So you want to go camping, but you aren’t sure where to start. Start with the basic needs a human being has: Food, water, shelter, and heat.
You need a tent.
Depending on your budget, tents range from $20 to over $1000. Some of my favorite memories were in a $30 tent from Kmart. I go into detail about what we look for in a tent on the “Tents” page.
You need food.
The more you camp, the more elaborate your food list will get. The basics for us are fruit, granola bars, hot dogs, chicken, potatoes, cans of soup, and snacks. We have a comprehensive food list that we use every time we go, but this is the basics.
You need a cooler.
A cooler with ice is imperative for camping. You can find the ones we use here and read about why we love them here. We make our own block ice by freezing water in plastic containers for a few weeks before we leave. I hate paying for ice, it seems like such a waste of money. We have two coolers; one for drinks and one for cold food. The block ice is great for the food, and ice cubes are great for bottled drinks. A cooler full of ice keeps your food cold for about 5 days, after that we usually have to add more ice. Try to find a cooler that has a drain, so you can drain the water out as it melts if you need to. You don’t want your open package of hot dogs floating in ice water.
You need a sleeping bag.
Check the temperature rating on the sleeping bag you are looking at. If it’s rated for 45 degrees, for example, it won’t be warm enough if you are camping in the fall and the nights slip down to 30. On the other side, if you are camping in the summer you don’t want a bag rated for -20 below zero. Trust me on that one. Ours are rated for 40 degrees, and I always bring extra blankets, to add to the sleeping bag for warmth or to use in the place of a sleeping bag on a hot night, but I never forget to bring the bags. Sleeping bags are generally thicker than blankets, and make great padding even if you aren’t sleeping in them. For more on sleeping bags click here.
You need a mattress or camp pad.
Why? Because if you can’t sleep at night you will hate camping. It’s as simple as that. I once tried sleeping on the ground with just a sleeping bag, and it was the most miserable night of my life. The ground has rocks and stumps, and it’s hard and bumpy, and your hip feels like it’s being crushed. You will wake up in the morning stiff, sore, and grumpy, and nobody wants that. A comfortable place to sleep isn’t necessary for survival, but it is necessary for actually liking this idea of camping. We have a couple of mattress pads like this one, and they are great for the kids. For more on mattresses click here.
You need a camp stove.
Isn’t the point of adventure camping learning to cook over an open fire? Absolutely! But trust me on this, you need a propane fueled camp stove of some sort. There are going to be nights when you can’t get the fire to light, or the wood is wet, or the wood is too smoky to cook your food on, or you are hungry and just want to eat now. A cooking fire can take hours to get down to coals, and it’s no fun to have to wait 3 hours for the food to be ready when you are hungry. Even if it’s just a stove and a can of soup, you will have food and a way to heat it. As you get more proficient at building a fire and cooking on it you will come to rely on your stove less, but even the most experienced campers are grateful for their camp stoves.
You need firewood and a way to light it.
My husband and I can both build a fire in a way that lights with a single match, but knowing how to do it is vastly different than being able to do it with damp firewood. We camped at Acadia National Park one time, and we weren’t prepared for the sea breeze that made the air and everything around us damp. The local firewood was damp even though it had been covered. We hadn’t brought our own firewood, so we were stuck trying to cook our supper over damp, smoking wood that refused to get up to temperature. The heart of your camp is your fire. It is where you will cook, where you will hang out with your loved ones, and where you will get heat on a cold night. If you don’t trust yourself not to go through an entire box of matches, be sure to have a lighter on hand. Some states have bans against carrying firewood across state lines to prevent parasites and bug invasions, so be aware of that. Be sure that the wood you buy is dry, and if you are planning to cook with it be sure it is a hard wood, like cherry or maple. Soft woods like pine are great for a camp fire but not a cooking fire, because they produce too much ash and make your food taste bad. If you aren’t sure you can start a fire consistently and really want to cheat, use these fire starters.
You need a lantern.
“I don’t need a lantern, I have a flashlight.” Trust me, you need a lantern. Our very first camping trip didn’t have a lantern, and as soon as it got dark we realized just how important it was. At camp you are in unfamiliar territory. Nothing around you is where you are used to it being. Trying to eat your supper, trying to find the fork you dropped, getting something out of the cooler, changing your clothes in your tent; they all go from fun to frustrating as soon as it gets dark if you don’t have enough light. You can use a flashlight, but the small beam of a flashlight only illuminates so much. A lantern will light the whole camp site, and later your tent. We hang a mini lantern from the top of our tent, and it’s enough to see everything we need.
So there it is, everything you need to survive in the wild for an overnight trip. Of course, this is just the basics. I have a comprehensive camping list that we use, but for a single night or your first time, this is a great start.
Go out and find your adventure!
Adventure Camping 