1. You can keep left overs  in it
2. It helps keep the milk cold
3. It keeps the kids occupied for hours inventing and modelling stuff

But best of all it can be used for cooking, negating the use of pots, pans and best of all washing up.

Here are a few cooking with tin foil camping recipes, backwoods style:

Cooking with Tin Foil Camping Recipes:

Meat and two Vegetables:

Dice a few of your favourite veg including the potatoes (1cm square cubes are ideal). Make an open ended pouch from tin foil, add the veg, minced or finely chopped meat, gravy or sauce granules and a dash of water.  Seal the bag and cook on an open fire or BBQ for 10 – 15 mins – test product is piping hot, grab a fork and enjoy.

Fish:

For this camping recipe place the fish in the foil with slice of lemon, salt and pepper and anything else you feel goes well with fish.  Add a little water and place on fire/BBQ until cooked.

Bananas:

Place in foil,  add sugar and drop of water or some toffee sauce and place on fire/bbq for 5 mins – yum yum.

Experiment

Experiment in using the foil pouches (our favourite is baked beans with cheese and chopped sausages). Also, get the children involved, ours love it. The best bit of all is after enjoying a hearty meal you can sit back and relax – with no washing up!

And that’s why I love cooking with tin foil! Enjoy!

Do you have any cooking with tin foil camping tips or recipes? We would love to hear about them! Please enter your suggestions in the comment box below. Thanks!

Read more on Camping Recipes.

Author: Michaela Forty

Edited By: CampTrip.com

Camping Supplies to Bring when Camping.

1. The Kettle or Flask and a very Warm Jacket

When you’re camping and it’s cold,  wet and windy, and all you want to do is get home, make a hot cup of tea and a warm jacket can do wonders to improve your mood.

2. The Warmest Sleeping Bag Possible

See the above reason, and remember, when you’re camping it can get very cold at night. So, you  might be looking snazzy in your brand new Fred Perry pajamas, but when you’re in the hospital for two weeks fighting hypothermia, you might regret the whole sexy leg thing, and wish you had the sleeping bag that was ugly and brown but very warm. Not the bright, pink one that had the flowers on it. Yeah, sure it looked cool.

3. A Strong Camping Tent

Once, I was on a camping trip, and it was WINDY. Almost like someone was literally chucking air through our tent. I am not exaggerating when saying I was scared for my life. The next morning, when I saw a couple sleeping in their sleeping bags, their tent strewn on other people’s collapsed tents, I went and bought a new, strong tent the next day.

4. Books:
Books are a great way to relax and pass time when camping. Books are interesting, fun and exciting, especially when it’s raining.

5. The Most Important Thing you could ever need for Camping – Hiking Shoes

Your feet do the walking and the hiking – wear those brand new converse’s and for starters, they will be ruined, and after that, your feet will never be the same. When your camping and out and about exploring you need some reliable, comfortable sturdy shoes. They may not look great but they will protect your feet from the weather and the rugged landscape. Don’t be a fool and choose fashion over functionality the wilderness is unforgiving. Don’t forget the fluffy socks.

Those are my 5 camping supplies to bring. If you’re looking for a complete camping checklist for you to work off of to ensure you pack everything you need for your camping trip be sure to check out the camping checklist. The camping checklist has just abut everything you could possibly need plus more to help you prepare for your camping trip.

Camping is great fun..just don’t forget the essentials!

Camping with Kids in the USA:

Long Car Rides

Traveling long hours in the car with kids needs to be entertaining or it won’t be fun for anyone.

• Before I even started out, we made a deal, we only would stop every 2 hours, we would fill up our bellies, the gas tank, and empty the bladder. I made sure we picked a rest stop that had a playground or hiking trails so we all could burn off some energy.
• I brought non-messy snacks like fruit roll ups, and cheese, and drinks that were not loaded with carbs and sugar.
• Our favorite game was to play the ABC sign game (The object of the game is to complete the alphabet first.  As you see the letters on billboards & license plates you shout out your letter and point.  Once a letter has been claimed other players cannot use the same letter.  Make the game more challenging by limiting  letters to only license plates or billboard signs).
• When we weren’t playing that; we were looking for license plates from every state. I had also purchased a simple travel trivia game about the states, so that maybe they might learn something about the states we were traveling through.

Rest Stops

When your camping with kids in the USA and you have long drives everyday it’s important to make stops so they can get out and stretch their legs and minds. I find if you don’t make stops every so often kids start to get a bit cranky. So, at every stop, I checked out the travel brochures to see what was in the area that the kids might be interested in seeing. If something got their attention, we aimed in that direction. When we were in Wisconsin, we found what was in my son’s opinions the best part of the trip. Some one had welded together a school bus and a helicopter, and gave monster truck rides through the woods were the climax would be to “crush” a car. It really doesn’t take much to make a kid happy, it’s about the new experience. They enjoyed that 15 minutes more than 5 minutes we spent at Mt. Rushmore. At the time they weren’t to impressed with Mt. Rushmore, after all it was just a bunch of carved rocks, and nothing to get the adrenalin pumping. But to humor me, I took their photo in front of the monument.

