roughing it

[jaystuw]

By roughing it, I mean venturing into the woods, forest or desert for several days or more of camping without a lot of luxuries.

Many guys here are a little older. Are some of us still "rough and ready" and don't mind pitching a tent, making a campfire and sleeping on the ground like the kids and young adults do? I remember camping like that 10 or more years ago. I remember the sights, sounds, And the adventure of it. I never could seem to get the same feeling by staying at a hotel or resort near a wilderness area.

Anyway,I miss roughing it. is it the same for any of you? Does anyone else miss cheap, no thrills camping, simply because experiencing it is rough, but priceless. Jay

[Dean D.]

Try googling "Trekking", I think you'll find there are quite a few folks that enjoy roughing it. One version of this is "Historical Trekking". This site may interest you: http://www.coht.org/resources.html

[jaystuw]

Thanks Dean! "Historical trekkers" is now on my favorites list. Jay

[CGT80]

The only way I pitch a tent is............................oh never mind. [smilie=1:

For me, roughing it is sleeping on the Queen size Aero bed in the top bunk of my toy hauler, with the forced air heater running if needed. It has been 10 years or so since I slept in a tent. It was not a comfortable experience, but it was memorable. I am only 33, but I appreciate a good bed and a place out of the weather. I do agree that a hotel or cabin doesn't feel the same as staying in a campground and using a trailer or tent. My trailer is only 21' and can start to feel small with more than one or two people and their belongings. It is a reminder that we can live more simple, but it still has comforts of home. To wake up in the morning and walk out into a pine forest or into the middle of the desert is pretty cool. You don't have to do everyday city stuff and then drive to your destination.

It is funny how I remember all the times I stayed in a tent and even the times in RV's, even if it wasn't the most comfortable. I remember taking a bath from a sauce pan heated over a stove, as a kid. We fished and rode bikes or hiked. We played card games and listened to stories from our parents or grandparents. We watched animals and observed nature. I imagined what it must have been like before we had big cities and cars. Much of this was in Sierra Nevada mountains of California, along highway 395, North of Bishop. It was kind of cool to sleep in a tent that sat only 50 feet from a stream. At Rock creek lake, the elevation was 9,000 feet above sea level or better. I have always lived at around 1200 feet. It takes a bit of time to get used to the elevation change. I hiked to about 11,000 feet on that trip, of course I had a few days to get used to the altitude before I did the hike. We went a couple miles past the parking area and saw a couple small lakes. I am not big on hiking or roughing it, so we just did the easy half day hikes. It was still quite an experience.

We used to camp at Crazy Horse campground. The London Bridge is located there, which is on the Colorado river. You could hear the boats running on the smooth water of Lake Havasu, when you woke up in the morning. I only slept outside of an RV once while there. It didn't get below 100 degrees at night and the bugs were bad. It was a bit of a sleepless night, but it left an impression. The lake was a hundred feet from our camp. It was really different from being at home. You could see Lake Havasu City across the water from the campground. There was the contrast of the harsh desert riverbanks and open water with mountains to the North, and the city to the East, which had anything you needed.

I have an appreciation for the way some people travel and camp, and used to live, but I am glad to have all the comforts in life. My vacations make me realize what I have, but also what is possible. I am used to the large city lifestyle. I live an hour from LA. People around here are more likely to take their RV's a few hours away from the cities than they are to go rough it somewhere. Hotels/motels, and cabins are popular as well.

[starmac]

That isn't roughing it, that is camping. roughing it is when you don't have a tent or bedroll and NEED it. I always take a tent, but if the weather is nice, I don't even bother pitching it.

[jaystuw]

Cgt80, Your thoughts on roughing it are cool and interesting. I was just opposite of you on the other side of the sierras, Shaver lake and Dinkey Creek area (not very far as the crow flies), and live about half hour west of L.A. small world isn't it?


starmac. I just saw a real estate show featuring Alaska homes/cabins. I never knew about "wet" and "dry" cabins. "dry" cabins (no water) are even in Fairbanks due to the permafrost! Alaskans bring tough to whole higher level.

