What to do when it gets dark?
If you camp near a field and have access to the night sky, down load a star chart from Skymaps.com - Publication Quality Sky Maps & Star Charts
Finding the big dipper is easy and from the dipper you can locate other star groups and constellations.
Take a look at " A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson, even my wife enjoyed it.
have fun
Bob Z
I really don’t want to get into a gun debate but I laughed out loud when I read this. At first I chalked it up to cultural differences (I am Canadian) but really. I am an avid camper. I have gone on treks through the wilderness in bear country many many times with just a can of bear spray with me for protection. I really don’t think that Dung Beetle is doing any sort of extreme camping and knowledge about what to do when you see a bear to prevent an attack is much more valuable than a gun.
And as I see on preview I am not the only one.
I know…I’m such a girly-girl. Imagine my shock when I couldn’t find a hiking boot with more than a 1 1/2 inch heel! :eek:
In my opinion, a person is very vulnerable to Bad Guys when camping or hiking. That’s why I always carry a firearm on me when I’m hiking or camping. If it’s illegal to do so, I am simply discrete about it.
FYI, here’s a recent story of two women who were killed hiking:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/277413_hikers13.html
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_071306WABtrail_deathsSW.b94eeae.html
If you don’t want to carry a firearm when hiking/camping, that’s certainly your prerogative. But I am of a different mindset.
I usually go about twice a year in the spring and fall. The fall trips are always our serious pack it in/pack it out hiking trips (usually cold enough to keep the bugs to a minimum). From Chicago we go up into Northern Wisconsin or the UP of Michigan.
The last couple of trips my friends and I haven’t been bringing tents and just sleeping out in the open. If it rains we have a large tarp to make a lean-to. I absolutely love it. I can’t wait for the next trip this October.
The spring trips usually involve a couple of canoes (which can hold enough gear to make it similar to car camping). My friends fish (I don’t, but will eat the hell out of them) and we occasionally have enough to make dinner out of it. We have some absolutely great times out there.
Night entertainment usually comes in the form of night hikes (if the moon is bright enough), watching for falling stars, occasional Northern Lights, raising a tin cup to toast any and everything, staring at camp TV (campfire), jokes and the occasional song.
I keep a photo album at home with dated pics of every trip for the last ten years. It interests few, but I figure my (future) kids may someday think it’s pretty cool.
We go camping and/or hiking about once a month. Usually in the immediate area (say within 50 miles of home or less) and usually only for long 3 or 4 day weekends, although we also take longer trips out to parks like Yosemite and Kings Canyon or up in the redwoods.
We’ve done a few day hikes in the area, as well as Half Dome in Yosemite, but we’ve never hiked out to our campsite. We always drive to our site, set up tent, and then do our hike. I’d like to do a bike and hike kind of camping trip sometime. I think it would be fun.
I used to camp in high-school and in college. I gave up on it when after a few trips it seemed like the rain clouds just followed me everywhere I camped. On the last trip, I woke up one morning, stepped out of the tent, and into a river that had crested the banks during the previous night. When we pulled into a campground the next night and it started raining, we got back in the car and drove the 12 hours home.
My wife’s idea of roughing it is to stay in something 1 star lower than a full service Hilton. Needless to say, I don’t have to worry about setting camp in a rainstorm any more.
My husband did talk about long underwear and stuff, but I decided he was just insane. We live in Florida, but we’ll be driving up to North Carolina for the hike…isn’t is hot everywhere right now?
As for guns, we don’t own any…perhaps I should learn to squeal like a pig? 
I will, however, start breaking in my new boots and I liked the one-pot frozen meal idea. I also wanted to ask if it will be possible for me to wear my contact lenses? They need to be taken out and cleaned at night, but I’d really like to be able to see properly!
From your cite:
Methinks you’ve watched too many horror movies.
Yup. Just bring your contact solution and containers. But, bring backups, and maybe backup glasses.
From personal experience (many years ago) - pick out your campsite in daylight if possible, and don’t, I repeat DON’T, get really really drunk and then try to set up a tent in pitch darkness if there is a stream anywhere near.
Yes, I woke up the next morning with a screaming hangover and the corner of my tent underwater.
After I quit drinking (also many years ago) I never go into the woods unarmed (not that my paranoia level increased, guns and booze don’t go together). There’s only one in a million chance of needing it, but it only weighs a couple of pounds and you have a signaling device, defense against critters and creeps, hunting ability in case of something terrible happening, etc. BUT I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the OP isn’t likely to be the gun-toting type so probably should ask the SO if there are bears/cougars/whatever around and if he has pepper spray.