Seeing the Sites

By the end of what turned out to be about two and a half weeks, and my son’s beginning to get a bit homesick we had covered all the northern states between New York and Wyoming. We panned for gold. That was a huge success in their eyes, though I think we made a collective total of $4.00 in a half day of labor. We camped on the land of a real one armed cowboy. We saw a reenactment of a Wild West shoot out, and when one of the actors let one of my son’s hold a real old west gun, that made the day!  We rode a tram to the top of Jackson Hole and were able to see further than we ever could imagine in NY. We saw bears and moose, and swam in hot springs, and saw old faithful (another great photo op)

Take Photo’s

Two things I did during the trip that I am so glad that I thought to do was, take photos, this has helped them with their geography classes and history classes over the years. Remember Mr. Rushmore? Now they can say “HEY! I was there, and it is in South Dakota!” Through photos they remember seeing Old faithful, and the forest fires with the helicopters fighting the flames. They now watch the news and pay close attention to how much devastation those fires can cause.

Keep a Journal

The other thing I did was; every evening just as we were winding down for the night, I made them write in a journal one thing that they did that day. They use those too along with the photo albums to reminisce.
Now that the boys are older, and I ask what they liked best about that trip, they each tell me that they can’t decide on one thing, it was the experience, the whole memory.

That is what I learned after camping with kids int the USA. I hope this experience will help other families who decide to take the car, cooler and kids to hit the open road.

Author: Jill Madden

Edited By: CampTrip.com

“Vicky…Vick-k-k-y-y-y!”

“Hmm…w-h-a-t?” a small pool of drool trickled down my chin, sprung on by the events of my blissful dream.

“Just a little bit longer…” I managed to say, trying to stay focused on what seemed to be an episode from Gossip Girl. And no, I do not watch that show, I have just umm, heard about it.

“Vicky, you need to get up,” came the persisting voice of my best friend, Courtney.

Annoyed, as you can imagine, I sat up and peered one eye up at her. Her blonde curls were drenched in water and what seemed to be…mud.

“Oh my god!” I groaned, realizing what had previously been the true culprit of awakening me from my sweet dreams.

Invest in a Waterproof  Tent: Unless you Enjoy Swimming in the Morning

Rolling my eyes I put my hands on my back and felt the grainy, sticky imprint of mud. Turning around I saw that it had come through the paper thin floor of our tent. It was then that I spotted my camera bobbling up and down on the surface of a small pool of water in the corner. Picking it up, I tried to turn it on and too my utter and complete ‘horror’ the orange light would not show, regardless of how hard I pressed. Well, at least it hadn’t ruined my precious Gucci hand bag which I thankfully had put on the other side.

‘Note to self: Never bring anything with Gucci printed on it to a camping trip.’

“Well my camera’s broken.”

“Seriously?” Courtney spat. Her jaw dropped so low that at some point I thought it might fall off.

“No, Courtney, I just enjoy making up these things.”

“Just great! All our photos from the past three days, gone!”  she hissed.

As I pulled the tent zipper down, I could smell the bitter sweet smell of wet grass which tickled the tip of my nose, making me sneeze.

“How in the world can it have been raining when it’s like absolutely boiling at night?! This weather makes me so crazy!” I snapped, pulling my damp hair into a pony tail.

“This is Australia, baby!” Courtney said, with a big wide eyed grin on her face.

“I told you that we should’ve bought a waterproof tent, but you were like…”

“I know, I know…it never rains in Australia,” and at this we both started giggling like school girls.

Instead of going back to sleep we got into out bathers and went for a dip in the lake.

The Moral of the Story

So, this is what I learned from my experience: Even if you think it won’t rain during your camping trip, you should always try to buy a waterproof tent.  Always keep in mind to place your tent away from slopes or ditches and place a plastic tarp underneath it which will act as a water barrier. Or if you don’t have anything to put under your tent to protect you from the damp ground buy some yoga or camping mats to put under your sleeping bag.  This will at least keep you off the ground and prevent your sleeping bag from becoming a human sponge.  If you do all these things you’ll avoid the discomfort of mud and all the other problems that come from the joys of rain!

Enjoy your next camping trip kids!

Author: Dalila Guerreiro

Edited By: CampTrip.com

My Tips for Camping in the Lake District:

Horse Flies and Other Lovely Insects

There are a few things you should know before you go on a camping trip, wherever that trip may be. From my camping in the Lake District experience, the first aspect of camping that you should consider are those bloody insects that join you for the ride! Now, I wasn’t smart about this. I returned home 4 days later with an infection. My ankles and legs had swollen to what seemed like twice their size; huge, yellow blisters protruded out of both tree trunks; and I couldn’t even walk! I was rushed to hospital where I was bandaged like a mummy, put on a variety of pills and ordered to rest. I couldn’t walk for four weeks; the cause of all this: horse flies, that’s what!

