Delicious Camping Food – Uh, Really?

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

You read right: you can have delicious camping food, even when you’re roughing it in the wild. This doesn’t involve necessarily bringing in an RV or finding a place to eat out – instead, you can learn to become a great “outdoor cook” that knows how to handle his or her way around the campsite kitchen. It just takes a little know-how, a solid attitude, and the willingness to make it happen. Here are a few tips to making your camping meals great.

Good food starts with good tools.

If you’re not working with good tools, it won’t matter what you’re cooking – you need to be able to cook your food well. This means clean pans, a good way to heat your food, appropriate utensils for eating them, and the right tools for flipping, poking, grabbing, and mixing. Tools like pans built for the outdoors, tripods that let you heat pots over fires, and camping silverware need to be present – and you should consider them essentials for a comfortable camping trip.

Ingredients, ingredients, ingredients.

Your ingredients will determine the quality of your food – it’s that simple. So you need to start thinking of you and your family’s favorite ingredients that also travel well. A steak can be great, but unless you’re prepared to bring some with you, you won’t be able to enjoy them in the outdoors. You’ll need to prepare for it by bringing a cooler and keeping your meat refrigerated.

Think about other ingredients that both taste good and make for easy packing – foods like nuts, beans, and other canned ingredients can be combined easily during a meal. If you use a little imagination, you can find ways to bring these ingredients together and create some great recipes.

Think calorie-dense food.

When you’re running around in the outdoors all day, you need plenty of energy. It’s not time to count calories and order the salad – you need food that fills you up without dragging you down. And you need plenty of energy to feel good. What foods are calorie dense? Bring a bottle of olive oil to add to your pans for healthy fat; other calorie-dense foods like cheese pack well and can be stored in the cooler.

Cooking in the wild is just like cooking indoors: it’s the preparation that will make or break a meal. You can’t cook without preparation indoors, so why would you expect to whip up something easily outdoors? Prepare by bringing the right ingredients, keeping them stored safely, and knowing how to bring them together over a simple pan and fire. It only takes a little bit of thinking and shopping: you can let the fire do the rest.

Photo Credits: fishbone1

Tips for Women: How to Camp Comfortably

Friday, October 28th, 2011

We all know that any given woman is capable of accomplishing the same things outdoors as any given man, and that what makes a good camper is not only attitude, but skill. Either gender is capable of developing both. But when it comes to camping comfortably, it would be just plain wrong to act like there are no differences between men and women, and it’s fair to say that women have higher needs for comfort than many men. With that in mind, here are a few tips for the adventurous women out there.

First, getting a good’s night sleep during a camping weekend should be considered the most vital aspect of your comfortable camping experience. If you wake up with a sore back, it’s going to ruin the rest of your day. But if you wake up like you wake up out of your bed at home, you should feel absolutely fine and have more energy to accomplish the things you want to accomplish while camping that day.

Next, think about the kind of equipment you’ll be using during the daytime that will change your camping experience. For example, what luxury at home can’t you live without? If it’s a shower, you can find portable camping showers that function similar to showers at home, or simply find a campsite shower on a campground. It’s usually a good idea to try out a night of camping out in your backyard, without the conveniences at home except the ones in your bag, to get an idea of how you’ll fare when you’re camping. Make sure to bring a notepad to keep track of all of the things you believe you’ll need and that which you won’t need to bring on your trip.

Having a comfortable camping experience is all about preparation. As long as you have your bases covered, you should have a great experience that feels like you’re at one with nature, not constantly fighting it by tossing and turning all night.

Photo Credits: russelljsmith

Should You Bring a Walking Stick on your Hike?

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

We all have the images of walking sticks from classic movies: one movie that comes to mind is Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments,” in which during the iconic parting of the Red Sea, he holds his shepherd’s staff high over the water and the seas part. Because of these images, we often have a cultural reinforcement of the walking staff as something for old men, or even for corny hikers who have too much money to blow on hiking products.

But is that the right attitude to take?

If you’re someone who’s looking to become a serious hiker, you might not realize that the walking stick, though utilitarian and not necessarily pretty, can actually bring you a lot of support and comfort when you’re out there on the hiking trail. Let’s take a look at some possible reasons you might carry one.

Support –

First, the most obvious reason to carry a walking stick is for the extra support it might grant you. To some, having a walking stick is like having a third leg – it gives an extra boost and grounding that you wouldn’t have if you let your arms wave around freely – and you can still use on arm for balance and for grabbing onto things if need be. This is why walking sticks or canes are typically associated with the older crowd – they enjoy and sometimes need the extra support. But you don’t have to need a walking stick in order to try one out.

For looks –

Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s just cool to have a need for a walking stick. While some of us might indulge our nerd fantasies on the hiking trail (think Gandalf from “Lord of the Rings,”) it feels good to carry something we don’t necessarily need, but we know looks interesting. This might be referred to as “novelty,” but you only need to try out a walking stick a few times to know if this novelty will last.

As you ascend the hills with a staff in your hand, you might just feel like Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. For some people, just “feeling good” is one more reason to get out of the house and onto the hiking trail, and this has tangible benefits.

For fun –

A walking stick isn’t always necessary on a hike – though it does bring the added support mentioned above – but it can be fun. You can tease people with it, tap their opposite shoulders, and even scare off some woodland critters without putting your arms out there. Mainly, having a walking stick is about fun, which gets to the heart of what hiking is all about in the first place.

Is it a little goofy? Sure. Might you enjoy it? Why not? Try out a walking stick to see how it feels.

Photo Credits: schmich