What's your best tip or hack for camping?
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Headtorch.
some have red light functions, which wont blind people youre looking at
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Hammocks are the best tents, especially for solo camping. Some pack up so small I can fit the hammock, tarp and bug net into the pockets of cargo pants.
Thermo-rest is your best friend, even in a hammock. Having a wind pass under your body will make you real cold.
Scout campsites thoroughly for poison ivy, poison oak, anthills, wasp nests, etc.
Pay attention to sleeping bag ratings and remember that a 0°C rating just means you won't die at that temp, not that you'll be comfortable. Sleeping bags are one of the few things with a strong cost/quality correlation.
Always have rope. Bring lots of rope. Know what makes a good rope.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I'll add to this, know how to use good rope, learn a few knots, and you'll be surprised at how often you use them even in your daily life.
My favorites, and thus my recommendations, are these, in order of usefulness.
- The Bowline. Obviously. It's one of the most versatile knots you can make. You use it to create a loop around something, and that loop will not move. It will not tighten or loosen, it can support your body weight and more. It's often used to haul people up when they've fallen into a crevice or hole, because a noose would tighten around your chest and hurt you on the way up, but a Bowline will not.
And, if you need a noose, you can make a small looped Bowline, and pull the lead line through it to make a noose that will self tighten on whatever your putting it around.
Best of all, the Bowline is easy to remove. You know how hard a regular square knot is to undo? Especially if you've pulled it really tight? A Bowline knot, by design, is always easier to undo, even if it's seen hundreds of pounds of load. It really is the best knot, in my opinion.
If you can only learn one knot, make it a Bowline.
- Truckers hitch. I use this knot all the time. Have you ever tried to use rope to tie something down? And no matter how tight you pull the rope, by the time you're done making the knot, the rope has slipped a bit, and it's looser than you'd like? Especially annoying when trying to put up a clothes line at camp, and it's all droopy.
Enter the truckers hitch. This knot let's you cinch the rope up super tight, and lock it in place, so it stays that way. Plus the finished knot always has a tail you can pull to easily undo it. This is useful for clotheslines, hammocks, tying stuff to your truck or bike, plenty of uses, easily my second favorite knot. Tied for first, practically.
- Sheet bend. Have a rope that's too short? Need to extend it a bit to get the job done? Sheet bend, double or triple sheet bend depending on the load. Easily connects two ropes together, and comes undone easy enough when you need it to, unlike if you just used two square knots.
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- Clove Hitch. Quickly and easily tie the end of a rope to a circular object like a pole or tree. Goes on easy, comes off easy.
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- Butterfly. Make a non sliding loop anywhere in the middle of a rope. Don't load the rope too hard though, this knot can be tough to undo.
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- Spike hitch, similar to butterfly, but more likely to slide, tightens like a noose on whatever you loop through it under load, but has a wide variety of uses that become more apparent the more you play with rope and knots. Fun fact, this knot is easy to learn, because it's the basis for the Bowline and truckers hitch.
There's definitely more knots to learn, and others will have opinions on which ones are the best. But these are my favorites. Just learning the first two will be extremely helpful to you.
Edit: wow that formatting really got away from me. I'm on mobile, so I'm leaving it, sorry
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For the newbies, you don't want your footprint tarp sticking out from under your tent if you can help it. It will wick water under your tent (rain, dew). Even waterproof fabric can fail given too much water exposure.
Exactly. Nothing sticking out
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We did this a few times too. I will say that for winter camping, make sure you have season appropriate gear.
Very true for all seasons. Remember it will be both hotter and colder than you expect. Usually in the same day
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Coffee. If you are a coffee drinker, get a way to make half-decent coffee.
Or tea, or hot chocolate if you hate caffeine. Nothing beats the feeling of a hot cup of something after a short, noisy, miserable night.
Moka pot on a camp stove works great.
