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Nifty Camping Tips, Tricks & How-To's

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Nifty Camping Tips, Tricks & How-To's Nifty Camping Tips, Tricks & How-To's Backpacks: Backpacks should be fit properly to the frame of the person that will be carrying it. Women and shorter men will want a smaller-sized pack, while medium to tall men will want a larger pack. An average pack will run between 60 to 75 liters (3500 to 4500 cubic inches) for shorter trips, while your larger canoe or long trip packs will run from 80 to 100+ liters (4800 to 6100+ cubic inches). Be sure that a backpack fits you properly before you buy it (ask the salesperson for help), an improperly fitted backpack can cause you a lot of pain on the trail. Any decent outdoor equipment store will have experienced sales staff -- If they don't seem sure about what they're talking about, then you're probably in the wrong store. When carrying your backpack, you'll want your heaviest items (like food) towards the top of the pack and up close to your back, you'll also want the load to be balanced from side to side so that the left side doesn't have more weight than the right. Load up your pack and experiment with the load- leveling straps and hip belt before you hit the trail, your load should be carried partly on your shoulders and partly on your hips. You can also use these straps to vary the amount of weight on your hip belt if your shoulders start getting tired or sore -- Your hips can transfer that weight through your body much easier than your shoulders alone can.. Clothing: Clothing should be light or muted in color, darker colors like dark blue or black will attract more insects. You'll also want to avoid bright neon colors as they have an adverse impact on the visual esthetics of the landscape, and nobody wants to see your day-glow orange T-shirt standing out against a pristine forest background -- Leave the gaudy neon colors for emergency situations when you simply MUST be seen. Stick to cotton, cotton blends or light canvas materials, you want it to be light and breathable since most people camp in the summer months. Avoid denim as jeans will wick moisture, stay wet longer and are very heavy when wet. For heavier clothing, try poly/cotton, polar Tec, or polypropylene to wick moisture from your body, these fabrics are made for warmth. You'll want to dress in layers, with lighter clothing closest to your body working up to a windproof/ rainproof outer shell; it's easier to adjust your internal temperature by simply adding or removing a layer. Also remember, clean clothes are more comfortable, so try to rinse the sweat out of your clothing if you're on extended trips and hang it to dry before wearing it. How much clothing is too much clothing? Well, the guideline I use to determine how much clothing I should take when camping is about 1 complete change (ie; socks, underwear and t-shirt) for every 3 days of travel. Even if you're just going out for a weekend, be sure that you have a complete change (shirt, t-shirt, pants, socks, underwear) of dry clothing packed and waterproofed, you'll be glad you did. Footwear: Your feet are the most important piece of equipment you will take with you when you're camping, and it's in your best interest to take care of them. You'll probably want to take 2 sets of footwear with you when you go; one pair for the trail and one pair for the camp. If you're backpacking, you're going to want a heavy boot that has proper ankle support, and a sole that isn't overly flexible. Boots should be sized properly for your foot; too small and your foot will be cramped and sore, too large and your foot will slide around in the boot and you'll get blisters. It's better for the boot to be too large rather than too small, as you can wear a second pair of socks to fill up the extra space and provide extra cushioning. If you're canoeing you'll want a light pair of shoes, sandals, or aqua socks to wear while in the canoe and for landing, and a heavier pair of hiking boots for the portages. Some people try to get away with running shoes for both canoeing and portaging, but they run the risk of serious damage from twisted ankles or worse while in the bush. From my experience I suggest that if you're portaging more than 50 meters (55 yards), you should be wearing your hiking boots; it only takes a couple minutes to put them on and take them off. Sleeping Gear: Half of camping is relaxation, and you're not going to be relaxed or well rested if you can't get any sleep. When choosing your sleeping bag, you'll want to know what temperature range you'll be sleeping in. My summer bag is rated to -5 Celsius (23 F) and weighs about a kilogram (about 2 lbs), while my winter bag is rated to -30 Celsius (-22 F) and weighs about 3 kgs (about 6.5 lbs). Using different combinations, I can survive all 4 seasons with both these bags, from using the summer bag as a "blanket" for the warmest weather to using both bags together for the coldest. Generally, you'll pay more for the high-tech materials like Thinsulate, but you'll be warmer for less weight. You'll also want to isolate your body from the ground below you, especially if you're camping in colder weather or you're on uneven ground. There are several ways to accomplish this using an inflatable air mattress (good, but not great for backpacking), a closed-cell foam pad (better) or a self- inflating pad like a Therma- rest (best). Obviously, you get what you pay for -- An air mattress might be cheap, but it makes for lousy comfort when it springs a leak. And don't forget a pillow! You can buy various types of inflatable camp pillows or stuff pillows, but I find that covering a small bundle of clothes, or even my clothing stuff-sack with a heavy felt "Lumberjack" shirt provides enough comfort. Food: There are probably several other sites and books that can give you recipes better than I can, so I'll only mention a couple of things about food. (Also, let me remind you to wash your hands before preparing your food.) First, you want to test out any new recipes at home before you ever head into the woods, preferably using your one-burner camp stove to cook them. You don't really want to take something into the woods and find out that you really hate the taste, or its a real pain to make in those conditions, or worse you have a some kind reaction to it. Second, pre-pack and pre-mix as much as you can at home. If you buy things like "Kraft Dinner" or "Minute Rice", take them out of the box and put them into either Ziploc bags or vacuum-sealed bags and remember to seal the instructions into the bag with them. I tend to buy things in bulk and simply pack pre-measured 1 meal portions into vacuum sealed bags, its generally cheaper that way. There's no real need these days to buy "high-tech dehydrated food", grocery stores provide a lot of staples like "Noodles and Sauce", "Rice and Sauce", "Potatoes and Sauce", "Macaroni Dinner", "Minute Rice", "Instant Pancake Mix", "Instant Biscuit Mix" and several other things that are easily adapted to backpacking and canoeing. There are also various meals that are known as "boil in the bag" dinners; although these are nice, they contain a lot of water and therefore they tend to weigh a lot. I usually take a lot of dry food and supplement it with a couple of the freeze-dried type foods, some fresh foods (like pita bread and salami), and add some extra stuff like breakfast bars, meal replacement bars and Pop Tarts for variety. Finally, pack your food well. Pack your breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks in separate (preferably differently colored) stuff sacks so you know at a glance what you're grabbing. You'll also want to pack to keep things dry, clean, and keep the transfer of odors to a minimum to prevent any losses to animals. I use a lot of those small plastic garbage bags called "Kitchen Catchers" to pack my food, they're cheap and waterproof. I put all my breakfast-type things into one bag, being sure to put things like tubes of peanut butter or jam into Ziploc bags for extra security (there's nothing worse than having a tube of jam explode in your pack), and then I remove all the excess air from the bag, seal it and put it into a stuff sack. I do the same for all of my food groups until I have 5 small stuff sacks; usually breakfast/lunches, dinner, snacks, drink mixes, and miscellaneous (which covers salt, pepper, powdered milk, etc), then I take all of these sacks and put them into a larger stuff sack that is also lined with a garbage bag. Why go to all this trouble? Well plastic bags are fine for keeping the dampness out and spills and odors in, but they're lousy at dealing with abrasive or piercing things; this is the job of the stuff sack.
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