A tip: when packing your camping equipment, ensure that you pack an appropriate amount of very strong insect repellent. If, like me, you’re often attacked by the little mites, also pack antiseptic cream, bandages and possibly a net to cover yourself with at night. I ended up with t shirts wrapped around my face. Trust me, you don’t want to be walking around like that.

Pack Light

Now, when I say pack an appropriate amount, I mean pack appropriate amount. If you’re off on an expedition where you could be walking uphill from 8am to 6pm in the windy, wet and cold weather, you don’t want to be lugging around a stupid amount of unnecessary equipment. I didn’t follow this advice either, but you should. At 5″4, carrying a huge rucksack on your back does no favours for your shoulders. Well, at any height I guess it doesn’t do much good, but especially when you’re little! You want to make this bag as light as you possibly can. Take the bare essentials. If you’re off just to camp alone then fair enough, go wild, take a guitar if you must, but otherwise you have to keep it simple.

Whilst packing my rucksack (backpack), I believed it would be a good idea to pack 3 1.5 litre bottles of water. My belief in this idea soon turned to despair. Alongside my tent, sleeping bag, food and clothes etc. I had this unnecessary amount of water. You can drink water from a moving stream or collect some from camp sites, though I would personally advise drinking from the stream! When racing alongside a 6″6 man, wearing a monster of a bag on your back and having your shoelaces undone, you will fall. It will hurt, you will look stupid and on top of this, with a great sodding bag on your back, you will not be able to get back up. The result? You will look like a turtle that’s fallen on its back. The moral of the story, the lighter the better!

Cows

A light bag will also come up trumps when you’re running through a field of very large cows. I know cows aren’t exactly the most terrifying animal you could come across, but when there a lot of them, you don’t want to stick around. They’re pretty big.

Cous Cous

I will now turn my attention to food. When camping in the middle of nowhere (like camping in the Lake District), you’re going to struggle to pop a meal in the microwave and put your feet up whilst electricity works its magic. Everything will be cooked on a little stove that you’ll probably have to situate in the middle of a field. Foods that are a good idea: pasta, porridge and beans. Oh and let’s not forget cous cous! Cous Cous is unbelievably simple and quick to prepare which makes it great when camping. For most cous cous all you need is to add a bit of boiled water and I enjoy adding some seasoning like either an xoxo chicken stock cube or your favorite seasoning from a shaker to the boiled water before adding it to the cous cous. However long it takes you to boil water is how long it will take you to prepare cous cous, it’s almost too easy!

I have found that camping food is easier when most of your food/meals are  in a packets canned food is easy too but tins are heavy if you are backpacking! Foods that are a bad idea: meat, eggs and bread. I say eggs and bread because they will get squashed or smashed and we don’t want that now do we? You will have to pack a pan or two and a little gas stove and everything will be cooked on here. In my experience, powdered milk is the one that you want. It can be used for oatmeal, hot chocolate, tea and coffee. These drinks will save you. Trust me.

Baby Wipes

I have saved my best tip until last: baby wipes! Use them for your face, hands, feet, armpits, bum, wherever you want! You will need them. Camping in the Lake District does tend to get wet and slightly muddy. You will be thankful you brought them along. In most camp sites, showers have definitely seen better days and, if you’re like me, you might think you’d be cleaner avoiding them than getting in them, so do what I do and have a quick ‘baby wipe shower’. It can be a little bit of a pain stumbling around naked in your tent, but you’ll be fresh as a daisy (ish) when you crawl out. They’ll also come in handy when you sink in mud. That doesn’t only happen to me. I hope.

So, there you have it. As long as you don’t mind rolling in the mud and dining with sheep, you’ll have a lot of fun, I promise. Oh and don’t forget your torch (flashlight)! Happy camping.

Author: Maria Holden

Edited By: CampTrip.com

Essentials when Hiking:

Communication

Study the area you are camping, speak to locals if you’re unfamiliar with it – get authorization if needed.  Map your route and give someone reliable a copy with your timetable. Take a GPS cell-phone but remember, wilderness signal-strength will vary.

Clothing

Use light, modern, breathable, fabrics with lots of layers and appropriate footwear with at least one change.

Camping  Kit

A good compass, especially if you’re heading for the hills – disorientation is easy and can be fatal. Use a light, modern tent – easier to carry and quick and easy to erect – important if the weather turns. Modern camp cookware and pre-packed food – nutrition is essential for stamina and well-being

Caution

Stick to your route and timetable – don’t wander off, if you break a leg, who will find you? If they do find you you’ll feel stupid. Avoid risks – test water-depth with a stick before trying to cross it.  ‘Still’ water may have undertows. Also remember that the water can be very cold, even in summer

Those are my four essentials when hiking! Enjoy the adventure!