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For my first fire, I gave up caring about whether I can rough it and will use a starter log. It is so hard to get that first fire to really catch and not need constant tending. The rest of my fires I practice doing it the hard way after there's a fresh bed of coals and half burnt wood from the previous day. Much easier to build up hot coals after that.
Gasoline.
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About 2-3 cheap string-lights that run off USB battery packs (EDITed out this:
run off the 2x AA-battery-packs). Mulitple light angles is better than a single light source. Cheery and festive. Get a multicolored string, if camping with kids or you are a fun camper.Also OSMand mapping software, configured with offline maps of your camp area. Install the hillshades and height maps for extra detail.
Enable and add an overlay-layer of Satellite data.
Then scan your camp area and surrounds while online, so that it will cache the satellite map tiles needed when you are off-grid.wrote on last edited by [email protected]Thanks for sharing the OSMand recommendation and configuration.
I've got a hike coming up, so I just installed it - wow, it's fantastic. It captures the elevation change and distance. I thought I'd need to limp along with Google maps, but OSMand is sooo much better (and open source).
edit: a word
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If you catch site of a bear, spread out your arms and legs (and use any jackets like frills) to make yourself as big as possible, and make as much noise as you can.
Do Not Run
Bears can run at like 40 mphwrote on last edited by [email protected]Depends on the bear. Black bears this can work, but if they attack you anyway you have to fight for your life or you are dead since they will keep attacking their prey until they are certain its dead.
Grizzlies... Be quiet and calm and talk in a low voice, also do not run if possible, if you run they will think you are prey. If they attack you, ball up, protect your neck and head, fight as well if you really have no other option. Making yourself seem big and scary isn't very effective with them.
Polar bear, you're just fucking dead.
For all of them, carry bear bangers and or bear spray.
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A lb on your feet is the same as 5 lbs on your back. And bring light shoes for when you've set up camp.
And the chair kit for your thermorest is the best investment you will ever make.
Love that chair, you can also use it in the tent unlike other chairs. Most of the times i use it as a lounger with the seat area single layered.
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Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let's hear it all.
Pee bottle and fairy lights.
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Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let's hear it all.
If you are on a budget, camp in whatever vehicle you already own.
I lived in a small car with my wife and cat for several months as we were moving.
Learned a ton from “Cheap RV Living” on YouTube.We had a solar generator with some panels, we cooked using electric skillet, had a twin bed, fairy lights use almost no power, and we had a 12v fridge. It wasn’t that bad but we eventually found a super cheap RV and live in that now.
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What's your go-to brew method for camping? I find the Aeropress tough to beat.
Although my favourite camping coffee memories are with my parents' beat-up old moka pot and pre-ground beans from the grocery store. I love me a good cup of coffee, but sometimes the best cup isn't about the beans or the brew. It's about the time, space, and people you share it with. Some of my all-time favourite cups of coffee came out of that piece of crap moka pot.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I use those small paper tea filters. Bit tricky to pour over, but no need for any holders or whatever. Brought an aeropress a couple times too but figured it's not worth it for me, i will use it at home though. I want to save on the "bulk" of an aeropress though, haha.
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No matter what, don't go in the winter.
As someone who hates the cold with a passion, there's nothing worse than waking up cold in the morning because you either didn't have on enough to keep you warm during a cold winter night in a sleeping bag or had on too much and wake up cold from sweating throughout the night.
Winter campouts are the only camps I absolutely do not miss at all from my time at scouts. The cold mornings are enough for me to not suggest it, despite it not actually being that bad after you've warmed up.
