Why Go Camping

[Doc]

I know we have had a few threads about why we hunt, but the same kind of question occurred to me the other day regarding camping. I see all the different kinds of camping that people engage in, so it would stand to reason that there are a lot of different things that people expect to get out of their camping activities.

So, just exactly why do you all go camping and how would you define your "style" of camping?

[samcolt87]

I don't go as often as I'd like, but when I do, I mostly do primative style camping, backpack in with a tent, gather firewood at the site and cook on that. Get the best nights sleep ever out there. That evening summer air is also a good reminder of why I camp. Now if I could find a good camping location to do camp hunting, like they do out west, that would be something!

[HuntOrBeHunted]

I don't go as often as I'd like, but when I do, I mostly do primative style camping, backpack in with a tent, gather firewood at the site and cook on that. Get the best nights sleep ever out there. That evening summer air is also a good reminder of why I camp. Now if I could find a good camping location to do camp hunting, like they do out west, that would be something!

Taking hunting trips to the ADK mountians for early beer is a great idea and semi local if you live in NY..

But I second the tent and back pack style now thats really camping. Watching a flat screen tv cooking on the stove just doesn't give off the hole camping feel to me personally.

[Elmo]

I mainly enjoy camping to be isolated from the hustle and bustle of civilization and enjoy the peace and traquility of nature but I also enjoy camping to test myself against nature. To see if I can survive out there in the wild. I don't go as often as I would like to because I don't know enough people who camps in the same style and can coordinate a time to do it with. This year, I haven't gone at all.

[Ford]

Taking hunting trips to the ADK mountians for early beer is a great idea and semi local if you live in NY..

But I second the tent and back pack style now thats really camping. Watching a flat screen tv cooking on the stove just doesn't give off the hole camping feel to me personally.

I am all for beer, and I love the Adirondacks. But never until after 5 pm. Thats just style..

[Ford]

On a serious note, camping is so much work. Man, I am tired of working.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

I am all for beer, and I love the Adirondacks. But never until after 5 pm. Thats just style..

I meant to type bear haha, but I wouldn't mind a early beer only after I have a successful hunt. But hey if i'm in the ADK mountians rather bear or beer you won't hear a complain.

Bill.

[Ford]

I dont hunt bear, but come across them twice. Once when hunting deer, and once while having a beer. lol. (True)

[Elmo]

I am all for beer, and I love the Adirondacks. But never until after 5 pm. Thats just style..

Hunting for beer after 5 PM only makes you a drunk. Hunting for beer before 5 PM makes you an alcoholic.

[erussell]

I use to love to camp. 4 yrs Army Airborne cured that real quick. There's just something about sleeping on bare ground while its pouring on you that leaves a bad taste in your mouth for roughing it later on. : )

[Doc]

It is an interesting activity. To leave a pefectly equipped house with all your comforts and amenities just to go outdoors and become bug-food, doesn't really seem reasonable. Sitting around a campfire that produces smoke that seems to follow you around no matter which side of the fire you are sitting at doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. And yet there we are face burning/ back freezing in the early hours of the morning, sipping on a cup of coffee, staring into a campfire waiting for everyone else to get up. Kind of weird isn't it. And yet, I do thoroughly enjoy these trips outdoors. I don't get it really. It makes no sense to me, but there must be some kind of need for that close connection with nature where all your senses can be bombarded with the experience of living outdoors. It really does seem like an activity of rejuvenation and escape. It also can be a small celebration of independence and self-reliance. And if the right spot is chosen, it can be an escape from the noise and intrusion of people.

We keep our camping trips fairly basic. Yes, we do have a pretty fancy tent and some high-tech sleeping bags, etc., but pretty much we have not really gotten into the motor-home style camping yet where we bring "home" with us. That's a conscious decision, and an attempt to keep camping as close to a simple age-old family tradition as possible. The fact is that a lot of the places where we camp can't even be driven to with any kind of motor home. We do a lot of camping up on the hill on our own land. In fact some of the places are exactly the same spots that my brother and I used to camp at when I was about 11 years old (more than 50 years ago....lol). Back then things were really primitive with handmade lean-tos and a few blankets instead of sleeping bags. Great memories and a camping style that promotes those memories. It's all good.

[Doewhacker]

We camp because it's fun, economical, more family time, and a way to see places all over the map. We use a nice comfy camper with ac and tv's to watch at night for the kids. Of course we use ours as a base and are always busy all day every day where ever we go, hiking, exploring, fishing and what ever else we can get into with our two kids and two dogs. It takes me about two minutes to enter my relax zone when we go camping, no better felling in the world.

My wife and I can see ourselves being the retired road warriors when it's time, lots of hunting places to see lol.

[nyantler]

I love the simplicity of camp... our camp is tucked in the woods... no electricity or running water... Coleman stove for cooking... candles and coleman lantern for lights... and an outhouse.. I wouldn't have it any other way and believe it or not my wife wouldn't either...which is great for me.. because when momma's happy... everyone is happy!!

Edited August 14, 2012 by nyantler

[Doc]

I love the simplicity of camp... our camp is tucked in the woods... no electricity or running water... Coleman stove for cooking... candles and coleman lantern for lights... and an outhouse.. I wouldn't have it any other way and believe it or not my wife wouldn't either...which is great for me.. because when momma's happy... everyone is happy!!

