Camping mentality

We're kind of with WifeyB on the TV issue for the same reason--following sports teams. It doesn't interfere with cruising, and provides some entertainment on a cold dark night.

Until I met my wife, my camping was always primative, basically back packing. I was happy to learn that my wife's (then girlfriend's) family were active campers, at least until I learned that their definition of camping was going to a campground. I tried it a few times by had very little interest.
As for boating, my practice had always been analogous to primitive camping, but with the convenience of a cooler and water. My wife became dissatisfied with the lack of amenities, so I went through a succession of boats. Our current boat has all of the comforts of home (except no Jacuzzi) and we are both happy.

Northern Spy said:

Diesel stove, pump water, teeny tiny fridge. Yup. I'm camping.

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Refrigerator...stove...that's definitely upscale camping.

MYTraveler said:

Until I met my wife, my camping was always primative, basically back packing. I was happy to learn that my wife's (then girlfriend's) family were active campers, at least until I learned that their definition of camping was going to a campground. I tried it a few times by had very little interest.
As for boating, my practice had always been analogous to primitive camping, but with the convenience of a cooler and water. My wife became dissatisfied with the lack of amenities, so I went through a succession of boats. Our current boat has all of the comforts of home (except no Jacuzzi) and we are both happy.

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Hey MYTraveler--just an idea for the Jacuzzi: hang in the water off the bow and turn on your thruster--then you've got it all!

Wifey B: Ok, for a moment...a question. Let's say we were interested in "camping" but to us that was a nice motorhome. Sort of like Phil Fill. Would we really be able to see the beauty that campers crave in one or would we be limited to large RV parks? On a boat you can use a dinghy/tender to get where the boat can't. So to match that do you have a four wheeler or something behind the Motorhome? Or get a Motorhome built with a garage. How would you go about seeing the stuff you couldn't in the Motorhome. And while motorcycles may be on your list, I like my skin and not about to get on one of those things.

As aside. Klondike bars are very messy. When you eat one you should always have someone beside you to help with the clean up.

sailed to small islands in the bay, set up pup tent strutted for clams and was king.


standards are a bit higher now.

bayview said:

sailed to small islands in the bay, set up pup tent strutted for clams and was king.


standards are a bit higher now.

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A lot of this is where people grew up it seems. We're both city kids. The jungle was concrete. Parks were modest. The lake I grew up spending time on was very nice but there was no reason to camp. I was hours from the nearest coast. Now mountains weren't quite as far and I think that's where all the Boy Scout Troops went.

I have done most types of camping from being a Boy Scout to my Airstream Trailer. I have run the gamut on boats from camping on a 21' cuddy cabin to my present boat. I still like both.

Just yesterday I drove 250 miles over to and through the Cherorkee National Forest looking for dispersed camping spots along the mountain trout streams. Much of it on unpaved forest roads. The spots have be large enough for clearances for my trailer. I don't tent camp anymore. The trailer even when camping off grid has it all. Heat/Air (air is not needed in the mountains), stall shower, inverter, 2 TVs for football, and a generator when needed. Not exactly roughing it, but off the grid camping is what suits me. In summer of 2017 we have scheduled a trip through the Rocky Mountain high country off grid above the 9000' elevation.

Anchoring or on a mooring off grid is where I am happiest on my boat. My boat and my camper are home to me.

I love camping of any type. I've camped in Canada in winter, building a cedar bough lean-to in minus 30 degrees. I do a lot of backcountry alpine touring on skis. Camping to me, is living with what you can carry on your
your back.


So, now it seems that spending a week on my simple little boat (in the eyes of some) is 5 star luxury compared to camping.

Northern Spy said:

Diesel stove, pump water, teeny tiny fridge. Yup. I'm camping.

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That's not my definition of camping. Camping means sleeping on the ground! And ice means a snowfield, and water is from a lake or stream via a filter.

AusCan said:

I love camping of any type. I've camped in Canada in winter, building a cedar bough lean-to in minus 30 degrees. I do a lot of backcountry alpine touring on skis. Camping to me, is living with what you can carry on your
your back.


So, now it seems that spending a week on my simple little boat (in the eyes of some) is 5 star luxury compared to camping.

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Winter camping in the Seven Sisters mountain range on the Skeena River I invented a beverage for acquiring the motivation to leave ones sleeping bag during cold snaps, called Jump Up Go Go;

1) boil water
2) make spearmint tea in a mug
3) add two heaping spoonfuls of hot chocolate
4) add one heaping spoonful of instant coffee
5) add 1/3 of a Mars Bar.

Sugar rush!

I love camping, and spend probably 20 nights a year in my tent, mostly at dinghy regattas or on multi day bicycle trips. I'm happy to have instilled that in my family - my 24 year old daughter has spent the last few months in NZ living out of her tent and backpack.

