Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let’s hear it all.
Get some sort of 5 gallon jug that has an on off valve for water. Helps if you want to wash hands or balls
Pool Noodles - Place them like this in your canopy so they add tension to the roof. This will prevent rain water from collecting near the edge and weighing down the roof.
I always place the entrance to my tent under a canopy. This allows me to to stay dry when entering the tent. It also protects me from the sun. And I can put a rug down in front of my tent to wipe my feet.
If you are using multiple canopies, considering some canopy gutters. They are basically 1 foot by 10 feet strips of tent material that you attach between two canopies. This way you don’t have to avoid the drip-strip under two canopies.
Outdoor rugs can help to prevent the ground from becoming a muddy mess. They sell large, lightweight plastic rugs that work very well for this. They can be folded down to a portable size and are very light. They allow water to pass through, so they don’t soak it up and become heavy.
I’ve learned to not put a tarp under my tent, that just traps water between the tent and the tarp. Put a tarp down inside your tent and then put a rug (or towels) on top of that. Nice dry comfy rug in your tent.
Apparently it rains every time I go camping…
This man rain glamps
Minivans and specifically the no longer made grand caravan (the ruined the design a bit with the pacifica). For two people you can do no prep camping. Throw whatever you think you might want in the back. Get to site and backup to the firepit. Throw all the stuff you brought in the driver and passenger seat and open the back. If its raining you can sit on the rear seat facing backwards and the rear door gives you shelter. At night you can just sleep in the back of the van since everything you brought is now in the front seats. Because you can flip seats up and down and such you can sit as you like and easily get the sleeping room. Done some very low prep camping this way. On another note the minivan has about as good a mileage as you get from a non car.
If you are on a budget, camp in whatever vehicle you already own. I lived in a small car with my wife and cat for several months as we were moving. Learned a ton from “Cheap RV Living” on YouTube.
We had a solar generator with some panels, we cooked using electric skillet, had a twin bed, fairy lights use almost no power, and we had a 12v fridge. It wasn’t that bad but we eventually found a super cheap RV and live in that now.
Society has sunk to a level where living in your vehicle is acceptable as a valid housing option.
I’d say it depends heavily on the vehicle.
2 people and all their belongings in a Golf is pretty dire.
But if you’re 1 person in a proper Van set-up it can be pretty good depending on your location.
If you go for a tent, first don’t forget the tent pegs, and then it’s always comfortable having a tiny mallet to plant them, rather than using a rock or your bare hands.
Once I forgot a mallet and I drove them in with a frying pan. I never forgot them again.
We had a roofing hammer. Half hammer, half handaxe
You can also take off your shoe and use that
If the ground is super fucked and you’re car camping, an impact and some long ass lags also works a treat.
Find a -soft, dry- spot for the tent. And pound the pegs in first, then the rest of the tent goes up more easily.
Oh … and if it’s -really- cold out, put a handwarmer, or two, in the toe of the sleeping bag. (Good to well-below zero F)
Depends on the tent. Some stakes first some last. Dome tents stakes last, most everything else first
flat is a lot more important than soft
My friends and I just went camping. Instead of bringing eggs in egg cartons, put them in a Blender Bottle. Shake them up for easy scramble eggs and pour!
What is a blender bottle? but sounds cool
good tents are worth the money. The heavy canvas ones are great if not too far from a car, but too heavy to carry far.
Put your shoes in your tent at night so slugs don’t crawl in them. Camping in a national Forest is often free. Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints.
Try not to leave even footprints please. People go trailblazing way too often when there’s perfectly good trails already.
For anyone reading this thread, my best advice is to learn to identify the different types of camping in order to identify what will be useful information to you. The bushcrafter has a different objective from the van camper, who has a different objective from the ultralight backpacker.
True this. I love camping but survival type campers say my version of camping isn’t actually camping.
I’m sorry, but just because the campground has a sign out front that says “hotel” doesn’t mean I’m not camping. I’m roughing it man. I don’t even have my own pillow.
Put on some John Waters movies and load the karaoke machine with lots of Cher and Elton John.
Pack a book. Everything from hammock backpacking to week-long glamping festivals, I’ve never regretted bringing one along.
Bring as many as you can. Even on Philmont I had two.
Air mattress so you don’t regret
The most effective way to start a fire, for me, is to use fire-starting candles that Yankee Candle make.
For my first fire, I gave up caring about whether I can rough it and will use a starter log. It is so hard to get that first fire to really catch and not need constant tending. The rest of my fires I practice doing it the hard way after there’s a fresh bed of coals and half burnt wood from the previous day. Much easier to build up hot coals after that.
Gasoline.
Psychedelics and people you trust
I used to love LSD at festivals but coming down in a tent while people were still partying outside is the worst.
I couldn’t ever manage around groups of people like that or being in public for too long. The most exposed I’d be willing is likely just like floating down a river or something, plenty of people, no real reason to interact outside of a quick hello
I don’t do it much any more but one of my favourite pass times used to be taking a load of acid and then going to a very public place or somewhere that you are forced to be around lots of people and have many interactions.
Busy shopping centres, a zoo, busy pubs, an ex girlfriends family wedding where I knew no one. I guess it was kind of masochistic in a way but I just really enjoyed putting myself into challenging situations whilst tripping. The challenge was always to try take the highest dose possible and still be able to actually keep my shit together. I’m sure plenty of people I interacted with at those times thought “this guy is blasted out of his mind, Jesus” but who gives a fuck, I’m never seeing these people again and it actually made me want to speak to people in the first place.
These days I prefer to just lay down, listen to music and drift off into the stratosphere.
When I was younger, I really wanted to drop and skydive, but the older I get, the more I lean towards lay down and music.
That would be pretty intense and fucking awesome but yeh these days I dunno if I could be bothered.
Be prepared
Counter argument: be unprepared and ready to improvise. I swear half the fun is just zip-tieing random stuff together late at night in the light of your phone torch.
Which you can’t do without zip ties
Hah, is that a challenge?! Because I will totally try, fail, and proceed to tell myself that tarps are overrated anyway.
