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[CAMPING] and not the kind you complain about in Call of Duty
amateurhour
One day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
One day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered User regular
Okay, so I was asked to start a camping thread because we talk about it a lot in [chat] and I figured why the hell not.
My name is John Amateurhour and I like the outdoors. I may be an amateur, but I know how to outdoors like Grizzly goddamn Adams.
So here's the deal. Camping is a lifestyle. Some of you did it as children, some of you have never set foot outdoors, and some of you (well, me) spend every weekend outdoors living under the stars and practicing survival skills because they secretly regret that they never got to get closer to their Native American heritage that they just discovered five years ago.
Camping got REALLY popular about 100 years ago, when guys like Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt realized that we had all this great frontier that good men had settled, but as we were growing, we needed to have responsibility for that frontier so we didn't cut it all down to make cities.
They, along with the Sierra Club and it's founder John Muir, worked hard to make sure that everyone for generations to come would have a place to go. ::tears::
Okay, enough history.
Some of you read stories like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or One Man's Wilderness, which was the true story of Richard Proenneke, who turned 50 and decided to go live in the frozen woods of Alaska, build a cabin with his hands, and survive.
I read these stories years ago, and as I approached my 30s I started to notice an emptiness. I realized I was missing something in life, something from my past I couldn't quite figure out. I had a good job, a house, a wife, why was I missing something? About two years ago I got into archery. I started making selfbows (bows made from a single piece of wood, or stave) and spending more time outdoors. In doing so I noticed all the parks in the area, and that the lake I liked to fish on had primitive camping on its islands. I started camping more, first with friends, from our cars and on camp sites in tents with a lot of accessories, and then by myself or with my dog(s), just enjoying the outdoors in a more primitive setting.
About a year ago I discovered bushcraft and the idea that someone could go out with minimal gear and just make the tools they needed to set up camp and find their own food. I've spent the last year really focusing my attention on that and I've never been happier.
So let's talk about camping. Hell we can even talk about GLAMPING, or GLAM-CAMPING, where you have some big monstrosity of an RV and you literally bring your home with you into the woods and drain electricity and burn fossil fuels in the forest.
I don't dig glamping, but I'll allow it because at least people are outdoors.
Let's talk about Pokemon Go and how it's getting kids outdoors, some of them for the first time. Is that a good thing!? Will they eventually put down the phones and realize there's an entire world of critters that physically exist, right in front of them?
But mostly let's just talk about how great it is to get out in the woods and be one with nature. I hike, I walk 10 miles through the woods and see deer that don't even notice me other than to nod in approval. I see raccoons planning to steal my dinner.
Life is good.
That's a motto that hangs over the entrance to a place I visit often, and it's a motto I try to keep with me during the week when I'm not outside.
Now let's talk gear too!
I have two packs.
The first is this fella!
It's the 3V Paratus 3 Day Operators (shut up) Pack. It's tacticool but it's molle compatible and holds all of my gear when I want a 20+ bushcraft pack for 5 days out in the wild.
This is what I usually carry in it.
- water bottle (army canteen with insulated belt pouch)
- cook cup (camp mug, with a penny stove inside)
- 1 quart pot with wire hanger
- small pouch of coffee and tea bags
- coffee/tea filter
- dehydrated meals
- salt, pepper, and tobasco sauce
- hatchet
- bush knife
- jack knife
- folding saw
- long firesteel
- bic lighter x2
- paracord (100ft and 30ft)
- heavy duty ground tarp
- hammock
- mosquito net for hammock
- sleeping pad
- pillow
- diy survival blanket underquilt (ultralight)
- wool blanket
- lightweight 40f sleeping bag
- 25 stormproof matches in waterproof case
- tinder (cotton and dry wood)
- first aid kit
- 2 containers of stove fuel
- trail compass (sighting compass with lens)
- knife sharpeners
- headlamp
- inflatable lantern (solar powered)
- candle lantern (ultralight)
- 03 pairs of socks
- 02 pairs of sleeping socks
- 03 pairs of t-shirts (need to get one more pack of t-shirts)
- 03 pairs of underwear
- 01 pairs of long pants
- 01 pairs of shorts
- dopp kit (includes)
- lotion
- gold bond powder
- allergy meds
- ibuprofen
- heartburn meds
- tums
- knit cap
- solar charger
- kindle
- phone charger (also works on kindle)
- camera and microphone
There's sometimes more and sometimes less, but with that I can easily do 4-6 days outdoors with no worries.
