Planning for a camping trip can be a big task. Questions of where do you go, what do you bring, what should you do, all add up to be overwhelming to many.
As everyone wants their campouts to be fun and relaxing a little bit of planning can go a long way. Starting with where to go camping
Plan Activities To Do While Camping
Everyone has at least one reason they love camping. Before planning your camping trip you need to decide what you want to do while camping. Always plan the activities you want to do before you pick a camping site.
Fishing, hunting, boating, swimming, hiking, games, or just relaxing. Many times you can do all of these where you camp. Other times, the places you go will let you fish but not hunt. Swim but no boats, or boating but no swimming. Make sure you know what you want to do before you plan where to go.
Where to go camping.
It’s easy to set a tent up just about anywhere. You can even call it camping if you stay in a tent in your own backyard. The question is where is the fun in a backyard camp out? Which means it’s best to find a good campground or nature area to go camping on.
When planning for a camping trip you have to do some research to find good camping spots in your area. Like most things, a Google search can save you a lot of time. If you want to stay in your state, type in your state and camping. You can get as specific as you want. Such as “camping near Lincoln, Nebraska”.
Sometimes it’s good to be less specific. You may find something you didn’t know even existed like this campsite on I-80. If you don’t like using the internet, you can always contact your state game and parks, wildlife management, or look into national parks in your area.
When all else fails, and you can’t find something you like, ask around. Anyone involved in Boy Scouts will know about local campgrounds. You may also find someone who has land that will let you use it to camp. Not to mention lots of hunters know all the public lands in the area and what could be camped on or not.
How Long Should You Camp?
The length of your camping trip really depends on how much time you have to camp. If allowed some people would camp for months at a time. There is nothing wrong with a month-long camping trip. If you love the outdoors and have the time. Then it’s a great idea. Although your first few camping trips should be shorter. Just a weekend or overnight. Make sure you enjoy camping before you take a week or longer trip.
Some of the best camping trips are a week or less. With the most common trips starting after work on Friday night and ending Sunday afternoon. However, to truly reset your biological clock to nature it takes a week.
Most of us don’t have a week to get away from the world very often. So a weekend trip gives us just enough time to get relax and enjoy life. While leaving us wanting more.
Many times going for just one night can feel rushed. The work it takes to set up camp for just one night can seem almost too much work for some people. Not to mention the time it takes to clean up and put away your gear when you get home.
Plan your meals.
Unless your whole idea is to live solely off the land you will need to bring food with you. Which means part of planning for a campout includes planning out your meals. As it’s not suggested to try and eat only what you find campout. I know people who’ve tried it and failed miserably ruining their campout.
Meal Considerations
When planning meals consider 3 things. How easy the meal is too cook. The amount of time it will take to cook. The effort it takes to clean up afterward. These are the three most important considerations when planning camping meals. However, don’t forget to consider taste. MRE’s are fast, easy, and have no cleanup, but seriously it’s not something I’d suggest you take camping unless you are backpacking and need to keep weight down in your pack.
Nutritional Value
When planning for camping meals you can get into the nutritional value, and calories needed for the activities you’ll be doing. For the most part, it’s not necessary. It really only matters if you are going to be hiking for extended periods of time, or maybe long term backwoods camping trips where you are very active.
Ease of Cooking
What you really want to think about how easy the meals are too cook. If you know you want to be on the lake fishing before light. The idea of cooking biscuits and gravy from scratch over an open fire isn’t going to work. Maybe planning for a quick breakfast bar, or cereal and coffee would be better. If you’ve been hiking all day long. The idea of spending a couple of hours waiting for food to cook seems like a bad idea.
Plan to eat according to activities
Plan your meals according to what you will be doing on the campout. Then consider doing things to make it easier for you to cook. If you want hamburgers you can make them ahead of time. If you like hash browns buy store-bought so you don’t have to spend a lot of time cutting and peeling potatoes.
