Annual Family Camping Trip – Preparation

Minimal camping gear : Backpacking

You’d think I’d be smart enough to develop a camping gear list and keep it. Then I could refer back to it time after time. I have taken a try at using Evernote™ to keep lists, and it helps. Whatever we do to keep a list, it seems to fall to my wife to gather gear during the week.

Our Camp

What kind of gear do we need? The list starts with the basics, but before you know it, everything seems necessary and the truck fills. For us, the annual June/July camping trip dates back over 40 years, to what we used to term “4^th of July Camp”. We just moved it forward a week or two lately to beat some of the heat. For most of those 40-plus years, we’ve camped at the confluence of two of the prettiest mountain streams in our neck of the woods, on private land owned by friends.

This camp is perfect for lazing about, while the younger crowd can catch wild native trout, explore groves of fir and aspen, play hide and seek, or whatever suits them. We had a tree-shaded camp just upstream, but the beavers drowned out that good old camping spot. Now we throw up our sunshades downstream a few hundred yards. Not quite as good, but still heaven on earth.

The Message

Why don’t you consider starting a similar family tradition? Do you have public or private land within a few hours’ travel of home? Maybe a river runs through it, or at least a mountain stream like ours? This is an opportunity to teach your children about camping and being a little more self-sufficient. Maybe by helping with camp chores. Tasks like firewood collection, marshmallow stick procurement, gutting a panful of fresh-caught fish, digging worms for fishing if that is your way, pitching and taking down camp, tending the campfire, or just waiting on dad, hand and foot!

You have the opportunity when in camp to provide daily adventures. Some examples might include

• a fishing expedition to a nearby stream or lake;
• a mountain-biking loop or trip;
• going on a half-day river rafting trip;
• hiking, maybe to a local lake or hot springs or other attraction; or
• just birdwatching.

It doesn’t really matter, but often it is nice to include a few featured events like that. This avoids just sitting about and keeps some adventure and anticipation in the trip. Other times, maybe it is just what the doctor ordered to sit and read a good book, or just relax in idle conversation. Really, once you are there, the opportunities are pretty well boundless.

The best part is just being THERE with family and friends. Consider leaving your cell phones at home, or even going somewhere where cell service isn’t available. If you must check your email or texts, try to isolate it to once per day. Facebooking or texting while you are camping is the actual definition of LAME. Look it up. It is there.

Our Camping Preparation

Back to our story. We have all of our gear assembled in the living room, and we’ve decided on our menu. We have limited our camping trip to Friday through Sunday this time, as this will be enough to decompress and still not so much as to thin out our crew due to work schedules and such. Our camp is a two hour drive from home, and our daughter will drive three hours from another state to meet us there.

This year we are missing our son, who couldn’t easily get the time off from work. Truly a bummer. He is almost six hours from camp on the other side of our state and needs a block of time. We will find another adventure later in the year to share with him. We’ve opted to leave the 4-wheeler home. Although it is convenient for starting hikes and fishing along our stream, I worry too much about someone getting hurt on it, so she stays behind (again).

It is amazing how such a short list of gear has trouble fitting into our truck. What do you need, after all? Clothing, food, and shelter is about it, but trust me, it adds up. I always start with drinks, food, and ice. The goal is to bring home very little of each, but to not run out of any. If you have unlimited space, then better to overdo it; however, you can only eat and drink so much in x number of days, so do a little math and then just add a little for safety’s sake.

It goes this way for everything. Try to take only what you need and you are pretty sure you will use. Don’t be waylaid by unrealistic expectations. You can’t do everything in three days. Do not overfill your days with planned activities; rather, stick with the few things you really want to do and be prepared only for those.

Loading Up

So, we have all of our gear in a pile, the grocery list is done, the meal planning is done, and we’ve figured out what we need. Time to head to the store and get our food, drinks, and ice and begin loading. The plans are set. Time to execute.

As with other trips, we’ve found the easy way. We cheat. Instead of fitting everything into one truck, we take two. My rationale is to provide for a second truck that we could thrash on grown-in roads if we want to go on an adventure. It rarely works out that way, but it is nice to have a commuter once you are there. It definitely replaces the 4-wheeler as a shuttle to drop fishermen along the creek as needed.

Finally, we are done and loaded. Nothing left to do now but hop into the trucks and sally forth. It seems everyone’s schedules aligned very well. We plan to meet at a friend’s house near the access road to camp, so my daughter can get there in her car. Nothing to do now but go camping. Part II coming soon…