On day 2/3 of camping light rain began to pick up. Suddenly it was pouring out and our group was getting soaked. We were slightly off to the right under a canopy when we heard the cracking. We turned around to see it falling and it wasn’t falling in our direction (thank God).

In hindsight, we should’ve inspected the trees around us better but we did notice that tree looking a little rotten/twisted. It was dumb of us to assume that it would be alright after noticing that.

Nobody was harmed and we ended up going home that night since we were spooked by the tree and we weren’t prepared for how wet it got.

Definitely would go camping again and had a blast for however long it lasted.

We live in Colorado and disperse camp 90% of the time.

Recently did a 13-mile canoe trip on the New River in Jefferson, NC. The campsite was amazing. It’s either a canoe-in (we missed it the first time lol) or a 4 mile hike in spot. Left from Zaloo’s and got dumped on for a solid 45 minutes, but other than that it was amazing. We will definitely be going again this year. If y’all can get out to western NC, we really need the tourism after the hurricane came through!

Went to Blue Mound state park for the weekend. Plan was to get there before it rained. Was only 20% chance and for maybe an hour as I continued to watch the weather before leaving work. Made a stop at the gas station and my dog locked me out. This has never happened and have now learned I should’ve set up the Subaru app on my watch to unlock my car sooner. Yay. Due to the hour delay it down poured as we approved the campground so for the first time ever I had to set up in the rain and it continued to rain the entire night. Got the tarp set up rather quickly so I had a dry space to set up the tent which was nice but challenging with the size tent I brought. It was 40 degrees at night so I needed the larger tent to use the heater. I’m still happy I went and was able to relax for a few days and disconnect from technology. Tried spam again the regular is still too salty for my taste so I’m going to try the low sodium next time. Ready for more trips!!

Went camping with the family this weekend (wife, 9 yr old daughter, and 7 yr old son). Loved everything about the campsite and area, except for the inconsiderate neighbors we had. Like most campsites, ours had a quite time policy from 10PM - 7AM. The campsite next to ours had people from at least 3 other campsites gathered there. Probably at least 10-12 people. They never really made any effort to be quiet so we weren't surprised when 10:00 rolled around and they kept going as normal. No music but just talking and laughing very loudly. Even with earplugs in, they were still going strong at midnight and keeping us up when I finally decided to go say something in not the most polite of ways. They did quiet down somewhat after that, but at that point I was so pissed I ended up getting maybe 1-2 hours of sleep. My wife and kids didn't fare much better either.

The next day, between being already being sick and now deliriously exhausted I wasn't in the most tolerant of moods to say the least, nor feeling very kindly towards our inconsiderate neighbors. As we're eating lunch, we watch them set up some stands that were about 5ft tall about 30 ft apart from each other on the gravel spot for where you would set tents up, put empty glass beer bottles on the stands then proceed to try to knock them off with a frisbee. As anyone with a few functioning braincells could see happening, it didn't take long for one of the bottles to shatter after falling on the gravel. Having cut my foot to the bone before on broken glass in a lake and not being able to walk right for months after, I'm a little touchy about people being careless with glass, so I went over said, "Are y'all fucking retarded? What are you thinking? Did you not see that happening?" (sorry for the "R" word). Not the smartest approach, but I was exhausted, feeling horrible, not thinking straight and really just seeing red at that point like I haven't in many years. One guy looked like he wanted to fight me, and the others weren't obviously happy about it either. I typically keep a pretty level head in just about every situation but that was just the perfect storm to really send me over the edge.

I did go back and apologize for that, as I did feel bad for reacting like that but man, I'm just so sick of people being completely inconsiderate of others and careless about things. The older I get the less patience I have for it. Anyone who's ever shattered glass should also know there's no way you're ever going to get every last little piece of shattered glass out of gravel. Even on a hardwood floor you need a vacuum cleaner to make sure you get up all the small pieces. Sooner or later it's going to get turned up, go through someone's tent and into them.

Been camping for 30 years. When I was younger it was all canoe trips and building small fires for a little warmth up north. Now we go mostly car camping and I haven’t built a fire in the past 6 years and don’t really miss it. The few years we were under a fire ban so we couldn’t have a fire. The last couple I just couldn’t be bothered.

Instead we have a couple of lanterns and play cards for the night.

