Hiking

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. . . But Remember, Less Is Definitely More When You’re Trail Hiking

We all know how important it is to keep the weight of your backpack as low as possible when you’re hiking, but there are some necessities which are really worth carrying along the rugged trails, woodland paths and hauling up those steep hills.

Tent accessories  fall into two categories really:

• the stuff you really can’t live without . . . and if you forget to take it with you it really spoils your hiking trip
• the stuff which you’d love to have if you’re going on a one stop camping trip in the car,  or if you have some friendly donkey or other pack animal willing to carry it for you (if they don’t realize it that just makes it even sweeter).

Hiking and Camping Essentials

• sleeping bag – or something else equally comfortable and warm to sleep in . . . take a look at the picture for a minute, it’s a sleeping bag with arms and legs . . . how cool is that? I mean warm of course.  It would make you look a bit like a spaceman and would do nothing for your figure, but it’s still quite nifty . . . yes, I like it!
• sleeping mat – you don’t have to be a princess (remember “The Princess & The Pea”) to know that sleeping on the ground without a floor sleeping mat does not equal very much sleeping at all. You feel every tiny little stone, even if you can’t find the darned things to move them.

• cooking stove – after a hard days trail hiking it’s always great to have something warm and tasty to look forward to . . . and I’m not talking about that bimbo you’ve hooked up with from another hiking party. So, make sure that you have an adequate camping stove with fuel and waterproof matches.

• eating utensils – eating with your grubby fingers before wiping them clean(ish) on the ground is fine for some foods, but it won’t get you far with your beans. Take a spoon, a knife, a fork, take something for goodness sake – or invest in one of those rather nifty swiss army type knives which have all sorts of different attachments.
• spare guylines – guylines do tend to break, often at the most inopportune moments, and you’ll have trouble battening down the hatches when a storm is brewing if you’ve got nothing more than the belt which holds up your pants. Brightly colored guylines are a great idea . . . to stop you tripping over them in the dark (or help a little at least). Maybe they should make guylines which taste nasty, I mean, forgive my suspicious nature but how many times have you gone to bed with perfectly secure guylines in place, heard a little rustling and chewing in the darkest hours and woken up with half of your tent collapsed . . . I’m just saying, that’s all!
• tent pegs – you’re gonna need plenty of tent pegs, especially if you’re hiking to a new campsite every day. The trouble is when you’re camping and hiking, that the ground likes to eat tent pegs. You can start off with ample . . . say 10, and you can guarantee that by the time you’ve taken your tent down every morning there’s one missing. How does that work? Only one explanation my friend, the mysterious eating habits of some metal chewing underground mountain rodents, never been discovered, even on “The Discovery Channel” but they do exist. What other explanation could there be?

Clever . . . carbon fiber tent pegs to stop the metal chewing rodents . . . why didn’t I think of that. They do need a hook on the end though mate, just modify your design a little bit please.

• lanterns and flashlights – those lanterns which hang on a little loop inside the tent are the best type of lighting for camping I reckon, but a word of warning, when you dangle a lantern inside your tent, everybody outside the tent can see what you’re doing . . . there are very few secrets among hikers! Wonder what his trail name would be?

Camping Luxuries for the Stay Put Camper

“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations.  When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.+  -George Carlin

You can enjoy a hiking trip without moving your camping equipment every single day you know. Setting up a base camp is a fantastic way to take in the countryside trails and hikes without having to carry all of the worldly possessions (hiking worldly possessions that is) every single day. If you have the luxury of carrying your tent, camping equipment and camping accessories to the camp-site by car, then a whole new world opens up. You can have a proper, comfortable blow up mattress, you can have a different type of hiking furniture, you can have a proper camping stove which has more than one ring and can cook and grill at the same time, you can have a port-a-pottie instead of squatting behind a tree or bush, and you can have a rubber mallet . . . one of those big hammer type jobbies which is just great for hammering in tent pegs on even the hardest surfaces, and hammering anything else that comes to mind for that matter.