If your last camping experience was when you were a kid, and you tried to sleep rolled up in a blanket under a pup tent, and in the morning it took you more than an hour to build a wimpy little fire that barely charred the paper wrapper on a can of beans, and if you fantasized about houses, warm beds and hot meals-well, times have changed.
Technology has made camping a whole lot easier.
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Wood and canvas have been replaced by aluminum, fiberglass and nylon. For a moderate price, an individual, a couple or a small family can now rediscover the joys of sleeping out and wondering whether that really is a crazed killer raccoon snuffling at the edge of the tent.
If you`re just starting, you are well advised to begin with ”car camping,” as opposed to taking on the Beartooth Pass.
There usually are lots of campsites that allow you to drive to within a short distance of where you`ll pitch your tent, with all the car`s attendant conveniences, such as being able to keep a heavy cooler and a load of canned goods in the trunk.
On the other hand, most equipment is made with a view to lightness and compactness. With few exceptions, the gear you buy now will still be useful when you someday decide to leave the car 10 miles behind.
Start with basics
Let`s start with the tent. Some of us will miss the smell of canvas. But the modern, highly portable tent is made of nylon.
The typical modern tent, which weighs only about 8 pounds, is free-standing. It`s a self-contained, bubble-like structure with attached floor that can be set up entirely without putting any pegs in the ground, although it should be staked if there will be any wind.
Manufacturers have been known to be optimistic about how many people their tents will comfortably hold, but a good rule of thumb is 25 square feet per person. Remember that not only people but gear will go inside. Put it up in the store, crawl inside, stretch out and see how it fits.
A tent is a big investment (about $200 for a good two-person tent to $400 or so for a good four-person tent) and you are going to be stuck with your choice for many, many seasons, so take your time choosing it.
Any good tent will have two skins: an inner lining of breathable material and an outer rain shell. You should be able to roll the rain shell up and out of the way for really hot nights. You also should be able to open both ends for ventilation.
All openings should have weather and mosquito-netting flaps, and the mesh should be the superfine kind that keeps out ”no-see-um” bugs. One more desirable feature is a vestibule, or little covered entry that gives the camper a place to shed his gear without getting the inside of the tent wet and gritty as well.
Check everything
Check the seams and stitching for evenness, and check for reinforcements wherever it looks as if there might be a strain on the fabric.
Some extension of Murphy`s Law probably says that the more pieces you have, the more that can go wrong, so make sure the parts are replaceable.
No tent is complete without a ground cloth. This can be an el cheapo plastic tarp.
Speaking of grit and water, you should protect your expensive investment when the trip is over by turning the tent inside out, hosing it down, and hanging it up to air-dry. Store it loosely in a dry place. The stuff bag it came in is really only intended for transport.
And speaking of el cheapo tarps, bring another one, preferably large, to shade your eating area, which may be a picnic table in some of the parks. Get the kind with many grommets, and bring some light line to use to tie the tarp off to trees.
A sleeping bag is another big investment-$70 for a basic bag up to $400 for something that would get you through a northern January night. As a beginner, you`ll almost certainly be camping in warm weather, so a lighter, less-expensive bag would be okay.
Manufacturers are more than honest in their estimates of how warm the user will be in their bags, although children and anybody significantly smaller than the bag will not be as warm as someone who fills the bag. (As your experience increases, you`ll be able to choose among more expensive bags for colder weather.)
Store bag loosely
Again, check the seams for even stitching. Look for the convenience of big zipper pulls at both ends of the bag, and you want a ridge of material between you and the zipper to seal out air currents. Again, store the bag loosely and allow it to get lots of air between uses.
The pad underneath the bag has also been hit by high-tech: ”Self-inflating” is the term, and it means the foam-filled pad will roll up into a compact cylinder for transport, then expand, when unrolled, sucking in air through a valve until filled. Prices start at about $50. Plain foam pads are still around, for about $12, as are air mattresses, about $10; for those who don`t mind blowing them up, lung-power is free but others may want a $10 foot- pump.
The choice of a cooking stove will be dictated by the number of people you are feeding and how much weight you are willing to carry. The three-burner stove (prices vary, but $60 would be reasonable) will be the obvious choice for a family. (The compact single-flame burner, $35 and up, is really more for backpackers and other lightness-minded campers.)
Cookware is aluminum, of course, and nests for compactness. A typical set ($25) will have a couple of pots, a lid that becomes a pan, Teflon or similar nonstick surfaces (see how easy it has gotten?) and one
interchangeable handle for all.
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Berne pointed out that the pan won`t be big enough to cook pancakes for a family of four, so car campers can bring along all the extra cookware they like.
Plenty of conveniences
The same goes for dinnerware. Plastic plates can be found anywhere, and cheaply; disposable plates and cups are a great convenience, but let`s not junk up the environment with them. Getting the food to the campsite from a car is no more complicated than carrying it in a grocery bag, but it simplifies things if the food is precooked and reheated at the site. Camping stores have plastic food and condiment containers of all sorts; for example a wide-mouth plastic jar, 32-ounce size, for $3.
For night, a fuel-burning lantern ($35) is advisable. A flashlight is good for quick use.
Water may be hard to come by at some campsites. A collapsible 5-gallon container ($5) should supply your needs for a day or more. But you may want to leave it in the car: At 8 pounds per gallon, it will weigh 40 pounds.
For clothing while car-camping, take plenty of changes in case you get wet. For other kinds of camping, sweat suits, jeans or anything all-cotton, because of moisture retention, might not be wise.
But any style of camping may include periods of rain or drizzle, and rain gear of some sort is a must. You get what you pay for: A $20 jacket-and-pants set will keep the rain off but probably become like a sauna inside; for $150 or more, you can be rain-proof and comfortable.
Any style of camping may include blazing sun and will certainly include mosquitoes, both of which call for long pants and sleeves, hats and insect repellents.
That`s it. You`re on your own now. Bring something to amuse the kids-they almost certainly will find the great outdoors boring-and please leave the place cleaner than you found it.
And, no, that`s most likely not a crazed killer raccoon out there. –