Give me your first time camping advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

We’re going on our first family camping trip (including two young school age kids). I haven’t done much camping - just with friends in my teens. My SO has done camping as a kid only. This will be tent camping for us, but friends that we’re meeting up with have a pop-up. What kind of advice and tips would you give us new campers as far as…
What to bring? (I think we have it covered - most of the basics anyway. But is there something a first timer might not think of?)

What kind of food to prepare? (how much to prepare ahead of time, if any, and what would good easy things to prepare there)

Your best advice in general?

Also, if any Yoopers are reading, I’d love any inside info on seeing the U.P., eh?:smiley:

2

By “tent camping” do you actually mean “put a tent up 20 feet away from our car” camping? Because a lot of advice relies strongly on what you can carry and how far you have to carry it. If you’re car camping, it’s pretty much limitless - if you’re backpacking into a campground, you have pretty specific limits.

3

No backpacking into the woods. Camping in a big big tent out of our car. Taking two young school-age kiddos along. We’ll be at state campgrounds with fairly modern facilities.

Not very challenging camping…just haven’t done it before and want to be prepared!:wink:

4

Set up your tent in your backyard before taking it anywhere. That way you’ll know you have all the parts you need to set it up and you’ll know how to set it up. Do the same thing with all your other camping equipment. Ideally, you should camp a couple of days in your backyard before going anywhere.

5

If you are car camping. Buy those big two and three gallon zip lock bags for your cooler. They are great for dividing raw meats, lunch stuff, and snacks from each other. You can then open the cooler, pull out the “lunch” bag and it will be subdivided into smaller bags of meat, cheese, and lettuce.

Bring a lot of flashlights; LED headlamps are useful all year long if you are buying something specifically for the trip.

You can make scrambled eggs before you leave by mixing everything in a jug with a tight seal. Helps to avoid transporting eggs

6

Much easier! :slight_smile:

  1. Plenty and plenty of ice. You simply cannot have too much ice.
  2. Headlamps. Headlamps for everyone. You can get cheap ones for the little ones at Lowes/Home Depot or a sporting goods store that they can play rough with. But you’ll want to invest a few bucks into getting good ones for the adults. I recommend ones that have a strap over the top (they’re more comfortable), but it doesn’t really matter.
  3. Air mattresses. My greatest (car) camping purchase was a self-inflating air mattress - like the kind you’d use for guests when you run out of spare beds at home. Mine fits perfectly in my tent, and people get extremely jealous when they see how comfortable it is.
  4. Firewood. First, make sure you can have a fire where you’re going. If you can, you’ll probably have to bring in your own wood. And if you can, make sure you know how to start a fire. Clean out the lint trap in your dryer, and melt a bunch of candle wax over it. Best firestarter ever.
  5. Camp shoes. If you’re going to be doing any day hikes or activities, have a spare set of really comfortable shoes handy for wearing around camp.
7

The UP? Lucky you!

Bug spray. Lots of it. Also basic first aid stuff and Benadryl (or other anti-itch) cream. And those mosquito coils you burn to repel them outside. Home Despot has them.
(I just car-camped in the lower part of Michigan over the holiday weekend and the mosquitoes were fierce! It’s been a wet spring in most of Michigan.)
Freeze bottles of water solid and use those to keep stuff in coolers cool. Doubles as drinkable water, lasts much longer than bags of ice, not as messy.
Watermelons. :slight_smile:
Ditto the big zip locks for meats, cheese, etc. If you plan on grilling, put chicken parts/sausage/burgers in a bag with some sort of marinade or seasoning.
Towels, baby wipes, hand sanitizer (if you’re one that’s concerned about germs), more baby wipes…
Frisbees, horseshoes or other games, binoculars…

8

Load fast if you hear banjos.

9

:confused:

10
11

ROFL :slight_smile: I have never seen that movie. I’m still not sure how it relates to my camping trip, but quite funny.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I’m making a list as I read. Keep the tips coming.

12

Don’t take half of your house with you. You really don’t need it.

13

Yup. Make this your primary goal. I know I mentioned an air mattress earlier, and that’s pretty much the opposite of “minimalism”, but I don’t bring much else. Your biggest over-estimations will be food and clothes. Think of the trash you’ll be accumulating, and what you’ll have to do to get rid of it. Also, think of why you’re out there camping in the first place, and if 50 lbs of food and packaging sounds like fun. For clothes, I’ll just have 2-3 sets. One that will get dirty (extremely dirty), one that’s for relaxing around the campfire and sleeping in, and an emergency rain set (which is usually just a raincoat or poncho - if it rains, you’ll just head for your tent to play cards or read). Throw in an extra pair of comfy socks and you’ll be ready for anything.

Oh - and you want a tarp to put under every tent. No part of the tent should be peeking out from under the tent - it’s to protect any moisture from leaching up into the underside of the tent. If it rains and the tarp is peeking out, it’s going to divert all that rainwater directly under your butt.

