The Morning: How to Start Your Day of Camping Off Right

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Believe it or not, a good day of camping doesn’t necessarily start in the morning. No, I’m not suggesting that it should start off in the afternoon: rather, a great day of camping should start the night before with a solid night’s sleep and the right kind of preparation. If you want to wake up to cool air and a bright sun, it’s time to learn how to start your day off right. Here’s how you want to get started camping in the morning.

• Get a full night’s sleep.

  The most important thing to consider is your sleep before you begin your day. If you stay up too late, you’ll find yourself waking up when the sun is already at its highest. If your sleeping is too uncomfortable, you won’t be able to find the quality of sleep that leaves you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated in the morning. That’s why it’s important to consider tomorrow morning before you go to bed. If you have to, cut off conversations and tell people you have to go to bed because you’ve got a “big day tomorrow.” It’s ultimately you who decides the quality of day you want to enjoy.

• Make sure breakfast is ready or at least accessible.

  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it will provide you with the fuel you lost overnight and help regulate your appetite throughout the day. If you’re going to eat to really get full, breakfast is the time to do it. The problem during a camping trip is that eating in the morning often simply means chewing on beef jerky or whatever’s available. Instead, make sure you’ve got some easy-to-prepare food in the cooler: fruit and protein work great for both giving you an energy boost and filling you up. Heat up some sausages in a pan while you eat bananas, apples, and oranges, and eat some almonds or mixed nuts for some healthy fat.

• Get going!

  You might notice that when you lounge around all day, you can’t help but feel sluggish. That’s because your energy will often rise to the occasion. If you’re out and about at 7 a.m., then there’s a good chance you’ll feel more energized throughout the day. Even if everyone else is sleeping, it’s time for you to take the boat out for a quick fish, or indulge in another physical activity like hiking or swimming. By the time everyone else is waking up, you’ll feel fueled and ready for a great day of camping.

Choosing how to live your days is a skill; it might take some practice. If you don’t think you have the kind of self-discipline to start off with a good morning out on a camping trip, try doing it on one of your Saturdays in the coming weeks.

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Three Things the Rookie Camper Needs to Know

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

For some people, camping is a way of life. Having warm clothes for cool summer nights, knowing how to build a fire, and cooking out in the open air comes easily to them because they’ve been around it for so long. But for the rookie camper, what seems like what could be an ideal vacation is often marred by their lack of experience and the little details that make things different in real life. So how can the rookie camper get off to a good start? By keeping in mind these three things:

1. There’s a good chance you’ll over-pack. When you’re out camping for the first time, the temptation is to bring so many gadgets and so many supplies that you’ll have plenty of options for eating, sleeping, and dressing. But while this may feel fun as you pack, it often just makes things more difficult, getting in the way of utility and taking up precious packing space. You can eat simple foods, you can dress in simple clothes, and you don’t need to bring a laptop with you if you aren’t going to be working on it. Resist the temptation to over-pack on what you don’t need, because you’ll have more space for things you’ll actually use.

3. Don’t underestimate the power of the weather. Even in summer, it’s easy for the temperature to drop during the night, and nothing ruins a night of sleep quite like cold air. Don’t be afraid to over-do it with the warm gear. Pack an extra outer layer and make sure that you’ll be well-insulated against the cold at night. Also, be ready for rain and use tents and tarps to protect what needs to remain dry.

Photo Credits: papalars

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How to Conduct a Camping “Trial-Run”

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

If it’s been a while since your last jaunt in the woods, it’s fair to say that your camping skills are, shall we say, a bit rusty. You won’t necessarily be able to start the fires and set up the tents with the same speed you did years ago – unless you practice. You never know what kind of challenges you’ll face until you actually go camping, which is exactly why you’ll want to conduct a camping trial-run to make sure you’ve got everything planned for. Here’s how to do it.

First, set aside one day and one night before you go camping, preferably not too far in advance of the actual camping trip. You’ll be using this day and night to conduct what is essentially a camping simulation. Set up your tent, bring out your own water, and even so far as to avoid using the indoor bathroom – unless you’re in a highly urban area. (Note: If you live in a city apartment, find the closest camping spot and simply use it for a night.)

