Camping

[Turtle]

___Just wondering how many of you go camping? How often? Where? With whom? With what equipment? In connection with some other activity, e.g.. hunting, mining, birding. 'shrooming, etc.? Other details I haven't mentioned?
___I can't seem to shake the idea that I'd like to go camping with Uncle Al . I bet it would be a hoot!
___Campers?

[Chacmool]

Originally Posted by Turtle

___Just wondering how many of you go camping? How often? Where? With whom? With what equipment? In connection with some other activity, e.g.. hunting, mining, birding. 'shrooming, etc.?

Turtle, I'm assuming that with 'shrooming you mean looking for wild mushrooms. Just a side note - in modern slang it also refers to the consumption of really wild mushrooms (the hallucinogenic kind).

[rockytriton]

I have a small popup camper, I've taken it out three times. I have two young kids and they both loved it. It has some problems now though and I need to get it fixed. I think I'd be afraid to go camping with Uncle Al!

[goku]

used to go when i was in school. me and some buddies would go up on the side of the mountian on my dad's land.
all we took was cigarettes, hotdogs, and my truck. we'd spend all night smokin, talkin, and trompin the woods looking for something to burn.

[CraigD]

For 2 fairly extended periods of my life, I was what is now widely called “homeless”. Fortunately, during both periods I was able to keep a running car, a Plymouth Arrow compact, tricked out with snap-on mosquito netting and space blanket and cotton insulation on the windows and the hatchback, a sort of a micro-RV.

This “subsistence camping” both made me pretty good at such thing and at the same time quelled my enthusiasm for camping tricks and gagetry. These days, I do 2 kinds of camping only:

• Short-duration, minimal, “rought” camping – just me, wandering off into the woods with no more than will fit onto a shoulder bag, sleeping in a big pile of leaves or the open air, depending on the weather and clime.
• Parked beside an event camping – My wife and I, in our nice Ford Windstar minivan, at parties where it’s nicest to stay up partying till you drop, and dropping as close as you can park to the party, along with around a hundred friends.

[Turtle]

___So as I have mentioned camping with some of you here & another thread I forget where, I see a theme in the posts that is for me a bit profound. The theme I mean is 'group' camping. The fact is, in general I don't like associating with people at all & I preferentially live as a recluse. While you all technically constitute people, I view you as virtual people (I think? ) & somehow it isn't 'associating' in the same way as flesh & blood people.
___The funny part is that in thinking over my camping in groups, my anxiety isn't part of my recall. While actually meeting any of you in person is for me an 'uncomfortable' prospect to say the least, I honestly think that isn't the case if the venue is camping.
___If Al comes, we must also invite some gits in case we run low on food stores.
___I have camped since childhood, alone & in groups, for entertainment, education, hunting, mining, spiritual enhancement, astronomy, exploration, necessity, kiting, photography, canoeing & probably other reasons I forget just now. I like the wildness, the gear, the chores, the improvising, the company, the immersion in an experience that transcends time. I like camping.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Turtle

___I can't seem to shake the idea that I'd like to go camping with Uncle Al . I bet it would be a hoot!
___Campers?

Speaking of a hooooooooooooot, I,ve had fantasies about going camping with Buffy ever since she joined this forum. Now that would be some experience.............................yeeeeehaaaa aa!!!!!

As far as camping with Uncle Al, he's cool but not my type.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by infamous

Speaking of a hooooooooooooot, I,ve had fantasies about going camping with Buffy ever since she joined this forum. Now that would be some experience.............................yeeeeehaaaa aa!!!!!

As far as camping with Uncle Al, he's cool but not my type.

Buffy by all means! No gender bias in my camping; strickly a matter of merit. I think part of the group camping appeal is that it puts everyone on a more or less level field. After a little while, regardless of what people say about themselves or others, real utility makes the loafer, the bragger, the lover, the outdoorsman, etc. 'separate' out so to speak. This separation then allows the rest of the group to make jokes, & point out absurdities of contrast in what one says & what one really does. Nothing is funnier in camp than to see the 'big outdoorsman' trip over a tent stake & go ass over tea-kettle with his dinner plate of steak (oh, done to perfection the 'right way') & beans. Of course, there is the question of whether or not people like to camp with me.

[Jay-qu]

I would camp with you turtle but only out here in Australia - in my terrain!

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

I would camp with you turtle but only out here in Australia - in my terrain!

___Ditto JayQ...ditto.
___I specially like camping in National Forests where there is a wider lattitude for activity. Prospecting & mining, huckleberry gathering, mushrooming (of both kinds they tell me), rockhounding, shooting, seed gathering, Christmas Tree getting, wilderness area containing, remote waterfall viewing, volcano witnessing, ancient tree hugging... Gifford Pinchot National Forest is just a spit from my front yard.