Though, on a more serious note, one of the things I do remember being taught but never followed through with for various reasons is to put your clothes for the next day under your sleeping bag so that way the next day they should be warm or at least warmer so you aren't putting on freezing cold clothes. Especially good for things like jeans because there's nothing worse than putting on jeans with frigid cold metal buttons if your hands are already trembling a little from the cold winter morning in general.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Just to toss this out there, don't put your clothes actually under the sleeping bag unless the goal is wet clothes. Definitely strip down in your sleeping bag though, this way you don't sweat all night and have warm/dry clothes to put on before climbing out in the morning. There have been mornings I've had to crack the ice off my outer shell and been fine climbing out. Seems like a lifetime ago but that was what we were taught in the Army... now I have a small camper because... well because I don't want to have an extra soreness when I wake up lol.
Edit: typos
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Thanks for sharing the OSMand recommendation and configuration.
I've got a hike coming up, so I just installed it - wow, it's fantastic. It captures the elevation change and distance. I thought I'd need to limp along with Google maps, but OSMand is sooo much better (and open source).
edit: a word
You're welcome. OSMand is a fun powerhouse.
You can test which offline-map tiles you have by switching to airplane-mode.
There is a 3D map view also, but it may still be in testing status.
As always, for all people heading out remote, it's good practice to have a secondary map available, such as a laminated paper map.
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Just to toss this out there, don't put your clothes actually under the sleeping bag unless the goal is wet clothes. Definitely strip down in your sleeping bag though, this way you don't sweat all night and have warm/dry clothes to put on before climbing out in the morning. There have been mornings I've had to crack the ice off my outer shell and been fine climbing out. Seems like a lifetime ago but that was what we were taught in the Army... now I have a small camper because... well because I don't want to have an extra soreness when I wake up lol.
Edit: typos
Normally I'd be on solid ground, in a tent, with a sleeping mat beneath my sleeping bag, so it would probably be safe to keep my clothes under it, probably towards the end of the bag near my feet. I've also never had any sort of ice forming on my sleeping bag before since we always had tents for every campout as needed.
Maybe I'm misremembering the advice or it's bad advice, but in general I am probably never gonna have another chance to test this advice. So I'll take your word for it.
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Love that chair, you can also use it in the tent unlike other chairs. Most of the times i use it as a lounger with the seat area single layered.
Mine is the older style with the ends closed so you have to fold it and stuff it in, can't let an end stick out. But it's fine, and after a day of hiking, it's beautiful to have something with a back to sit in when you're making supper or sitting around the fire.
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Best time of the year to camp is spring and fall. The nights are cool while the days are warm. You are either too early or too late for mosquitos. It can be less busy as well.
Summer camping gets too hot both during the day and at night.
I'd amend this to say 'know what the seasonal conditions are for your area and plan accordingly.' In Washington for example Spring is generally too cold for comfortable camping (the temperature typically drops to ~30-45 during at night). While August/September is peak wildfire season nowadays. So June, July, early August are your best bets unless you're happy toughing out the cold or the smoke.
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I'd amend this to say 'know what the seasonal conditions are for your area and plan accordingly.' In Washington for example Spring is generally too cold for comfortable camping (the temperature typically drops to ~30-45 during at night). While August/September is peak wildfire season nowadays. So June, July, early August are your best bets unless you're happy toughing out the cold or the smoke.
There's always a sweet spot for temperatures. I love a 70 degree day and a 50 degrees night.
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What's your go-to brew method for camping? I find the Aeropress tough to beat.
Although my favourite camping coffee memories are with my parents' beat-up old moka pot and pre-ground beans from the grocery store. I love me a good cup of coffee, but sometimes the best cup isn't about the beans or the brew. It's about the time, space, and people you share it with. Some of my all-time favourite cups of coffee came out of that piece of crap moka pot.
An all-metal French press is, IMO, hard to beat. Easy, simple cleanup, not too heavy (depends on the press you get), and makes a good cup o Joe.
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Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let's hear it all.
I know some swear by the travel bidet (not for everyone), but for the masses, a pack of biodegradable “flushable” wipes are a great addition to your toiletry kit. Just one or 2 after you’re done with all of your other business leaves you nice and fresh for the day and can bury them if you’re backpacking.
