What is Camping to you

[Penney H. & Mike E.]

The simplest definition of camping to me is sleeping outdoors. Our small basic trailer qualifies. It gets us off the ground & keeps our experience in nature simple. (however I miss some of the night sounds we heard better in a tent).

But there is more to the experience of why we camp. I would agree with Jack, the experience my husband and I seek when we camp includes quiet, simplicity, nature, solitude, reading, listening to birds, water and wind, walking in the woods, beach, etc. Living in the woods on a road that has become WAY too trafficked, absence of human generated noise is crucial.

Note: according to Webster the word is from the from Latin campus meaning ‘level ground,’ something we can all agree is important to a good camping experience!

[David and Nancy]

My favorite ways to camp:

#1. Put tents, ice chests, food and beverage into a medium size whitewater raft and float down a wilderness river for 5-15 days. Some of the best river beaches are on the Salmon River in Idaho, to name just one.

#2. Hire a bush pilot in Alaska and get dropped off during the fall caribou migration. Weather can be marginal but the wilderness experience is second to none. We use two tents for this. One to get dry in and one to sleep in.

#3. Backpack into the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. Some of the biggest native cutthroat trout anywhere. Or the Canyon country in spring or fall is nice. This used to be our number one favorite way to camp before we discovered rafting. Like RV's, rafts carry more stuff than a backpack.

#4. Drive to the end of a two track road on Forest Service or BLM land. Drag a wall tent and a few amenities out of sight of the road and set up camp.

#5. Pull a small travel trailer down the worst dirt road we can stand to tow it on. Drag the trailer off the road as far as possible. Try not to be seen or heard.


Anything else we do with our trailer we don't claim as camping. We love road trips and this is our travelling hotel room. Certainly an RV park and most campgrounds don't really seem like a "camp" to us, but they are still perfectly good places to stay while travelling. We just never thought of using our trailer as a substitute for tent camping. They are two completely different things, both of which we enjoy.

[Larry&Carrie]

To my first wife, "roughing it" was Motel 6 with black & white TV and an unheated outdoor pool.... Carrie, however, (aka "MS Always Right") prefers camping in my version.. boondocking ( I should have never let her visit my Elk camp....) She is so contented to spend a weekend or longer just sitting out under the trees reading and vegging. (we just got back from one) I pulled all the electrical out of the 13, even took the water tank out-turned it into storage space (just pack jugs and 5 gal cans for water). Nary a complaint--- I think this one is a keeper. Larry

[Lainey]

Nary a complaint--- I think this one is a keeper.

...the Scamp, or the wife??

Actually, that makes you a happy camper with the "Lady and the Scamp"

[Frederick L. Simson]

Camping ... is getting away.

Camping is quiet, simplicity, nature, solitude...

I can simply sit by a rushing woodland stream for hours and hours and revel in Doing Nothing except absorbing the sound, the sweet smells, and the sight of the patterns the water makes.

a good fire...

There are so many eloquent people here, that I thought I'd start with a mosaic of what's been said in harmony with some of my thoughts.

Then, I have meditated on and contemplated about what our vehicles are defined as. The dichotomy I often read is Camp vs. Portable Hotel.
How do others view our vehicles? What newspaper classified section do persons generally find them in? Usually "Travel Trailers". That appears to be biased toward the Portable Hotel school of thought.

But then, here in California, the Guvmint has created a financial bias toward Camping, by greatly reducing the vehicle license fees for a select few Camp Trailers.

Camp Trailer
242. A "camp trailer" is a vehicle designed to be used on a highway, capable of human habitation for camping or recreational purposes, that does not exceed 16 feet in overall length from the foremost point of the trailer hitch to the rear extremity of the trailer body and does not exceed 96 inches in width and includes any tent trailer. Where a trailer telescopes for travel, the size shall apply to the trailer as fully extended. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a camp trailer shall not be deemed to be a trailer coach.

There is an element of sacrifice here. If you want to go camping, you're limited by law to 16' and the first 3 don't count! Otherwise, you're just traveling, and must pay the full amount for your license plate, please. Those who must assemble their "Human Habitation" are really sacrificing a lot, so they ALL are included. Another part of sacrifice would be the lack of utilities provided by others. You want Water? Light? artificial breezes? food preservation? etc.? Provide it yourself! Electric outlets don't grow on trees.

I especially am in harmony with the Doing Nothing part mentioned above. In today's intense labor environment, you've GOT to "get away" to get away with doing nothing.

[Valerie G]

The dictionary says..."A place where tents, huts, or other temporary shelters are set up, as by soldiers, nomads, or travelers. "

We call it SCAMPIN!

I think we all just want to get away and enjoy one another and no one at the same time, with my 13ft, i use as a rolling hardsided tent really, removing the heater and the fridge and even possibly the stove top. Im just not wanting to sleep on the ground and set up and clean up is a breeze with the scamp.

We camp in tent sites because there is no need for hook up. bring everything you would with a tent yet its all secured in the scamp.

Cooking mainly over the fire and occasionally on the propane stove.

Camping by the water is a favorite, waking up when there is nothing up yet but the wildlife, hearing the water rush down the mountain in a hurry to go somwhere. Its a great way to STOP, we have such busy lives. Scampin allows us to slow down and enjoy one another.

[Jim Hovind]

Taking the Burb and trailer to see what is over the next hill is what it is all about to us.
We have camped in over 30 states - camped in National Parks, State Parks, National forest, State Forest, a few private camp grounds, Truck plaza's and along some deserted road in the middle of nowere.

We hike, Antique, look at history, and the way people live when we travel.

When we pull the 13' Burro we are camping , when we use the 25' Sunlite trailer we are RVing.

[LSChilders]

We don't consider ourselves to be campers, ....... we're travelers, and our Casita is our portable motel room, with kitchenette.

We're not too choosey about the amenities offerred by the RV park we stay in, as long as they provide full hookups.

[Bigfoot Mike]

The dictionary says..."A place where tents, huts, or other temporary shelters are set up, as by soldiers, nomads, or travelers. "

My dictionary says...

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity involving the spending of one or more nights in a tent, primitive structure, a travel trailer or recreational vehicle at a campsite with the purpose of getting away from civilization and enjoying nature. Camping describes a whole range of activities, from survivalist campers who set off with little more than their boots to those who arrive in large recreational vehicles equipped with their own electricity, heat, and patio furniture.

[Brian B-P]

From Mike's dictionary:

Camping describes a whole range of activities, from survivalist campers who set off with little more than their boots to those who arrive in large recreational vehicles equipped with their own electricity, heat, and patio furniture.

Interesting... there are lots of 13' trailers out there which qualify as "large recreational vehicles"!