Jay

[Love Life]

I still rough it and have no plans to stop. I do two long range hikes a year, weight is important, so what I carry is comprehensive but minimal depending on the weather. There are times I'll be out hunting, and just find a good tree to sleep under and do that. Often times I can be found in Risue canyon doing my best to explore as much of it as possible.

My favorite "Roughing it" in my life was when I hiked to summit White Mountain. I snoozed in nothing but my 3 bag system with a tarp over me at 12,600 ft. I climbed the summit the next morning and wrote my name in the logbook at 14252 feet.

Roughing it is great. Planned camping is fun, and I do it for my family, but an unplanned overnighter is just great.

[jaystuw]

Love life, I saw your post/thoughts on a popular tread in the political section, and now find out you are a wilderness backpacker. Another surprise! Jay

[Wayne Smith]

When I was young and stupid I backpacked in the winter, knocked the snow off the tent, slept out on a ground sheet in the desert and got stung by a scorpion, kept a pack in the trunk of my car and randomly took off for a weekend in the Shenandoah Nat'l Park. Even did some spelunking and slept in a couple of caves.

Now I want a bed in a dry room! We love the National Park lodges, no TV, no phone, great scenery and things to do, and, so far at least, great chefs.

[Bullshop Junior]

I have been roughing it ever since i got to texas.

[Freightman]

I have been roughing it ever since i got to texas.
Hard land! [smilie=1:

[WILCO]

By roughing it, I mean venturing into the woods, forest or desert for several days or more of camping without a lot of luxuries.

Hi Jay!
Great topic.
It's been a few years since I "camped" anywhere, but suffice it to say that when I did, it was old school. In more recent times, I've satisfied my hunger for rustic accomodations by doing simple activities, such as:

A) Setting up a day camp with a simple tarp shelter, featuring a center pole of
driftwood. The shelter is little more than 4' high and will easily sit two camping chairs and a folding tray table.
The driftwood pole has a large knot that I hang my farmers lantern from. Depending on where I go, I'll bring along some fishing gear, a canoe, a .22 rimfire rifle, a cooler and some cast iron cookware with a folding metal stand.

Then there's always a book or magazines to bring and don't forget the wind up radio.

I arrive early and leave late.

B) Even more simple is taking the folding chairs and table to a favorite spot and watching the sunset. Most times I'll bring the lantern, a flask of whisky, a bottle of iced tea and a book I'm working my way through.

[daniel lawecki]

I,m 57 and still tent camp on the Platte River in upper lower Mich. My Coleman stove Coleman Lantern Nothface sleeping bag and the other basic things. Now is time to introduce the grandkids to this.

[Artful]

Not since I got married - wife's idea of roughing it is Motel 6

[bayjoe]

Last time I roughed it was at branding about 30 years ago, even back then the ground was hard. Sure brings back memories of the old ways.

[mpbarry1]

been there, done that, enjoyed it. but i like to get up in the morning and be able to move! .lol. my body really likes a bed. we have a travel trailer now. I do have a once a year trip in a wall tent but I use a cot w lots of padding now. sigh

[Wolfer]

While I still rough it sometimes by some folks standards I have to admit that sleeping on the ground under the stars is a lot harder than it used to be. Don't do it as much as I used to. I can only recall twice this past fall but there may have been more. Luxury camping or what I call tepee living is what I do mostly anymore. Canvas tent with a wood stove, cot and good sleeping bag. It's not uncommon for me to spend any time I'm not at work from mid Oct to Jan 1 in my tent.

When I was younger and working on the road we had to pay our own motel bill. I would get to the job site on Sunday night and roll out my bed roll under the tailgate of the truck. I've never been a fan of waking up soaking wet from the dew. The tailgate will keep it off and I've spent many nights there.
When elk hunting and planning an overnight stay I put a wool army blanket between my saddle and pad. I just build a fire with full length aspens arranged like spokes and as the fire dies down I can just push them up. Once I have a good fire I can sleep about an hour or little longer before getting cold. I then just build up the fire and go back to sleep. The nights are long in the mtns in oct so you get lots of naps.
I've been asked why I don't take my sleeping bag on those trips. I go in those places with every intention of killing an elk. I carry panniers rolled up behind my saddle and don't really have room. Any horse I take out there will be able to carry an entire elk and me. I'll have to find a deadfall to jump on top of the load and I feel like a camel jockey but it's worked for me several times. Anyway I don't have room for unnecessary luxury.