Read more on Tips and Info for Hiking.

Author: Michael Reilly

Edited By: CampTrip.com

Making a Campfire

The Colonial Woodsmen knew that they could survive as long as they had their skinning knife and their fire making kit. “Injuns” may run off with your shootin’ arn, but the knife, flint, and steel were the necessities.

The fire kit should contain everything necessary for you to become an expert at making campfire with flint and steel, and makin’ char cloth. Remember, practice makes perfect.

Campfire Kit Contents (Kit Contents Should be 1 each)

• Fire Steel Striker
• Flint Chard
• Char Cloth Tin w/char cloth
• Tinder Bundle.

These items can be purchased from many of the dealers involved with the Historical Reenacting participants or maybe even obtained from around your house.

Making the Char Cloth for the Campfire

Char cloth is made by cooking 100% cotton or linen cloth, in a tin (which can be made from candy tins or shoe polish tins). Drill a small hole in the side of the lid where it fits on the tin.  Place small pieces of the cloth in the tin. Align the holes in the lid and the bottom of the tin. Place this into the edge of a fire to heat the can until smoke emerges from the hole.  When the smoking stops, remove the tin from the fire and allow it to cool.  After it is cool open the can and remove the char cloth.

Using the Char Cloth

The most important part of making a camp fire by flint and steel is to have good char. Tear a small portion off one corner of the square of char. Place the remaining piece of char into the middle of the bird’s nest. Place the small portion of char on the edge of the flint chard and hold it in place with your thumb.

Preparing the Bird’s Nest

Using one 6″ piece of jute rope, separate the rope into 4 individual strands. Separate each strand into separate fibers.  Bunch the fibers into a ball of loose fuzz that resembles a bird’s nest.

Using the Steel to Make Sparks

Sharply hit the striker against the edge of the flint chard, creating a spark that catches into the small piece of char cloth.  The small piece of char cloth should hold a small, glowing red spot that is created by the spark.  Drop the small piece of char into the bird’s nest and on the larger piece of char. Carefully fold the bird’s nest around the char. Gently blow into the bird’s nest until flames appear. It is very important that you blow into the nest and do not suck it in – we’re building a fire, not smokin’ rope!

Alternate Materials for Making a Campfire:

Char Cloth

Any 100% cotton or linen cloth. blue jean, flannel shirts or old bath towels  will work just fine.  NO SYNTHETIC MATERIALS.

Tinder

Sisal rope, jute macrame rope, birch bark, dried leaves of most kind, dried inner poplar bark, dried swamp grass, dried cedar bark.  Shred the bark up fine. Wad the leaves up into a ball.

Other Chars

Horse huff fungus – found on the side of birch trees. Cut them into 1/8” to 1/4” slices and char in the tin like the cloth.  Dried punk wood – oak, maple, birch – all work fine. Slice in 1/8” to 1/4″.

So, now you can try making a campfire the “old school” way. It’s always fun when you can create fire from something other than a match or lighter. Perfect for all pyromaniacs!

Author: Richard Smiley

Edited by: CampTrip.com

Think campfire.

Think toasted marshmallows.

Think ghost stories.

These are some of the best-loved images associated with camping, and for very good reason. My own personal favourite is the ghost story, told with such contagious enthusiasm when we are young and camping with friends, torches held under our faces for effect, imaginations racing. There is no better place for the ghost story than in the woods themselves, where the shadows cast by the campfire twist and dance against the trees. And for children there is nothing more thrilling. Sticky mouths filled with molten marshmallows fall open in disbelief as the storytellers weave their magic.

Ghost Stories for Camping

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best campfire ghost stories are the oldies, the ones we’ve all heard once or twice before, about ghost trains, sinister dolls that come alive at night, monsters under the bed. It’s also worth reading a few before a camping trip to get some ideas going – there are plenty of good ghost stories on the internet and also whole books dedicated to the art of the campfire ghost story. Then, of course, there are the spur-of-the-moment ghost tales, often with people around the campfire featured as the characters. The personalized stories certainly do have their charm, though they often inspire more laughter than screams, and their plots tend to meander uncontrollably.

Ghost stories around the fire remain a typical and well-loved camping activity. So much so that many horror films are based around camping, where the stories become reality – think ‘Friday the 13th’, ‘Blair Witch Project’ and the less famous ‘Campfire Tales’. Clearly, the fireside ghost story is still something that can inspire and spark the imagination, to a degree that they are ingrained in Western culture. While the tents evolve and the gadgets are updated, the macabre tales shared around the campfire remain largely unchanged, pleasing generation after generation.

Here are some Great Campfire Story Books Perfect for Camping

If you have any Ghost Stories you would like to share please feel free to enter them in the comment box below.

Author: Eleanor Dobson

Edited by: CampTrip.com

Camping Supplies for Music Festivals:

Pillow

Firstly, pack a pillow – put it in a bin liner (garbage bag) and tie it with string to your backpack.  It won’t weigh anything and it’ll improve your life immeasurably.