As I've been going on more overnights, I've tried to really live primitive and light and gone for a smaller pack. In older times these were called "possibles pouches" and settlers used them to carry what they needed for a day and possibly an overnight stay in an area before they could return home with their finds.
This is my modern "possibles pouch"
It's a Yukon Outfitters sling pack
It has
- 50 feet of paracord
- Cook Kit (small cup to boil water, alcohol stove, fuel, utensils)
- 5x7 tarp (soon to be replaced by a nicer 9x10 when I can afford it)
- Socks, Underwear, T-Shirt
- Microfiber towel
- Fire Kit (altoids tin with ferro rod (to be replaced by flint and steel), char cloth, cotton shirt (for more char)
- Sawyer Mini (smart water bottle attached to outside of pack
- Compartment to store arrows like a quiver so I can bring my bow
- My new camping pad (arrives today)
- Food(s) mostly protein and nuts
- Compass
- First Aid Supplies
- Micro fishing kit
I can do 1-2 days with that without a problem and it weighs almost nothing.
So let's talk camping, camping gear, hunting, fishing, really whatever involves the outdoors that makes you happy.
GO THREAD GO!
My name is John Amateurhour and I like the outdoors. I may be an amateur, but I know how to outdoors like Grizzly goddamn Adams.
So here's the deal. Camping is a lifestyle. Some of you did it as children, some of you have never set foot outdoors, and some of you (well, me) spend every weekend outdoors living under the stars and practicing survival skills because they secretly regret that they never got to get closer to their Native American heritage that they just discovered five years ago.
Camping got REALLY popular about 100 years ago, when guys like Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt realized that we had all this great frontier that good men had settled, but as we were growing, we needed to have responsibility for that frontier so we didn't cut it all down to make cities.
They, along with the Sierra Club and it's founder John Muir, worked hard to make sure that everyone for generations to come would have a place to go. ::tears::
Okay, enough history.
Some of you read stories like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or One Man's Wilderness, which was the true story of Richard Proenneke, who turned 50 and decided to go live in the frozen woods of Alaska, build a cabin with his hands, and survive.
I read these stories years ago, and as I approached my 30s I started to notice an emptiness. I realized I was missing something in life, something from my past I couldn't quite figure out. I had a good job, a house, a wife, why was I missing something? About two years ago I got into archery. I started making selfbows (bows made from a single piece of wood, or stave) and spending more time outdoors. In doing so I noticed all the parks in the area, and that the lake I liked to fish on had primitive camping on its islands. I started camping more, first with friends, from our cars and on camp sites in tents with a lot of accessories, and then by myself or with my dog(s), just enjoying the outdoors in a more primitive setting.
About a year ago I discovered bushcraft and the idea that someone could go out with minimal gear and just make the tools they needed to set up camp and find their own food. I've spent the last year really focusing my attention on that and I've never been happier.
So let's talk about camping. Hell we can even talk about GLAMPING, or GLAM-CAMPING, where you have some big monstrosity of an RV and you literally bring your home with you into the woods and drain electricity and burn fossil fuels in the forest.
I don't dig glamping, but I'll allow it because at least people are outdoors.
Let's talk about Pokemon Go and how it's getting kids outdoors, some of them for the first time. Is that a good thing!? Will they eventually put down the phones and realize there's an entire world of critters that physically exist, right in front of them?
But mostly let's just talk about how great it is to get out in the woods and be one with nature. I hike, I walk 10 miles through the woods and see deer that don't even notice me other than to nod in approval. I see raccoons planning to steal my dinner.
Life is good.
That's a motto that hangs over the entrance to a place I visit often, and it's a motto I try to keep with me during the week when I'm not outside.
Now let's talk gear too!
I have two packs.
The first is this fella!
