Turbo E's camping tips for n00bs

[Psykopathik]

so you wanna go camping but have no clue what to do.

*note this is for beginner camping at an actual site, not hike into the woods, hardcore stuff*

here are some tips i have learned and use.

1. be prepared. weather changes quickly. be ready for cold and rain. bring tarps for extra waterproofing of your tent.
2. buy a decent propane camping stove, one with a flat cooking area/bbq and a stove top for frying pans and kettles.
3. bring a battery pack or car battery for power needs.
4. bring a first aid kit. shit happens, trust me. i had to drive a severely bleeding friend over an hour to the closest hospital. no cell reception, no ambulance.
5. keep your food away from your sleeping area. you're in the forest, not downtown. there are bears and shit out there, i've seen em. Same with your eating area, keep it CLEAN.
6. bring your own firewood if you have room. this is almost the most expensive thing about camping after your gear and tents.
7. don't party like its 1999. be considerate of familys and children nearby.
8. the Dollar store is your friend. you can find lots of stuff there for cheap.
9. bug spray. use it.
10. you may have to leave your site un attended sometimes. don't bring your LV bags or anything else you can't afford to lose.
11. reserve a site (or get up real fking early). nothing sucks more than getting all your shit together, driving out to the campgrounds, only to find they are all full.
12. DON'T DRINK DIRECTLY FROM RIVERS OR LAKES, boil all water before consuming.

Picking out gear and supplies: you will need

-sleeping bags, pick one thats rated for the temperatures you expect to encounter at NIGHT. one time in summer the thermometer showed -2 at manning park. warmer is better. a rating of -10 rating is warmer than +5. I always bring extra blankets. bring a pillow too.

-a tent. consider how many people will share a tent. if you're a couple get a tent made for 3 people. why? when the tent packaging says "fits 3 people", it means 3 people packed like fking sardines. good for warmth, bad for comfort.
something with a lot of closeable vents is good so you can adjust the interior temperature to the weather. try setting it up before you actually go camping.
smaller/cramped is warmer. too big and its freezing.

-self inflating sleeping mats.

the flat kind you can roll up when they are deflated. open the valve and air is sucked in and the mat rises, close valve. squeeze the mat and it flattens. air matresses are shit. take forever to inflate (and you need a pump) and its like a waterbed at night when you move. takes up too much space.

-2 tarps. 12' X 12' is a good size. one to cover the top of the tent for extra shade and waterproofing. one for the ground where your tent sits. the lower one keeps your tent from soaking up water when it rains and prevents condensation too.


-ropes. so you can make a shelter (with a tarp) over your eating area should it rain. tie a rope between 2 trees above your eating area. throw the tarp over it, and tie the corners down to other trees.

-a good cooler to store food. we usually buy bottled water and freeze them beforehand and use those as ice for our food. also the water is still cold as it melts. good for a cool drink. Ice packes are better than real ice, as they dont soak everything when they melt.

^excellent cooler. keeps your shit cold for up to 5 days. save $ on ice lol

-folding camping chairs. what? you were gonna sit on the ground? get the regualr ones. reclining styles are not very practical unless you wanna take a nap outside and be eaten by mosquitos. hard to get in and out of.

-camping stove - already mentioned. small and runs on small green propane bottles. trust me cooking over a campfire is a nightmare. consider how many people will be there. you may need 2 stoves to get all the food cooked in time.


-re-useable dishes/cups/cutlery/bowls etc. wash your shit. be environmentally conscious. save some $

-cookware. frypan, kettle for hot water/ pot for soup or boiling water.Spoons forks, knives, spatula, tongs, cutting board, tin foil. long skewers if you wanna roast marshmallows.

-flashlights and NEW batteries. the LED kind. run all night on very little power, also a LED lantern for wide area lighting. night in the forest is NOT like night in the city. there is almost ZERO visibility. propane lights are a big hassle.

-an AXE. no you cant chop down your own firewood. but you may need one to cut up the stuff u brought with you for kindling.

-BBQ lighters, the long kind. unless you know how to rub two sticks together real good.

-garbage bags. self explanatory

-personal hygene stuff.

-food. duh. calculate how much stuff each person may eat. 3 meals a day + snacks and drinks/water/alcohol. realisticly most people eat only 2X a day as they wake up around noon and stay up all night.

-wear shitty clothes. you're gonna get dirty. deal with it. No sense bringing your homo Ed Hardy t-shirt only to get mud all over it.

