Great camping/outdoor tips

[brother chris]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

I heard that if you eat bananas while camping, you will attract misquitoes. <br />I have tested this theory and it proved to be true....but that might have just be a bad comparison(and there might not have been as many misquitoes out the second time I went camping). <br />I'm not sure how true it is, but I don't eat bananas while camping, just to be safe.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

LOL at Swampnut.<br /><br />FREEZE all meat that will not be eaten on the first day of the camping trip. It will help to keep everything else cold in the cooler.<br /><br />Use block ice, not cubes. It will last longer.<br /><br />Also, homemade ice at -5* will last longer than store bought ice at 25*<br /><br />Keep your cooler in the shade and cover it with a tarp or blanket, or the boat cover.<br /><br />Take one leg of a pair of pantie hose, or a knee high stocking. Place a bar of soap in it and tie it onto the end of your table or wash pan. It will keep the soap from dropping in the sand/dirt, and avoid the gooey mess of a soap dish. It can also be tied around your wrist when you go into the lake to take a bath.<br /><br />You can save a few cents by saving all those little pieces of soap you have left when the bar gets small. Place them in a stocking, and use them on next summers trip.<br /><br />You can heat your tent with rocks from the edge of the fire pit.<br />Do not use river or lake rocks.<br />Wash rock(s).<br />Wrap in aluminum foil.<br />Wrap it again.<br />Place it on the edge of the camp fire.<br />When it is hot, roll it away from the fire with a large stick.<br />Peel outer layer of foil off and roll rock onto an old towel. Place in your tent.<br />A 9" rock heated a 5x8' tent, so warm that I was laying on top of the sleeping bag in my shorts. It was 37* out that night. But the rock was so hot it burned a hole in the towel. !!<br /><br />Don't want to mess with a hot rock and a fire?<br /><br />Then heat some water over the fire.<br />Carefully pour it into 1/2 gallon bleach bottles. DON'T use milk jugs!!<br />Cover with a towel and place in the bottom of your sleeping bag.<br />Great for warming the toes, stays warm for about 5 hours.<br /><br />Close your tent up by 6 pm. It will keep it from getting damp inside.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Originally posted by snapperbait:<br /> Be sure to take a cell phone and the 1-800 number for info on the lo-cal of the nearest Holiday Inn express..... <br /><br />wha?...

Great minds think alike!

 

[jtexas]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

roscoe those heating tips are great - I'll be implementing one or more of those next month for sure.<br /><br />We've been using the "big dog" method of warming the tent - not too bad once you get used to the odor.

 

[Serentiy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

to keep little ones age 8 and up occipuied. get some bandannas with a lot of design and get some markers let them decorate them and jot down some things they did on the trip. be sure to put an old table cloth under as the markers will bleed through. it even keeps kids as old as 13 entertained. and they get a memory keepsake as well<br />serenity

 

[Serentiy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Don't get a big chain for your dog instead get a 6' in length and put it on one of those stake rings they have a lot of room to go around without the tangle up and you can move the stake where you need it IE. the shade.<br />Serenity

 

[Serentiy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

KRS in your case you could use shephards hooks to tie the ropes to. and the hose is panitie hose not a garden hose. you take the can with the hose inside it , out away from the camp or trail and scatter the water, you take the mess of food scraps that are cought and at the end of your trip throw the hose away and wash the can for next outing.<br />Serenity

 

[Andrew Leigh]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Originally posted by bh357:<br /> Get one of these:<br /><br />

<br /><br />Excellent steaks, burgers, etc. Easy to raise/lower to control temperature.<br />I've used ours for cooking sausage for breakfast. I take a sheet of foil, make some holes in it, set it on the tripod grill, and place the sausages on the foil. The foil keeps the sausage from falling between the grates, and the holes let the smoke flavor the sausages a bit.<br /><br />Also, we slice potatos and wrap the potatos in foil, with pads of butter and sprinkled with french onion (dry) soup mix. Cook 'em over the fire for about 45min ~ 1hour. Very tasty .

 

[Serentiy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

also if you can have a fire get a cardboard<br />box and line the inside and outside with alluminum foil cut a hole in the top wrap the edges with foil tape a clear oven turkey bag over the hole to make a door. get four empty vegi can for legs and a wire frame for grate. make a fire with coals each cole = 25 degrees place over heated coals and lay the pan on grate walaaa you have a cardboard box oven. we have cooked a cake in ours and the camp smells great.<br />p.s. take along some tongs to move things around and I use welding gloves to move the box.<br />serenity

 

[QC]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Great thread Serenity<br /><br />Speaking of entertaining kids whle camping, I always take a climbing rope, a couple of caribiners, and some webbing to make a harness. All you have to do is throw the rope over a reasonably high and sturdy branch and you have an instant rope swing. They are not too far off the ground and I control everything, so safety doesn't get out of hand, but they love it!!