It's the 3V Paratus 3 Day Operators (shut up) Pack. It's tacticool but it's molle compatible and holds all of my gear when I want a 20+ bushcraft pack for 5 days out in the wild.
This is what I usually carry in it.
- water bottle (army canteen with insulated belt pouch)
- cook cup (camp mug, with a penny stove inside)
- 1 quart pot with wire hanger
- small pouch of coffee and tea bags
- coffee/tea filter
- dehydrated meals
- salt, pepper, and tobasco sauce
- hatchet
- bush knife
- jack knife
- folding saw
- long firesteel
- bic lighter x2
- paracord (100ft and 30ft)
- heavy duty ground tarp
- hammock
- mosquito net for hammock
- sleeping pad
- pillow
- diy survival blanket underquilt (ultralight)
- wool blanket
- lightweight 40f sleeping bag
- 25 stormproof matches in waterproof case
- tinder (cotton and dry wood)
- first aid kit
- 2 containers of stove fuel
- trail compass (sighting compass with lens)
- knife sharpeners
- headlamp
- inflatable lantern (solar powered)
- candle lantern (ultralight)
- 03 pairs of socks
- 02 pairs of sleeping socks
- 03 pairs of t-shirts (need to get one more pack of t-shirts)
- 03 pairs of underwear
- 01 pairs of long pants
- 01 pairs of shorts
- dopp kit (includes)
- lotion
- gold bond powder
- allergy meds
- ibuprofen
- heartburn meds
- tums
- knit cap
- solar charger
- kindle
- phone charger (also works on kindle)
- camera and microphone
There's sometimes more and sometimes less, but with that I can easily do 4-6 days outdoors with no worries.
As I've been going on more overnights, I've tried to really live primitive and light and gone for a smaller pack. In older times these were called "possibles pouches" and settlers used them to carry what they needed for a day and possibly an overnight stay in an area before they could return home with their finds.
This is my modern "possibles pouch"
It's a Yukon Outfitters sling pack
It has
- 50 feet of paracord
- Cook Kit (small cup to boil water, alcohol stove, fuel, utensils)
- 5x7 tarp (soon to be replaced by a nicer 9x10 when I can afford it)
- Socks, Underwear, T-Shirt
- Microfiber towel
- Fire Kit (altoids tin with ferro rod (to be replaced by flint and steel), char cloth, cotton shirt (for more char)
- Sawyer Mini (smart water bottle attached to outside of pack
- Compartment to store arrows like a quiver so I can bring my bow
- My new camping pad (arrives today)
- Food(s) mostly protein and nuts
- Compass
- First Aid Supplies
- Micro fishing kit
I can do 1-2 days with that without a problem and it weighs almost nothing.
So let's talk camping, camping gear, hunting, fishing, really whatever involves the outdoors that makes you happy.
GO THREAD GO!
are YOU on the beer list?
+17
Posts
Pull up a rock! I'm about to start a fire with two sticks.
Capital!
I haven't hiked or camped in forever -- I need a new tent and a warm weather sleeping bag. I do want to get back into it -- maybe this is a meetup.com sort of situation idk.
What I DO like doing is going to a campground, scouting it, finding a perfect spot, and booking it for the weekend. Then when I get there I meet my neighbors and hang out with them, knowing I still have the privacy of my campsite so I'm not stuck with someone all weekend.
have you gone to recreation.gov to see what camp sites are around you? Or checked the army core of engineers to see if they have any parks?
recreation.gov handles state and national parks, and ACOE handles private parks.
Also check into dispersed camping. It's allowed in national parks and you can just hike out and camp in the middle of nowhere if you want to. YOU CAN EVEN GO NUDE IN MOST PARKS!
For gear, just getting back into it, there's an ultralight (sub 2lb) sleeping bag at walmart that's rated to 40 degrees (I've had it at 45 and it's not bad) and it comes with a compression sack for like $40. It's a pretty good bag to get back into it.
For a tent, starting out I'd do the coleman 3 person or something basic. I'd stick with Coleman as they're more heavy duty than the WalMart Costco stuff and hold up pretty well under rain.
Stay away from the Instant Up models. I have one now that I've had for 3 years and it's great, but 1) you can't remove the rainfly, so it gets hotter than the devil's asscrack in the summer, and 2) it collects mildew in places that are sewn together so you can't clean it.