My last 'big' boat was an Aphrodite 101 sailboat, 33 feet narrow beam with headroom of about four feet. My wife and I spent lots of time happily cruising around on it. Not sure what I'm going to do with all the space on my Mainship 34, but it will be nice to have a shower

OK, I'll say it. We have it all onboard from AC, to generator, to flatscreen TVs--one in the saloon and one in the master cabin. We live aboard 365. We do get the urge to go camping at times; that's what Hampton Inns are for.

I carried a soft side insulated cooler and a welder chipping hammer about 3 miles up the glazier above Valdeez just to get pure glacier ice. I walked about 100 yards back into an ice cave and chipped out enough ice to fill my little cooler. I got a lot of bad looks from "tourists". But a Jack and Coke made with 10,000 year old "blue" ice is a must have experience. We didnt really camp much as my wife and I were in a 36 foot diesel motorhome, all summer from the first of may until the end of August.

I like camping both on land and water. As far as boats go I now have what I think will be a very comfy cruiser but I still have my 23.5 Hunter water ballast boat and enjoy camp cruising on it. Have spent many nights on canoes jon boats and my little 16' Sunbird sloop. We "camp" every year at RenFest still but not so often in the woods. Hope to do some of that later this year in Pennsylvania.

Kevin

Camped in the US Forest Services's employ, & US Army. Still don't like the smell of smoke, or pup tents. After a MacGregor 23, Tartan 27, and finally a Dickerson 36, the Californian 34 seems like a really comfortable cruising home; basic, but cozy.

markpierce said:

That's not my definition of camping. Camping means sleeping on the ground! And ice means a snowfield, and water is from a lake or stream via a filter.

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My idea of camping doesn't involve internal combustion engines either. I've spent many a night on a glacier or bivouacked in the bush. My boat is more like a rustic cabin, as I have no shower either. So I guess maybe not camping, but more like hut to hut trekking in the Himalayas, or a canoe camp in the Adirondacks. But definitely more like camping than 90-some percent of the other boats on this forum...

Did plenty of camping years ago, and I don`t want time on the boat to resemble camping, not at all.
Over here people talk about "glamping", which I think means "glamor camping". Like an overnight at the Western Plains Zoo or Taronga Zoo, upmarket tent, nice bed and furniture, attached bathroom, breakfast service, all within view of the animals. Hotel masquerading as camping?

I did a bit of camping growing up and at Uni, but when I started working as a field geologist I would be camping for about half the year and became pretty slick at it. Always carried a tent, hardly ever used it. I really loved sleeping under the stars.

My employer insisted we have one day off per week, so that meant driving for a number of hours to the nearest pub and a really long hot shower and eating someone else's cooking. Bird baths each day just didn't cut it, but we ate pretty well even when cooking for ourselves I must say. Getting fresh supplies, including fuel and water was necessary anyway.

After getting more deskbound my wife and I would take regular 4WD trips, either with or without friends, camping out. In our early 30's weekends were often diving & fishing within a club of like-minded people but in campgrounds. I still have all the gear but seldom land camp these days. I don't go into campgrounds unless they are mostly empty.

My boat is definitely not camping, but often where I'm anchored I will see families nearby hauling some gear up a beach from their little runabout. Its great to see. I think doing some tent camping away from campgrounds is a rite of passage and its never to late to do it. I'm not surprised by the number of people on here who have done it, and admire those who still make time to fit it into their life.

After sea kayaking along BC's coast for 6 months one year (2 months in the winter, 2 in the spring, and 2 in summer/fall) I found it takes about 3 weeks for the "modern world" to drop away from the way you think. After that it isn't really camping anymore, just the way in which you are living, you begin to relax, and allows you to experience/interpret nature in a profound way.

kulas44 said:

I carried a soft side insulated cooler and a welder chipping hammer about 3 miles up the glazier above Valdeez just to get pure glacier ice...a Jack and Coke made with 10,000 year old "blue" ice is a must have experience.

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Likewise here! I have hiked big chunks out from a couple of Cascade peaks as well. That kind of ice lasts twice as long as "city" ice, no pollution in it either!

To have a (solar-powered) freezer on my trawler with some of that for good rum would be deluxe "camping!"

BandB said:

Wifey B: Ok, for a moment...a question. Let's say we were interested in "camping" but to us that was a nice motorhome. Sort of like Phil Fill. Would we really be able to see the beauty that campers crave in one or would we be limited to large RV parks? On a boat you can use a dinghy/tender to get where the boat can't. So to match that do you have a four wheeler or something behind the Motorhome? Or get a Motorhome built with a garage. How would you go about seeing the stuff you couldn't in the Motorhome. And while motorcycles may be on your list, I like my skin and not about to get on one of those things.

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I didn't see anyone else jump right on this...

Yes, you can go off-grid with some motorhomes... to some places. Mostly depends on the quality of the roads, but even many unpaved forestry roads are accessible as long as you also have air clearance and aren't too long for tight turns. Sometimes shorter (length) is more preferable for this role...