I've noticed an uptick of this happening to me. I don't camp in campgrounds. I use forest service roads, wildlife management areas, and generally try to camp away from people and crowds. I like the feeling of solitude and being with nature.

Over the last two years. I have noticed people will drive into my spot, get out and chat me up for anywhere between 15-60 minutes. I normally at some point politely indicated I'm here to be alone and some get the clue. Lately I have had to say it two or three times each time making it more blunt. My last trip had to very firmly tell two older guys (55-60ish) to leave me alone after they chatted my ear off for 45 minutes about their new hobby of overlanding. I was trying to prep my dinner to cook, and I'm not a fan of being rude, but damn...take a hint.

I get a waive, stopping to ask a question about the area, or stopping to ask for help. Talking for more than 5-10 minutes though, pulling your car all the way into my camping spot like you're joining me. WTH?

So we went dispersed camping for 2 nights this weekend. Friday and Saturday night. Found a big campsite all to our self on Friday along a forest service road with tons of great pullouts and open spots. To our surprise it was not very busy considering the 4th of July weekend. Anyways, we had a great time Friday night and left for a hike all day Saturday. When we got back to our campsite around 5pm, an older couple was parked and setup with their tent, chairs, portable fire pit, tables etc. not 25 yards from where we were set up. They were playing music that we could hear from our campsite and I was just sort of confused. With so many open spots, why would they choose to camp so close to us? Me and my group were a little annoyed and felt our solitude was invaded, but didn’t let it affect our night. When I woke up at 7am the next morning they were packed up and gone. Were we wrong for being weirded out by this? Anyone else have similar stories? Were they wrong for camping so close to us?

I picked up a few new w/tag mil-surplus items and wanted to test them out on my most recent turkey hunt (Arizona). I've always drove in, set camp from the truck, then drove to an area and hiked out/hunted. I want to set up a pack now where I can hike in a day or two, set base camp, then grab my smaller pack to hunt from base camp.

For a tent I went with the army ICS (improved combat shelter). It's a true 4 season, 1 man tent. A bit on the heavier side at 5lbs all in.. but it's 4 season, black out interior, and has a rear vestibule for gear that can be accessed from inside the tent. With 25-35mph sustained winds and gusts north of 60mph it was rock solid even without the rear of the rain fly tied and staked out. My only complaint was that it did have some condensation around the tub floor in the morning but the temperature swings were pretty drastic with the wind at ~9,400ft. (4" full tub) Overall it performes flawlessly and is exactly what I was looking for. It's a bit heavy but it's built like a tank when compared to a lot of other backpacking tents I've seen.

The mat is a cheapo $25 roll with a built in foot pump from amazon. This will probably be replaced by something better later on and was really just a place holder. Regardless, it didn't lose air, it fits the tent well, and is surprisingly light. I had a thinnish wool blanket I laid on top of it that I'm not sure I would pack in somewhere with me or not.l as I'm sure there are lighter more water resistant options.

On top of the matt I got an army mss (modular sleep system) new w/tags. (I somehow didn't get a picture of it while I was out, sorry for that) It's a set of 3 different bags that snap into each other. The outer most bag is really just a gortex bivvy cover for the bag but is pretty much entirely wind and water proof, and in a pinch could easily get you out of the elements without having to set up the ics. The second layer is a thinner jungle weight bag. The third layer is an intermediate/cold weather bag. It also came with both a small, and large size compression bag for storage. If you drag the whole system out it's 9.5lbs (oof) but depending on time of year, being able to only take the parts I need is nice. 60% of that weight is the cold weather bag. Without that and just the other two layers it will fit in the small compression bag and come in at under 4.5lbs.

The pack I got was also new w/tags mil surplus. The marpat ilbe (improved load bearing equipment) pack. It's 4500cu in, 120lb max carry weight. I also got the marpat 3day assault pack w/ 3l wxp hydration system. This clips to the outside of the main ilbe pack and would serve as my medical and hunting pack. Both of these packs are actually made by Arc'teryx.

I have my basic medical, navigation, day hunt type equipment, but not a lot of packing oriented stuff.. like when it comes to cooking for example. (Coming from car camping a propane stove and a kitchen in a tote has been the way)

TLDR - What items would everyone consider must haves for overnight packing?

Thank you for taking the time if you got here in my post. Enjoy some pictures from my most recent outing in northern Arizona!

