What is Camping to you

[Chester Taje]

What is camping to you?
I would like your opinions.
To me camping is going to a nice quiet spot and being close to nature.Read some books,go fishing,comtemplate life etc.This is what i do when i am by myself.When my good lady is with me(wife)we travel.We just use trailer for sleeping overnight.We sight see and very seldom spend more than one day in anyone spot unless she has friends or relatives there or good shopping.Once in a while we will have a destination spot but that is rare.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Camping to us (Anne and myslef) is getting away. Boondocking is the prefered method, even better is the backpack and away from a road. Backpacking is not totally in our past, but don't do as much as we used to.
The trailer takes on many tasks for us. If we're traveling, it becomes a motel room for a nights rest and breakfast. We sometimes go to group events, which makes it still a motel room. When we want to really get away, a nice quiet "dispersed camping" spot is great in the summer, and lonely little used campground works in the winter. When we're truely out is when we relax, watch the water roll over rocks if by a stream. We both like to carve so the carving stuff comes out and we make a bunch of wood chips on the ground. If it rains, EZ up to the rescue so still be outside.
I guess the term "camping" means to get into nature, away from people and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the mountains. Quiet, except nature's noises, and dark at night.

[Dave Mac]

What is camping to you?
I would like your opinions.
To me camping is going to a nice quiet spot and being close to nature.Read some books,go fishing,comtemplate life etc.This is what i do when i am by myself.When my good lady is with me(wife)we travel.We just use trailer for sleeping overnight.We sight see and very seldom spend more than one day in anyone spot unless she has friends or relatives there or good shopping.Once in a while we will have a destination spot but that is rare.

Ok... Number 1.....the word "SHOPPING" would NOT be includded in any "C A M P I N G" I would consider.
I'm with ya on the rest of it though
Quite
Nature
Fish
Sight see
and number 1.. a good fire
Oh wait a minute....number 1 ... better rethink this...
#1
The wife
#2
Good fire (#1 enhances #2)
and #3 ... my buddy "Sierra"
Also when ever I do camp I like to be by the water. Nothing like a nice peacfull lake or running water right at your door step.
Dave

[Dave Mac]

Camping.....

[Lainey]

I like taking longer trips to a destination, stopping in campgrounds along the way. We stay at the final destination usually for several nights. The destination may be chosen just for the campground or to camp in an area that will allow us to travel around to explore the local sights as day trips. Even better, a combination of both, campground with its own activity and other local interest areas to check out!

Natural surroundings and private sites are a must for me. I want to be able to get away from it all and just be able to relax in nature. Now to contradict myself, I still like being in campgrounds (with large, spacious, private sites) and likely wouldn’t go backcountry camping because I still like having the security of other people around in case we run into trouble and I have also enjoyed meeting many interesting people on my camping trips. My son usually likes finding other kids his age in campgrounds to befriend and ride bikes around the loop with becuase sometimes mom is just boring

Water; creek, lake or otherwise is usually required near the campground, I’m not sure why maybe for the nature component.

Heading back is preferably on a different highway than the one we travelled there on, but if not then I try to stay at different campgrounds than the ones we stayed at along the way there.

The stopover campgrounds are tests, to see if that campground would make a good destination for a future trip. That’s how I found one of my favourite places, Kettle River Recreation Area in BC, stopped overnight on the way home once, and have gone back several times since to enjoy relaxing in the outdoors and river tubing (also a great place area to use a cycling base for you serious bicyclers).

PS - I know what you mean about the shopping thing, when you don't have much selection at home it's like an event to go somethere with 'good shopping' (but this usually doesn't work into our camping trips due to the 2 and 4-legged kids)

[Robert Brummett]

I agree with so much of what has already been said. Just shows how simpatico most of us are with regard to WHY we do what we do.

