Camping is like spending time and money to live like a homeless person!
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Camping is like spending time and money to live like a homeless person!
Amen
When getting up off the ground was easy, I really enjoyed camping.
For me it’s been about getting away from the complications of modern life. No phone. No electricity. Cooking over the fire. Be at peace with nature.
I never went camping for camping's sake, it was just a place to sleep where I went to hunt or fish. Most times, when I lived in Denver, I would just leave real early, setup a campfire by the river and fish all day, then come home at night. During hunting season, we would stay about a week, about 3 or 4 adults and a couple of us teens. Our job was to round up rabbit and fish for our meals, and every now and then we would hunt near the camp. Adults would sometimes get upset when they got back and we had an elk or black tail down, since they walked for hours stalking, while we waited until one came near camp.
It is the type of activity that can be fun if done for a limited time and not too frequently.
If it was so great, we would not build houses, put in wells, and install septic systems.
Reminds me of the saying, "A change is as good as rest". That phrase does not work if you are eyeing a hot woman, and your wife asks what you are thinking.
When I was a kid, we would go camping in the High Sierra's. Dad & 2nd Mom would buy what groceries they could afford, and we'd camp until we ran out of groceries. If the fishing was good we stayed longer. If it wasn't, we left sooner. Dad had a Coleman 4-burner stove, and we'd cook stuff to go with the fish on that, and the fish usually got cooked over the campfire. It was a great time!
Last time I went camping, my wife and I, our newest daughter, and the older kids, at five and three, camped on our way to visit my Dad and 2nd Mom in Colorado. Wasn't near as fun. :) Son is closing on 30, now. Newest daughter is will be 24 later this month. The only other camping they've done was with Scouts or church groups when they were still kids, and they didn't find it all that much fun. And this was before they had cellphones and tablet computers. With my arthritis being what it is, and their mom's being way worse, I don't know if I'd want to go camping again. MAYBE RVing...
Bill
It’s been years since I’ve tent camped but wifey and I enjoy taking a weekend or more to drive somewhere new and find some state land where we can pop up for the evening. With our current set up we don’t even have to get out of the car to set up for the night. We’re spoiled now!
This was a couple weeks ago near Bennett Peak in Wyoming.
Attachment 287444
No more pretending to be homeless for us!
My wife and I love to camp, and we use a tent. However, we do get the improved site with electricity and use an inflatable mattress to sleep on. I used to go primitive but as I age we get a few of the amenities. It's still fun to get away from the hassles of urban life.
Used to do tents and such , no longer rig a wall tent out of tarps , put up cots , beats the ground .
Wife and I used a plow up bed. We had a batter powdered inflate to inflate the air bed. Almost like being at home. Beats standing against a tree for two hours. I did this when I was 18 in forgiven countries. Two weeks of this was enough at a time. Didn't camp for years after this.
Steve
Wife and I used a blow up bed. We had a batter powdered inflate to inflate the air bed. Almost like being at home. Beats standing against a tree for two hours. I did this when I was 18 in foreign countries. Two weeks of this was enough at a time. Didn't camp for years after this.
Steve
As a child and later teenager I camped a lot in a three man dome tent. I forgot where I obtained it but that thing followed me all over the country. Pretty easy to set up and it did not take up a ton of room. It finally fell apart along with some broken yellow fiberglass poles.
I have to laugh, in a way. I have a group of younger friends(I'm 56) in their mid to late thirties and even forties. Good people but their idea of camping involves huge bump out trailers. I like the European term,"caravaning" to apply to that style of camping.
Myself I now use a 16 year old 4 man Kifaru tipi. It has a little fold up woodstove to take the curse out of the morning chill. I do admit that it is a bit of a pain in the neck to set up but not too bad once it is. It does get some strange looks at times.
Funny. My friend's wife asked me ,tongue in cheek, where is the bathroom. I told her the nearest tree.
I enjoyed loading up the truck and the Canoe head off into the wilds for 2-3 days. Cooking over an open fire.
Most of those I did not even own a tent. If a storm brewed up I'd flip the canoe, wedge it into a tree and layout bed and all the gear in the dry.
Cut firewood and brush to put on the upwind side, downwind side had a small coffee can sized fire reachable from my sleeping bag.
Nowdays I camp in a 20' R-pod 189 with couch, TV, bathroom, queen size bed.
And I really wish this covid crap would quit so I can go back to camping down south in the winter.
Arkansas and New Orleans beat the heck out of living in Fargo ND in Dec, Jan, Feb.
We are headed for the Gulf Coast when we dare to stir out and about again.
We love to camp. Rugged, no utilities. The kids enjoy it. Its about being free from the world for a few days
Growing up as a kid, we were dirt poor so camping to us was sleeping under the stars. A tent or a mattress pad was pure luxury for some of our friends who were lucky enough to have them but we could point and laugh while they lugged the extra gear around.
Camping was one of our few entertainments where we could escape the watchful eyes of our parents and learn to smoke, swear and tell dirty jokes to each other. We did it all the time. Sleeping under the stars, that is.
We had some crappy cloth sleeping bags that we picked up somewhere for a song and they were okay but lumpy most of the time. You could cut the bottom out of a plastic lawn leaf bag and then put two of them over the sleeping bag to make it "waterproof" and a whole lot warmer as it would trap your body heat very nicely.