The ground is harder now than when I was in my 20s. Woody

[Bzcraig]

As much as I would like to, I have never been able to get comfortable enough on the ground to get a good like sleep. 20 years ago was the last time I headed into the Sierras to Coyote/Red Lake about 9,000' and slept in the back of my Jeep Wagoneer. Since then it's been a RV or timeshare.

[longranger]

45 years of figuring out what works for me and now have 4 star wilderness accommodations.Sierras,Rockies,Appalachia,deserts, 12,000' elev. Not stopping anytime soon.I f I limited myself to a "Aluminum Tent" I would miss all the things that are to see above 10,000 elev. that would be a crime.

[slim1836]

I go to rendezvous at least twice a year, however, due to some health issues lately I usually stay in the back of my van in the parking lot.

I love pitching my pyramid or wall tent, don't mind sleeping on the ground with a pad under me, but when you have to pack up Friday after work, set up camp after dark, only to tear it down on Sunday and haul it all back and put it away, it gets to be a hassle.

I prefer to spend time competing and visiting with folks and the less time spent on setting up and tearing down allows me that. If I have a long weekend I will set up camp.

Slim

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

When I was in my twenties, I took several Bike trips with friends: to the U.P. and to the Big Horns, and to the Pacific Ocean once...Many trips in Northern MN. Always slept in a tent, Always a campfire, and usually as far off the pavement as possible (meaning several miles of gravel to a Army Corp of Eng. campground).

Two of favorite campgrounds:
Cottonwood Campground just outside of Afton, WY.
and a Army Corp of Eng. campground in U.P. of MI on the shores of Lake MI across the peninsula from Fayette Historic State Park, Garden, MI. (I couldn't find the name or anything online about it...But it existed a decade ago, in the little Bay, just south of Portage Bay).


PS: The last time I spent the night in a tent ?
about 8 years ago, in the middle of a veggie field at a friends farm...waiting to see what critter was doing nocturnal damage to the plants. My snoring must have kept the critters away :)

[waksupi]

try this.

[quilbilly]

One of the reasons I so enjoy NCBS is that it allows us to camp in the mountains north of Winnemucca at one of the most beautiful spring campsite I have ever been to. Digging yourself out of snow after a surprise May storm is a little tiresome. Having a tent and being next to running water is not roughing it, however

[dtknowles]

I could probably only stand a night or two of backpack camping. I like being out of doors with a camp fire and food cooked over the fire but sleeping on too hard of ground is quite painful for me. I can sleep comfortably on the beach or in a hammock. I have slept barely tolerable on a thin foam pad with towel under my hip and a pack for a pillow.

Right after I started my first retirement I took a tour of the south west, New Orleans, St. Louis, Denver, Reno, Sacramento, Half Moon Bay, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Carlsbad Caverns, San Antonio, Houston and back to New Orleans. I put my bike, and canoe on the Subaru Forester and my gear in the back. I did not do any back woods camping but stay in a tent at camp grounds some of the nights, some quite primitive. I had a blast. With a little better planning I could have done some overnight hiking and spent a night or two in the backwoods but I planned the trip on short notice and had to be in Houston for Thanksgiving so I did what I could.

Tim

[Love Life]

Rough camping is my favorite. Building my windbreaks, making fire with a ferro rod or bow and drill (so hard), eating what's in my pack unless I can supplement with a rabbit or some fish. There is just something special about being you against the world. Over the years I have to been able to whittle down my pack contents to things I USE.

There is always a green gold pan, garden trowel, and rock hammer in/on my pack.

[fatnhappy]

all the time courtesy of being a scout leader.

[jaystuw]

Wilco, great idea and perfect timing. My son and his friends just rebuilt a campfire pit under a railroad bridge about a mile from our house. The area is very lush with a running stream. They say, come on and join us dad, for a campfire! Well, I need no more prompting. I am going to do it. I'm excited!


Bzcraig, About 1993 is when I was exploring the red lake / coyote lake area. I was hiking it. I Seem to remember getting to red lake first and then pushing on to coyote. Anyway, Being in clovis, you have only a short haul up the mountain to shaver lake. Do you still get up there much? I understand they have no snow!