14

We crack the eggs into quart sized freezer bags (usually 3 to a bag). We add the onions, cheese, peppers etc like we would for an omelet. You can make as many of these as you have breakfasts to serve. In the morning, shake the (sealed) bag vigorously to mix all the stuff, then drop it into boiling water for 15-18 minutes. Perfect omelets, with no clean up (assuming you’re using paper plates). Just in case, you can try one at home to see if you like it.

'nuther tip. We use a small tackle box (6 bucks or so at WalMart) to keep all the utensils in. You can also put matches, lantern mantles, small lighters, corkscrews etc in the top tray. Just make sure it’s large enough to hold your spatulas. It’s bug and watertight and you can leave it on the picnic table for the entire stay.

To save water: We bring a small bucket and rope with us for washing. You can tie the bucket to a tree, fill it halfway with water (and a few teaspoons of clorox), and everyone can use it to wash. This saves running a half-gallon of water over everyone’s hands each time. Purex is good for sanitation, but this system gets the grime off. We put a bar of soap in the leg of a retired pantyhose tied to the bucket handle. This way the soap can hang outside the bucket so it doesn’t dissolve. Grab soap, dip hands in bucket, scrub till clean and then dry on dishtowel (also hanging from the bucket). It’ll work for a few days before the water gets too soapy to rinse. Also, you can give each kid a dixie-cup of water for toothbrushing each night. It’s enough to brush and rinse, and it keeps them from pouring too much water out of your water jug for the task (trust me, they’ll use a gallon apiece if you don’t watch them).

For fires: I bring a small bag (smallest they make) of match-light charcoal for each night I want a fire. This way I don’t need to worry with gathering tinder and small branches to get the logs going. Just toss the bag of charcoal into the fire ring, pile the logs on top, and light. In half an hour it’ll have the logs burning nicely.

You can get small 12V inflators for your sleeping air mattresses. These are usually pretty cheap at WalMart, and by the fourth mattress you’ll be glad you brought them.

Hope your trip goes well, I’ll post if I think of anything more.

15

Go Here.

16

Great tips so far.:slight_smile:

chacoguy, we’re starting our trip right there actually. I’m looking forward to it!

17

Regarding supplies:

Since you’re at a campgrounds and there’s going to be a pop-up there, I’m going to assume there’s going to be a power hook-up. If so, make sure you bring a couple of extension cords, and maybe a power stip.

Regarding tents:

I’d recommend bringing tarps, and a good hundred feet or so of rope. Nothing sucks worse than trying to sleep in a tent that leaks when it’s raining.

Also, when setting up the tent, make sure it is put up properly. The tent roof should be taught, with minimal wrinkles so rainwater can run off the tent. If the ceiling or roof of the tent is loose or has any slack in it, that’s where water can collect. Water that collects WILL find it’s way into a tent.

If you’re in a tent when it rains and you see a “bladder” or water forming on the roof, don’t touch it from inside the tent and push it up to cause it to run off. It’ll leak for sure then. Something about surface tension of the water, and wicking action, and stretching the fibers of the tent, or something like that.

Regarding food:

Freeze bottles of water, and bring those powdered drink stick things for the kids. The frozen water will help keep your coolers cold, and they’ll melt readily enough when they’re out in the sun and you want a cool drink.

If the site does have power, do some pulled-pork in a crock pot. Boston butts are cheap, they take practically no attention to cook one all day (from frozen to done in about 8 hours), and a 6 pound butt can feed six people pulled pork sandwiches for at least two meals.

Save ketchup/mustard packets from fast food places, and bring 'em camping with you. Or grab a handful or two next time you’re at the gas station. Saves on cooler and storage space.

Misc:

Go to the Dollar Store and get some “break and shake” light sticks/necklaces for the kids. They love 'em at night when they’re roasting marshmallows.

ETA: Oh, and thanks to those who mentioned the pre-scrambled eggs trick. Don’t know why we’ve never thought of that, but we’ll be doing that in the future.

18

Camping can be a pain in the ass when it rains, even when you have an RV. Take a big tarp, several telescopic poles and tent pegs and several hundred feet of cheap poly prop rope.

You can tie the tarp to local trees, your vehicle, and to your poles with a slope, covering not only your tent but your picnic table and seating area as well. Works to keep the sun off as well.

19

My camping advice, for the first and every time:

There are freaks out there that actually* like* to do all or the vast majority of the work while camping. They are in their element, and they really get into the setup, the cooking, the cleaning, the finding of the wood, etc. Take one or more of them when you go camping, and you will find the whole trip to be easy and relaxing.

:cool:

20

Go to a convenience store and get ten packets of every condiment they have at the sandwich/ hotdog bar. That way you have a variety without having to worry about refrigeration or leftovers.