Why do people camp?

[gizmo1979]

If I wanted to live like a homeless person I'd be a homeless person.I like a stroll in the woods as much as the next person,but to lay on the ground in a smelly stinky tent I don't see it.

[Democrat Dragon]

1. to appreciate nature

Camping isn't for everyone. But maybe you should try it before judjging. It's a great experience, well at least for me it was.

[benny05]

9. To appreciate Nature and..

What you have for comforts.

Perhaps W needs to go on many camping trips since he hasn't been on many in his life or had to fight in the mudholes..

[Swamp Rat]

17. Yeah, "Camp David" doesn't count. n/t

:D

[madison2000]

2. Its cheaper than staying in a hotel

when I was a kid we did that on some family vacations to save money.
I like doing it once in a while now just to sleep outside. I've never been in a smelly stinky tent.

[benny05]

12. We tried to sleep outside

When I was a kid, but neither of my parents knew how to put up a decent tent, so we slept in the car when it rained.

Car Camping is OK...

[benny05]

14. But not great

But I'm grateful I didn't have to keep my eyes open in a tent when it rained..

[havocmom]

40. And I can take the dog & cat!

I sleep outside when it's not too cold. Love a hammock and the stars!

edited to add a picture of old gato enjoying the morning at Datil Wells, NM.

[napi21]

3. Oh gee. there's a lot of things you can just get away from!

No phone, TV, bosses, neighbors, relatives, and just plane noise.

BTW, when I camped, it wasn't in a smelly tent on the ground. We took our kids almost every weekend to a streetrod run and camped there. We had parties all the time, the kids had weekend friends, different from their school friends, and we had a pop-up ccamper that we towed with our 1034 Plymouth streetrod! We always had a GREAT time!

[The empressof all]

4. My idea of camping is Motel 6

Sorry after I hit a certain age it lost all it's appeal.

[Wcross]

5. I often take week or two long canoe trips.

It isn't often you find a motel in the middle of nowhere.

[thecai]

6. I Love Camping

I have a 2 room tent, but I have to sleep on an air mattress with goose-down comforters, due to a disability.

[sweetladybug]

18. My husband and I go camping every summer. We have a camper and also

a tent. It's a lot of fun. NO having to get up early to go to work. NO telephone,so no one can call and wake us up. NO cleaning (use paper plates and plastic utensils. It's great to go boat riding and fishing whenever we get ready to go and not have to wait on anyone. It is so quiet just listening to nature since there's NO cars and noices except for sounds of of the birds,the wind, the blowing of the leaves and the crackling sound of the campfire. It's great to hear these sounds. Camping is so relaxing and we enjoy going each year.

[thecai]

28. Awesome!

That's why I love it, and swimming, and roasting hot-dogs and marshmallows...

[amazona]

7. it's wonderful

Alas, my partner shares your opinion but to me there is nothing quite like getting up in the morning in a forest far away from telephone or civilization and as you're cooking up coffee on the campfire a Barred Owl tries to remove the top of your partner's head.

Hmmm. Probably why he objects to camping now. But come on, this a great story to share with friends and family...who probably still don't believe the Barred Owl tried to remove the top of his head.

But really, the great thing about camping is, as soon as the sun comes up, or a little before, you are OUT THERE, no driving, you are in the thick of it. The best wildlife action happens at dawn and dusk.

You miss it all if you don't camp.

I am probably weird in that my memories of being homeless are not all negative. In those years, the one thing I noticed was that when I was living out of a tent, my illness didn't bother me. But you know I'm a little odd.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[JVS]

8. Camping is the cheapest way to do a vacation

Also, when people camp they like to drink and screw a lot

[HEyHEY]

30. You forgot throwing gas on the fire

[Hans Delbrook]

10. I thought the whole point of civilization was we get to sleep inside!

If God had meant us to sleep in tents He wouldn't have invented 4 star hotels. Believe me, you can really get away from it all at a luxury resort!

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. Because I like it. It's cheap for my little family of four to get out and

see the world. Don't worry, giz, you just leave more ground space for us. :hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

13. Cheaper AND Nicer

Lots of nice campgrounds with a beautiful view, clean restrooms, and hot showers are cheaper and a lot nicer than cheap motels, with grungy floors, traffic noises outside the door, and a front desk behind bulletproof glass. Having travelled on a budget and stayed at both, I'd choose the campground, in nice weather, any day.

On edit: Also, you don't have to sneak your dogs into a campground. ;)

[Chicago Democrat]

15. Life is about making it NOT like camping

So I don't completely get it.


Max for me is 3 days.. After that it is like life during wartime.

[parasim]

16. There's no better way to get to really know Mother Nature...

... until you've slept with her.

What I dig about camping?
- Creating a great father/son bond with my 17 year old, who, I admit, likes camping a lot more than me. We go camping at least twice a year. We have a blast every time.
- The enlightenment of gaining a better understanding what it is like to be homeless, or understanding how Native Americans lived back in the day.
- It's a fun way to learn basic survival skills... a good thing to know these days...
- The sounds. A babbling brook nearby. or a waterfalls. or just the wind through the forest. Nothing like the haunting, lonesome call of a coyote in the distance or the adrenalin rush of hearing the faint pounding of a deer's hooves coming closer and closer and then it's snorting at 3 inches on the other side of the tent at 3 in the morning.
- The gorgeous view of a non-light-polluted starry sky. Perhaps there'll be a meteor, or we'll catch the Northern Lights, or witness some other interesting celestial event.
- Sitting around a campfire. Maybe somebody's got a guitar or we'll start a drum circle.

