response 35 of 58:

May 24 05:23 UTC 2002

   I'm going camping for a week next month.  Since I'll be able to
drive to the campsite and then go park my car for the duration, I'm
taking some substantial stuff.  There's the 30-year-old canvas tent
my father gave me last Sunday, which I'm going to set up this weekend
to see if it's still any good.  If it is, I'll camp in it for
sentimental reasons (it's from the camping trip where I met the bear).
There's a 28'x48' tarp, black on the underside and silver on top,
which I'll be using as an enormous sunshade and place for people to
gather when it rains.  The stove is a battery-powered Sierra Zip stove,
which burns solid fuel like twigs, small sticks, pinecones, charcoal
from other people's fires, and so forth.  The stove fits inside a
one-quart pot which came with it and has some other accessories as
well.  Since I hate percolated coffee, I take along a French drip
coffee pot.  Mine is a used Revereware pot which I got from E-Bay. 
I also have a sleeping bag and self-inflating pad, though I think this
time around I may take an air mattress to sleep on, since it also
provides a convenient place to sit inside the tent.  I don't want to
go through my entire list of camping gear, so I'll stop here for the
time being.

response 37 of 58:

May 24 16:34 UTC 2002

In addition to not trying to camp in people's yards or farms within 100 miles
of Chicago, it is not a good idea to try this in a tourist area or within 50
miles of a state park (unless you are on a bike and can point out to people
that it is getting too dark to bike 50 miles).  Where we have camped is
usually some agricultural backwater such as SW Michigan or South Dakota.  In
South Dakota they asked if we were with the bunch of people on the bike tour
that went through earlier (we had a Jeep, so no) and then offered to leave
the bathroom at the only restaurant in town open all night for us and told
us we could shower at the firehouse.  We headed for the little park in the
center of town and discovered in the morning that it was the John Deere
parking lot - nobody seemed to care.  At Havana on the Mississipi (which used
to be a mecca for fisherpeople in the thirties) we asked the local police for
permission to camp in the little park on the river and they came by later to
check that we were okay and not being bothered by local kids.  When we got
100 miles south of Chicago the local police in small towns tried to steer us
to a state park.  On bikes, you can often stay in school or church yards in
the summer.   In Tennessee someone who let us camp in his yard was really
disappointed when we refused his offer to run an extension cord out to our
tent as we had nothing to plug into it.  He wondered if we had been to
Indianapolis as he had been there once.

response 39 of 58:

May 25 03:11 UTC 2002

What is PSG?

response 41 of 58:

May 25 16:25 UTC 2002

I have one of those Sierra Zip stoves too. I like it for back packing trips
when weight is a factor but, because of th soot on the pan, prefer to use
white gas or propane when car camping. I just got a Coleman white gas double
burner heavy assed car camping stove but havent used it yet. heh. I used to
have a butane stove and found that was really nice for short trips. 

response 43 of 58:

May 26 16:06 UTC 2002

Hmmm Thanks glenda, I will have to try that. 

response 45 of 58:

May 28 01:41 UTC 2002

I camp on occasion when I'm travelling, but I usually stay in
motels.  Every couple of years I have both the camping bug and
the opportunity, and I haul out the gear and I go (like I just
did).

I've camped from Michigan to Washington and down to Arizona.
I haul a car-load of stuff which includes a plastic tent with
what look like graphite fishing rods for support (I need a
bigger one), an air mattress for my aging bones, and a sleeping
bag.  Food-prep systems are nice but not essential, and a solar
shower is really nice to have in warm, sunny areas.  I prefer
camping in desert areas, because I don't like dealing with rain.

I think the worst camping story I've got is when my family was
out camping in the west and we pitched our (big, blue, canvas)
tent and I made the mistake of pitching it with the door uphill.
Then it rained, and we wound up with several inches of water in
the tent.  With our sleeping bags at the downhill end.

Essential equipment:  Enough to handle the weather and fend
off the local critters.  This varies by location and fortitude.
In some places all you may need is a bedroll.

Non-essential equipment:  I really like my $9.99 Salvation Army
fluorescent lantern and my butterfly camp chair with footrest.
Combined with my $5.00 Meijer hammock, it gives me a great
place to park myself, day or night, and read and enjoy the quiet.
When I'm not camping, the lantern's batteries power whatever 12
volt gear I've got at home that needs a noise-free power supply.
I got quite a few hours of use out of a level-shifter that way.

