Does anybody go camping any more?

Holiday Inn is about as rustic as I will get any more. !0 years as a campfire girl and living in a tent for 2 months with a baby and while pregnant in the early 80’s was enough for me. NOT camping is the Four Seasons.

Yes we do, we actually just bought new gear this winter and cant wait to use it this summer. Its for memories and I am definitely going to take my children when I have them. Its great for families to bond.

I LOVE camping!! There’s just something about being out and about in nature, having the campfire smoke smell all over you, the lazy-dazy feeling about it…LOVE it!!!!

I hate all that’s involved in camping. My babe happens to be on a camping trip right now though. He loves nature :|

I have wonderful memories of camping with my ex husband. I had never camped before I met him and he introduced me to it and I loved it immediately. We camped at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach every year, which, the last I heard, was surrounded by wildfires and makes me very sad. We camped year round and my fondest memory is camping in snow on New Years Eve one year at a state park. We were the only campers there and it was beautiful.

All the time. I live so close to nice camping, that it wouldn’t make sense not to. And my friends and I real camp, too. Tents and sleeping bags are about as fancy as we get. But we do make killer breakfasts. Pancakes and eggs cooked on a cast iron skillet over the campfire. Mmm. I can’t wait til the weather gets better so we can go!

well, the weather for us this weekend was not forgiving. it was warmish but too, too windy. try pitching a tent in that! we had warm, windy, then when we had just wind at 26 mph and then cool and then rain and then 80 degrees with no wind and a 40-degree drop within minutes! tried to do s’mores, but a torrential downpour messed that up.

yeah, i’m going camping again. don’t know why.

I go camping all the time, last summer me and number of my friends went camping a few times, each time was just awesome. No distractions or loud music, just good friends, a few tents, some cold beers and hours to sit around a fire and just talk about whatever comes to our mind. Our favorite thing to do is sit around and ask things like “if you were a model of car…what would you be?” or any other crazy idea “if you were a color, fruit, constellation, company, etc etc” all the while making marshmallows and just hanging out.

@Les ; you can get in trouble talking about pancakes around here!

@adreamofautumn uh, great fluther questions actually…

hmmmmmmm…

@judi: Maybe that’s why we like campfire pancakes so much…;-)

i think to make the camping experience memorable, the weather just needs to be right. i mean, sleeping outdoors is a challenge in itself. for those who just cant bring themselves to “roughing it,” weather is everything.

@Judi curious—about to go there on the pancake link…

not me… i love nature, when there is a glass between me and nature, or when i don’t need to leave my car :s

@Judi: ok….
of farts, orgasms and pancakes. hmmmmmm. interesting angle. ok let’s get back to hot griddles, camping and, er uh, pancakes… and camping…

thought-provoking nonetheless…
i must admit.

@charliecompany34 ; Welcome to fluther :-)

@Judi funny, i feel as though i’ve been here before.

Another good memory of camping was in October and we took a few pumpkins with us. We got all the campers to help us carve pumpkins.

Camping is one of my all time favorite summer activities. :)

I love camping when it’s just a few of us in a quiet spot. I hate camping with 20+ people that play music until 5am and are so drunk that they don’t realize they are pissing 2ft away from where I am going to sleep.

@jonsblond
what’s worse? pre-teens running around the stakes and not going to sleep or loud, drunken music of neighboring campers?

@Kelly27 where do you usually camp?

@charliecompany34 I like children, so I would have to say the drunks? You can tell the kids to knock it off. The drunks ignore you then fall in the fire.

You have got to be kidding. Every campground in California is filled to capacity and reserved months in advance nearly year round. There are a few county campgrounds that people don’t know about, and even a couple of campgrounds in the National Forests that are “secret”, but for the most part, forget driving in and finding a place without a lot of planning ahead.

@YARNLADY is sequoia still as pristine as i remember it in the 70s? it is is where camping was imbued in me.

I used to go camping all over, when I was younger. But, I was never a huge fan. I like to use campers, and we didn’t always have one. Try sharing a giant tent with about 15–20 of your cousins…it’ll make you dislike camping. haha

@charliecompany34 Everything is California is dying from lack of water right now, so very, very dry. However, the old beauty still remains, and in the wilderness sections, still as glorious as ever. I’m a long time camper, and I worked for the US Forest Service in the 1970’s.

