Camping is exciting in all seasons and for all ages. Natalie Floyd and Alex Stephens, Deer camp in the Ozarks
New Year’s Camp, spring turkey camp, fishing camp, Memorial weekend camp, 4th of July camp, Labor Day weekend camp, bow camp, trappers rendezvous camp, fall turkey camp, deer camp, whew, why do I even own a house? We camp almost as much as we are at home. I would rather sleep in a tent in the outdoors on a crisp, cool night than any house in which I’ve ever lived. There’s just something about lying down in the Great Outdoors that brings out the adventurer in an outdoorsman. It is also a great way to introduce the kids to the great outdoors. For a child camping is an adventure of the greatest degree. And for an adult, if you challenge yourself, camping in certain environments is still a true adventure for the wanderlust outdoor soul.
For our family the seasons and the environment dictate what sort of camping we do. If it’s above 65° F all night long, for me, it’s time for a camper with AC. It seems I am an oddity according to my wife. I want a camper in the summer and a tent the rest of the year. When I sleep I prefer it at least cool if not down right cold. The best sleeping I’ve ever done was in a tent with lots of warm covers where you could see your breath when you exhaled. Therefore, for our Memorial weekend camp through Labor Day weekend camp, we use a camper with AC. It is also nice to have a place for the family to play games and cook away from the bugs and heat. During these times of the year fishing is generally the activity of choice.
On the other hand, cool or cold, crisp nights – fall, winter, or spring, in my opinion, are the best times to tent camp. Stepping out of your army tent at 9,000 feet of elevation in Colorado and getting hit in the face with a 5 below zero breeze, now that’s camping! You walk around holding a tin cup of coffee to keep your hands warm. It is absolutely exhilarating. Then, at night, you get ready for bed and jump into your sleeping bag and vigorously rub your legs and arms to ease the goosebumps as you wait for the bag to warm up. After the edge of coldness has subsided, you watch the old barrel wood stove glow orange as it huffs along like a steam locomotive heading down the tracks. From the ground to a few feet high you lie there and can see your breath and then when you stand up its 75° F or more all the way to the top of the tent! Tent camping in the high country winter wilderness is an exciting and rewarding challenge for any outdoorsman. The lessons learned are of great value for anyone who wants to learn cold-weather camping like the mountain men of old.
I learned one such lesson back in the mid 1980’s while deer camping at Ft. Leonard Wood. Charlie Pace, my father, and me were camped in a borrowed tent with a borrowed catalytic heater. Before season Charlie had treated the tent several times with Thompson’s Water Sealer so if it rained we would stay dry. Opening day found us leaving camp before light and returning to camp after dark. As we drove up to camp I wheeled the truck to where I thought our camp had been and stopped the truck. Dad said, “Hey moron, where’s our tent? You’ve stopped at the wrong camp.” I quickly surveyed the spot. All the same campers belonging to our camp cohorts were there. It was just our tent that was missing. Just about that time the military police pulled in behind us and I saw a large black spot on the ground with some aluminum poles scattered around half buried in ash. “Dad,” I said, “We’re in the right camp but our tent isn’t with us anymore.”
It was completely gone! During the day some of the hunters had come in for lunch and put their trash in the campfire. The trash had caught the grass on fire and it had burned over to the tent. The hunters camped beside our camp told us the tent was gone in 30 seconds! They had just barely had enough time to put out the fire under some of the camper trailers in our camp. Our hunting clothes, sleeping bags, extra boots, and the borrowed heater were all gone. An MP walked up and handed me a knife with a charred sheath my grandmother had given me for Christmas. “This was all we could salvage,” he said. “What did you guys have on that tent anyway?” I sure was glad it was Charlie that had borrowed that tent and heater and not me!
This year, if you’re looking for a great Memorial weekend with the kids or friends, try camping in the Great Outdoors. You never know, you might even learn a lesson or two that will stick with you for life. Lesson to self – don’t treat tents with commercial water sealer. If it catches fire you won’t put it out! So says the One-Eyed Hillbilly. Good luck, be safe, and get a big one.
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