Camping For Beginners-How to Get Into Camping

Anyone who loves the outdoors either camps or thinks about camping.  For those who have never camped, it’s hard to know how to get into camping.  However, the love of the great outdoors is a great start to getting started for camping beginners.

Since camping is all about getting into the great outdoors, there are things you’ll need to know about.  What equipment do you need, where do you go, what should you do while camping? All great questions and things that camping beginners need to know.

Equipment for Camping Beginners

Before you start planning a camping trip, there is some equipment that’s needed to camp.  Since it’s really not camping if you stay in a hotel and eat a restaurant.  You’ll have to have some from a shelter, food to eat, and things to do, even if it’s just lounging by a campfire.

Shelter

The cheapest way to camp is to use a tent.  Unless you have really good friends that let you borrow their camper.  This means for the camping beginner a simple tent is the best way to go.  So you’ll have to find a tent to borrow or one to buy.  If you are looking for a family camping tent, you’ll want a simple dome tent.  They are easy to set up and have a good amount of strength to them.  Remember as a general rule of thumb take the number of people who will be camping with you and double it.  Then look for a tent in that size.  Such as 2 people should have a 4 person tent.  Of course, if you have 6 people you could get away with only a 10 person tent.  That way you have enough space for people and gear.

Bedding

When getting started camping you will need some sort of bedroll.  You don’t have to get fancy with bedding.  A cheap sleeping bag or a bunch of old blankets and sheets is all you need.  Of course, make sure that the sleeping bag is rated for the temperatures you’ll be sleeping in. Remember having too warm of a sleeping bag or too many blankets is not as bad as not having a warm enough to keep you warm.

Cot or Sleeping Pad

Of course, if you hate sleeping on the ground, you’ll want something to sleep on.  A sleeping pad is a good option, they are cheap and pad you from the ground.  Cots are good too and raise you off the ground making it more like a bed. 

Many people prefer air mattresses.  These are very nice until it leaks and leaves you waking up on the ground in the morning.  However, when you buy an air mattress you can put normal bed sheets on them so you don’t need to have a sleeping bag. Which saves the camping beginners some money in avoiding having to buy a sleeping bag.

Food and Equipment for Cooking

Equipment you’ll need for cooking truly depends on your menu.  If all you want is hot dogs, and S’ mores then a stick and some firewood is enough.  If you want to cook a 3-course dinner and full breakfast with eggs and hash browns.  It’s suggested you have a skillet, a pan, and maybe a Dutch Oven.  You’ll also want to have a camp stove as cooking over an open fire can be difficult for beginning campers.  It’s really easy to burn your food or leave it raw.  With a camp stove, it’s like cooking on your stove at home.

Misc Stuff to bring

• Lighting
• tarps
• extra tent stakes
• Hammer or mallet
• Duffel bag or backpack
• First Aid Kit
• Water Jug
• Cooler
• extra batteries
• a way to charge your phone
• fire starters and extra lighters
• plenty of ice
• extra socks and clothes
• things to do
• folding chairs

Locations For Camping

Although you can pitch a tent lots of places it’s not much fun to camp out in your back yard.  Which means you’ll have to find a fun place to go camping. 

The best places for camping beginners are State Parks with camping grounds.  There are national parks, and commercial campgrounds, also.  However national parks can get expensive and have lots of restrictions on what you can do.  Commercial campgrounds cater to RV’s and Campers, with not as much for tents.  Making them great if you have that kind of stuff.

For you first camp out it’s best to find somewhere close to home.  That way if you forget something you can run home.  It helps make the trip enjoyable if it doesn’t take long to get what you need.  The farther you are from home the more likely you are to try and go without things instead of going home.  This can make for a rough camp out if you forgot something important.

Do Research on Campgrounds First

Make sure you research your campgrounds before you go.  This is part of planning for a camping trip, and not to be ignored for your first few trips.  You’ll want to know if they have drinking water, what kind of bathrooms, possible showers, and what kinds of activities are available at that location.  

Not to mention find out about rules on open fires, and other things.  It will ruin your trip if you plan on cooking s’ mores over a campfire just to find out you can only have camp stoves and no open fires.  Not to mention if you didn’t bring any cash and find out you have to pay cash for firewood.

How to Avoid the Common Camping Beginners Mistakes

The most remembered campouts are the ones where things went wrong.  That said, big problems and mistakes can turn you off from ever going camping again.  Especially when your first time out becomes miserable.  This means you’ll want to double and triple check your list of things to bring with you.  You did make of list of things to bring?  This, of course, means checking to make sure just because you packed it, it made it into the vehicle.  There’s nothing worse than getting out to your campsite and realizing you packed your sleeping bag and left it sitting by the front door.

Always Check the Weather

Always check the weather for the location you will be camping.  It’s amazing how the weather can change even an hour’s drive away from home.  For those in the mountains this especially true. It may be warm and sunny at the base of the mountain and cold and rainy halfway up where you are going to camp. 

