How do you camp?

[J-sews]

Seems like most folks who hang around this place say they like to camp. But camping comes in all sorts of different flavors. When I was younger, camping meant hiking along the Lake Michigan shoreline, in Sleeping Bear National Park. There are no houses or other developement for miles. We'd find a nice place along the beach, set up our tent, and watch the sun set on the far horizon. After that it would be stories and marshmallows around the campfire into the wee hours of the night. Camping trips rarely lasted more than a couple nights.

Now that I'm older, with a wife and three teenage girls, camping is altogether different. We lash up a 30-foot travel trailer to the truck on Friday, then drive to the campground at the river 40 miles south of here. Setting up camp means leveling the camper, putting down the awning, and plugging into the electric hook-up. We've got all the comforts of home, plus a place to go swimming and biking and socializing with the other campers. It's great fun.

But much as I enjoy the 'new' way we camp, I often find myself missing the old days. There was more a sense of adventure back then, and outcomes were often uncertain. I think we'll have to try that way again next summer.

So how about you fellers? How do you camp? And where do you go camping?

[Anthony]

I've just started to go camping again regularly starting with this year...about a week at a time with my uncle and his Wife and kids.  The first time I went camping was actually a climbing trip I was ill prepared for when I was about 18...just a tent and a fire and no one for a few miles.  I think it was two nights; one before the climb and one night before we headed home. 

But now that my uncle has kids, camping has become more like yours...camper, toilets, etc...although we still went bare bones camping compared to others at the site we stayed at...all the camper was good for was sleeping and cooking on the outside gas burners...there is no shower, toilet, running water.  But the campgrounds had springs to get fresh water from, toilets every hundred yards or so, firewood you can buy.  For me it was the perfect mix of roughing it and luxuries, especially for a weeks time.  Really quiet grounds where we stayed to, lots of privacy.  I still locked up all my stuff before we headed into the city or drove to a trailhead...better safe than sorry

[NutSAK]

I take it however I can get it.  My camping ranges from packing all my gear on my back and hiking out a trail alone for a couple of days, to canoe camping, and to setting up my pop-up camper with the wife and dogs at a state or national park.  The pop-up is very simple--no furnace or A/C, only gas for cooking and I run the lights off a battery.  I have a hard time calling that "camping", much less something more comfortable than that.  In my teen years I traveled with my parents in a 31' Air Stream with the amenities, and I consider that "RV'ing".

[hawkchucker]

My camping is well Civilised. I have a 44 foot park model on sebago lake that I go to on the weekends from April 1 to Nov 30. I am older now and dont get paid to sleep on the ground. Plus I need my microwave and sat tv.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I went a little backwards- my family had trailers when I was a kid and we grew up camping in those.  They weren't Airstreams  but we had a gas stove and oven, fridge, indoor toilet and small shower.  We had a few different ones growing up, each one better than the previous one.  They were all Prowlers, which to this day I'd probably buy if I got one because I liked them so much. 

Nowadays I am more interested in taking a tent out in my kayak and spending a few days with little or no "fancy" gear.  Of course, if I got a good deal on a trailer I wouldn't complain about that either!

Def

[CQC-7]

I dont camp as much as I once did.  My friends thought that I was nuts for camping the way that I did.  I never took a tent.  I took just a sleeping bag and a canvas tarp along with my normal camp gear.  One night we were camping in a hollow and although it was 60 degrees during the day it snowed about 3 inches that night.  They thought that I would freeze that night.  With the tarp I built a small lean to shelter and spent the night pretty warm and when I awoke the next morning everyone that slept in the tent was cold complaining that it was freezing in the tent.  I did not get cold one bit.  The tarp shielded me from the wind and the layer of snow on the tarp insulated it making it retain more heat whereas the nylon rainproof tent allowed heat to escape.     

[665ae]

When I was a kid, we spent several weekends travelling from campground to campground using a camper.  It seems like we would go at least two weekends a month, but my memory could be wrong.  In my teens, I spent quite a bit of time tent camping in different places... usually on property owned by one of my friends parents.  (also usually involving stolen alcohol )

These days, I camp a lot of different ways.  I like to backpack, and walk some of the trails near me that run from campground to campground.  My friends and I like to hop in a car with only as much gear as we can carry, travel up north a bit, and see if we can survive for a weekend in the middle of no where.  It's fun to actually hunt/fish when if you aren't successful, you don't eat
My kids are just getting to the age where I think they'll have fun camping, so we've started taking them to different campgrounds using a big family camping tent.

I also really like Cold Weather Camping.  In fact, I just set up a campout with some friends for the middle of January

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I don't get to go all that much these days  , as life is pretty hectic at the moment, but I do like to go as basic as I can, and just get away from it all, this summer, now my boy'll be 5, I'll be taking him camping, and if I can get a tandem by then I might even do a cycle/camping tour with him

[J-sews]

I don't get to go all that much these days  , as life is pretty hectic at the moment, but I do like to go as basic as I can, and just get away from it all, this summer, now my boy'll be 5, I'll be taking him camping, and if I can get a tandem by then I might even do a cycle/camping tour with him

Sounds like great fun for father and son alike.    Do you have an area nearby open to camping?