Had an amazing night in Wyoming County NY Carlson State Forest. Had a nice easy mile hike into camp and found a great spot. I feel so recharged. Can't wait for my next trip!

Wife was sick and wanted some time to recover so she couldn’t go on the trip.

I wasn’t sure about doing this because an almost 2 year old and an almost 6 year old is a lot of work on your own, let alone camping. We don’t even take the toddler to restaurants anymore.

But my son was excited and it was the last trip this season.

On Friday, we hit 45 minutes of traffic (on a normally hour drive) then got it hit with a tornado warning and massive downpour.

I made the call to stay at a hotel the first night. The kids loved it. Even got a continental breakfast out of it.

Next day was dry-ish so we (I) got things set up.

There was a lot of complaining and some usual crying from don’t touch that to don’t go there. But we went to a park, a lake, another park, rode scooters and ate non stop snacks.

For 5 minutes, we all sat in our camp chairs and read books.

We made it home alive, bit up from mosquitoes and a bit scraped up from adventure but we did it.

It was hard, but I’m glad we did it. Been taking these kids camping since they were both around 6 months old. I hope they’ll remember these trips.

My girlfriend and I went on a three day camping trip to a campground I’ve been going to for years. One night, around 1 a.m., we both had to use the bathroom. We got out of the tent and walked up to the campground bathrooms I went into the men’s, she went into the women’s.

I went into the first stall. There are only two stalls and one urinal in there, and I was the only person inside. I peed, came out, and she was already waiting for me. She looked at me and asked, “Are you okay?”

I said, “Yeah, why?”

She said, “I heard you vomiting in there.”

That caught me off guard. I told her I hadn’t thrown up, and at first, she thought I was lying. But then she realized I looked totally fine no red face, no watery eyes, nothing. Normally, if I’m sick like that, it shows. That’s when she started freaking out. She said she clearly heard a man coughing, gagging, and throwing up in the men’s bathroom but I was in there the whole time, and it was completely silent to me.

The bathrooms are back to back, and sound travels easily between them. You can hear people opening stalls and moving around. If someone else had been in there, she definitely would’ve heard them but I didn’t hear anything. It was dead silent for me.

Once that hit us, we both got seriously creeped out. We left the bathroom and started walking quickly back toward the tent. I kept glancing back, just from that uneasy feeling. At the time, I kind of brushed it off, but it’s stuck with me.

Then tonight a week later she brought it up again during a phone call, and I got chills all over again. I still can’t explain it. I want an answer, but… there just isn’t one.

Beautiful spot to see the sunset and sunrise in Switzerland. Little hike: 3km, 500m elevation, 1h with racket! Weather was great, no wind, dry, between -5 degree and -15 at night

So, story. Me and my friends plan a camping trip to stone hill state forest. And drive to investigate happy valley during the night. We set up camp, have a good time. Went to happy valley, got startled by quads. But when we get back to camp, we mess around in the tent. Until ≈12AM. We hear footsteps close to the tent. We pause for a bit, and they start to circle the tent. The windows were closed thankfully, but we see a finger brush the north eastern part of the tent.

We bolt outside to the machete, but nothing was there. We circle the tent, nothing. We go back in and… more circling. This repeated for ≈1 hour until it stopped. Was 13, now 14. Still can’t explain as my stepdad was watching us through his tent but saw nothing. But still heard it circle the tent.

Bad experience from a last minute camping trip with some friends this week. Since it was a last minute trip we decided to go to the Lake pleasant area since it’s close to town for all of us. Anyone familiar with this area will know what I’m talking about when I say we were camping above the lake on the blm land near the old air strip. We set up camp this past Monday the 12th everything was as usual for the area dirt bikers and target shooters all around. We enjoyed our night hanging around the campfire. Everything was going as planned until we went to bed for the night. We all experienced something similar but I’ll tell my side of the story. While sleeping in my tent I was awoken by the sound of footsteps and unfamiliar voices in our camp. I got out of my sleeping bag and unzipped my tent and didn’t see anyone around. Startled by this event I then went to check on my truck parked nearby and while checking on my truck one of my friends then got out of his tent and stated to me that he had heard the strange voices and people walking around our camp as well. Our vehicles were fine we hung out kind of standing guard at our campsite for a couple hours then decided to go back to sleep. Fast forward to Tuesday the 13th . We spent the day target shooting and 4x4ing. Wasn’t until that night that things got weird again. After going to bed for the night I was again woken up by the sound of people in my camp site. This time I could hear the intruders rummaging around our stuff. The intruders must have heard me getting out my tent because as I exited my tent I could only see a group of maybe 4 people running from our campsite. The unknown people had ended up stealing our Coleman propane grill and an ice chest as well as an axe and shovel that one of my buddies had mounted on to his roof rack of his truck.

