding under your sleeping bags, sex may not be so much fun.
Good luck with smoking ribs on the fire, and have fun!!
SOOOOOOOooooo we got rained out. The first two days were good. We set up a pretty neat little tarp city and we had enough sunshine to get a fire started to cook our food. We even managed to get my ghetto rib smoker up and going (which turned out awesome… pictures and post later).
Friday, however, was too much. Overnight, the tarp city took on too much water and collapsed. There was no sunshine to be had so no campire. We called it quits. Ah well.
and today it’s gorgeous, go figure.
I know it’s after the fact, but for those of you who have ever been (or plan to go) camping, been hiking and subsequently been attacked by poison ivy/oak/sumac, a thing I never go without (in fact, I keep it in the car too..just in case) is a little bottle of dish detergent (palmolive, joy, you get the jist).
If you happen to step (or fall, as it happened to me..damn beer) into a patch, get it washed asap with the dish soap. It cuts grease and oil, and as the “active ingredient” in these plants are their oils, the dish soap is effective in washing it off. Getting it washed off quick enough will prevent the rash.