-keep warm at night for free! get a large rock and heat it up on a fire for about 30 minutes. remove from fire to cool a bit and wrap a COTTON ( NO POLYESTER or plastic) towel around it stuff it into your sleeping bag, get some ZZzzz's in comfort. use common sense. don't shove a glowing, red rock into your bed.

added by asnrsx1979
- If you do decide to use real ice, try to keep it in large ziplock bags so it doesn't soak up the food items.
- Extra rope is also good as a clothing line in case you need to dry off clothes if they've gotten soaked.
- Extra clothing, this is BC and weather can change pretty quick. Especially if you're planning a longer camping trip and not keeping up with the weather.
- A small bottle of cleaning detergent to use to was your dishes.

added by twitchyzero
purell..bring it (hand sanitizer)
glow sticks are handy too
if you got radio bring it

if you have something to add post below, i'll add it

*more to come*

[JSilver]

How early is early to be at the campsite location. I'm heading to Golden Ears Gold Creek and I was thinking possibly leaving Vancouver by 6am and getting there around 7am. Would that be enough time? Lol.

Also, where would you find these self inflating sleeping mats. I see a lot of the inflating air mattresses at Canadian Tire and what not.

Thanks.

[syee]

Originally Posted by JSilver

Also, where would you find these self inflating sleeping mats. I see a lot of the inflating air mattresses at Canadian Tire and what not.

Thanks.

I think TurboE's talking about these.

I've seen them at Coast Mountain Sports and MEC. They're also referred to as sleeping pads. I have one I bought from REI a while back and it's super comfy.

[winson604]

Good call on the rope. I'm going next week and when I told my friends we need to bring rope they were all like wdf what for?

[hal0g0dv2]

nice
tips
thanks

[aznrsx1979]

A couple other things to add to Turbo E's informative post.

- If you do decide to use real ice, try to keep it in large ziplock bags so it doesn't soak up the food items.
- Extra rope is also good as a clothing line in case you need to dry off clothes if they've gotten soaked.
- Extra clothing, this is BC and weather can change pretty quick. Especially if you're planning a longer camping trip and not keeping up with the weather.
- A small bottle of cleaning detergent to use to was your dishes.

[billboa]

You have some great tips there, thats quite a bit of stuff, I guess thats wat u would want to be if your to close to your car. But when I got camping it normally involves a good 2-5 hour hike to the spot, so bringing a bbq or a big cooler is out of the question. I bring food that I can just eat, or cook on the campfire. I do bring a small pot to boil water over the fire for soup etc.... It's a huge deal to make sure u either bring enough water from home or have a water source where u are goin. Generally if its a fast river and looks pretty clean ill drink from it, if its from a lake(ew) or a slower or not %100 clean looking river then, ill strain it through a t-shirt first then boil it. One more thing when you set up ur sleeping arangments make sure u are sleeping on a sleeping mat, blanket, sleeping bag etc....because if you just lay on the ground of the tent, at night time when the temps drop, the ground will actually suck the heat out of you and make your night gonna go real real bad.

[aznrsx1979]

If you're really roughing it and you're worried about the water source, you can get water purification tablets to eliminate some of the bacteria. Depending on the tablet, they're good for a certain amount of water.

[Stevie P]

Good call on the frozen water bottles, definitely going to use that one.

[!SG]

those are iodine tablets. you can also purchase a small water filter pump. use it with the iodine tablets and u can feel a lot more sure of the water source ur drinking from.

Originally Posted by aznrsx1979

If you're really roughing it and you're worried about the water source, you can get water purification tablets to eliminate some of the bacteria. Depending on the tablet, they're good for a certain amount of water.

[twitchyzero]

purell..bring it
glow sticks are handy too
if you got radio bring it

[winson604]

God damn it I hope with these few days of rain they lift the damn fire ban. What's camping without fire. It's like going clubbing with an alchol ban. OK maybe nto quite but you catch my drift.

[billboa]

where do u check if there is a fireban in ur area?

[winson604]

Originally Posted by billboa

where do u check if there is a fireban in ur area?

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/campfire_bans.html

edit: I remember seeing Golden Ears, Cultus Lake and a bunch of other local sites as having bans at the above link last week. I just called and confirmed that the fire ban has been lifted. Perfect since i'm going this Sunday, I was totally bummed out about it for a week. Woot!

[woob]

I've found it's useful to learn common knots just to make things easier when tying shit to trees and poles and stakes, but also for easier removal at the end of the trip - it sucks securing something down, but then spending 2 hours trying to undo the knot you tied.

- bowline knot
- trucker's hitch

are the two my dad and I have used a lot over the years.



and +1 on tarps.