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Heading Home: How to “Break Camp”
Sooner or later, as fun as your camping trip may have been, it will be time to go home. If your camping trip has been a successful one, you may hate to break that bit of news to your family or friends, but as the old adage goes, “all good things must come to an end.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you’re out of the woods yet, friend. You’re going to have to break camp, meaning you’ll have to pack up all of your things, clean up your camping area, and get ready for transport. Here’s a quick guide to doing it as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.
First, don’t procrastinate cleaning up throughout your trip. A lot of the stress of breaking camp will be reduced if you do a little “mini-clean” before going to bed each night. These cleans don’t have to do anything major, but you should at least stop garbage from stockpiling next to your tent. The more prepared you are to break camp, the easier it will be to start it. No one wants to look at a huge pile of garbage and clothes at the end of the week and wonder how to even make the first dent.
Second, plan ahead one day. The day before you break camp, ask yourself what will need to be done. How will you get dirt out of your clothes – can you wash a load and pack them up a day ahead of time? What kind of equipment can you pack the day before that you won’t need to use before breaking camp? Avoiding procrastination goes hand in hand with preparation.Third, work together. As tough as it is to motivate a group of people to clean when they don’t want to clean, having more hands will make things easier for everyone involved. Work together to get a good system going – someone handles garbage disposing, someone handles packing and bags, and someone takes down the tent. If you get all cylinders going at once, you’ll be able to break camp in record time.
Fourth, do a review and final walk around. If you have that nagging feeling that you’ve forgotten to pack something, there’s a pretty good chance you did. Have a mental checklist of the things you’ll absolutely need – like a cell phone, wallet, car keys, etc. If you’ve remembered all of these things, don’t spend too much time looking for something that you can just replace anyway.
A good camping trip is not only relaxing, but it gets your mind to focus on nature, camp site maintenance, and the fun of being in the outdoors – just remember to leave the woods like you found them.
Photo Credits: heymarchetti
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Killing Time On a Camping Trip
It’s an ideal scenario: you’ve finally gotten the family away from the distractions of daily life back in the city, you’ve cleared enough time to have a great vacation, and you’ve brought all of the amenities you need to enjoy a comfortable camping trip. Then, your first morning, you wake up, fire up breakfast, lounge around on a chair, and the thought hits you:
What now?
It’s a perfectly normal situation to encounter, and it simply means that even while you’ve put aside some time for fun, you haven’t decided what to do with that time yet. Here are some ways for you to enjoy a camping trip and “kill time” the most fun and relaxing way possible.
First, make sure before your camping trip that you know what kind of activities are available in your camping area. If you’ve decided to “rough it” and head out into some deep, desolate woods, that’s fine, but you’ll need to define some activities ahead of time for that trip as well. Is there a body of water nearby? Are there boats to rent, jet skis available, good hiking trails, bikes to rent? Just asking yourself a few of these questions ahead of time will help you get started on the right foot.
Second, don’t waste time making decisions. It’s all too common for people to turn into “decisions, decisions” mode instead of simply taking action early and often. If you face a choice of fishing, hiking, or biking your day away, and family members are undecided on which to do, try this: make a decision for yourself and invite others to come along. Get your feet moving and get the activities under your belt. You’ll find that this kind of active momentum will probably carry you through the rest of your day.Third, know when it’s time to relax. If you’ve been active all day, you can still live a “full day” without staying active – it might be time to kick up your feet, light a campfire, and listen to some ghost stories. It’s one thing to relax when you’re stressed, but it’s another thing completely to relax after an exhausting day of fun, exercise, and activity. You’ll feel like you’re relaxing deeper then ever before and you’ll get a better night’s sleep.
If these sound like good ways to spend your next vacation, look into having your own camping trip, and then customize the trip to suit your tastes. Adventurers can find plenty of adventure in the outdoors, while relaxers will enjoy campfires and quiet nights under the stars. It’s up to you to decide how you’ll “kill your own time.”
Photo Credits: .:[CT]:.|.:[CB]:. |…
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Your Campsite Blueprint: How to Set Up Camp
Setting up a camping area isn’t only about finding a relatively flat space to plop all of your equipment down in. Instead, you should be careful to keep the right sections separate – such as fire and shelter – and understand why you need to design a campsite that will work for you better practically. Here’s how to set up a camp that you probably won’t need to adjust.
Section 1: The Tent Area.
Your tent area should be generally higher than the rest of your campground, since this will allow any water flow that should come in to move away from your tents and not get your gear wet. Try to find a relatively flat area that is higher than surrounding areas for your tent, and try to scout out this part of your location first. A lot of your surrounding tent area should depend on where your tents are so that your campsite isn’t too large.
Section 2: The Fire Area.
Once you’ve set up your tents, take a time to examine the prevailing winds. Moisten your finger or toss some grass in the air if you’re not sure. Why do you want to know the winds? Because when you build your fire, you’re going to want the smoke to blow away from your campsite and not into your tents. Keep your fire at least thirty feet away from the tents, and once you have a fire spot, you can set up a few surrounding metal or plastic chairs.
Section 3: The Bathroom Area.
Of course, a “bathroom” is a loose term when you’re talking about the outdoors, but if you’re going for the rustic experience, you’re going to need a place to, for lack of a better phrase, dump your waste. This should be out of sight and far from the campsite, hopefully behind some trees or a large rock for the sake of privacy. Be sure that the soil will allow for relatively easy burial, and be sure to stick with the same general area – you don’t want to spread this kind of thing out.
Section 4: The Shower and Bath Area.
Of course, a “shower and bath” is a bit of an exaggeration, but if you can, try to set up camp near a clean water source that will allow you to stay clean without straying too far from camp. Having a stream nearby is often better than buying your own water – just make sure that the water is fresh and clean.
Photo Credits: Smoobs
