Non-camper here. I like hearing happy stories from people who like camping. Just don't make me go.

Camping! I used to go camping in the scouts. Haven't ever been since. Same goes for fishing. I need to get out and do it again.

Also 9x7 sounds HUUUUGE.

I'm not fond of camping. My partner enjoys it, however, and we went a few times last summer. I was very cold almost every time, and just couldn't warm up. I really like hiking, and one time we hiked to a big waterfall and ate lunch in its spray while the dogs got soaking wet.

A few times we've done a float trip down the Kenai River with his brother, fly fishing for salmon, and camping alongside the river. I had never fished with a pole before (only with a seine), and not only had zero luck, I also disliked it. Standing in the middle of the river for hours waiting for a fish to bite? No, thanks.

Tent sex is great, esp during rain.

I have camped and backpacked a lot. Not so much recently but we still have all the stuff, and go out at least once a year.

Love getting up early and making coffee (freeze dried, the good stuff) with 1/2 and 1/2 in the ice chest.

I imagine that there will be no fires allowed anywhere around there now . . .

I backpack frequently for work and fun (have been since I was 14). My last trip was to the Hetch-hetchy valley in Yosemite over memorial day weekend. It rained the entire time. I love rain and usually minimize as much weight as possible so I was mostly happy. Two of my friends, first time backpackers, were absolutely miserable. They packed everything (including the kitchen sink) despite my advice.

Most memorable trip was in Costa Rica several years ago. Same deal, lots of rain. After two days part of the group decided they were heading back. I yelled (in pouring rain), that we're going forward. They never heard that. So they went back and decided we were lost. Ooh boy, I was in a lot of trouble.

Actually, the idiots *are* allowing fires. (I've already packed the fire extinguisher, though. Don't want to be responsible for burning down the forest.)

PS: Search party found us two days later (hanging out by the river and drying wet sleeping bags). They were not pleased.

I love camping, but haven't done any for a long time, largely because of late I have neither equipment nor camping-y friends. (I do have a few campy friends, but that's different.)

I just went to take the tent out of its packaging. Some idiot before me apparently tried to open the thing with a box cutter, and it's shredded. Will now be returning it and hoping they have another in stock. I don't remember seeing others on the shelf. :( :(

Yeah, tent sex is the best.

Damn. . .I hope that they don't hassle you about this.

Hah, fire restrictions?! I'm guessing that you live in a state where it hasn't been raining non-stop for the last month. You couldn't get a tree here to burn with a flame-thrower.

Yep, I'm living in the state (and in the part of the state) where there's something like 1,500 fires currently burning. But hey! No fire restrictions! Woo hoo!

Here's a handy dandy google map of all the California fires, for those who may be traveling.

the mister and I just returned from 9 days up the side of various mountains in Telluride, Mt. Shavano, and Dolores, CO. Didn't do any fishing this trip, although lemon juice (from fresh lemons) is the be-all and end-all of fish odor.

sorry to hear about the box-cutter episode. Just a tip: from experience, trust me, a smaller tent will suddenly becomes a far, far more attractive option if (when) the weather where you are camping gets anywhere around or below 45º at night. Big tent = you WILL freeze your ass off. No, seriously.

also from experience: catch-and-release with rogue brookies on light test line/barbless hooks is real honest-to-god rodeo-style fly fishing. most of mine escaped without my having to ever touch them.

the mister blew the seals on his front fork about 2 days into a major epic Colorado Trail singletrack jaunt, so I am sorry to report that my shock pump got more action than I did.

ooh, and on reviewing rhapsodie's reply: FLOAT TRIP! 2 days ago we were kidnapped by the mister's frat brother (i am not making that up i swear to god), his partner, and nine or eleven of their closest insane outdoorsy mountain-man-and-woman friends from Dolores (which number represents roughly 50% of the town populace). so, picture sixteen adults, four kids, six dogs, 3 guitars, 2 banjos, a ukulele and an unknown but seemingly limitless quantity of beer, food and liquor in a completely random combo of rafts, tubes, kayaks, canoes, coolers, PFDs and unidentified flotational objects, all going down the West and Upper Dolores River at a flow rate of roughly 1,300 cfps. it kinda resembled Burning Man, only with boats. Every so often we'd hit rapids and the kids would fall out, the dogs would jump in, someone might spill a beer and so we'd all swim/row/float down to the next available sand bar to collect kids, dogs and random flotsam from the river, down a few (more) beers and play a tune or three.

all in all a merry fucking good old time. Can't wait to do it again.