Daniel lawecki. I Use a coleman lantern and stove, Have a northface sleeping bag, And just turned 58! Almost the same as you!

Jay

[Love Life]

If you all ever get the chance, Turn off the 395 onto the 108. Go to the Leavitt camp grounds. From there you can hike to Secret and Roosevelt lakes. These are pristine lakes. Also in the area are Kirmen lake, Poor lake, and Leavitt Lake (eat your Wheaties before hiking Leavitt). Truly majestic scenery in this area. Great trout in Kirmen and Roosevelt. Great Crayfish in Secret lake.

[montana_charlie]

Since I have taken up babysitting cows and their offspring, I haven't gone on an actual hunting trip. Those used to be five to seven day excursions in the Beartooth Game Range and I lived in my little 4-man tent ... which was/is the perfect size when 'that much gear' is required.

Now, 'camping out' is a night when I have a cow who is expected to calve and the temperature is in the 'fatal' range.

She is in the barn and I am just outside in my pickup.
I run the heater until the cab is warm, than shut it off and go to sleep.
When the cold wakes me up, I start the engine and go inside to check on the cow.
By the time I get back the cab is warm again, so I kill the motor and get some more sleep.

CM

[6.5 swede]

during our deer season in northern minnesota we, my 2 sons and my dad which is 75 stay in a army tent and use wood stove for heat and cooking, water bottle gets stiff by morning, dont see many people hunt this away any more.

[William Yanda]

My Dad claimed that only hoboes ate outdoors. I scoffed until I answered too many questions on the Army tests the wrong way and got shuttled off to infantry training. Although I never worked in the MOS-there's a story or two there-I experienced enough bivouac in training to lose my enchantment with the great outdoors. Now if there is a purpose for being uncomfortable......

[olereb]

I have slept on the ground under a self built shelter that I made out of what I found in the forest and I have slept in a tent,both have been done in the summer and in the winter when it was snowing. The most luxury I want is a tent,i do tents these days for the wife and small kids and that the only reason.

[gandydancer]

My idea of roughing it is black & white TV.

[starmac]

Different strokes for different folks. I owned rv's for a lot of my adult life. I moved a lot for work and lived in them, it has been rare that I camped in them. I rarely hunted where you could even attempt to get an rv, but even if you could, a large wall tent and a well set up camp is more comfortable than an rv. We elk hunted in the gila forest once with temps getting as 10 below and close to a foot of snow the first night and day we were there. My hunting partner had had a heart attack a year or two before this trip, and his sister had made him bring the 5th wheel and promise to stay in it. Him and his grandson stayed in it (to sleep only), all other activities were done much more comfortably in the military tent, that myself and another slept in much more comfortably. lol Limiting yourself to where you can get an rv greatly reduces the amount of gods beautiful nature that you will ever see. Here in Alaska, if you limit yourself to an rv, you will be camping, hunting and fishing with crowds.

[bear67]

We own the 34' RV and camped 100 + nights in it last year--some of it just Mama Bear and I and some camping, cooking and visitin' with good friends.
But I also did 45 + nights in tents or under the stars if conditions were right. I am seventy and carry a few more comforts now, but still enjoy tent camping with the wife, or Boy Scouts, or even hunting buddies. The boss lady and I are planning a 10 day river run this spring without taking off the water and no resupply. Been planning it for years. We love to see what is over the next mountain, river or ocean and camping/rv'ing/canoe trippin' is way we can do this and not spend all our retirement savings and investments.
Another case of different strokes for different strokes.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

during our deer season in northern minnesota we, my 2 sons and my dad which is 75 stay in a army tent and use wood stove for heat and cooking, water bottle gets stiff by morning, dont see many people hunt this away any more.
Welcome to the best casting website !
Great first post.
Good to see another Minnesotan on the forum.