@charliecompany34 Are you in the Chicago area? You need to go camping in the “Porkies”. The Porcupine Wilderness State Park in the U.P. Of Michigan. It’s on Lake Superior, absolutely beautiful!

My dad took my sister and me camping all the time when we were young. It seemed so awesome back then. Cooking with those blue speckled pots, poking at the fire until we were too tired to poke anymore, getting all dirty and not caring… but I really dislike it anymore. I haven’t liked it since I became an adult and started going without my dad. Last summer I went camping twice with my husband and friends, and both times were miserable disasters. My dad was just so good at it. He could pitch a tent in 30 seconds, it was refreshing and not gross to swim in the river, we always had fun food to eat that my mom never would’ve let us have, fishing and canoeing made us feel like we were truly nature’s children, campgrounds weren’t like the crowded KOA sites of today… everything was more fun. It was actually, dare I say, spiritual to go camping- once upon a time. Maybe one day I’ll enjoy it again.

@ubersiren i definitely love the blue-speckled pots and pans and mugs. drank coffee from the same just today!

what is it about that blue speckle that speaks camping?

@charliecompany34 I live in Maine so there are endless places to go camping. I much prefer to go camping in more secluded places, I don’t like camping in campgrounds nearly as much.

@Kelly27 Can I come camping with you? :)

We love to camp! There really isn’t a season that dislike, well – maybe summer. We’ve camped in all conditions – not purposefully- like the weekend we spent in the tent (big ass tent) with 6 kids and 4 adults, but we kept getting these freak hail storms. We had great weather, in-between the death hail that was pouring from the skies.

We tent camp, mostly. We do slightly cheat, air mattresses are a must and I’ve been know to bring a fan…even a battery operated fan for the tent. We cook over the fire, over camp stoves, whatever works for what we are eating. We’ve created the box ovens (from a cardboard box, aluminum foil, old hangers) and baked biscuits.

We love camping!

@cak right back atchya! so do we! weather is usually a factor of course, but it just allows our family to bond and get closer. seems to be the answer these days to what makes us happy even if we need to come out our comfort zones. camping just re-establishes family structures.

@charliecompany34 ; did you do the Gary Smalley Hidden Keys to Loving Relationships Videos? he said all successful families have one thing in common. Camping. he said it was because there was always a shared crisis that brought the family closer together.

@Judi i agree. we learn a lot about us in tight isolated spaces and then we eventually fall asleep. i found out that my two youngest sons dont want raccoons to eat the spoils of tent as well as share they have attractions to teachers and even cute fifth graders.

ok, we’re normal i guess.

@charliecompany34 – It does. We do have the best time. We make it a goal to try something different (to cook) each time. Packet meals are great, probably our favorite. We bring board games, cards, and have even been know to play charades. We make up stories, do a silly thing called “thumb toe” (don’t ask) and generally spend the time hiking and laughing. It’s just good to get away from all the crap, phones, tvs, computers and all the distractions of life.

I love camping! I haven’t gotten to go in the past two or three years because my husband can’t any longer, my daughter is really busy (and gets a three-week camping fix every summer) and my son hates it (he apparently cannot survive without electricity).

But we used to go all the time. We talked about RV camping, but somehow we always enjoyed tent camping (and sometimes open air camping with a handy tarp in case of rain) so much we never bothered to go investigate RVs. I must admit that sometimes camping in mid-winter is a bit chilly, but even camping in the rain is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Nowadays about the best I get to do is sneak outside at night and sleep on the screened porch.

@Darwin – head our way, you can camp with us. :)

@cak – As soon as the dog dies and the kids leave home I will be a camping fool. Well, actually as soon as the kids leave home. The dog will be happy to go camping with me and share a tent, and won’t even grumble about the ground being hard.

@Darwin When Hubby got transferred to Santa Barbara, we stayed in a tent right on the beach for two weeks before our apartment was ready, with a teen ager, a 1/2 collie/1/2 german shepherd dog, and two cats. My son says it is one of the happiest memories of his life.