Usually my camping experiences are car camping; festivals, burning man events, etc. That changes the calculus drastically, since gear only has to be carried a few feet to the build site.
This weekend, myself and one other person went to Red River Gorge, which is a national treasure and worth road-tripping to. We arrived about 9 PM and set up camp, had dinner, and in the morning learned that deer flies wake up around breakfast time. I was taken aback at their persistence and looked ridiculous swatting them away before eventually retreating into the tent to regroup and consult the Internet. After learning a little about their lifecycle, habitat, and natural predators, we successfully relocated camp to the other end of the Gorge where the microclimate was sufficiently different such that they'd either already swarmed and left or they just didn't have a stable population to begin with. Either way, I felt pretty goddamn clever.
Our new campsite had been trashed by the previous occupants, so the first order of business was to fill a trash bag with broken glass and beer cans and fix the fire pit, after which it was lovely. At one point we hiked to a waterfall, and my partner who had never been hiking before saw it carving out the side of the mountain and remarked "Oh... It's always changing. We're just brief."
Gear:
10x10 eclectic tent known affectionately as the 'tea lounge' when taken to group events
queen air mattress with hand pump
Sleeping bag, quilt, pillows
Lantern
Paracord
2-burner coleman stove, tea kettle, cook pot
soap
2 camping chairs
Dutchware single-nest hammock
First aid kit
Headlamp
Platypus hydration bladder
borrowed mini cooler and cold-pack
food
-6 eggs
-frozen hashbrowns
-tofu dogs
-avocados
-apples
-hummus
-Trail mix (cherries, berries, & nuts)
-whole-grain bread
-raw cacao
Gourd and bombilla for yerba mate
Thermos
Nuun electrolyte tablets
Goldbond
Gerber paraframe knife
MSR fuel bottle (for fire poi)
Practice poi and fire poi
Sage, feather, tobacco, rolling papers
Clipper lighter
Yoga mat
I actually use a near-identical sling pack as the one you posted, @amateurhour, but mine is VVV brand. It's a good style of pack, but the quality is lacking in some areas; the water bottle pouch on the side tapers down, meaning that it's hard to shove a large bottle into it. The drawstring on that pouch also broke, as did the clip which connects the auxiliary strap (I may have slammed that in the car door). Fits all my gear and a hydration bladder well, though.
When I go to a burn or similar, my kit changes. I bring a 4-person tent that just serves as gear storage (2 plastic bins) and hammock in our 25' geodesic dome and bring more luxuries:
-tea tray, teapot, tea cups
-french press
-printed schedules
-earplugs
-DJ stuff, sound, lights
-dome stuff; xmas lights, canvas and tarp covers, flooring (rugs, foam mats)
LNT is a guiding principle that varies based on locale. Doing multi-pitch climbing? Bring a poop tube. Hiking in the deep woods? Just bury your shit and pack out any actual trash.
This is something I encounter at burns a lot; LNT is an important principle at Burning Man because the playa is a very fragile ecosystem and the Bureau of Land Management will deny the permit for the event if there is any trash left, so they literally sweep the desert arm-in-arm to get every bit (quite a feat, considering the event draws 70k+ people every year). At regional burns, however, the venue's needs are different and, for example, can handle urinating or dumping gray water without any damage being done.
Most burns you can't have ground fires or leave burn scars, but most campsites in Red River Gorge, for instance, will have an obvious fire spot that is left for the next person.
Honestly it depends. I might leave a fire ring. If I put up a lean-to or something (which is pretty much never) I'll take that down, and I never cut standing wood. Stuff like that. I think people go overboard with it though.
I think. I could be wrong.
Bagging your poop is silly.
But people are stupid in regards to their poop and poop like 5 feet from a river.
I assume you are outside in a place where you aren't immediately covered in poisonous insects, water filled with toxic algae and alligators, and scrublands filled with razor sharp palmettos or poison ivy varieties?
Again, it depends on the locale. There are places where it is necessary to pack out one's poop.
Yeah, worst case is mosquitoes or snakes/spiders.
Snakes and spiders are rare where I live though.