[starmac]

A funny tent hunting camp story for you. My wifes grandad, uncles, all of their offspring and a few family friends. I ran around with the grandad and uncles several years before I met her, but they have camped for a week every year since sometime in the fiftys during deer season down in member Bill Weddles country. The only thing that has changed about the camp, is it has grown to two 16X32 army tents instead of one. If a guy even managed to get an rv into this camp area, it would be pure scrap. at least on other member here knows a lot of the players that were there, I wasn't but will never forget the story. Uncle Joe had been on the only salvage ever of white sands missle range in the early 70's and had kept a pretty good stash of unburned solid missle fuel. A quarter size piece of this in the tin sheep herders stove, eliminated the need for cutting any kindling.
Anyone that had to get up during the night would restoke the stove, which pretty much kept it warm all night. Uncle Elmer (the closest thing to a city type guy) happened to get up, and there were only a few coals left, so he stoked her up, and knowing about the missile fuel threw a hand size chunk in to get the fire going. lol The stove started huffing and puffing, then jumping around tearing lose from the stove pipe. Everybody woke up to a red hot stove running around the tent full of smoke. The missile fuel finally melted a hole in the stove and got out, but it burned the tent and many of the bedrolls. Elmer is gone now, but he really never lived that one down, and was ribbed about it some the rest of his life. lol I wasn't there, but have heard this story many times over the years. Most of the uncles that I ran around do not even hunt anymore, or even take a rifle, they leave the hunting to the younger generation, but still go to the hunting camp for a week without fail, plenty of good times, stories and eating for a week away, from life.

[Wolfer]

Now that's a classic!!

[Blacksmith]

For the past 6 or 8 years I have gone with my son and grandsons camping in late March early April in western Maryland to help with the Christian Scouts shooting weekend. Sleep in a tent, campfire every night, cooking on Coleman stoves, firearms training for the kids with lots of shooting. Always cold some years snow but good fun and comradeship. I did get an inflatable bed and the last couple of years brought a resin chair because of my bad back and last year it was so cold I finally took refuge in the truck cab Saturday night. I was sixty nine then and have decided that at 70 I will no longer sleep in a tent unless there is a TEOTWAWKI event. I might try it spring or fall when it isn't to hot or cold but I am turning into a wuzz in my senior years.

[starmac]

Blacksmith, sounds like time to try a wall tent and good stove, life just doesn't get any better. lol

[Wolfer]

Yes sir! Once I got old enough to quit enjoying sleeping in a cold tent setting on the snow I bought a small wall tent with a packer stove. This is teepee living at its finest! Woody

[MT Gianni]

59 1/2 + and I camp out in a tent 15 nights a year or so. Some of it is with Boy Scouts, some of it hunting and some of it is solo. My wife loves to tent camp but can no longer sleep on the ground so we bring a blow up mattress when we go together. I was recently asked what is my favorite thing to do, my answer was to hunt or fish and not see anyone outside of our party for the duration. The look I got let me think the interviewer wanted to put me in a zoo.

[WILCO]

My son and his friends just rebuilt a campfire pit under a railroad bridge about a mile from our house. The area is very lush with a running stream. They say, come on and join us dad, for a campfire! Well, I need no more prompting. I am going to do it. I'm excited!

Take some pics Jay!!!

[jaystuw]

Wilco, I have never posted a pic before, but if I can, I will! Jay

[MaryB]

I used to toss a sleeping bag next to the Minnesota river on weekends for cat fishing, maybe rig a tarp over the top to shed rain. Did 4 2 week solo trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area when I was in my 20's, take in a 1 person tent and sleeping bag, cooking gear, fishing gear and live off the land.

Now I want a soft bed and heat, hot water for my shower... messed up spine says no more sleeping on the ground, to hard to get up in the morning when I do that now. Went with my nieces and nephews on a weekend last summer and I think it is the last unless one of them wants to pack in my cot.

[klausg]

After 20+ years in the infantry, I think I've completely lost my taste for roughing it. That being said I don't really consider having a tent, fart-sack & fire really roughing it. Sometimes life just rears up and bites you on the butt though.:???: Two years ago my buddy, his nephew & I were red-fishing on the middle Kenai; we ran the skiff down from Skilak Lake. The wind was starting to pick up so we decided to leave. When we turned the corner of the river to enter the lake, my buddy & I made a very good decision to turn around as Skilak had 3-4' seas. Something about dying didn't thrill either of us. [smilie=1: So we headed back downriver & found a spot to siwash it. The only good thing about that night was that it didn't rain nearly as hard as it could have & the wind laid down around 0400, so we could get out of there. I have spent more miserable nights in the infantry, one particular LP/OP on a very cold, very wet, (we were trying to remember what a cubit was & pairing up animals) in Germany comes immediately to mind.