For years, when I lived in the East, the annual trek to the Allegheny National Forest in NW PA was a highlight of the year— whatever year! For two to three weeks we would boondock and veg out: enjoy the sound of running water, sit and stare at the stars, collect firewood, enjoy wonderful campfires, play with the dogs (and enjoy their delight in the forest experience), watch wildlife, fix wonderful food, and mostly just get back in touch with selves and the real world of nature— sometimes rough and hard, but always a good tonic. Oh, yes: we also enjoyed the absence of other homo sapiens.

Also for many years I have pursued my love of "moving water." 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. As a photographer I have made moving water a central theme. I have worked with 35mm, 6x6cm, 4x5in, digital, and digital video. Always I look for the essential patterns and rhythms of water in motion. Sometimes a print cries out to be made at "cameo" size: perhaps 3x5 inches or so. Sometimes it asks to be 24x36 inches. Figuring out what it "wants" is one of the pleasures of this sort of contemplative photography which is usually an important part of any camping experience for me.

The pic below is part of a series I did of streams in the Great Smoky Mountains in 2004 and 2005.

[Bigfoot Mike]

We still work and so getting a chance to go camping is a real treat for us. After our kids both got married and moved out we decided to have “Date Weekend” once a month. Now in our area where can you go within 200 miles is our goal? We have found some wonderful places and great friends. Variety is the spice of life. YES, some places have been better then others.

A couple times a year we get to take longer trips. Here are some photos of one of these trips with our good friends Jim & Carol. http://www.fiberglassrv.com/slides/ This is Rancheria RV Park in the Sierras of Northern California.

Mike

[Anne H]

Camping!!!

Or use it as a motel room (IOW, I don't care so much about the location/surroundings), if I'm in a heavy use hiking area (Grand Canyon, Zion etc)

[Doug Mager]

Camping:
Thats something I gave up as a Boy Scout and a teenager.
Even though I started with a tent, migrated to 2 different tent trailers (nothing in them but sleeping accomodations) then into 2 slide in campers, both import size and then into a 26 foot sticky, and then a30ft C Class, I still think of what we do in our tiny Trillium as R.V.ing. I say that because we have waaay too many creature comforts in it to call that camping.

[Paul from NWOnt]

Camping to me is sleeping anywhere but my own bed. I tend to not differentiate too much from one to the other, and I've done it all at some point from sleeping by the fire in the snow (no tent or bag), to fully stocked "cabin" with more amenities then home. At present the closest thing I have to a camper is a small vintage jeep trailer that carries all of my stuff, then gets arranged into place when my daughter and I arrive at our destination. Tent on the ground, cooking/cleaning/eating/lighting remain on the trailer. I find I can carry more than I could with a backpack, and my jeep will go almost as many places.

Working at a municipal campground I see all kinds of campers, and I figure it won't be long before the hunt for a nice little 16foot egg begins.

[Gerry]

While comeing home from a day out last week I spied a sign with and arrow saying "RV Campground" and asked the wife a similar question.
What is the differance from an RV campground and a plain campground so we drove in and hmmmm.
Let;s just say it is no place I would want to stay.
Reminded me of streets and streets of tennament housing or if you have ever been to a county fair and seen how they set up the trailers about 6 feet apart.
I guess camping is my cup of tee where one can sit and not hear your neighbors TV or radio or even small talk.
Gerry the canoebuilder

[Herb P]

Camping is now a way for us to get our son out into the wilderness so he can have his own mini-adventures either on his own near the campground, or with us a little further afield... Life in the big city is not what it used to be when I was growing up... Kids don't grow up able to run off and explore the parts of the world around them that are interesting to them...

Establish that connection while he's young so he can grow up to have a respect and understanding for nature... I intend to do some back country camping so he can experience what it's like to truly "be away"; before the gubment finishes taking it all away from its constituents.

[jack maloney]

Camping is quiet, simplicity, nature, solitude, reading, making our own music, listening to birdsong and river current, walking among the trees and clambering over rocks, campfires and starlight.

RVing is CDs and boomboxes, TV and DVDs, loud talk, lotsa beer, crowds and cocktails, thrumming generators and dangling lights and whatever it takes to keep the natural world at bay.