If you plan on camping in that area anytime soon just please be careful. We’ve camped there may times and never had an issue.

Camped this weekend on friends farm in southern ohio. Weather was great.

Camping in a forest service campground last night. Was awoken at 7am by the lady next campsite over chopping wood. The entire campsite is asleep, 30 sites. This lady has an entire giant motor home (which had the generator on the entire afternoon and evening). No thought to chop the night before (when I arrived at 5pm she and her husband and dog were just chillin).

Lately, I don’t tolerate any public nuisance from boomers, I can’t any longer. So I got out of my tent, went over and said “good morning!” She said The same, and I said “are we done chopping now?” “For now I am!” I could tell she had no thought for the others around her. The chopping sound had echoed throughout the campsite.

I know we are sharing space and this type of activity can be expected at this hour but damn man, it’s 7am on a Saturday and you’re chopping wood while the entire campsite is still asleep, including your husband in that giant luxury motorhome.

Success: got everything set up before it got dark. And then had a glass of wine and cheese slices for dinner.

More success: it rained all night (still raining), and the inside of my tent is completely dry. Yay!

Also, got up to pee once in the middle of the night. Got where I needed to be successfully. AND managed to have this need BEFORE it started raining!

Rookie mistake: forgot to charge the air pump for my mattress. Solar chargers aren’t full yet. And I realized all this too late to do anything about it. So, sleeping was not so comfortable. Not terrible, but not good.

Bonus: I love the sound of rain, temperature was great for sleeping, and I had a good few hours of really good sleep. Now planning to sleep out the rain.

Hello r/camping!

​

I'm Chris.

​

Last summer, a friend and I kayaked the Inside Passage from Lund, B.C., to Skagway, Alaska. The trip took a total of 72 days and covered 1000 miles.

​

We've created a 9-part YouTube series and the final episode just came out today! All the filming, all the editing, all the planning, all the everything was done by us.

​

I'd love to take some time to connect with people interested in this journey and answer any questions you may have. Ask me anything!

​

Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E5MFcwGzyk&t=17s

Our IG: https://www.instagram.com/ffs_expedition/

and FB: https://www.facebook.com/ffsexpedition

My friend [M19] and I [M20] attempted to camp for 2 nights at Shenandoah National Park this weekend. It was gonna be a fantastic camping trip with plans for long nights of fire and days filled with mountain hiking trails. We made it through one night before disaster hit. While we planned our trip multiple days before we checked the weather and never saw anything for rain. So of course we didn’t pack anything for rain. On Friday night we were sleeping in high 60°F weather but in a tent that had been sitting in the sun with limited ventilation. It was gross, hot, and sticky, making it hard to sleep. We decided that Saturday morning we would take the rain fly off to let out the heat in order to maybe feel more comfortable for night 2. Saturday afternoons plan was to go explore the national park and after a conversation with a ranger we decided to embark on a 10 mile hike. It was an incredible hike. We saw the biggest (93foot) waterfall Shenandoah offers. We the falls around mile 7 which came with a great valley view and that’s when we heard it. Thunder. We quickly wrapped up our things and began our final push to finish the hike before the rain. We knew if we didn’t beat the storm we’d get rained out. Not because we didn’t have dry clothes and a rain fly but because there was no rain fly on the tent protecting our dry clothes. As you may have guessed we got caught hiking in the downpour and all of our gear was completely soaked. We packed it up and went home. In a few weeks we will be going back and will be prepared for anything. We learned our lesson and forever will keep our rain flys on our tents.

Hi everyone. I just took my brand new Coleman 3P Sundome camping this weekend and when I got back I noticed three little holes on the bottom corner of my tent. I was quite careful and also had a footprint setup, so I’m unsure where these little holes came from.

Perhaps a mouse? I can confirm the only “food” I had in my tent was water with lemon flavored electrolytes. Anyway, easy fix, but just want to be sure I’m taking the proper precautions next time.