The "garage" models offer some advantages, but also some disadvantages, so that's all a big trade-off... just as there are very general pros and cons for big motorhomes on a bus chassis (Class A), less big motor homes on a truck chassis (Class C), van conversions (Class B), 5th wheel trailers, (straight, pull behind) travel trailers, and slide-in truck campers. (That latter can offer some decent off-road utility, with a honkin' big 4WD pickup; get where you want, drop the camper onto the ground, e voila!)

Anyway, yes, you can use your "dinghy" (vehicle) to go further off the beaten path. Dinghy vehicles are often selected on criteria such as where you'd go with it (really no-kidding off-road implies 4WD) and how easy it is to tow on its own wheels (transmission disconnects or free-wheel lubrication, etc.).

Much of our camping has been in a tent, sometimes minimal with whatever we could pack in the canoe, sometimes elaborate on outfitted hunting trips, or even just a tarp and a sleeping bag while hunting alone in the Rockies...

But we've also pulled trailers, camped in our previous van conversion, stayed with folks in motorhomes... and some years ago almost went all in with the idea of buying one of those on-wheel things. But then paralysis by analysis set in, and I never could really decide which of those units would really suit us best.

So we bought a boat.

-Chris

We took our motorhome to alaska towing a toyota tacoma 4 door 4wd shortbed. We put the tacoma on the ferry at Homer spit. All my camping gear and a 15 foot aluminum topper flat bottom boat on a custom built full length rack/roll cage, with storage under. It was overloaded. We spent a month on kodiac in a tent fishing the Saltery river. With HUGE brown bears everywhere. The first week we tried to cook on a campfire. To wet. We took the now empty truck back to town 17 miles over incredibly ruff terrain (think goat trail) it took all day. We spent the night in a local hotel with running hot water, nice. We went to a store and bought a Coleman camp cook stove, 2 burner, and a dozen green bottles of gas. Another half day getting back to camp. After that I could have coffee on and cook breakfast easy. Dinner was easy, salmon or arctic char with fresh cut greens, mustards mostly. I can still smell it. One day we took out the boat on to Ugak Bay. Tried some halibut fishing but no luck. We saw a crabber so I went over to BS. He said they had got a rope in the wheel but his deckhand cut it off. Now, this boy was in shorts and had been in the water free diving for about an hour. Water was COLD. The captain asked if we'd like a few crabs. My wife loves crab, so she says "sure" . He told his deckhand to throw some in our boat. He pitched 7 HUGE dungeness crabs into the boat. We ate good that night. My wife was going to make crab cakes the next day but the bears ate the left overs, in our camp. Most fun ever.

My dear wife thinks a 4.5 star hotel is camping

gaston said:

My dear wife thinks a 4.5 star hotel is camping

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Yep. Same "problem" here. Just have to figure a way around it. She's the best wife I've ever had!

Scary said:

Age plays a roll. At least for me. In the past mountaineering, racing sailboats were my passions. Snow cave, igloos, bevi sacks , lumpy sail mattresses. At 73 my pillow top inerspring mattress, air conditioning and heat are more important. I've spent enough time in a cold cockpit. I want my heated pilot house, sometimes at night I'll go up on the flybridge and stand watch, just to remember how cold it can get, doesn't take long, back to the warmth like a moth to light. I actually slept in a tent last year, on the ground, below freezing, my lady actually stayed warm, thanks to the 8" loft of a good down bag. After that trip I gave most of my gear to my 27 year old daughter, she's in her hey day. Me I'm back on that nice mattress.

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LOL! I used to tent camp, then car camp, then I discovered RVs. Next, I discovered the floating RVs that we call trawlers. I ain't going back! If I ever buy a boat where I have to pump water to drink or flush a toilet, I'm upgrading!

menzies said:

Younger with children, roughing it in both scenarios.

Older now and mostly just the two of us with friends, dinner cruises, longer overnighters... we want more comforts, and zero camping.

For example the Bose Lifestyle system went out last weekend. I just ordered a replacement a few minutes ago!! Can't go without Barefoot Man!

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So true! My 'lil 34 LRC Californian might not be much, but she's comfortable and versatile. If my Sony/Bose stereo died today, I'd be ordering an Amazon replacement tomorrow so that in 3 days, I'd have the new system installed.

Music matters!!

I lived in Wyoming for ten years. For that time, we spent 2 weeks a year taking the horses up into the Bridger Tetons and set up hunting camps. Pretty primitive, although, we did have a woodstove in our tent. Now, as far as the boat, when the wife and I are in town (as truck drivers we're out 5 weeks, then home 5-7 days) we live on it, therefore, although it doesn't have to be luxurious, it does have to have all the comforts of home. IE: A/C, Heat, television, hot water, etc etc etc.....and toilets that work like toilets, lol. And of course, we USE all of those features when we take In Disguise out also, hence a generator.........which we use!

We owned a fancy RV for 12 months with the lot and now know why shootings , stabbings, divorce, and suicide is so popular

gaston said:

My dear wife thinks a 4.5 star hotel is camping

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Perla believes the Holiday Inn is roughing it!