 

[Serentiy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

qc what kind of webbing Do you use and how do you make the harness? Sounds like a good ideal and can adults swing in it also?<br />serenity

 

[QC]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Serenity,<br /><br />You use 1.5 to 2 inch webbing and it is very strong, adults can use it also. I'll try and post some pics in the AM. Much easier to show than explain. We used it for self-evacuating out of charlifts when I was on Ski Patrol Much less scary six inches off the ground . . .

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

We do a lot of wilderness hiking and camping.<br />Water is a huge consideration out here with our temps, open spaces and conditions. Our Jeep and trucks always have at least a coffee can stashed somewhere to boil water in.<br /><br />I freeze empty quart plastic milk jugs filled with clean water and put them in the cooler. For the ice and drinking water.<br /><br />Ask for and collect all those fast food packets of ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc. We save them in a sealed container in the fridge only for camping.<br /><br />A meat bee(yellow jacket)trap can be made out of an empty 2 liter bottle. Drop a small piece of meat inside and leave the cap off. Place it upright just outside of camp. Screw the cap back on after sundown to keep the raccoons away. Reuse the next day.<br /><br />If you've never used wool socks with your boots, you don't know what you've been missing, hot or cold weather.<br /><br />The old saying, "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy", goes triple in the woods....Guy's go to great lengths making her the most comfortable and relaxed camper.....a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out makes a good back woods porta-potti......bury the waste, it's not a good thing that the fly made your dinner plate one of his last stops of the day.

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

If you can buy dry ice, place it in bottom of cooler. They buy block ice and wrap in newspaper and place over the dry ice. The dry ice will cool the block ice and last for days. The more frequently the cooler is opened the shorter the life on the dry ice. I believe O2 is what "melts" dry ice and opening the cooler increases the amount entering the cooler. <br /><br />This will allow for a protracted period of cooling.<br /><br />Good pots and pans can be had at the local st. vincint de paul. usually for under a dollar or two. <br /><br />A sharp knife is a campers best friend.<br /><br />Johnson's baby shampoo is bio-degradable, I keep a bottle in the camp box and the boat.<br /><br />Sanger, I will make a bunch of those bad boys for our June camp outing.

 

[QC]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Originally posted by Serenity:<br /> how do you make the harness?

Let me know if this makes sense, or doesn't make sense, or . . . <br /><br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br /><br />Any lawyers out there: This is strictly for non-sensical purposes. Nobody in their right mind would take swing or rock climbing harness making directions from me . . .

 

[AK_Chappy]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

I can see how that would be slightly............<br /><br />UNCOMFORTABLE!!!<br /><br />But if it saved my life....nuff said.<br /><br />AK Chappy

 

[mike5097]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

1. Get a tent with a full rainfly.<br /><br />2. Put a Tarp beneath the tent folding the edges under the tent so they don't channel water under the tent.<br /><br />3. Put a tarp inside the tent to protect the floor from mud, water, and holes.<br /><br />4. Pitching your tent under a tree during a heavy rainstorm will give you a break from hard driving rain, but you will stay wet longer due to the water dripping off the tree. (don't due this in lightning prone areas or under a tree that is questionable i.e rotting...<br /><br />5. By a coleman white gas stove and a propane conversion attachment for 15 bucks. Use the propane when its warm and the white gas when its cold. The newer propane only stoves don't seem to have the durability or heat of the classic white gas stoves.<br /><br />6. Make a basic one night survival kit with:<br /><br />a. REI stormproof matches and a good quality metal match.<br /><br />b. Cotton balls soaked in vaseline contained in a film canister or pill bottle for fire starters.You can pack a ton of cottonballs in a small container and they can be used for fire or chapped lips etc..<br /><br />c. The biggest heaviest thickest trash bag you can find for shelter. Can be rigged up as a small tent or a poncho. If used as a poncho cut a small hole for your face, but no arm holes to retain heat.<br /><br />d. Something reflective, a CD, Credit card with a hologram on it, mirror, polished metal signal mirror.<br /><br />e. whistle<br /><br />f. compass<br /><br />g. food bar<br /><br />h. water purification tablets<br /><br />i. first aid kit<br /><br />j. go to Peter Kummerfeldt’s OutdoorSafe website and learn.<br /><br />7. LED flashlights and lanterns aren't as bright but last longer than normal flashlights and you don't need to take a truckload of batteries with you.<br /><br />8. If you camp on the beach, clean your metal items thoroughly when you return home or you will be sorry.<br /><br />Mike

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Don't camp in a dry creek bed even if it's August. This always triggers a thunderstorm and a very cranky morning.

 

[deputydawg]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

Don't wipe with 3 leafed plants.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Great camping/outdoor tips

great stuff there mike 5097.<br /><br />Tarping under the tent will make it last a lot longer.<br />I throw some carpet inside.