Camping sucks.

@YARNLADY – Maybe some day my son will say something like that. My daughter does recall with great fondness the two weeks we spent at Philmont some years ago. Except for the bears. She is still a bit freaked out by the bears.

Heck yea! Camping rocks! When I go it’s the real thing! No sissy RVs here. We pitch tents , cook over fires, and take baths in the river. The best places to camp are the ones that you just happen on when driving in the mountains. Once, we were driving through NM and got lost and ended up at the top of a mountain just as the sun was going down. We were looking for a certain campground and found a diff. one. It was gorgeous! The only prob. is it had no bathroom. So I got out of my tent in the middle of the night when nature called and wondered into the woods. About ten feet in, there was a heard of long horn cattle! I was so freaked out I could barely move!

@lisaj89 Your description sounds lovely, with one minor exception. Any responsible camper/steward of nature does not bathe directly in the river. We always take water out in pails or baskets and use it and then pour it somewhere on the land. Please do not pollute the river and streams.

The most amazing experience for me, coming from east coast USA is to camp in the middle of nowhere in the NT. There is 0 light pollution so you can see so many stars, it is mind boggling! We are going a little bit wimpy in our old age, now we take cots with nice foam mattresses, much more comfy than sleeping on the hard ground and easier to get up too!

Camping? In a tent? What is this thing you speak of?

Seriously though, about the most rustic I can take is a cabin. With plumbing. Electricity is not necessary to my well being… but a toilet is. :)

@augustlan ; with flushable diaper wipes?

But of course.

I love to camp. I love to get away from the spoiled/selfish eccentricities of life that is the American way. I love going to the mountains and hiking too just to see God’s country and know that my problems really aren’t that bad. To clear my head and hear that deafening silence as it envelopes you when you step not even ten feet from a highway. Its the greatest gift ever given to us, the ability to see the wonders of God and be completely emersed in His land. I have never been more thankful than the day I had a nervous breakdown and had to get away quick. So I drove to the mountains, parked at an observation point, got out, walked twenty feet from my car, inhaled and stopped crying. The moon and stars were so bright and crisp. The air was just cool enough to be chilly but warm enough to go without a coat. It was beautiful. Exactly what I needed to straighten myself out and get my head back in line. Camping/hiking/mountains period is good for the soul.

@YARNLADY : I agree that bathing in rivers is bad, but pouring the water onto the land is just as bad. You can get eco friendly soaps and shampoos though now. :)

No we don’t pollute. We jump in, get wet, jump out, soap up and then get a pail and rinse the soap. That’s what I mean by bathing in the river.

@lisaj89 ***YAY*** that’s good. thanks.

Now if we could just get the fish to stop crapping in the water !!!

@lisaj89 I’m afraid we’re gonna need pictures.

Talking about meeting wildlife while camping – my dad and I were part of a group camping along the Rio Carrao in southern Venezuela whilst making the trip to see Angel Falls.

My father woke up very early and went down to the river to perform various morning rituals. He didn’t wish to carry too many items so he wore only a towel neatly fastened about his midsection. He found a convenient path to the water and was blithely following it when Bam! He was knocked ass over teakettle into the current. Once he wiped his eyes so he could see he discovered he was face to face with an equally startled tapir, which immediately turned and swam away from him as rapidly as tapirly possible.

Thus, if you find a nice path off in the wilderness you quite possibly should check to see if it is in use by its maker before proceeding down it in your birthday suit.

Ha ha, Bob, I bet you do! Let me give you a little tip, if you ever want to see your girl au natural, go camping with her. Extreme heat + no running water+ no electricity=no pictures, thank you very much:)

@lisaj89 Hot tub > camping

I go camping all the time.. though… the manner in which I do it is involuntary.

My kids and I sleep out under the stars. I have taught then to build lean-to’s and the such if there is possible inclimat weather. We fish, trap small game and we eat what we catch or trap. They know how to make a fire without matches too. Now they are learning to tan hides and track. But most of all they are learning to respect the Mother and all of her creatures. ;)

Of course!

Our cub scout pack will be doing their big Spring camp out in two weeks. It will be tons of fun!