A favorite meal of mine is called a hobo dinner. You take meat, vegetables, and spices then wrap everything in tin foil. Then cook it on a fire. You can prepare everything at home, with only the tin-foil to clean up after you eat.
Another thing to look at is Dutch Oven cooking. They are very easy, and clean up is a breeze if you don’t burn it too bad. Of course, sometimes burning it a lot makes it, easier to clean up.
Planning for Equipment to bring
Even the guy who wants to live off the land will bring some equipment with him. Granted a knife, flint, and steel, and a roll of duct tape isn’t enough for most people. This means most people need to take equipment into consideration when planning for a camping trip.
Tent
You’re going to need a shelter of some type. The most common is a tent. Some people will use a tarp some rope and a hammock but this only works if you camp in a warm bug-free place. When looking for a tent consider how long you’ll be camping. Along with how many people you’ll be camping with.
Tents are rated by the number of people they can fit. This number only works if you enjoy spooning with all you’re tent mates. A good rule of thumb is that you take the number of people you’ll have in the tent, times 1.5 then round-up to the nearest even number if need be. That is the minimum tent size you need. So if you have 2 people you’ll need a 4 man tent.
Keep in mind the longer your camping trip the more space you’ll want in your tent. This is due to the amount of gear you’ll have. You want to be able to have room to keep stuff dry if it rains.
Cooking Equipment
When planning for a campout you’ll need something to cook with. At minimum, you’ll need to have wood for a campfire. However, there are places that don’t allow campfires. The better choice is to have a camp stove and skillet or other cook wear. If you are planning to solely use a Dutch Oven you will need charcoal or wood for that.
The best thing to do is look at your menu for the campout and have everything you need for cooking what’s on your menu.
Misc Gear
Other things to bring are lights, chairs, a bedroll, and a good first aid kit. You’ll need some sort of flashlight or lantern. If you bring a battery-powered flashlights or lanterns bring extra batteries. Gas lanterns will need to have extra fuel. Chairs and bedrolls are personal choices. It’s what is comfortable for you. Many people like to have a cot, others like air mattresses.
Clothing and personal items
Even though you may not shower for the whole weekend of camping, having clean clothes is a must. No one wants to spend two or more days living in their own stink. Thus you should plan to bring extra clothes.
It’s best if you have an extra set, of everything. Then bring extra socks and underwear. Clothes can be worn damp or dirty but socks and underwear can cause huge issues if worn dirty and wet. Not to mention the comfort factor. On the same idea bring an extra pair of shoes if you own them.
For personal hygiene bring a tooth-brush. Have deodorant. A washcloth seems pointless without a shower, but you’ll be happy to have one just to clean your face. Baby wipes are always a good thing to have. Even if you don’t have access to clean water you can wash the dirt off. Always consider bringing a roll of toilet paper. Some times you’ll run into outhouses that are maintained.
Right Before you Leave.
You’ve planned your whole trip. Everything is packed and ready, did you double-check your list? Have you forgotten anything? Did you miss something? It isn’t a camp out if you don’t forget something, but it’s best to keep the forgotten things to a minimum.
To prevent forgetting something, make a list and check it off. You should write it down but even doing it in your head helps.
Double-check the weather. The weather forecast can change overnight so check it before you leave to just make sure you have packed everything you need for the weather. There’s nothing worse than forgetting rain gear and having it rain your entire campout.
Part of planning a camping trip should be to let someone know where you’re going. Even in this day and age, with cell reception almost everywhere. Who wants to chance that you can’t get a hold of someone if you are in trouble. At least if someone knows you are late getting home they can go looking for you.
Last but not least double-check that all the bags and stuff you packed made it into your vehicle. It’s been known to happen that you have everything ready to go. All laid out. Yet, somehow left one by the door in your rush to pack and leave.
Enjoy the trip.
Even if you spend months planning for a camping trip, things happen. Stuff gets left behind. You will think of things that would have made the trip better. No matter what happens just remember to have fun camping. Next time you’ll forget something different. The weather will be different. And the adventure that is camping will be just that a new adventure.
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