Has anyone gone Camping?

[midlifebear]

I grew up in the Intermountain West sleeping under the stars in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains every year from age 6 to 16 years-old. My uncle was president of the Ewetaw Wool Growers Association, which meant I lived out-of-doors from May until late September, herding sheep. I can't imagine a different childhood. The worst camping experiences were when I was dragged along with the Cub Scouts and later the Boy Scouts among troops of dull kids and even duller adult Scout leaders who had no concept about or skills for living away from their suburban homes. However, I do owe my long career as a sexual being to my Scout Leader at Boy Scout Camp when I was 12, I always felt sorry for the other kids (err . . . Scouts) who were completely clueless regarding such simple common sense rules of living out-of-doors such as "Don't piss into a wind." Many of those same kids who are now adults still haven't a clue and regard camping as dragging out the RV with a small trailer loaded with ATV's so they can rampage over pristine desert wilderness with abandon.

Before moving out of the USA, Southern Ewetaw (which is truly beyond description) had become so crowded with dainty tourist campers that it was and still is common to see signs announcing "Sprachen auf Deutch" in restaurant and store windows. Never understood why one would want to go camping at a crowded campground. Sort of puts the kibosh on enjoying the peace and quiet of nature, not being allowed to wander around naked among dramatic outcroppings of rugged, red rock. Camping in the New England, the eastern seaboard, Florida -- let's face it, anything that is not the South West (Texas is NOT the South West), Intermountain West, Real West (Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana) or the scenic Sierras (and don't forget Death Valley), is really a pain. I was conned into a hiking/camping trip in New York State's Finger Lake District and the humidity was unbearable. Plus, I've never seen so many ticks pretending to be lentils clinging all over my clothes in my life. Lyme disease, indeed! Although, the Appalachian Trail has many good features and areas that come close to the joys of camping in the West. Even better, Canada is divine; especially the Northwest. But Canada has a proud tradition of mosquitoes the size of late model Buicks. They are pernicious aerial threats.

Bbucko is on target with regard to romping about at an organized campground or State Park in Florida. The conditions are insufferable. Better to book a suite at the Fountaine Bleu for a week.

Over the last eight years I've scrabbled to camp in Torres del Paine (Chile), Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), the Atlantic coastal desert beaches of Chubut (Argentina), the colored northern deserts of Salta and Jujuy (Argentina), as well as several brave weeks in the jungle along the frontiers of Misiones (Argentina) and Paraguay where the chances of not making it out alive (real bandits who murder for your shoes are a real threat) made hanging with the indigenous folk very interesting. Even in the sweltering tropics of Misiones camping was great because of access to cool running streams, water falls, intense dark shade during the day and the surprise of discovering that it turns cold as fuck at night in the jungle. Who knew?

I'm an avid proponent of camping as a way to educate the masses about how delicate the Earth really is and become part of the solution to leave it in better shape than when we arrived. This is something the Boy Scouts pay lip service to, but never deliver (I made it to Eagle Scout, by the way). If you ever need to find a lost troop of Boy Scouts all you have to do is follow the trail of Jolley Rancher wrappers they always leave in their wake. From personal experience, the Boy Scouts are just another version of the Brown Shirts wherein they are indoctrinated to pay pseudo respect to "God and Country" while ignoring the concept of respect for Nature and stewardship of wild lands.

As for these "organized" campgrounds, especially if your gay, I'd recommend checking out the venues along the Russian River north of San Francisco. You'll meet a much nicer crowd that will help take you out of your personal schema for a week or two. If you get bored, there are the nearby wineries. Plus, if it begins to rain you can always drive two hours south into San Francisco and check into a boutique hotel replete with scenic (and very understanding) bell boys.

But above all else, remember Mem to "take nothing but footprints and leave nothing but photos." And pack out what you take in. And most important, if you're planning on camping where there are bears, DO NOT GO if you are about to have or currently are having your period. I'm very serious about this last bit.

 

[D_Sven Svollen]

i enjoy camping. I try to go 3 or 4 times a year.

 

[musclebare9]

Depending on where you are, rain will almost always be a part of camping. Even a heavy morning dew can get you really wet. Once you give up on being clean, getting all muddy can be a freaking blast too. My wife and I had one fantasticly memorable sex experience out in the woods after a rain storm. We were painting each other with mud and sliding all over each other. We were camping along this stream with a beautiful waterfall where we washed up afterwards.

In an effort to avoid the morning sun and the overheated tent, locate under some trees for shade. Just be careful, I once set-up camp late evening under a mulberry tree. I awoke to very colorful bird droppings hitting the tent in the morning. There are many wild fruit trees in the northeast that you have to avoid in the spring and early summer.

 

[Eaglepath]

I love camping, and I love the mountains. I have camped for two years at 9,000' in the Colorado Rockies (Spanish Peaks area). I loved it! Everybody knew me. I'd come out, walk down the canyon and have coffee with the local men in front of the Lodge fireplace every morning. A crow and an owl would greet me every night, a pack of coyotes yipping near midnight by my tent and go down and howl below me, and being greeted in the morning by a herd of deer grazing around me.

 

[mgmnguy]

I haven't been camping in years... I used to go about 7 or 8 times a year up along the north shore with an old group of friends (all have moved on now). None of my friends now like to camp. They'd rather stay in hotels. LOL

 

[kalipygian]

I don't camp in campgrounds.
I think the last time was in 1984, I drove an RV I had built from Florida back to Alaska. I parked in campgrounds just twice between there and here, at the Grand Canyon and in the Redwoods. As it was February, I had the campgrounds to myself.