If you ever get a chance to hike in the Adirondacks or the Rocky Mtns near CO, take it.
I'm torn between this being a 'nerd, go outside' thing or a 'obviously, leave Florida' thing.
1) I would totally drop poop down that mountain.
2) I would never be climbing it. Being suspended by ropes scares the shit out of me. I will never mountain climb unless it is to survive in the wastelands.
That looks cool as shit though, just not my cup of tea.
But here? Its essentially hell outside.
Not sure I could ever get used to the idea of swimming (or even drinking) from open fresh water sources. That's such a no-no here that when I visit folks in Maine and see kids jumping into a lake I have to refrain from running over to yell at them to get out of the water before a beast or amoeba kills them.
Yeah in the north there's really not much more than snapping turtles up here. Alligator snapping turtles will take off a toe or pulverize your foot/hand.. but you only really see them in swampy areas. We've got rattlesnakes in NY, but they're rare.
Amoeba are another thing entirely, but not really high risk in general.
I grew up in Alabama close to the panhandle and have a lot of family around the gulf. It's pretty swampy in there where the river tracks off into little finger lakes and when we go fishing we have to keep a lookout when we grab a branch to move the boat under it because a lot of them have snakes and we've seen a few gators. My uncles get one or two tags to hunt them here and there.
In TN your biggest issues are snakes, black bears, and insects. Ticks are the worst, and I do a pretty good job of checking myself there. Snakes don't bother me so I don't bother them. Never been face to face with a rattler but I've dealt with some cottonmouths here and there.
Bears aren't around our area so it's mostly raccoons and skunks.
Ivy is everywhere. I've gotten so used to it that it just doesn't bother me anymore. I come home and about two days later my feet are red from the rashes but I don't get the effect like I did when I was a kid.
Like, I'm never going to my uncles in Florida and walking barefoot around the marshes. That's insane. I have no problems wading chest high in the water on the lake though to cast further even though I can see catfish ready to stick me down by my feet and I know there are snakes, because they're not going to attack something my size just for the fuck of it.
I love hammocking, but I've never gotten a rain fly and bug net. As for finding a spot, it depends entirely on where you intend to camp. Here, trees are plentiful so I've never had an issue.
I use the Fox Outfitters Neolite Single. It's the Amazon knock off of the Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO) Hammock. It's about 10 feet long and comes with tree straps. I purchased the ENO bug net to go with it and I have a pad and an underquilt. I just got into hammock camping this year, so here are my thoughts.
1) It's FANTASTIC in the summer and early fall. You won't need the underquilt and/or pad (if it's above 70 degrees at night) and it makes for a comfortable nights sleep.
2) I HATE it in the winter. Having to use a sleeping bag, wool blanket, underquilt, and pad just to make sure I don't freeze, and get into all of that shit in the middle of the night, AND through a goddamn bug net makes me a claustrophobic wreck.
My personal compromise now is I bring the hammock, and my low profile tent/ground sleeping setup. That way I can hang the hammock at camp and if it's nice and the bugs aren't too bad so I don't have to mess with the bug net, I'll sleep in the hammock, otherwise I have the tent.
I do like hammocks, but I don't get the love they get online. Yes they're a more comfortable sleep, for sure. They're just such a hassle to deal with, and being angled means YOU WILL have to get up and pee.
No rain fly? How u rain?
no mud falcons plz
Dome! 50'x70' tarp covers the top and tucks in nicely. Layered properly with the floor tarp according to the grade of the terrain, it's basically rainproof.
The clothing would indicate this is just before that. I mean once the orgy gets going who has the hands free for a camera?
But seriously though that is a pretty cool pavilion like rig.
I like it though. You and I, we do camping differently, but we both camp, and that's what matters.
Any kind of backpack that you can throw a water bottle and cliff bar in, my man.
I just remember hiking with my friends and a few of them always balked at me for only bringing water and stuff for their 'what ifs' but we only ended up being gone for like 3-4 hours. Wasn't sure if there was a recommendation as to what to actually bring and pack just in case!
You dont need much. Light day pack. Or a small camelback you can put your keys, wallet, and cliff bar in and then sip water out of.