Camping Tips
 

I'ma gonna dump some camping tips here 'bouts..

S'more...

Many good ideas there. I pack my kit about the same way, although I carry some other things as well. And I notice it made no mention of extra socks/change of clothes and hygiene items like a toothbrush or baby wipes. Never leave home without baby wipes!

Excellent ideas. Although I have to snicker at the relative sizes of some of the items in that backpack. For example number 24, the foam sleeping pad. A regular non-inflatable one takes up as much space as a tent. See if you can even find 24.

Interesting lists, maybe we should compare sometime with the one we inherited and updated. As fate would have it, Lil' Pete is camping this weekend.

Maybe #24 is a spray can of expanding foam insulation. :D

I prefer dry grass/leaves piled under my tent (make sure there are no rocks or roots there!) for padding. Less to carry, although I do have a closed foam sleeping pad that I sometimes use. I would carry the pad if I were planning on urban camping where I might be sleeping on concrete or other hard surfaces.

I love my Biolite camp stove too. Best camp stove I ever used. It does need a flat, solid surface to stand on, but it can support a small cast iron pan or Dutch Oven as well as the grill attachment. It cools quickly too, once you are done with it. The legs seem rickety and awkward but once you get the hang of using them, they really aren't.

Here's something I never could figure out. Apparently you can make a snow cave and live inside w/o freezing to death. But you read of people in their cars in blizzards who get buried and freeze to death. Isn't the car effectively a snow cave once it is buried? Do they actually suffocate or is it that the space inside the car, however insulated with mountains of snow, is too big to warm? I'm guessing, now that I think about it, 2 tons of metal is a greater heat sink than two tons of snow. Presumably, it would be better to make a snow cave outside the car.

Did I answer my own question?

Usually the ones trapped in cars try to run the engine, at least intermittently, and the exhaust gets them. Plus the ones sheltering in snow caves are waiting out a storm or sheltering overnight then move on when they can. The ones buried in cars are waiting to be found and rescued.

Duck Tape
Bungees

pen & paper essential

leave the foam pad

battery operated TV
folding lounge chair
sun umbrella
porter

I would think the occupants of a car are not dressed for the weather. It's possible to survive in a 32° snow cave or buried car if you are dressed properly.
People that live in snow country should carry some supplies in case they have to wait for triple a.

tarheel

A can of tuna in oil can cook your supper, and you can eat it too.

http://imgur.com/lMYWcHY

Or hope some native girl rides up with hot coffee to check on you.
http://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/stranded-...back-1.3315992

Faith in humanity restoration level: 100%

I have to explain that to my kids all the time when they jump in the car wearing a t-shirt and light sweatshirt when it is -10. "Don't assume the worst won't happen." I usually keep a blanket or sleeping bag in the car in the winter.

I'm gonna guess that is instant rice. I think some foil around the base would help keep the heat in. I have to try that.

Be mindful of the plastic coating on the inside of the tuna can melting a little into your tuna.

Yeah no the oil in one can of tuna didn't boil a cup of water and two cups rice for 20 minutes. That shit is tepid.

My truck is equipped for winter survival and summer desert survival. I keep sleeping bags and extra blankets on hand, plus several gallons of water, about a weeks' worth of food, several flashlights and extra batteries, an emergency radio and plenty of clothing. I have a knife too, just in case.

pschew.... I have that and more just in my minivan. Except the week's food because the little shits boys eat it faster than I can restock. Also gender-non-specific spare clothes for all seasons and sneakers. And swim goggles. And a wash kit. And sewing kit. Towels. ....

ok... stopping...

not going to start on what's in my handbag/purse.....

I don't like carrying the weight of a lot of water; so, I keep some dehydrated water tablets in my wallet. I just haven't figured out what to reconstitute them with yet.

Piss on 'em. ;)

...yes, water purifying tablets.....

but they're so far out of date it's probably safer to drink the water ;)

I found the jugs of drinking water in my car were freezing, so I just added a pint of antifreeze to each one.

I just drink a little antifreeze every now and then to stay topped up.

