Arrive Three Hours Before Dark
Setting up in the dark is a skill nobody should have to develop. After a few late arrivals and one very early one, I settled on a three hour rule and a short list of what those hours are actually for.
Caleb Ortiz
Putting the Fire Out Is Part of the Evening
The last twenty minutes of a campfire are the part most people rush. Here is how I stopped rushing it, what I found in a ring the morning after, and the routine I run before I get in the tent.
The Spigot in My Head Did Not Fill My Coffee Pot
No drinking water, no store, no firewood and no cell signal, and every one of those facts was on the reservation page I scrolled past. How I learned to read an amenities list as a spec sheet.
Booked Six Months Out or Rolling In Blind
I have driven four hours to a full campground and I have also been locked into a reserved site during a storm I could have driven away from. Here is how I actually decide between booking ahead and taking my chances.
The Ground Takes More Than The Air Does
I spent two seasons buying my way toward a warmer sleeping bag when the actual problem was six inches below me. What goes between you and the dirt matters more than almost anything else you pack.
Why I Sleep In Fewer Layers Now
The night I wore every piece of clothing I brought was one of the coldest I have had. It took me a long time to understand why piling on more layers inside a sleeping bag can actively work against you.
What a Campground Sounds Like at Six
A car door at 6:10 in the morning carries farther than it has any right to. I have spent enough early hours lying still and listening that I can now tell you the order things wake up in, and which one I dread.
The Campground Was Empty in April, and I Thought That Was Luck
I booked early spring because every site was open, read the sixty-four degree high and ignored the thirty-one degree low. A cold night, a soaked tent corner, and the line of the forecast I read first now.
Dew, and Knowing When to Pack the Tent
I once packed a soaking tent at eight in the morning because we were in a hurry, then opened the bag Tuesday night and found out what a wet tent becomes. Now the whole last morning is built around one narrow window.
The Shopping Cart That Kept Me From Camping for Two Years
I closed a nine hundred dollar cart three times and put off camping for two years. My first trip ran on a borrowed tent, a kitchen chair, and about sixty dollars of new stuff, two thirds of which I bought wrong.