Just wanted to say:

Hot water bottles!

Before I discovered the joy of hot water bottles I was ALWAYS freezing at 3 am, no matter what time of year it was.

You can borrow my tent if you need to. Dome tent. Sleeps 6. The usual sort of thing.

I am not by nature a camping kind of guy. I find tents ludicrously difficult to assemble and also to repack, and without an air mattress, I find camping more akin to torture.

However, I have had fun the times I've acquiesced to a camping trip, and even had the disturbing event of having my tent probed by a brown bear in the middle of the night while I was doing summer Shakespeare two years ago.

I love camping, but I also love "I love not camping."

I've never been tent camping. Always stayed in a trailer.

Thinking about doing it, since it seems to be a pretty popular thing for motorcyclists to do.

I loathe camping. I prefer to travel light and you can't do that with all the paraphenalia required to set up camp.

Also bugs - yuck. No flushable toilet - YUCK.

I love camping but I don't do it much anymore because I am one of those weirdos who think it just don't count as camping in you can drive to it. As I've gotten older I find it harder to find people who want to do that sort of thing.

That sucks about the tent.

God I Love Camping.
No freeze dried for me thanks, espresso macchiato.
Always, even canoe trips.
Oh, I have horror stories. Like mudpuppie, an ex was involved.

Thanks, doctor_negative, I hope Sinkyone stays. I Love that place. Once you've stood amongst a herd of Elk no 20' away from you, it's that kind of place. Magical.

I'm all for my 2 person pup tent, with a cotton ceiling and waterproof fly [it's a very old tent and still great]. I took it on a cross Canada motorcycle trip. Weighs, 4kg [8lbs]— it's been all over the world that tent.

Jeez, special-k, you sound like the canoe that did the same one trip on the Mississagi River in Temagami, ON. Except they ate mouldy bread and a float plane search crew was sent out to find them.

I always eat what I catch. That is the finest with a nice wine...the sun setting, the water still...a fire burning...
Rub salt in your hands if you don't care for the fish smell, I guess it's all about getting used to it.

Oh, and lfr, that sounds like great fun.

I just got back from King's Canyon National Park an hour ago. It was fun. I caught trout then later brushed a live rattlesnake out of the road. I'll try to post a picture of my rattlesnake heroism tomorrow.

NO. THERE WILL BE NO SNAKE TALES HERE. NO.

*abandons thread swiftly*

Love camping, but only get to go about three times a year now. We found a place where we intend to return to each year for the next 20 or so - one of those places where families have been coming for generations, where the kids inherit the same booking at the same site on the same week/s each year, because the only way to get a booking anywhere near Christmas is for someone to die, which is how we got a place. Seriously, someone died about a month before we happened to drop in there for a weekend and we just happened to ask in the brief moment of time that existed after the deceased persons name was wiped from the reservations and before they phoned the first person on the waiting list.

It's this place, but we don't stay in the cabins, we camp on the beachfront sites - this is the only place I have seen where unpowered tent sites are dearer than powered caravan sites, because all the absolute beach sites are unpowered. When I say beachfront, I mean literally on the beach - about five steps to the sand. We can sit under our tent awning with a drink and watch the kids play on the beach and swim in a sheltered lagoon. There are rock pools with starfish and stuff at low tide, caves to explore and shells to collect and a surf beach at high tide. There are kangaroos and possums that wander through the campground. It's heaven.

Of course, when we went there in January this year, it pissed down with rain after two days and blew a fucking gale, so we ended up dumping everything back in the car and returning home in very bad humour. Still, there's next year and the year after and the year after and the year after ...

We also like Inskip Point, which is lots of fun but much less comfortable - no water, no showers, no rubbish disposal - you have to bring everything you need and you have to take it all out again. But it is much less restrictive - last time we were there, there was a stereo war going on between a bunch of 40-somethings and a bunch of teenagers. The 40-somethings won with their generator and massive stereo system against the teenagers with their doof-doof car stereo. They had better music too. Nobody complained about the noise, which I though was way cool of everyone because it was very loud and very late. You can have fires there, which is awesome. Camping is so much better with fires.

