Successful Family Camping: From Reluctant to Ready

Successful Family Camping, we learned, means being prepared.
I went from reluctant camper to ready with this Master Camping List
we’re sharing with you today, for free!

The family that camps together stays together.

I’m quite sure that’s in my husband’s family bible.

It’s like I took a vow when we got married to have and to hold through camping and hiking, in rain or in shine. Through hot and hotter. My own family’s outdoor life involved trucks and tractors and chickens, and that was enough, thank you very much. Why pack for 3 days of eating outdoors, when a farmer longs for meals at his bug-free dining table, sitting in a comfy chair?

And the nights we kids tried a night under the stars? Well, if we weren’t dew-soaked by 2 o’clock in the morning, no doubt a skunk would come by to share the fun and games.

However, as was mentioned before, I exchanged vows with a man.

And became part of a new family. A clan who camped together.

Together.  Funny looking word… together.

Not funny feeling, though,

when a family of 5 camps together in a 4 man tent.  On the cold hard ground with one rock marring the scraped surface under the tent floor. (And the rock is under my mat.)  In the wilds of the Mogollon Rim under straggly pines during the monsoon season of nightly thunder and sudden sheeting rain.

Giraffes only need 2 hours of sleep in 24 hours.  Who would ever wish to be one of the long-necked creatures? Well, when snoozing is affected by camping, you wish giraffe napping was your talent.

But that was in the beginning, when camping was a foreign language I didn’t really wish to learn.

I did want to learn to be a sport.  To get along, and be a happy clan camper.  To uphold family values and later, fulfill my children’s wishes.

So I decided I could learn the foreign camping language and even channel giraffes if it meant two little boys could fill summer weeks looking forward to “going camping” and gather supplies and build canteen holders out of wood. And practice rolling out zippered bags in a backyard tree house.

What makes a camping trip a success?

It takes boys about fifteen summers to grow beyond rustic camping with Mom and Dad, so we had many years of not sleeping camping fun.

• Making fry-bread in the dark, beside a stream in the Chiricahuas, after setting up tents by flashlight, because GPS didn’t work in the mountains and there were too many side roads before the right road.  And later yet, mutters in whispers and moving lumpy sleeping bags on rocks escaped from flashlight beams. Just another night of camping.
• Young cousins with new compasses  and tackle boxes, walking a mile to lake fish, then back into camp, all swagger and casual, with no fish, and much later, sheepish, saying, “Mom, we got lost on the way back.”  (Well, the moms knew, and had roamed hills and meadows until spotting the tired trekkers.  Then slipping back to camp chairs and books as if no anxious moments caused scrub-scratched legs and pounding hearts, so that dignity could rule in young boys’ psyches. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t later night-time-awake what-iffing.)
• A family reunion in “rat cabins” still curled-lip recalled 25 years later.  Canoes on smooth northern fresh-water lake, singing late around a massive campfire that gathered fifty people in sweet harmony.  Where older cousins bed-rolled on pews in a little lakeside chapel.  And aunties swept droppings out of huts and, well, slept like giraffes.  Then getting up early and cooking breakfast for the whole happy crowd.  (The thought was that rest could come later, far away from unseen but ever-present vermin.)
• Shivering and dozing on an air mattress, only to be jerked wildly awake to stomping and clanging in our little tent city.  The dads stumbling into jeans and herding elk back to the woods, off to someone else’s camp, perhaps. But well away from our future breakfast.

Does this sound like successful family camping?

Well, yes. Yes, it does. Because the moments recalled later were always shared with big smiles. Once the pain was over, it was over, and only the good times rolled.

However, we became more skilled through the years, and slowly gained supply lists that brought more comfort to life in the wild.

Plus we learned how to deal without items somehow left behind and how to cope with ever-present pests.

And we found some of the secrets to freedom in living with less midst the boundless beauty of nature.

Which led to our Master Camping List. Our free gift to you today…

Our Favorite Camping Supplies:

Here’s a list of items we wouldn’t leave home without packing along. It’s not a complete packing list, so don’t replace this with the Master Camping List. However, these are things we love and use.

• Roomy 4 Person Family Tent
• Tarp; Axe; Mallet; Shovel; Tent Rugs and Shoe Mat; Tote to store and haul
• Sleeping Bags; Air Mattresses or Sleeping Mats; Tote to store and haul
• Coleman Stove; Cooking Tools; Cast Iron Dutch Oven; Cast Iron Frying Pan
• Butane Lighter; Water-proof Matches; Battery Powered Lamps; Citronella Candles
• Large Plastic Totes (shallow totes allow easier access to and better organization of items)
• Large Ice Chest
• Folding Camp Chairs; Folding Tables
• Vinyl Table Cloths; Washing Tubs; Kitchen Towels and Wash Cloths; Potholders and Oven Mitts;

How to get the Free Master Camping List:

Fill out this Contact Form, join our mailing list, and request, “Free Master Camping List.”

PS: My nights as a reluctant camper bedding down on the ground and going three days without a real shower?

They never hurt me.

Now I cherish that past filled with rich treasures of clan camping time and friendship.