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I don't get to go all that much these days  , as life is pretty hectic at the moment, but I do like to go as basic as I can, and just get away from it all, this summer, now my boy'll be 5, I'll be taking him camping, and if I can get a tandem by then I might even do a cycle/camping tour with him

Sounds like great fun for father and son alike.    Do you have an area nearby open to camping?

There are a few campsites, within ten or so miles, but I tend to just go down some quite woods I know, not exactly legal, but they've got to catch me first

[I'm Still Bison]

I don't get to go all that much these days  , as life is pretty hectic at the moment, but I do like to go as basic as I can, and just get away from it all, this summer, now my boy'll be 5, I'll be taking him camping, and if I can get a tandem by then I might even do a cycle/camping tour with him

Sounds like great fun for father and son alike.    Do you have an area nearby open to camping?

There are a few campsites, within ten or so miles, but I tend to just go down some quite woods I know, not exactly legal, but they've got to catch me first

                      For a modest sum,we won't snitch your location You mentioned a tandem for you and your son,have you figured out what and which way you're going to go with that? I know sometime back you mentioned a kit.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I like to camp with feather boas and glittering high heels...



That's me on the right....

 

Def

[I'm Still Bison]

Ummmm....I think it was GOING camping,not GO camp......now I have to go wash out my mind and rid myself of the image that got planted.

[Grant Lamontagne]

This from a guy wearing a tutu?

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I don't get to go all that much these days  , as life is pretty hectic at the moment, but I do like to go as basic as I can, and just get away from it all, this summer, now my boy'll be 5, I'll be taking him camping, and if I can get a tandem by then I might even do a cycle/camping tour with him

Sounds like great fun for father and son alike.    Do you have an area nearby open to camping?

There are a few campsites, within ten or so miles, but I tend to just go down some quite woods I know, not exactly legal, but they've got to catch me first

                      For a modest sum,we won't snitch your location You mentioned a tandem for you and your son,have you figured out what and which way you're going to go with that? I know sometime back you mentioned a kit.

No I've still not figured that out , I'm just looking on ebay for a cheapish child back tandem too use

So if you guy are looking for an xmas present for me...

 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I like to camp with feather boas and glittering high heels...

(Image removed from quote.)

That's me on the right....

 

Def

Why am I not suprised

[Benner]

Because you're the one on the left! 

[I'm Still Bison]

This from a guy wearing a tutu?

Def

But it's tastefully done,and to bring an appreciation of art and culture

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Because you're the one on the left! 

, uncalled for

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

This from a guy wearing a tutu?

Def

But it's tastefully done,and to bring an appreciation of art and culture

I agree with you Bob, you do look fetching in a tutu

[Grant Lamontagne]

Because you're the one on the left! 

You beat me to it... I was going to originally post that was Micky on the left but figured it was better as a set up!

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Because you're the one on the left! 

You beat me to it... I was going to originally post that was Micky on the left but figured it was better as a set up!

Def

B*stids

[Roadie]

I like to camp with only what i can carry with me. Tent, sleeping bag, food and some method of cooking (be it fire or a trangia) are the main things. I figure if i'm going camping i might as well make it different to staying in a hotel. No offence to any one who goes "camping" in a motor home/caravan but thats not camping!

Roadie

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I like to camp with only what i can carry with me. Tent, sleeping bag, food and some method of cooking (be it fire or a trangia) are the main things. I figure if i'm going camping i might as well make it different to staying in a hotel. No offence to any one who goes "camping" in a motor home/caravan but thats not camping!

Roadie

Couldn't agree more, backpacking/bushcraft all the way

[Roadie]

I'm hoping that me and my mate are gonna go some somewhere over the hols, nothing like waking up with frost on your tent and putting on boots that are as stiff as iron!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Thank God for that!

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I'm hoping that me and my mate are gonna go some somewhere over the hols, nothing like waking up with frost on your tent and putting on boots that are as stiff as iron!

Not to mention the cold bitting air, wakes you up a treat doesn't it

[Roadie]

I'm hoping that me and my mate are gonna go some somewhere over the hols, nothing like waking up with frost on your tent and putting on boots that are as stiff as iron!

Not to mention the cold bitting air, wakes you up a treat doesn't it

It certainly does! I do like mornings, its the waking up i can't stand! The UK has its own sort of cold i've been told. Met an Aussie a couple of years ago who had just been in Canada for a couple of months and came over here and was colder in Scotland than he'd ever been in Canada, and yet the temps were a lot warmer over here than there. I didnt understand how or why, that just what he said!

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I'm hoping that me and my mate are gonna go some somewhere over the hols, nothing like waking up with frost on your tent and putting on boots that are as stiff as iron!

Not to mention the cold bitting air, wakes you up a treat doesn't it

It certainly does! I do like mornings, its the waking up i can't stand! The UK has its own sort of cold i've been told. Met an Aussie a couple of years ago who had just been in Canada for a couple of months and came over here and was colder in Scotland than he'd ever been in Canada, and yet the temps were a lot warmer over here than there. I didnt understand how or why, that just what he said!

I think its the humidity combined with the fact that our winds typically originate in siberia

It just means it's difficult to get away from the ever present chill

[Grant Lamontagne]

Scotland and Nova Scotia have virtually identical climates... hence the name that means "New Scotland" in Latin!  I much prefer the significantly colder temperatures I grew up with inland to the wetter cold we have here on the coast.

I imagine that Aussie wasn't on the coast of Canada, or at least not this one!

Def