Rain Boots

Secondly – in the UK at least – your Wellies (rain boots) are your friends and they need to come with you, as does the rest of your waterproof clothing.

Clothing

Thirdly – Only take a change of clothes for every other day – but clean underwear for every day!

More Essential Camping Supplies:

• Bin liners (which act as refuse bags, ground mats, rain coats and much more)
• Sun cream
• A bottle for refilling with water
• Snacks that can’t melt (like biscuits, nuts, etc.)
• Toothbrush and a towel
• Baby wipes (preferably biodegradable ones) – loads of them; they’ll clean everything, everywhere!

Nothing else is really needed when camping apart from a sense of humour and a sense of fun! Just trust me on the Baby wipes!

Happy camping!

Author: Tabitha Owens

Edited by: CampTrip.com

Overview of Camping Tents:

• Family Camping Tent (ie: summer camping tents or canopy tents)
• Cabin/Canvas Tent
• Three Season Tent (ie: tunnel or hoop tents; tarp tents) (recommended for recreational)
• Four Season Tent
• Mountaineering Tent
• Backpacking Tent (ie: bivy sacks or shelters; camping hammock or sleep screen)
• Dome Tent
• Convertible Tent
• Single-Wall Tent
• Screen Tent

Family Camping Tents

Family camping tents are made for just that – a family.  Therefore, they are often the largest tent types, intended for larger groups (4 people or more).  As most family camping is done in the summer-time, such tents should be designed for effective ventilation and made of lightweight fabric.  Look for mesh doors and windows as these features allow air to circulate (it can get pretty stuffy inside a tent in the summer heat). In a group of people, it doesn’t take long to feel cramped. If your family primarily stays at a campground while camping, the weight of your tent shouldn’t be a main concern.  Therefore, extra space found in larger family tents is a good idea.  Most offer 1-3 rooms for sleeping or storage of equipment; obviously, the more room, the more privacy. Family camping tents are also taller, ranging from about 6-8+ feet at the peak (in the middle of the tent).  There are a lot of cheap options in this category, but purchase with caution; many are cheaply made. If you are travelling with a family (complete with children), remember that likely the tent will be subjected to constant – and sometimes ungentle – traffic. Cheap tents are often more difficult to maintain and you may start to find them more of a hassle than a bargain.

Cabin Tents

Cabin tents are big.  Like the typical family camping tent, many have multiple rooms, with high ceilings and large windows. Some are so roomy, in fact, that they can hold large items like a picnic table or wood stove.  Cabin tents are based on frames and quite durable. For this reason, they are heavy (35-160+ pounds), unwieldy, take a while to dry, and take around an hour for experienced campers to set up. However, if size and weight are not issues (and if you think you’ve got what it takes to pitch one) a quality cabin tent may be a great option.

Three-Season Tents

Three-season tents are good, general purpose tents. Most camping situations (unless you plan to camp in serious winter weather) generally require a three-season tent. They are designed perfectly for spring, summer, and fall. This means that they provide adequate protection in all weather conditions except in extreme snowfall or wind; the tent’s poles are not designed to support the weight of snow.  Although the three-season tent is heavier than, say, a family or cabin tent, they are less expensive, lighter (4-10 pounds) and more compact (3-5 feet tall at peak).  For these reasons, and for their seasonal versatility, this type of tent is popular with backpackers, hikers, cyclists and paddlers; they are just as great for recreational camping, too. Such tents offer excellent ventilation. Many have more open and zipped panels, as well as mesh inner bodies which help to greatly reduce condensation. Without a fly, the three-season becomes cooler – while still remaining bug-proof – on hot nights. Some types of three-season tents include tarp tents (minimalist shelter helps keep rain off of you and your sleeping bag, but bottoms are open); tunnel/hoop tents (narrow in shape, light due to less poles and fabrics, but not too strong).

Four-Season Tents

Four-season tents include winter camping. If you plan to camp in extreme weather, a four-season tent is best. As they cover all the seasons, four-season tents are the most versatile of all tents. They are generally smaller tents, meant for 1-4 people.  Meant to protect campers in heavy weather, the four-seasons are usually more weather-proof and are made with heavier fabrics that have thick, waterproof coating. The tents are built low and have vertical or curved walls (3-5 feet tall at peak) to shed snow and large vestibules for cooking and storage. Because their flies generally reach the ground, the four-seasons are less ventilated and so more likely to have interior condensation. Although the four-seasons do have a greater weight (4-15 pounds) and pack size than the three-season tents, they are easy to use and you may find that the added versatility makes up for the extra weight. Just remember that four season tents are still not intended for the even more extreme conditions of mountaineering.