Very probable that ticks are the primary concern anyway, has anyone mentioned the ticks? No? Well, I wouldn’t worry about it - they rarely get more than 8 inches across and almost always you can fight them off without a firearm, unless they band together with a group of snipe, but a single gun wouldn’t help in that case.
Proper food placement is more important in bear country. Keep the chow out of your tent. Again, it depends on where you’re going and if the hubby has ever been outside before.
Seriously, if you’re hiking back to the campsite, good shoes and spare socks are the number one most important thing to worry about.
Well, footcare and having some idea how to get back to the car in case the ticks get your husband. Also, I try to bring a pillow (go ahead and laugh) because sleeping in a tent is uncomfortable enough without trying to wad up dirty clothes to sleep on.
I find, no matter what, my contacts sting when I put them in when I’m camping. I don’t know what it is - I clean my hands, I clean my lenses, what could be that different? But every camper I’ve asked agrees: they sting like a biotch. But that lasts 10 seconds or so and you get on with your day.
Did we mention Wet Wipes? Those are really useful. I also like facial cleansing cloths (I use Biore), because I can use them to clean my face without running water (no rinsing needed). Zits are an unfortunate side effect of camping that no one tells you about. Facial cloths reduce that problem. Again, for an overnight, it probably doesn’t matter much. I’m used to 4 day minimums, up to a month.
Oh, yeah. Ticks. ::shudder::. This is entirely unofficial, and I’ve never seen it substantiated anywhere, but my personal experience is that ticks hate rosemary essential oil. One drop and they back out quicker’n a whore at church. I don’t camp anywhere without my rosemary e.o.!
I fully acknowledge the risk of encountering bad guys while camping is very low. But that’s true most everywhere in the U.S., yet many people remained armed none-the-less.
As the old saying goes, I would rather have a gun and not need it, then not have a gun and need it.
If you don’t want to carry a gun, it’s fine by me. But I choose to carry one.
Let me add to one thing … you will definitely have less comfort when you sleep at night. Even with an air mattress and a cushy sleeping bag, it’s not the same as your comfy bed at home. BUT … don’t worry … you will sleep fine. If you do your hiking and other outdoorsy activities during the day, you will fall fast asleep at night.
And here’s a tip. I’ve camped quite a bit. One thing I always do is to end the trip with a short stay at a nice hotel. There we all “clean up” (you will accumulate your share of dirt while camping), eat well (no canned goods, preserved foods!), and relax in a nice setting before heading home. That’s a nice way to end a vacation.
We went camping in Big Bear for our honeymoon and it was actually very romantic. And we had the pure joy of seeing the ordinarily barren Death Valley alive with wildflowers last year (check out the slide show on that link – it was so spectacular).
I 2nd, 3rd & 4th everyone who’s suggested an air mattress and pillows. What I didn’t see anyone mention was to bring a first aid kit. At least bring some anticeptic, a few sizes of bandages/bandaids, some sterile gauze and a tweezer for splinters. Have a great time!
If you are backpacking, there are dozens of items that weigh much less than a gun that are far more likely to save your life. An epi-pen, extra food, a compass, an ace bandage, a Gore-Tex jacket, a fishing line, asprin, an extra liter of water, a SAM splint. I’ve been hiking for the past 30 years and there’s nothing that would cause me to carry a gun unless I was going into Grizzly country, which the Carolinas are not. While some folks feel more comfortable with a gun, statistically, you can do much better by either carrying something more useful or lightening your load. I wouldn’t give it another thought, there’s very little out there that a gun is going to help you with.
I assume this is backpacking, not car camping, right? If so, try the backpack before you head out. Pack it with everything you think you need, then pull everything out and discard half. You wont’ be changing clothes much, nor will you need multiple versions of things for just a few days. I have a set of hiking clothes and a set of camp clothes, plus insulation layers the work for both.
Make your hiking plans fairly short; this is a shakedown cruise. Hike for 4-6 hours then set up camp, that’ll make sure you can function the next day and enjoy yourselves. Drink more water than you think you need, bring bug dope and sun screen. Give yourself a few luxury food items.
Don’t forget to extinguish the lantern before having sex. Everyone outside can see what’s going on (or so we were told). :eek:
…aaaaannnnd don’t forget that your tent is made of fabric, not wood, sheetrock, and insulation. Sound carries no matter whether your lantern is off or on!
I’m at a lost as to why there’s so much controversy about my suggestion to bring a gun when camping. I mean, if you don’t want to bring one, then don’t.
But FWIW, I camp & hike a lot, and many of my friends do the same. We all carry guns when we camp/hike. We don’t even think twice about it - we just do it.
Dung Beetle, where in North Carolina will you be hiking and camping?