The last time I went camping was probably 10+ years ago. Put an air mattress in the back of the truck and slept well enough, again, looking at the stars above. It wasn't bad. I remembered just how much work it is to go camping and while I don't mind the effort so much, it's very nice to get back to the creature comforts.
I still have some gear and a tent so maybe, one of these days........
--Wag--
Used to do it when the boys were in Scouts. NOT anymore. Gave all our huge collection of camping carp away years ago.
It is just like living like a homeless person. Not for me any longer.
The closest thing I will do to camping is a air conditioned bungalow in the wood with running water, sewer, electricity and all the stuff I am used to.
For me today "roughing it" is no cell service! :killingpc
It depends how old you are. I did a lot into midlife, now I wouldn’t get too excited about it, at least not sleeping on the ground as I always did, even in the snow. Now an RV with a nice very remote place to park it, might get my attention.
PS: As you get older, the more spirits you bring along, the softer the ground gets.
I love to camp for a few days, but only alone and the most desolate places I can find.
Thinking about it now, camping was simply a place to stay when we went Hunting, Fishing and Shooting.
Kinda wish I could go now, just for the peace and quiet.
Mom and Dad would "Camp" in the conversion van anywhere country music was playing. Dad passed in '08, and Mom wanted to camp at the places she had a membership with.
The swimming lake was downstream from the senior home that dumped it's sewage into. Campers and tents on small campsites, rules on fires blah blah blah.
The last time she camped was in the backyard, in the van hooked up the electric, and a great firepit and 1000's of acres of Fed Land behind us.
Dementia's made her unaware of her surroundings, but she knew camping and cooking food on the ground.
I set up my Eureka TCOP 1 vestibule , it's small but usable. I haven't camped in 7 years, unless I can count sleeping in my tree house, overlooking a trail.
Camping to me was a vw bus and a Coleman stove. Lots of cross country trips!
I camped for two weeks every summer, for 8 years. Slept in a gp medium tent, along with 9 other guys. We're visiting our Uncle Sam. We did go camping as a family, in an 18ft travel trailer, when the kids were little.
For me, camping is a way to get away from the responsibilities of life for a little while. Every winter I enjoy camping a few times for a couple/three days in the snow with my son. Not a lot of snow, just enough to cover the ground, it's about a half-mile walk to get to where we set up our tarp and build a fire. A couple of days hiking in the light covering of snow with our rifles, cooking over a fire, scrounging firewood, getting cold at night, that's all part of the fun. It doesn't matter if it rains, snows, blows, freezes, or turns the woods into a wet, drippy, soggy mess. No cell phone service? Priceless!
Worst case, if we get too miserable, we can hike another 1/2 mile to a cabin with a roof and woodstove. Haven't had to do that....yet.
At 72 and still working at a full time job 50+ hours a week, plus teaching apprenticeship classes two evenings a week, I enjoy just being out where the most important thing to worry about in the morning is how long it'll take before the fire is hot enough to brew a pot of coffee.
I'll have to see if I get tired of being in the woods overnight when I'm no longer working.
As Billy Joel sang, "when I wore a younger man’s clothes…"
God bless you. I love hearing about folks who can still do things they love like that. Disability retirement here and wish I could still work (61 now). Can't complain, I am still better off than a lot of folks, but camping with snow on the ground would totally cripple my back/neck.
Ron
I love to backpack hunt! It entails REAL camping . I have never gotten tired of it!
My gear is a little more high tech, and therefore lighter than it was 50 years ago!
I am 1 1/2 months short of 70
Bob
After age 65 your don't need to practice how to be uncomfortable anymore.
We don't get out as much as we used to, but when the kids were litttle we did it a lot. Had a 10' x 10' Eureka tent had the potty chair and a fold up play pen in it. Used to string a nylon tarp over the picnic table in case of rain.
My Dad used to tell me: Only hoboes eat outdoors. And from my Uncle (Sam) I learned to really hate camping.
About 10 years ago my wife and I would camp in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Under the stars on cots. We discovered that nobody went there in the summer because it was often 115 deg. But once the sun went below the Sierras, it was nice enough.
I still do it, just not as often. Camping when I was a kid was just a way to play in the woods, sit by a campfire as late as we wanted, see some animals that weren't often seen in the suburbs, explore a place that's never been 'civilized.'
As an adult I camped as a means to an end: I did a lot of hiking and the best way to get to the trails every morning was to sleep right out there among them.
I get antsy if I dont go camping a few times a year. Its something I enjoy no matter the weather...rain, heat, cold, snow...I just enjoy being outdoors away from things for days at a time.
It might make a difference that I grew up and live in the suburbs of Chicago. So any time I can get away from all the concrete and craziness is welcome. Im currently planning a 16 day road trip through Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that we will be camping out for half of the trip. Personally I would camp for the entire time but my girlfriend likes to spend time at a resort with a pool so we usually split up time in a tent and time in a room on trips like these.
I used to love camping with light gear sleeping on the ground next to a cooking fire. It felt great to wake up in the cool mornings feeling great, with a stiff you know what. Now that’s the only thing that isn’t stiff.