[Christine V]

After all the intital set up, backing up and getting my campsite ready for a few days.. I enjoy most of all.. NOT having to look at my neighbors, hear cars, loud music, teenagers or what ever comes with living in town..
I love the sit and read.. take walks with the dogs whether it be along the beach, or where ever i decide to go...taking pics and just enjoying nature.. Just some peace and quite for a few days. I like picking the most private site I can find.

[Mary F]

[quote]I agree with so much of what has already been said. Just shows how simpatico most of us are with regard to WHY we do what we do.

[...]

The pic below is part of a series I did of streams in the Great Smoky Mountains in 2004 and 2005.


Attachment 9430

That's beautiful, Robert. Thanks for sharing!

[Ian-Vicki]

Camping is quiet, simplicity, nature, solitude, reading, making our own music, listening to birdsong and river current, walking among the trees and clambering over rocks, campfires and starlight.

RVing is CDs and boomboxes, TV and DVDs, loud talk, lotsa beer, crowds and cocktails, thrumming generators and dangling lights and whatever it takes to keep the natural world at bay.

What Jack said. Each has its place depending on mood and mental condition. The joy of a portable accommodation is that you can choose whichever it is you need at the moment.
cheers
Ian

[Mike D]

For years, when I lived in the East, the annual trek to the Allegheny National Forest in NW PA was a highlight of the year— whatever year! For two to three weeks we would boondock and veg out: enjoy the sound of running water, sit and stare at the stars, collect firewood, enjoy wonderful campfires, play with the dogs (and enjoy their delight in the forest experience), watch wildlife, fix wonderful food, and mostly just get back in touch with selves and the real world of nature— sometimes rough and hard, but always a good tonic. Oh, yes: we also enjoyed the absence of other homo sapiens.

Robert,
May I ask where you went in Allegheny National Forest? My son and I have been tent camping in Potter county PA (north central) and would like to plan a trip further west when the new Bigfoot finally arrives.

Mike

[peterh]

This is a timely topic for Lynne and I. Our original idea for a trailer was something akin to a rolling tent with a comfy bed, a toilet and kitchen facilities, but that idea has morphed and grown into something a bit closer to a rolling hotel suite with a kitchenette and no pricey mini-bar. So last night we were sitting in our 19' Scamp (which we parked out front so visiting friends and family could peek inside and see what we've been up to) and commenting that we almost need to remind ourselves that this is our "camper."

For the two of us it makes sense. Tent camping was itself never our end goal, but a means to an end: getting out, away from home, somewhere where the trees grow tall and long walks where the air is clear and quiet are just outside our door. We'd do more of it if early morning toilet stops could be done without getting all wrapped up in shoes and a warm jacket.

The modifications we're making to our trailer accomplish all of that and more. Even so, Lynne has a thought that perhaps it would be nice to have a really small 13'er . . . something more basic that feels more like "roughing it . . ."

At least when you compare it to our Scamp 19!

--Peter

[Paula Bindrich]

Camping is getting away from it all and back into nature for me. The Casita, although new for me, will allow me to get into nature faster and stay longer. Finding the perfect place for the tent and my "princess and the pea" body, setting it up, moving into it and then everything in reverse for going home including spreading everything out to dry (once before leaving and again at home), cut into valuable nature time. But I will still tent it too.

One of my coolest nights camping was being on a hill with a wine in one hand and myself in a comfy chair on a dark night. No one around for miles. My dog was going across the slope below me and I was watching the silhouette of an owl following her, about 10 feet above, as she crisscrossed the slope. I assume since she is big, the owl was taking advantage of her scaring up some dinner. That bird was totally silent, Phoebe didn't have a clue she had a tag-along.

sigh.

paula

[phil clark]

Wow, I thought I was alone out there reading all the stuff from folks talking about appliances etc. Relax, my brothers spend months every year all over the country that way. They think I'm nuts.

I look at it as "tent camping with a trailer". Seldom park amenities -propane heat, light and cooking. I'm not sure it's boondocking, but I spend lots of time in the mountains or on the crick with nobody w/in miles.