Mountaineering Tents

A mountaineering tent is sometimes called a “fifth season” camping tent.  They are designed specifically for harsh conditions (in higher altitudes, along cliffs/mountains, etc.). Designed to be as light as possible, mountaineering tents do not have the space that is found in regular-sized tents. They have lower profiles, larger and thicker aluminium poles and increased use of guy points.  Mountaineering tents are manufactured and shaped to shed snow and to remain resistant to strong winds. These are not built for comfort or recreational camping.

Backpacking Tents

For backpackers, the weight of their tent is one of the most important factors. As the tent will most likely be carried on their backs, backpackers require a tent that is lightweight while still meeting their specific needs.  This often means that size, and thus roominess, is sacrificed. Depending on the weather conditions you plan to backpack in, a three-season tent or a solid and lightweight four-season tent are suitable. Just make sure that the tent is high quality, able to withstand any rough weather you might encounter. If there are two of you backpacking, one tent should be enough between you.  However, if you have a larger group, it may be easier to bring along a few smaller tents, rather than one large, heavy and bulky one. Of course, you could always distribute the pieces of a larger tent amongst group members. Some types of backpacking tents include bivy sacks/shelters, camping hammocks, and sleep screen. Bivy sacks are small shelters (.5-3 pounds, 1.5-3.5 feet high) for minimalist campers. They are made to fit you and your tent, but little else.  Camping hammocks are combinations between hammocks and tents and extremely light. Sleep screens are also minimalist, lightweight and designed for warm weather. Mesh helps to keep the bugs away, but not rain.

Dome Tents

Dome tents are very popular. They are great as three-season or summer/family tents and less expensive than cabin tents. Though small, they are very stable (not to mention strong with aluminium poles) and offer a nice amount of headroom. Dome-shaped, dome tents are made to shed snow and rain; they resist wind well with the aid of a rain-fly. Dome tents are rather easy to put up with their free-standing design; they don’t require guy lines or tent stakes to remain upright (although they are needed to keep from blowing away!).

Convertible Tents

Convertible camping tents can convert from a four-season tent to a three-season. To do this you must remove the tent cover, a couple of the poles and open the zippered windows for ventilation.
Standard weight is usually 5-12 pounds and peak height 3.5-5 feet.

Single Wall Tents

Single wall tents are less bulky and heavy (their design doesn’t include flies making their weight closer to that of bivy sacks) than four-season tents. Single wall tents are made of waterproof, breathable material which means that they function best in cool and dry conditions, above snowline. Bear in mind that they do not do as well in high humidity or heat of summer or sea level.

Screen Tents

Screen tents have mesh sides to keep away insects, but their tops are waterproof to withstand wind and rain. These tents are great because of their high visibility which allows you to enjoy your surroundings.

Author: Kirsten Reimer
(CampTrip Team)

Camping Activity Boxes for Kids:

Our kids have come to look forward to “Mom’s Camping Activity Boxes”. I use plastic storage boxes of various sizes and fill them with a variety of items. We have three portable  boxes:

The Texture Boxes

We have some boxes filled with either rice or sand and then another box filled with an assortment of measuring cups, spoons, funnels, sieves shovels, etc.

The Art Box

The art box is filled with crayons, felt pens, paint, stickers, paper, scissors and any other creative materials that I might find.

All four of our children, ages 3-12, stay joyfully entertained by the Camping Activity Boxes day after day.  Since they are outside playing with them, it doesn’t matter if some of the contents overflow onto the ground.

When we get home, the Camping Activity Boxes are put away until our next camping trip.  Without them knowing, I may add some new toys to the boxes so that the next time we take them out camping, they seem new and exciting to the children.

Author: Carlotta Wolf

Edited By: CampTrip.com

I had turned twelve that year and middle school had proven to be a culture shock for me. I had never been a hip kid. I recall that was the year I had gotten my first pair of bell-bottom pants; Mother had been apprehensive about buying them – even though they had been all the rage for years and were actually going out of style.  These pink pants with the buckle on the seat were so cool, I was sure they were my key to being part of the “in-crowd”. Little did I know that they would make me the laughing-stock. I was a gawky, shy, friendless, twelve year old wearing my hot pink bell-bottoms as many times a week as I could get away with.

Up Rooted and Moved

That was the year that we moved. My parents had decided that moving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Greeneville, Tennessee, along the edge of the Smoky Mountains, just might save their doomed marriage. We had always been happy during our camping summer vacations in the Smokies, it only made sense to move there permanently.

So Dad quit his job and got about hooking up the Coleman pop-up tent camper. He packed us all into the Volkswagen van for the trip, stopping every 15 minutes along the way to allow one of us kids time to throw up from car sickness; from the look on his face it was a trait I’m sure came from Mom’s side of the family.

We found a pretty piece of land on Bear Hollow (pronounced Bar Holler) road off of Highway 70. It was perfect. 116 acres, mostly straight up and down except for the cleared (but overgrown) 12 acres of flat land at the bottom of the narrow hollow. It was lush with hardwood trees and miles down from the narrow potholed gravel road. The property had gone wild with overgrowth for seven years, ever since the prior owner had passed away. It was bought for the bargain price of $7,000. That property was so isolated that we had to drive to the next county to use the telephone. The hollow only had electricity for ten years prior to our moving there. At least ten families, all related one way or another up and down that hollow, called it home.