-Klaus

[Bulldogger]

I camped out in the woods for a week at a time with my best friend when we were kids in grade school and junior high. Can't imagine parents around there allowing that anymore. We ate canned food mostly, since we were restricted to bb guns, but it was always fun. I remember having to hike out to the main road one morning in the middle of a week of camping to meet my mom in the car to go to the dentist up in the city, then she dropped me off and I hiked back to the campsite. Good times.

I haven't camped (other than in an issued USMC pup tent) since I was about 15. My son seems to like camping with his GPs (mother's parents), but they are city campers, campsite with electricity and all that. I will teach him the ways of the woods when he gets a little older.

Waksupi and Starmac, those stories and pictures are great. I dream of going on a snowy deer hunting trip and living in wall tents, telling stories and generally enjoying being out of cell phone range for a week. I don't care if I even manage to get out hunting.

I've still got the skills, but since it's been 25 years since I used them, I'm sure they're rusty.

Bulldogger

[waksupi]

Here is another camp in the Great Bear Wilderness years ago.
95633

How we got there. Camp was 28 miles from the trail head, on Dolly Varden Creek, below Pentagon Divide.
95634

Still can't find my pictures of some real brush camps.

[waksupi]

This was a brush camp in the Swan Valley.

95640

[Wolfer]

95653

Here is my current wilderness lodging. This is hardly what I consider roughing it.

[DIRT Farmer]

When I am on the road I carry my shooting mat, sleeping mat, small dutch oven, ranger kit(primative camping cook kit) and a cheap 8x10 tarp. Last October I was at an awards meeting and did not want to spend the night in a motel. I drove to the range at Friendship, built a small fire, rolled out my gear and spent the night. the next morning I had coffee, biscuts and eggs then shot some before contuning home. 65 this year. Camping in the snow would require more than the old mummy bag and cover of my youth.

[WilliamDahl]

I think that the last time I was "roughing it", there were Claymores involved in perimeter security.

These days, "roughing it" is a hotel without a working ice machine so I can keep my beer cold. :)

[ktw]

Lost the taste for sleeping on the ground a long time ago.

I live in the sticks and work in the woods. If we do choose to spend time off on an overnight in the woods, no electricity or running water, we tend to spend it at "camp".

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g232/ktwna/MI%20Deer%20Season/prc.jpg

-ktw

[MaryB]

If you ever want your kids to experience real wilderness the boundary waters canoe area is great. Limited number of permits issues each year, and only so many on each section at a time. I went 2 weeks without seeing another person. I did stay away from the really hard portages but you can paddle in for 2 days and be away from humans for as long as your permit allows you to stay there. Ate a lot of fish and wild veggies on those trips, good chance to teach basic survival and living off what you can gather.

[ktw]

^What is wrong with your shack's roof?^
All the snow is gone from the middle!!

No insulation. The snow on the portion of the roof over the warm interior melts off. The snow on the part that overhangs the walls does not.

-ktw

[Dean D.]

Here's a picture of my camp at the 2010 Pacific Primitive Rendezvous in Weippe, ID.

95700

I wouldn't consider this camp to be a Trekking camp. When it came time to break camp I could not access it with my vehicle and it took me 6 round-trips to pack the camp out the mile to the parking area. You can't see the wool blanket camoflaged cooler and plastic parfleches hidden by the front flap. So figure a couple pack animals for that camp [smilie=1: There's a lot of fluff there that isn't necessary.

[Ajax]

I haven't camped since i was a kid. This has sparked my interest in camping again. Great topic.