I grew up camping with my parents and brother. I camped a bit in GirlScouts. I've slept in tents during family reunions. Teh last time I went camping was with my two boys two years ago (Mr. V WILL NOT camp. "Roughing it" for him means no chocolate on the pillow). We headed for Cape May, New Jersey. The campground held both permanant summer homes; trailers of all shapes and sizes, some of those also permanantly installed; and tents. They had a huge swimming pond, and a fantastic pool, amongst other things. But for me, the best day was when we'd gone dolphin watching, then to a water park, then came home only to find a huge thunderstorm was headed our way. I hurried back to the site, battened down the hatches with an extra, humongous tarp, and the boys and I hung out in the arcade until we were kicked out, "in case the lights went out". That ticked me off a bit, but luckily my minivan has a VCR (it's a bit old) so we watched "Ice Age" while the storm raged. I loved it. It was a great time.

LOVE camping. It's how I took a 6-week across the American west for under $1000 (in 1998). It's so relaxing, and takes you into beautiful, outlying, peaceful spots you'd never otherwise discover.

I did the whole Boy Scout thing as a kid, but prefer luxe camping these days. We go once or twice a year. In the past, we had some friends who put together a large group trip, complete with a tubing excursion, but recently we've found a bunch of hippies to camp with.

We take everything-- a huge cooler packed with frozen spaghetti and sauce, our french press, stove, folding table, a huge tent and screen house. We've always used an air matress, but this this year we actually packed a futon to sleep on--luxury!

I've camped across country, from Santa Barbara to Atlanta, and I took my daughter camping when she was 17 days old, and again from her 5th to 7th weeks, from Atlanta to Quebec.

Hey Mudpuppie. I thought you'd be back by now! I loooove camping. Always camp with friends (easier to split up responsibilities and food), but my most memorable trip was up here in the Sierra Nevadas when I decided to do a 3 day solo camping trip. Totally primitive, no bathrooms, no showers, no water, no fires. It was on a beautiful little lake with only 9 camping spots. What I loved about it - free! dogs allowed! Gorgeous views everywhere! Loved doing what I wanted to do - nap / swim / pig out / read / hike with dog. What I didn't like about it - high summer, so no fires allowed. That just seemed to defeat half the reason of camping. I just loves me a seared steak over an open fire. However, that trip started my irrational fear of being eaten alive by bears while sleeping in my tent. But I've been camping for decades and I'm still alive! Next on my agenda... I'm going to Burning Man for the first time this August. Wheee doggies.

Camping and fishing are awesome; we don't do enough of either one.

- Tent size - must be able to stand in the middle. We have a six person tent for the two of us (this'll be really good for when we take the dog on her first camping trip). Gotta have room for the cooler and baggage and the ...

- Air mattress - big must. In spite of all my personal padding, lying on the ground with nothing but a tarp and a sleeping bag between me and the rocks just ain't happening.

- Good sleeping bags. Ours are rated for -0- Farenheit. We usually have them open with one on the bottom and using the second for a blanket. We also have good pillows. A sheet and/or a light blanket is good for warmer nights when the top sleeping bag is too warm.

- Chairs - those fold-up/squish-up camping chairs are great.

- Baby wipes are awesome especially if you're camping without running water. They're great for keeping your hands (and other bits) clean. There are adult "personal cleanliness cloths" available now but I've never used them.

- Fly fishing (and regular trout fishing) is great fun. We do mostly catch and release. Barbless hooks are teh bomb. Just have a pair of pliers to squish down any part of the hook that may still be sticking up. Don't forget to get a copy (or two) of your local fishing regulations. They'll let you know when which rivers/lakes are open and what you can and can't do on that river/lake.

rhapsodie - it's not so much waiting to catch a fish (I don't eat fish) as it is being out in the great outdoors, enjoying the river flowing by, eagles and other birds flying overhead, listening to the trees. I don't have the mister's stamina and always have a camera, a chair and a book handy.