What skills do you want to work on? Try to gather wood and start your own fire, hopefully bringing a tripod grill along with you so that you can cook any meat you packed in a cooler. You’ll also want to make sure you know how to build your tent – some tents are more complicated than others and require a little more effort. Also, keep note of how you clean yourself – if you’re feeling stinky and dirty by the following morning, there’s a good chance you may want to invest in a device like an outdoor shower.

The key is to treat your trial-run as finding your blind spots. You probably wouldn’t be able to plan for everything while sitting at home on your computer, but if you actually go out and experience what it’s like to camp, you’ll finally see where your blind sports are and what you need to do in order to make sure they don’t detract from your camping experience.

Photo Credits: jaygooby

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Five Pieces of Equipment You’ll Need on your Next Fishing Trip

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

If you’ve decided to take a fishing trip – extended or not – there’s a good chance that you’ll need to stock up on your fishing equipment. This might not be true for professionals, who might have all of the equipment they need handy in their garage or basement, but for the amateur, you’ll want to know exactly what to bring to make your fishing trip both fun and productive.

So what are the pieces of equipment you’ll want to bring? Here are five different types to watch for.

1. Fishing rods.

The absolute essential, fishing rods are the starting point for a typical fishing trip – if you haven’t used a fishing rod before, make sure that you try practice “casts” out in your yard. Casting with your fishing rod can be difficult to understand at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature. Make sure you find a good fishing rod and have good information explaining how to use it.

2. Fishing line.

This might go hand-in-hand with fishing rods, but it’s worth mentioning here because it plays such a vital role in the type of fishing experience you’ll have. Fishing line that’s tough but also barely visible will be what you’re looking for: you want to barely disturb the water, but you also want your line to hold up against some of the stronger fish you might have to wrestle into your boat.

3. Bait.

Bait might not qualify as “equipment,” but it’s a fishing essential. After all, it depends on the type of bait you’re using – while a worm might not be in your “equipment” box, a good lure will be something that you’ll keep with you. So make sure to know what kind of fish you’re targeting so that you can pick the appropriate type of bait, as well as how to use it.

4. A tacklebox.

Hooks, lures, bobbers, and other equipment need to be stored somewhere, especially since many of those individual instruments can be sharp. So make sure that you’re able to store them safely and efficiently in a good tacklebox. You don’t necessarily have to buy a new one – just make sure that you borrow one so that you’re not constantly tracking your fishing devices.

5. A boat.

Duh! Some people enjoy fishing from the shore, and in some cases (such as the coast) this can be a very productive way to fish. But to truly get a good experience out in the wild, make sure you can ride even a rented single-motor boat. You don’t have to break the bank here; just have fun.

Photo Credits: nugun

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How to Build the Ideal Campfire – Part II

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

In Part I of this series on how to create the ideal campfire, we spent most of our time looking at site preparation and planting a good foundation for the fire. Up to this stage, you should have a neat, shallow, but large hole in the ground surrounded by rocks, as well as a pile of dirt nearby and a bucket of water for fire extinguishing.

In this article, we’ll finally get down to the fire itself, taking advantage of our well-place foundation to make one spectacular (and practical) campfire.

Keep in mind the tools to have handy: A bucket of water, a shovel, matcher/lighter.

First, you’re going to need to gather wood, but before you even do that, you have to know what kind of wood to look for.

Understand the ideal structure of a fire: a lower layer of tinder, such as dry grass or shredded paper, a middle layer of small sticks, and an upper layer of larger wood that will keep you fire going. When you look for wood, you’re going to have to look for all three different types in order to structure your fire properly.

Once you have plenty of each type of wood (you’ll particularly want plenty of small sticks for the middle layer), it’s time to build the structure itself. A tee pee shape is usually recommended, especially if you have longer sticks that can stretch out for a nice, wide fire. This structure allows you to easily pile tinder low and place sticks over it, allowing the wood to rest on other pieces of wood.

This shape is also ideal because it will allow plenty of air for the fire to consume and a natural progression of tinder to wood that makes for a quick-developing, long-lasting fire.

Once you have plenty of tinder and your structure in place, simply light a match or hit a lighter and get your tinder burning well. The fire from your tinder should be in direct contact with the smaller sticks of the next layer, which in turn should start burning and heating the larger logs.

Before you know it, you’ll have a great campfire that burns high, wide, and long! Set a cooking tripod over it for well-cooked hot dogs or find some more branches for roasting marshmellows, and enjoy.

Photo Credits: independentman

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Heading Home: How to “Break Camp”

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

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.

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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