courtesy
by Nicole Elsasser
I have a mind-blowing confession to make. I have never been camping. Despite romantic ideas about the “great outdoors,” friends who enjoy their fair share of time in the bush and a lifetime proximity to some kind of nature, the closest I have ever come to camping was sleeping in a trailer in my grandmother’s front yard as a child. Needless to say, I’m a camping novice. But despite being far behind many of my friends in this respect, I have decided that this is the summer that I brave the great outdoors, that I sleep in a tent, build a fire and eschew proper toilets in favour of a hole in the ground. It’s going to be swell.
In order to pass for a true outdoors-person I began researching what I would need to know in order to successfully camp. To clarify, the tips that are provided below are not fit for an extreme wilderness adventure. They are more for someone looking to have a wilderness adventure lite; a way to gracefully make the transition from camping-virgin to bona-fide person who slept in the woods.
Get the right gear
For a beginning camper, there is no reason to spend a fortune on a tent. Best make sure that you actually like camping before you spend a good amount of money on the equipment. Relatively inexpensive tents can be purchased from many retailers and the most important thing to look for is that it is the right size to fit those who will be sleeping in it, that it’s waterproof and that is can keep mosquitoes out. There are lots of other features to look for in a tent but it’s likely that for all of them, you will need to pay a little more money. The good news about sleeping bags is that their use isn’t only limited to the outdoors. You can use it for camping just as well as you can use it when you stay at a friend’s house out of town. Unless you expect to do a great deal of winter camping, you’d probably be safe with a lightweight, rectangular sleeping bag.
The business of eat and drink
In order to eat something other than simple sandwiches, your going to need to cook. Now there are so many fancy stoves you can buy specifically for camping but if you are just starting out, nothing beats cooking over a fire. All you need is some sort of rack to go over the flame and fire skills and you’re good to go. In case of rain, however, it’s always good to have food that you can eat without heat. There are just as many water filtration devices as there are little cooking stoves but they are all fairly expensive. For a beginning camping trip, it’s probably best to bring your own water or a jug if the place you are camping has water fill up stations.
Bears!
No matter where you are camping, be prepared to hide your food from bears. If you are fortunate enough to have a vehicle, leaving your food in there is your best bet. If this isn’t an opinion, wrapping your food up in bundles and hanging it from trees is the next best thing.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of camping information. For more, do what I did, and consult the internet.
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