The More the Merrier

Mother’s brother was a carpenter and he was struggling to make a living for his family in her home town of Rochester, New York. It made perfect sense when Mom and Dad invited Uncle Cary, Aunt Joanne and the kids to move down and help us build our new home in Bear Hollow. In trade, we would give them half of the land. So Cary hooked up his Apache pop-up camper to his panel work van, loaded up his brood and drove to east Tennessee.

That summer with my cousins would prove to be the adventure of a lifetime.  They were all so hip. My two boy cousins Guy and Tadd had long hair like their Dad and their younger sister Stephanie was cute, sassy and so cool for her age. They were a close match in age to me and my sister Suzanne. The five of us made great companions that summer. My seventeen year older brother John was working hard to become a man and didn’t have much time to play with us kids. The five of us were constantly followed around by my little brother Andy. Poor kid, it’s a wonder he survived his youth to become a sociable, well-adjusted man considering the way we avoided him like the plague. After all, who would want an eight-year-old getting in the way when you were busy leaning how to become cool like your city cousins?

So we set up our pop-up campers in the field near the creek and got busy making our life a bit more comfortable. If you’re going to camp for the whole summer, you need to have the creature comforts for existence. So we spared no expense.

Nothing like a bit of Mule Power

First priority was an out-house; not just a run-of-the-mill out-house, but a fancy one, fit for the suburb – and city – folks that we were.  It was made of solid two by fours with skids to allow it to be moved once the hole was filled. It had a real latch and lock, electric lights, a toilet paper holder and a hot pink toilet seat. One oversight discovered when we tried to move it for the first time was the weight of the solid construction.

We chained the VW van’s bumper to the skids of the outhouse and that poor thing strained and strained but never budged the outhouse an inch.  That’s when we met Sam. He was the elderly man that lived at the next house up the hollow.  His home overlooked our field. After watching us city slickers struggle with that outhouse most of the morning, Sam hooked up old Pete to his harness and brought him down. Standing in our field, Sam and Pete watched us struggle. Dad became annoyed at the old farmer in his coveralls, standing there with is old strawberry blonde mule, just watching us.

When the time seemed right to old Sam, he said, “Pete can move it.”

Dad was doubtful. How can one horse-power move something a seventy horse-power engine couldn’t budge? Believing that the old man would make a fool of himself and his mule, Dad still allowed Sam and Pete to give it a try.

Sam hooked the thirty-seven-year-old mule to the skids and Pete laid into the harness. He strained and slacked the chains several times to find the weight and then Sam started to cuss at the mule. Not real cuss words – Sam was a very religious man – they were just words that had the tone of swearing out of anger. That was all the encouragement that old mule needed.  He dug his hooves deep, leaned low and pulled with all his might. That outhouse started to inch free; and once it started moving, so did Pete.  He pulled that outhouse every bit of seventy-feet to the new hole in the ground. We had made our first friends in Bear Hollow of Old Sam and his mighty old mule Pete.

The Water Problems

After our first rain, we discovered that we had a problem with the floor of our dining tent: mud. Dad, Cary and my brother John made a wooden deck platform to hold the refrigerator, stove, supply shelves and large round table with chairs. It would be our only indoor gathering spot. A bit crowded, but cozy, it had a canvas roof with screened sides. We had many fun evening meals all together under that dining tent.

With the creek running through the middle of our flat, cleared land, a bridge was needed. And my Uncle’s skills were again challenged. He designed and built the best bridge made of wood you could ever hope of having.  He poured concrete anchors into the creek banks and secured the logs with large bolts.  The logs were covered with two by sixes and it would be able to hold a twenty six ton rig without a squeak. This we found out when we had our well put in. Up until then we had been driving to town, thirty miles away, to haul our water back in trash cans from the city water department.

Another problem to solve was someplace to wash ourselves, our laundry and dishes. The men dug a deep pit and filled it with layers of limestone rocks, then they built a wash-house over the pit. One side of the hut was open and had a curtain for privacy to dress after a shower. The shower stall was made of wood like the rest of the wash-house and the floor had holes drilled in it to allow the water to run out into the pit. We hooked up our washer, dryer and hot water heater along the back wall and attached a deep sink to the outside for washing the dishes.

The Time Capsule

The old abandoned farm house across the creek was over-grown and creepy. It wasn’t until we had cleared the fields of the over-growth using sickles, scythes, weed whackers and machetes that were able to get a good look at it. It had three rooms and the floors were half rotted.  The large room that should have been the living room had an old brass bed on top of a bear skin rug. In the corner was an old porcelain cream separator and a round kerosene wick heater. The kitchen had Frisbee pie tins piled along the wall. And the third room had a floor covered in old mason jars filled with fruits and vegetables. The smoke house had newspapers tacked to the walls and I recall they said something about Abraham Lincoln. Those old papers had been up since just after the Civil War.  The whole place was a time capsule and it made for the adventure of a lifetime.

