You have read my last post on what gear you need to
start camping. Now you’re ready to find a camping spot. People dream of camping
in elaborate and beautiful places. In most cases, though, you have you hike a
long ways to get that camping spot. If you are starting out and need the
experience, find a state or national park closest to you and go to the
campsite. That’s the simplest and easiest way to start out. Most sites are
pretty cheap to camp at. You can also just start in your backyard or farm.
When looking for a site, try to find one that is
flat. It may not seem like a significant slope, but when you finally lay down
to sleep, you will definitely notice it. If you just can’t avoid a slope, put
the head of your sleeping bag uphill. This will help to avoid the feeling of being upside down. You can set up near trees, but as you set up your tent, find a
spot that is free of tree roots that will dig into your back. Also, try to
clear away sticks and nuts before setting up the tent. If you are hammock
camping, you obviously need two trees to set up the hammock. Find trees that
are about 10 feet apart. That is ideal for setting up the hammock.
When you set up your tent, do so upwind of the fire.
This will keep the smoke out of the tent. You can also apply this to hammocks.
I generally face the door of tent towards the fire. However, if you are
expecting wind direction to change, face it away. If you camp in winter, face
the door downwind. If you don’t, snow could pile up on the door and when you
open it, get a tent full of snow.
All established campsites have fire rings. However,
if you’re camping in the backyard or your friend's place out in the country, you
need to make one. You can buy fire rings, or you can dig out a hole in the
ground and clear out the dead leaves from the area. If they are available, you
can put rocks around the fit pit. Don’t build an open fire where it can be seen
because some people (including police) don’t really like it.
If you are at a campsite or in the backyard, you
obviously have a restroom nearby. But if you are in the sticks, you need to set
one up. I will post later on how to make a latrine, but right now, I will give
advice and finding a spot. Make your latrine downhill from your campsite. I
have heard a lot of people say how far away it should be from the tents and
they all disagreed on how far to go. Just make sure it’s far enough away that
you won’t smell it when you’re around the fire. You want to dig a hole about a
foot deep if you can. Then you can us sticks, logs, a bucket, what ever you
want to use as a toilet. I like to also use orange flagging tape to make where
it’s at so it’s easy to find in the dark.
We have a “leave no trace” policy when hiking which
also applies to the latrine. When you are ready to leave camp, you should fill
in the hole and put a stick in the ground where it was buried so campers that
come there after you will know where your latrine was at.
When you are at the campsite, you can hang a trash
bag on a tree branch. However, when you get ready to sleep, you really need to
hang it somewhere higher. In my area, there are raccoons who love trash and bears seem
to like it as well. Try to hang it like a bear bag, about 10 feet in a tree if
possible. This will save you the trouble of having to pick up all your trash
off the ground in the morning.
If you don’t have a cooler with you or didn’t drive
to the campsite, you will want to store your food safely. As a backpacker, I
hang it in a bear bag in a tree so the animals don’t get to it. You can do the
same thing by putting your food in a medium to small sized bag and hang it
about 10 feet in the tree. You can also get bear canisters that seal and keep
the smell in and bears out. If you have a cooler, you can just store your food
in there without having to worry. Although, if you’re in bear country, make
sure it latches so the bear can’t open it and store it away from your camp. If you
drove to the campsite, your best bet is to just leave the food in the car. If you
keep it in your pack or tent, you have risk of animals and bugs invading you in
the night to get the food.
You should be pretty well set for your first camp. I
hope this post has helped and if you have any questions or anything to add,
please comment.