Nice looking camp. Ours is considerably smaller and a bit more stripped down .... lol. But it is the better part of a mile from the house and pretty desolate.

[Pygmy]

I have done a lot of "camping"...

The reason I did it was because if I wanted to hunt where I wanted to hunt, there was no other alternative.

I have done 5 DIY hunting trips to Alaska...You sleep in a tent and get along with a minimum of gear and supplies, dictated by the small airplanes that fly you in and out..

I have done several DIY trips hunting elk and mule deer in the rocky mountains.. If you want to be near the hunting, you live in a tent..

In northern Quebec, the caribou were out of range for us to hunt from the outfitter's camp, so we flew in via floatplane and hunted them from a tent camp..

I have hiked into remote areas in Pennsylvania solo to camp and hunt gobblers that were out of reach to the road hunters.

I have camped on National Forest land in Virginia and Georgia to hunt gobblers..

In enjoyed the experience, and learned a lot from it..Some of it was more "adventure" than I had anticipated, such as a Super Cub drop hunt in Alaska when we lost one tent in a storm and had to sleep four hunters in one tent with two sleeping bags through a five day rain storm, or when two of us floated 100 miles down a rain swollen river risking death by drowning ( or grizzly) around every bend in the river..

Still, many of my fondest memories involve these trips....

Ain't no way I could have done this stuff staying at the Holiday Inn...hehehehehe..

[erussell]

Nice looking camp. Ours is considerably smaller and a bit more stripped down .... lol. But it is the better part of a mile from the house and pretty desolate.

Geeze Doc they didnt use that on the evil dead movie did they!! I think they did!!!

Edited August 14, 2012 by erussell

[nyslowhand]

I love the simplicity of camp... our camp is tucked in the woods... no electricity or running water... Coleman stove for cooking... candles and coleman lantern for lights... and an outhouse..

Love the look (and stain) of the slab wood siding on a shed or cabin. Poor boys log cabin...LOL

[nyantler]

Doc

I think that the only reason mine isn't "stripped down" as well is that I am a builder by trade... so I can't help myself...

[Paula]

for years i camped on a beach in tupper lake. i have even gone alone. i go either to my brothers or aunts to shower.

[Doc]

Doc

I think that the only reason mine isn't "stripped down" as well is that I am a builder by trade... so I can't help myself...

Well, you did a heck of a job.

Actually, considering that every stick of wood that's in our dinky cabin had to be taken in on an ATV, up an ugly steep hill for almost a mile, I guess I can't complain about how small it is .... lol. It is kind of a glorified tent. We built in some bunk beds, a table, propane stove, propane lights, kerosene heater and a dry-sink. We even had a battery-powered TV up there. Coldest temperature that I can recall staying up there in was 4 degrees below zero. Never did get cold. I even insulated the thing with styrofoam. It was a fun project.

[nyantler]

I work hard on my camp, but i don't consider it HARD work... I enjoy doing it because I don't have any pressure to get it done yesterday... I can do it at my leisure... Like you said.. It's fun.. and very satisfying.

[A Sportsman]

I grew up taking camping trips (tent/small trailer) with my family at various state and private campgrounds across the state. I have nothing but great memories of the quality time spend with my parents and brother. We got to see quite a bit of what the state has to offer, with the cheap cost a bonus.

Just recently my wife and I took our first camping trip with our baby girl who is 20 months old. We did a full week in the tent up in the catskills (mongaup Pond). I won't say it was a mistake, however, with the baby, it was just too much work, for too many days. It really never felt much like a vacation. When we got home, we still agreed that family camping is great, but think we should wait a few years for our current kid, and our next one, to be at least 4 years old or so.

It was our first time to Mongaup Pond, and while we thought the place was ok, I think there are much better options in NYS. Fishing wasnt too good, hiking wasn't anything special, no playground for the baby, felt like forest rangers were literally spying on us the whole time, etc.

[Fantail]

I restored an older 15' tow behind camper and set it up on the property. There's always something to do, work here and there but like some of you mentioned it's fun work. Things to improve the place and camp in general. It's satisfying when the day is done, to look around and know you did that, you built that. Got Solar Power there, & started a garden. It's treated as my home away from home.

Tell you what though, sometimes when I'm there, enjoying company, chow cooking up over the firepit, a cold beer, a clear dark sky & stars, owls, coyote song, nature and a good nights sleep; I start to miss my apt., suburbia, traffic, delivery trucks beeping, drunks in the parking lot accrost the way slamming doors at 2 am, trailers with loose gear going over manholes, thumping bass lovers as they drive by or hang out in said parking lot, and it wouldn't be fair of me - to forget about the rev-tards on crotch rockets that feel the must announce their arrival & departure everywhere they go.

[NFA-ADK]

Hello Sportsman, when I entered Mongaup Pond, I turned around and went to another camp site, talk about a commercial camping ground... I like to be in the woods when I camp, not a parking lot, great if you have kids though... Or a girl that wants a bathroom...

Camping is about being in the woods and enjoying all nature has to offer. Arg I want a camp soo bad!!!

[steve863]

It is interesting to read how the definition of the term "camping" varies from person to person. In my mind if you have a cabin roof over your head it isn't the same as someone who sleeps in a tent that could be blown away at any time. In my mind the tent is closer to what the term "camping" should mean.