It’s 3pm on a Friday, and the buzzing in your pocket signifies an incoming textual content: “Hey, we’ve got room for an additional tent at our campsite tonight. Wish to come?” Or a unique state of affairs: You’re fed up with “actual life” and wish a little bit backcountry R and R to reset—proper now. Or perhaps planning forward simply isn’t your forte. Regardless of the motive to your last-minute tenting journey, listed below are 10 ideas to make sure you’re as prepared as potential when the chance pops up.
Keep versatile.
The thought has been hatched: “Let’s go tenting!” However the dates, length, location and equipment meeting? All nonetheless TBD. Earlier than diving any additional into planning or packing, take a deep breath and alter your perspective and expectations. You’ll seemingly need to make some compromises alongside the best way, whether or not it’s the place you go or how gourmand the menu can be. That’s OK, assuming you intend for security (like packing your ten necessities and telling somebody your plans). Because the saying goes, “Don’t let good be the enemy of fine”—or on this case, don’t let timing be the enemy of getting out within the woods.
Get artistic when in search of a campsite.
Extra and extra individuals have began tenting within the final a number of years. That’s nice for a boatload of causes: Tenting improves our psychological well being, offers train and reference to the pure world, fosters relationship-building—the record goes on. However it almost definitely means the websites with the perfect views (and those upwind from the latrines) bought out months in the past. So, along with checking availability in nationwide and state park campgrounds, look into non-public campground choices too. On-line campsite aggregator Hipcamp serves up lists of tent websites and RV hookup spots—in addition to rentable treehouses, yurts and even a geodesic dome or two—and is helpful for sorting and looking by your specific preferences. You can too look into dispersed tenting choices on nationwide forest and Bureau of Land Administration (BLM) lands; simply be sure to observe all guidelines and pointers. (Listed below are BLM’s, for instance.)
Camp when others aren’t.
Weekends and nationwide holidays could be your finest days to flee the workplace and benefit from the outdoor. However because it seems, these are usually the perfect occasions for everybody else to go tenting too. So when you’ve got the power to go out mid-week, do it. You’ll seemingly discover much more choices open to you. Even when a Tuesday-night journey is out of the query, sneaking away out of your cubicle early on a Friday will provide you with higher odds of snagging one of many first-come, first-served websites obtainable at many campgrounds.
Make a packing record—and reserve it.
Likelihood is, you in all probability convey roughly the identical gear with you each time you camp, so having one grasp record for any kind of journey will make it simpler to get every little thing gathered and prepared. Our Tenting Guidelines provides you the choice to verify off what you want and ignore what you don’t: No additional packing-specific app mandatory. In case you’re somebody who likes the tangible satisfaction of crossing issues off, we embody a downloadable PDF so that you can print, laminate and use dry-erase markers with for reuse.
Retailer your tenting gear in a single place.
Are your climbing boots and poles within the storage? Do you retailer the backpack and tent within the basement? Possibly your backcountry kitchen gadgets and camp chairs dwell below the steps? Save your self from last-minute scrambling (and the appreciable frustration that ensues) by storing your tenting accouterments in a single a part of your house. On that observe…
Create separate bins to your favourite fun-tivities.
Many frequent campers have adopted the “discover a bin and throw it in” tactic for his or her varied adventure-filled actions. Put money into a number of plastic totes (or, for those who’re into versatile gear storage, pair up your REI Co-op Pack-Away Bin and Pack-Away Cubes) and assign every a function: automotive tenting gear in a single, backpacking gear in one other, and many others. We additionally advocate waterproof bins with a decent seal as a way to throw them on a hitch rack or depart them outdoors at your campsite (so long as there’s no meals in there for wildlife to get into). Take into account taping a listing of the bin’s contents on its exterior so you realize at a look what’s inside while you go into the storage, basement or under-the-stairs storage space to search out it.
Hold dehydrated meals available.
Having a prepared stash of grab-and-go meals will make getting out the door a lot simpler. You in all probability received’t be tenting for too many nights in your last-minute journey, so that you don’t need to hold a number of days’ price of meals available—only a couple meals to get you thru (like Thai Curry or Rooster Pho from GOOD TO-GO). Professional tip: Retailer your yums within the kitchen or in mice-proof containers for those who’re maintaining it with the remainder of your tenting stuff. Belief us on this one.
Hire (or borrow) gear you don’t already personal.
Unsure you’ll use that bear canister once more? Don’t have room to retailer a canoe long-term? Look into gear rental choices from native out of doors retailers. REI Co-op, for instance, affords quite a few gadgets for short-term rental, together with activity-specific kits. Or, in case your buddy invited you on this spur-of-the-moment alternative, ask if they’ve the gadgets you don’t to stop having to hurry into shopping for choices. Whether or not you lease or borrow, although, simply be sure to wash the gear earlier than you give it again. Which leads us to our subsequent tip…
Clear your gear while you get house.
Hosing off your tent, setting out soggy footwear to dry and working your camp kitchen utensils by way of the dishwasher in all probability aren’t the primary stuff you need to do while you return from a tenting journey. Do all of it anyway. Washing and readying gear for its subsequent journey—after which placing it away in that helpful, activity-specific bin—will streamline getting out the door and into the wild subsequent time. (You can too take a look at our Care and Restore ideas for sustaining your gear.)
Keep in mind that last-minute tenting is healthier than not tenting in any respect.
Doing issues last-minute sometimes means you’re introducing the factor of probability—and possibly some less-than-ideal occurrences—into the equation. At all times take mandatory security precautions like checking the climate, carrying the ten necessities and ensuring somebody at house is aware of the place you’ll be, however do your finest to embrace the smaller uncertainties and annoyances. It’s typically the out of doors adventures that go barely awry—forgetting utensils and having to eat together with your fingers, or cramming three individuals right into a two-person tent—that make the perfect tales round future campfires.