Crown Royal makes a really tasty antifreeze.:yum:

oooh non minimalist camping tip (prob only for those on this side of the pond)...... Reuse one of those semi-transparent gallon milk jugs as a small drinking water container. At night, set it on a flat surface and set your big flashlight to shine into it and you will have a very useful lantern, bright enough for food prep etc

Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. There's good news tonight!

http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads

Since now National Geographic is in bed with FOX, these were probably intended for the survivalists in Idaho, but you can get them too. Of course the NSA will probably monitor your downloads so get extras scattered around the country to mind fuck them. ;)

I downloaded every chart of US waterways once. Still have em.

Not sure what I'm going to DO with them, but I got em, just in case the zombie apocalypse comes and I have to take to a boat to survive.

Then we'll have

Want to sea what Pam seas?

No hot dogs? Come on now...

They're in the box with the pork & beans.

Seems to me it would be less work to wrestle a bear for his cave. :rolleyes:

Gotta share dis

http://media.oglaf.com/comic/rangerron.jpg

LOL

Back at my desk after a weekend camping trip.

We had a lot of rain Friday night, but it stopped overnight and was dry by morning. The crazy thing was, after all the leaf cover was dry and we had returned from a morning hike, a trickle had appeared in our camp area. I followed it to its source, and it was bubbling up out of the ground.

I've seen springs before, but they were already running. This is a spring I saw just as it was beginning to spring. Pretty cool. Cool that is, until the trickle got stronger and then all the paths became little streams and we had big puddles growing all around the camp area.

So the spring started off barely producing any water.
Attachment 59958
But then it started flowing more.
Attachment 59959
And threatened some tents
Attachment 59960
And flooded the paths.
Attachment 59961

Cool. Did you get a drink from it?

Nah. It was probably clean enough to drink right at the source, but it was literally in the middle of a group campsite. Humans are filthy disgusting creatures and there is no telling what had been done to that spot on the ground before the water came.

There is no water 'clean enough to drink' untreated.

Even falling from the sky, it's too dirty to be good for ya.

Right, drink beer.

;)

Skip the hassle of camping, go Glamping in California.

:lol:

Back in my wild days as recon I bought a foldable sleeping pad. It wasn't very thick and we draw our body outline on it and cut off everything else...
It was good as a cushion too and as we didn't sleep a lot it served us well.
Also check out the newest tech on sleeping pads : http://gizmodo.com/everything-you-ev...eep-1658866916

I did some survival in Austria and Finland. So your answer is correct and then snow insulates very well. There's no wind/chill factor to consider when staying inside the snow. It's a smaller space than probably a car and with your body head and a small candle you could live quite comfortably for a night or two.

kinda missing the whole point aren't they?


The last pad I got was closed cell. Pi's article gets it right they are comfortable and rugged but bulky to pack.

I just got an ultra light inflatable pad for my birthday. It's the size of a liter water bottle when folded up. We'll see how it works in a few weeks. On the living room floor, it's comfortable, very warm, and a bit loud.

This is why, during the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak, brewery workers did not contract cholera:
I'll be brewing on Thursday. The first time since my divorce Hejira ended.

Back in my bike mechanic days, people were still touring. One day we mechanics were spec'ing out our dream touring bikes discussing what braze-ons we wanted for racks and water bottles and other accessories. The manager said his ideal touring bike had only one pair of braze-ons right on the top tube, for his credit card. Bike from hotel to hotel, sleep in a nice warm bed and have a hot shower.

He was (still is. actually) all about biking.

I have tried about six different pads and nothing tops my green closed-cell ensolite pad. Mine got destroyed/lost/given away by Kali. I would like to find another. Perhaps I can just find a foam supplier and get some closed cell neoprene, which is what I think they were made of.

If you're concerned about using an inflatable on rough ground, you can put a Spectra or Kevlar drop cloth under it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1500-Denier-...QAAOSwHMJYG8XS

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3000-Denier-...3D302283988743

good call.

I am stealing that picture Bruce. I think it was Pam who said she would rake up leaves for the pad under the tent.
I have done that many times. Often wondered what the next camper thought when they saw that square of leaves on the tent pad.

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You don't practice "leaf no trace?"

I practice trace no leaves.

Gotta know what you want.

My touring bike has been hanging a long time.

Snek! Snek! Don't fall for the old suck out the poison trick, ladies.

Thats the old joke where two buddies are in the woods and one gets bit on his pecker. The other runs to town to find help. They said to suck out the poison.

He goes back to his buddy and says, man you gonna die.

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If you get stranded on a South Sea Island you should know how to open a coconut.

Treading water and fighting gators...