Slickest thing I've seen:  A tiny tent-camper trailer which
is small enough to pull behind a motorcycle, yet unfolds into
a king-sized bed and more than reasonable sitting area.  When
I get a little older and creakier I might get one of those;
it looks small enough to tow behind almost anything.

response 47 of 58:

May 28 15:38 UTC 2002

re #46: Good point on that; disposable is an asset when you're on 
vacation.  I have some of the Ziplock containers and they work fine in 
the refrigerator.  They should be fine for such things as making my own 
ice, also for consumables.

However, a half dozen Tupperware containers for 50 cents each is a good 
deal for camping, too.  They're good for all sorts of things; 
beverages, cereal, towels, anything that needs to stay dry or which 
needs to stay in one place.  They seal well, they don't crush easily, 
and they're indestructable.

response 49 of 58:

May 28 16:18 UTC 2002

The other problem with Tupperware, until recently anyway, is that you 
had to go to a Tupperware party to get it.  That made it pretty 
inaccessible to me.  Now there are Tupperware booths at malls, and I 
think they sell it inside Target stores as well.  And it *is* pretty 
widely available at rummage sales.

response 51 of 58:

May 29 02:32 UTC 2002

It is?  I didn't know that!

I have some Rubbermaid stuff; it seems much cheaper (doesn't seal as 
well, doesn't seem as sturdy) as Tupperware.

response 53 of 58:

May 29 13:21 UTC 2002

Hmmm...I should have lots of camping advice.  Did lots.  A good tent is 
essential.  Rain isn't any particular problem if you have a good 
quality tent and if you set it up correctly.  Setting it up correctly 
starts with picking the right spot.  That nice low flat spot in the 
middle of the campsite is probably where puddle appears when it rains, 
and not where you want your tent.  When their is any chance of rain, I 
always set the tent up on a plastic tarp.  When the tent is up, I fold 
the edges of the tarp under the tent so that the tarp is completely out 
of sight.  You don't want any tarp sticking out from the edges of the 
tent, because it will catch rain, the water will flow on top of the 
tarp, and you'll be sitting in a lake of water held in by the tarp.  If 
this happens your best choice is to go out and pull the tarp out from 
under the tent so the water can at least soak into the ground, but it 
won't happen if you are careful in placing the tarp.  As a second line 
of defense, I usually put a second waterproof tarp inside the tent 
covering the floor of the tent.  Rain flies need to be adjusted very 
carefully.  Nylon will stretch when wet, and you don't want the fly to 
sag so it touch the tent at any point.  This will become a leak.  
Learning to do this properly may require some practice.  Sometimes with 
a new tent, I've set it up in the backyard and hosed it down to figure 
out how it performs when wet, and how things need to be adjusted to 
make it work right.  So the whole process is a bit finicky, but set up 
right I think most any decent tent will keep you dry through days of 
rain.  I certainly did that a few times in my old REI half-dome - a 
cheap little tent whose seam waterproofing was somewhat worn out by 
then.

Camping is definately improved by some well chosen luxuries.  For car 
camping, I always bring a good pillow and a comfortable chair.  Even 
backpacking, when every ounce counts, a small luxury can make life 
better.  For example, a light pair of camp shoes isn't something you 
need - you could wear your hiking boots all the time - but after a day 
of hiking with a heavy pack in heavy boots, slipping into some light 
shoes in camp is an amazing luxury.  Part of the pleasure of 
backpacking is learning how much you can pare back the amount of stuff 
you need, but one thing you learn is that when you pare back to 
essentials, it is essential to retain a few non-essentials.

response 55 of 58:

May 29 15:53 UTC 2002

How much does the espresso make weigh and can't you sit on the mattress (I
think there is some gadget that will hold it in a folded position).

response 57 of 58:

May 29 17:12 UTC 2002

I bought some sleeping bags; don't you have to use sleeping bags for it 
to be camping?  We'll take our fold-up-in-a-bag chairs.

A lot of what we'll do is use our campsite as a base for going around 
and seeing other things in the areas where we'll be staying.  We'll 
come back at night and have a fire and roast some marshmallows (and 
occasionally cook dinner; hot dogs or tin foil dinners or whatever) and 
sleep, then get up the next morning, have breakfast, and go out 
somewhere else.