Camping in the rain isn’t the worst thing in the world.  Some people love the sound of rain on a tent while sleeping.  What isn’t fun is getting wet while trying to sleep.  Worse is waking up in 3″ of water and having all your gear and clothes wet.  Granted having a waterproof tent will help this. However, preparing for the weather if the most important thing.

On the other hand, if you were planning for hot weather and left your rain tarp off or your windows open because you didn’t check the weather.  You’re going to be miserable when it rains. 

The other problem with not checking the weather first is not having the right clothing.  Shorts and t-shirts when it’s cold out means you’ll spend your whole trip huddled around the fire just trying to stay warm.  On the flip side only having heavy coats and long pants can get really warm when it’s hot and humid out.

Bring Extra Food

Always bring extra food when camping.  You never know when you are going to burn something or drop it in the dirt.  I’ve even heard of people forgetting to bring anything to get their Dutch Oven out of the fire. Then having to wait until the fire goes out and it’s cooled off to retrieve their dinner because they realized it after they put it in the fire.  This can mean going hungry or home early if you don’t have extra food.

Always Plan for Wildlife

When camping in bear country you have to plan for bears into your campsite.  Leaving coolers out, and food sitting on tables in very inviting to them.  Although Yogi is cute in the cartoons, real bears don’t just steal your picnic basket and leave.  They will go through your tent, tear up your campsite, and ruin your trip.  Aside from bears, there are other animals to worry about.

Don’t leave lots of food just lying around.  Raccoons love to get into your food and your garbage.  They will make a huge mess if you leave things out overnight.  Which is why it’s best not to have food in tents.  Bring airtight coolers.  Only eat in your tent if you have to due to rain and even then it’s best to find another shelter to eat under.  Don’t leave pop or sugary drinks around as it attracts bees, and clean up spilled food as ants and other insects will swarm spills.

Avoid Long Campouts to Start

If you’re camping beginners going on a week-long camp out first time around, it is a terrible idea.  Any mistakes you make just get amplified due to how long you have to deal with them.  It’s one thing to forget a pillow over one night, but over 5 nights you will be miserable.  Your first few campouts should be one night to two nights max.  This allows you to get your feet wet without ending up hating camping.

Know Your Local Poisonous Plants

Not knowing what poison ivy or poison oak looks like can ruin a camp out.  Everyone at one point has heard a story of someone having mistakenly touched a poisonous plant.  You can prevent yourself from being that person by learning what these plants look like.  That way you don’t end up telling stories of how you got poison ivy while camping because you grabbed the wrong leaves when you forgot toilet paper. That’s a pretty painful mistake.

Always Bring Your Own Toilet Paper

Although most parks have at least an outhouse with toilet paper.  It’s amazing how little these outhouses are stocked.  This means there is a good chance when you need it most there won’t be any toilet paper for you.  Which is why you need to bring your own.  You don’t want to be the person going home with less clothing because you didn’t have a simple roll of TP.

Always Set Up Your Tent Before Your First Campout.

If you’ve never set up your tent before it’s a bad idea take it camping and try to set up at camp for the first time.  You should always set up your tent before you go camping.  This way you know how it all works.  You’re sure you have everything you need and how long it will take to set it up.  This makes setting up your campsite much smoother.

Bring Extra Lights

It gets dark once you get away from the city.  Thus you will need some sort of light.  The problem is many people just grab a small flashlight and thing it will be enough.  Well, it’s not.  Make sure you have enough light to work on just about anything.  Having a flashlight is good for walking to places, but you’ll want something more if you are trying to fix your tent in the middle of the night, find firewood, or even make a late-night snake.  Always bring extra light and batteries to go with.

Know-How to Start a Fire and Have Options to Do So

It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to start a fire.  Granted it looks easy when someone in a movie or on TV does it.  In real life, you can’t strike one match drop it on a bunch of wood and have a roaring fire in a couple of minutes.  You’ll want to make sure you have studied and learned how to make a fire before you go camping.

Don’t Set Up Camp in the Dark

Setting up camp in the dark can cause all sorts of problems.  You may not realize how close you are to poisonous plants, other campers, and it’s really hard to get a good picture of the type of ground you are setting your tent on.  Not to mention if you drop a tent stake it makes finding it much harder.  So always plan on getting to your campsite before it gets dark.

Conclusion

For camping beginners, there are lots of things to think about.  You’ll need some equipment, but don’t go overboard until you know for sure you really like camping.  As with anything you can spend thousands of dollars on equipment but for the camping beginners just go with simple and functional.  You’ll also need somewhere to go camping.  It’s highly suggested to camp close to home and if possible somewhere you are familiar with.  This will make your first trip easier and more comfortable.  While you’re at it try to learn from others’ mistakes.  Avoid setting up in the dark, bad weather and long campouts for your first go around.  If nothing else remember camping is suppose to be fun, so if you aren’t having fun, you have a problem that needs to be solved.