Ultimate Camping Thread

Yeah it goes from the top of GA all the way up to Maine.

 

lol im doing a section hike on the AT in a few weeks...ill try to get some pics of the fall colors

 

jelly...

 

should be im pumped....havnt decided how far im goin yet. may shoot for a 25 mile hike. its gonna be gettin chilly at night

 

yeah its been getting down to about 40 at night lately. gonna be colder on the mountain!

 

I KNOW!!!! i cant wait. im also going to missouri to do some camping in te ozarks

 

I'm planning on doing the AT a year or two after I graduate. My grandpa gave me AWOL on the Appalacian Trail last Christmas which gave me the idea. Really good book btw

 

hmmm ill check it out. I got a long day on thursday and been lookin for a book thats gonna keep me occupied

 

the ozarks sound pretty cool too. shit.. there are so many places I want to go. lol

I will have to check that out as well.

 

My roommate went to the Ozarks a couple weeks ago (just driving, not camping)and said they were pretty sweet. We're from flatland though, so anything over 30 feet is cool to us.

I want to go somewhere over winter break...just have to find some kind of income. I'm actually thinking about making beer can alcohol stoves and selling them somehow for 5 or 10 bucks. With all the beer we go through I could make a ton...

 

ya for me anything over 4k feet is amazing hahaha

 

Went out to colorado for the first time last fall. It made my mountains look stupid.

 

x2 lol. I was up in Steamboat Springs at about 11k ft. I have a new respect for anyone who plays sports out there. lol

 

3 years ago in tahoe
the bathroom was on the first floor and a few of us had to sleep in the loft..long story short walking up 2 flights got old quick we started peeing out the window

 

I went to the local Horizons Unlimited Traveler's meeting in Cambria. It's mostly motorcycle folks who go around the world (RTW). Either in one fell swoop or a bunch of different segments. However, there are things that are relevant for all campers.

Only a few seem to stay in hotels/hostels with most choosing to camp instead. There are presentations on a lot of different things like cooking, packing and otherwise "minimizing" for the journey.

I picked up a couple of new things. The first was pretty easy and that is to pack the tent in a dry sack instead of the bag it came in. Backpacking or car camping, this probably isn't necessary. But on a motorcycle, it lets you pack the tent on top of a pannier or against another bag without fear of it getting wet. The flip side benefit is when you have to pack a wet or damp tent, you can keep the rest of your stuff dry.

Using dry bags for clothes and other compressible items lets you really squeeze the air out of these items. I repacked all the stuff I took into dry bags and it made a huge difference and I thought I was a pretty efficient packer too. Of course, this means your clothes will be wrinkled but there are ways around that

Some of the cooking stuff focused on uses spices and non-traditional freeze dried foods to make meals more interesting. Tasty Bites was one brand people suggested. You can get Tasty Bites on Amazon too.

As with backpacking, the preferable clothing material is silk or synthetic using layers. Motorcyclists often rely on electric clothing for staying warm on the bike and have waterproofing built into their riding gear so the rest of it really doesn't apply but the remainder is similar enough to what you'd take backpacking. For most clothing items, you bring two and wear one that makes it easier on the laundry.

I pack almost all my gear into a Giant Loop Great Basin bag that's "U" shaped with the legs of the "U" fastening to the passenger pegs and the bag via a strap to a luggage rack on the bike. I currently pack my "house" into an Ortlieb dry bag that goes on the luggage rack. By house, I mean tent, sleeping bag and pad.

Hope that's helpful!

 

Thanks! Definitely helpful for almost every camping situation. Dry bags are wonderful. I don't use them as much backpacking just because of weight and I generally only bring 1-2 extra changes of clothes that get folded up super tight. They do come in handy with the kayak on river camping trips. I can save a ton of space doing that.

 

Hey, didn't see much talk about boots. Well, maybe there is but there's 180 something pages in this thread and I'm a lazy forum's whore. Here's my alltime favorite camping/hiking boots of all time, the Vasque Wasatch GTX. Full Goretex and Vibram sole. Probably one of the most comfortable boots I've ever worn, and they stay comfortable even during the all day hikes. Completely water-proof too. Great, great boots. Whats yours?

 

How much do those weigh?

I'm not a hardcore ultralighter but I do try to minimize weight, though I do trust that they are super comfy, and worth their added weight to you.

I have little room to talk about boots though, I wear Swiss Gear hiking shoes from Target. It's one of my last upgrades I'm planning to do.

 

Vasques are really good boots.......got a pair and love them