Since the condition of the old house was a danger to us kids, our parents decided it needed to be destroyed. We were excited when we were told that we could help demolish it. Just the thing every energetic kid wanted to hear. We threw rocks at the windows, pulled the walls apart and found an intact bird skeleton; we broke the old mason jars, knocked the front porch pillars down and watched the roof collapse.

Once we were done playing demolition crew, our parents hired a bulldozer to push it in to the cellar, a feature to the old house we had not discovered until it was too late. I still wonder what treasure that cellar may have hidden from us. A fox that had been living along the creek had had enough.  She moved her den and we never saw her again.

The only thing that survived from that old house (other than our memories) was the old kerosene heater.  My cousin Guy worked on it for days, cleaning and restoring it. It looked like a new, store-bought, antique heater when he was done. He offered it to my Mom; she admired his work and told him to keep the heater since he had been the one to save and restore it. I wonder if Guy still has that old heater.

The Hide Out

The property had a barn that was butted up to the edge of the hollow’s cliff side road. It was a great tobacco barn, solid and relatively new with a huge loft. We kids spent hours in the loft playing with GI Joe and Barbie, 45 records, learning to dance, playing air guitar (with a string-less real guitar), swinging from the rafters and discovering that puffing on dried tree leaves was not the same as smoking real cigarettes. From my hip cousins I was learning to be a cool kid.

Blue Prints for The Grand House

Uncle Cary was in his element lending his talents to our projects. He was a great carpenter who had learned for the best, my Grandpa. At Mom’s request he designed the house we were going to build. It was one of those modern A-frames that are so retro today. The top floor would have a boys and girls bedroom while my parent’s bedroom would be built into the living room floor.  At night they would lift the hatch covers that concealed the waist deep space containing the bed and dressers.  It was truly an engineering marvel; in retrospect, it would have been a monotonous daily ritual using such a space.

The man with the bulldozer returned and cleared a pad on the side of the mountain for our new home. It was going to be a great house with a wonderful view up and down the hollow. The mountain had not been timbered in over forty years, according to Sam. The old growth was thick with hard woods like walnut, oak and ash. We had already identified some good trees that would be felled by the Stout Brothers that owned a saw mill on the other side of the hollow.  They were willing to cut the lumber and timbers on a one-for-one deal. They would  keep one tree for each tree that they cut for us. We were ready to start the foundation and both families would work side-by-side to get the job done.

It was then that it all came to an end.  One day, Mom called Aunt Joanne’s Kool-Aid pissy. Aunt Joanne was not the best of cooks (not that Mom was much better), but my Mom still couldn’t see how you could mess-up Kool-Aid. Mom and her sister-in-law had been living too close for too long and the Kool-Aid incident would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. My Uncle folded up the camper, hitched it to the van, loaded his family and drove away.

Hippies are Hip

Not long after that school started, and when I started riding the bus to the country school in Baileyton, I met a girl my age.  She got on the bus several miles beyond our hollow.  When she heard I lived in Bear Hollow she asked me, “Do you know those hippies that live way up the holler?”

I was surprised. When had hippies moved in to the hollow?  I had never seen them; maybe they were way up near the top of the mountain, someplace we seldom ventured since the road was so hard on the car. So I asked her, “Where in the hollow do they live?”

“Two or three miles, they have long hair and live out of campers. It’s a real commune,” she explained.

It was then that it dawned on me. It was me and my family she was calling hippies. Having grown up in the suburb of a large city, I had come from a culture where long hair and camping were socially acceptable and common in 1972. Yet, in east Tennessee, a culture that stayed ten years behind the times, it was an oddity. When the shock of being referred to as a hippie wore off it, it occurred to me: I had arrived. I was hip.

That same week my sister was given an assignment to draw a picture of her house for school. She was horrified to have to draw a picture of the Coleman camper; it was a socially horrifying thing to have to explain in front of her class, but my parents got a big kick out of it. Suzanne still looks upon that awkward moment as one of her traumas of childhood stories.

The Dream was Over

With the end of summer and the prospects of fall weather, my parents decided we still needed a real roof over our heads. So they bought a three bedroom, single-wide mobile home and we gave up on our dream of an A-frame home on the side of the mountain.

We would spend every summer for the rest of my youth visiting with my cousins. They settled in the suburbs near Nashville and our mothers would grow to tolerate each other on these several, week-long child swapping summers visits.

The summer of ’72 will forever be the best summer of my youth. We were able to do things that most of people only dreamed of. It was the summer I camped like a hippie, living in a commune and learning to be cool.

Author: Nancy Dyer

Edited By: CampTrip.com