Andy

[Wolfer]

I haven't ever had to do this but I'm sure it would work.
In the book ( 50 years a hunter and trapper by Woodcock ) He talks about trailing game in the snow sometimes for several days. I'm sure many of you have read his book and those who haven't maybe should.
His method. He would find a big down log. Rake the snow back from the log I assume about a six foot square. Build a long fire about 4' from the log. Once the snow is all melted to the log then rake the fire over against the log. Using two forked sticks about 4 feet from the log you build a lean to facing the log. You sleep on the warm ground where your fire was originally. The burning log will smoulder and put out heat all night.
With any luck I'll never have to try this but it's good to know. Woody

[starmac]

If you ever get a chance, read Alaska's wolf man. Some of them old timers were made out of rawhide. lol

[snowwolfe]

In the 1970's I spent a few nights sleeping on spruce branches on the Alaska tundra. Only thing with me was a rifle and small survival pack. Enjoyed the time immensely. Those tiny red ground squirrels taste pretty good roasted over a fire.
But now a days I'll just get in our 35 foot RV and drive to where we want to spend the night. I enjoy all three of the flat screen TV's it has:) even if I can't watch all three at once.

[Thumbcocker]

"Didn't put enough dirt down. Noticed it right off."

[waksupi]

Here's a picture of my camp at the 2010 Pacific Primitive Rendezvous in Weippe, ID.

95700

I wouldn't consider this camp to be a Trekking camp. When it came time to break camp I could not access it with my vehicle and it took me 6 round-trips to pack the camp out the mile to the parking area. You can't see the wool blanket camoflaged cooler and plastic parfleches hidden by the front flap. So figure a couple pack animals for that camp [smilie=1: There's a lot of fluff there that isn't necessary.

Dean, I meant to mention to you, on a Montana page on the net there is a picture of you, Jack, Colby and Ryan Robison and myself at Fawn Creek. Very nice primitive looking picture, until you take a second look. There you are, sitting on a blue and white Coleman water cooler. Must have been making a water run. However, I don't know if we can allow you back into Montana now.
95760

[starmac]

Too funny. lol

[Artful]

Dean, There you are, sitting on a blue and white Coleman water cooler.
95760

Must have forgotten that wool blanket camoflage for the cooler on that run.

[DRNurse1]

I have been roughing it ever since i got to texas.

"Holy foot, Batman, I could sleep in one of these clodhoppers!"---Come on, your are in the southern states. Oh, wait, it is colder here than Alaska!

[Dean D.]

I don't know if we can allow you back into Montana now.


{Sigh} Bannished again. {Sigh} Ya jest cain't take a Pilgrim anywhere without embarrassing yerseff. :roll:

[Idaho Mule]

Yeah, life is perty tough out the Musselshell. Skeeters got FAA numbers painted on their sides. Next time ya head in there Dean just let me know, I may have to come visit. JW

[pretzelxx]

12 days, MREs and no tents. All in 20 degree nights. I'm pretty excited to get out and rough it for a while.

[Littleton Shot Maker]

would carrying a 70 pound ruck , in the sandy desert around 29 palms, or the peaks around Pickle Meadows--- sleeping in the field for two-three weeks, no bath, some water, cold nights , super hot days, kevlars, flak vest, digging into and sleeping (3-4 hours at most) in our slit trench, fighting hole, what ever you want to call it (a shallow grave,is what I called it) considered roughing it? no tents, no air mattress, no comforts at all.

Just so glad I did not have to rough it over seas under fire.

I don't want to do that no more. A pop up trailer would be nice to get close to the action and then go for 1-2 day trips, but I need sherpas to carry the gear now, my back just won't take it any more.
Being young , in the woods, with out bills, or cares, just the breeze, sun, woods, the birds, the other critters big and small...... I hate the city!

[WilliamDahl]

12 days, MREs and no tents.

MRE -- Meals Rejected by Ethiopia

[pretzelxx]

In recent years, they actually made some of the food pretty tasty in the MREs, they even include a poptart once in a while!

[Littleton Shot Maker]

Grunts,got no sense, just guts and glory. To be young again.

[tengaugetx]

I take my two kids, on a three day weekend campout, twice a year, at Shady Lake in the Ouacita National Forrest in Arkansas. Most of the time the wife goes too. We tent camp but I finally got soft at 50 and quit sleeping on the ground. We use cots and have a couple 8 person tents. They have bathrooms and showers at the campgrounds so it's luxurious compared to my days in the field in the Marines.
I stayed in a camper one time, for me I might as well be at a motel.