I could go on and on... But I agree, it sure is not for everyone. My older son will have nothing to do with camping. Rock stars don't camp apparently...

[coloradodem2005]

19. There is something very relaxing about camping.

Mainly to appreciate nature. I used to go all the time when I was in Boy Scouts. It felt great. I always felt more relaxed after a camping trip.

[stpalm]

20. I love camping.

This summer, I spent a whole month in the wilderness- first, a week and a half rafting down the Grand Canyon, then it was back to MN and immediately afterwards on a two-week boundary waters canoe trip. Amazing experience.

[miss_kitty]

21. I used to run river trips and we camped from Thursday to Sunday

from June thru August. It was sweet! We saw some spectacular stuff! Eagles, hawks, rattlers, The stars at night, more stars in a darker sky than you can see at once. Deer leaping over our sleeping bags while we were in them, swimming, kayaking, snacks, hiking, fish, horseflies, skinny dipping, meeting people, rowing boats, incredible breakfasts, insane rapids, porcupine, herons, camp fires, smores, learning stuff, woodpeckers, old mining stuff, abandoned cabins, side streams, sex outdoors, horse trails, gorp, haystacks, Mariel, the falls, bunnies, mice, garter snakes, the canyon and huevos rancheros cooked over a campfire on a huge griddle.

It was cool. I liked it. I don't think the homeless people you see get to do what I did when I was camping.

[Ivan Sputnik]

22. To get away from it all

Way, way away from it all. It's the best way to appreciate nature and it can be very ... meditative ... and relaxing in a way that's hard to explain. (This is assuming you aren't in one of those campgrounds where people bring their TVs along.) It's not uncomfortable if you have decent equipment and luck out with the weather. And it does make you appreciate your home and modern conveniences all the more when you get back. It's also a great way to visit expensive places (Cape Cod, for example) for very little money.

[greendog]

23. A better question would be...

...why do people stay in hotels. Hotels are the McDonalds version of home.

I remember a night I spent on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I camped, by myself, on a finger of rock that jutted out into the canyon. Watched the sun set, felt the wind blow, laid awake for hours looking at the stars (didn't use a tent...just laid on the ground) and in the morning woke and made tea while watching the sun come back up. Shadows and light, changing colors, magic.

Either that.....or stay in a hotel and watch the TV. LOL

[Hans Delbrook]

27. Or you can sit on a lounge chair on your balcony

listening to the ocean, looking up at the stars, sipping champagne and smiling at your sweetie. (A description of our recent trip to Aruba - we stayed in a hotel.)

Some of us do not go to hotels to watch TV.

[Magrittes Pipe]

24. .

http://pages.zoom.co.uk/leveridge/sontag.html

[Red State Rebel]

25. My idea of camping is when there is no 24 hour room service!

No bugs, thank you!

[XNASA]

26. Making love in a tent is the absolute greatest..........

Especially if you can find someone to go with you.

[Magrittes Pipe]

29. You were the worst scoutmaster ever!

:cry:

[XNASA]

32. But I made each and every one of you 'earn' your badges.......

Nobody got a free ride.

[benny05]

35. I would add

that on an island that is in the middle of a low-rise river, is great for lovemaking...especially in the middle of a day

[Bouncy Ball]

31. I wondered the same thing before June of 2004.

Then I went on a camping trip that involved 6000 miles, nine western states, and 16 nights in a tent.

I now understand why people camp. And I am NOT a big outdoorsey person.

It was supremely cool. One night, in Williams, Arizona (just southeast of the Grand Canyon), we had to leave the rain tarp off because the wind would kick up so hard. It got down to 34 degrees that night. Totally clear sky. I watched the full moon move across the sky and I saw my first shooting star. My daughter and I slept on a full sized air mattress on a frame (so we weren't on the ground). We had sleeping bags and blankets. I snuggled up beside her and wrapped her in more blankets. It was TOTALLY quiet.

On other evenings, my daughter made friends with other little kids in the camp areas and they'd just run around and play until they totally tired themselves out.

Campfires. Fireworks we watched in a camp in Utah on the fourth of July.

We didn't see a TV or a newspaper for sixteen days. Everything we ate was what we could make in our electric skillet or over the campfire.

I am totally hooked and I want to go camping again very soon. I miss it. God, it was wonderful.

[Bouncy Ball]

33. Also, I forgot some things.

I have NEVER slept so well or so deeply as the nights I've slept in a tent.

Another time after that big trip, my husband and I went to a really rural area with a lake and a state park. We just had a tent, two sleeping bags, and some equipment. Someone had left a hammock between two trees and I just swung on that for the longest time, looking up through the pine trees.

That night was the best sleep I've ever had. And nothing beats the smell of a campfire.

[New Earth]

34. ahhh

making me miss camping. we used to go every summer in my family.

and same for me - i slept SO well, so sound in the tent, wrapped up in a sleeping bag.......and nothing compares to the smell of a campfire and the sound of crinkling leaves when walking around the campground...

[Bouncy Ball]

36. I seriously have to get in a tent soon.

It's been too long, maybe eight months since I camped last.

And around here (Texas), winter is the BEST time. Summer, forget it, unless you want to frigging die.

[mcscajun]

37. If your tent is smelly and/or stinky...

...a) kick the farting bastard OUT; b) open the flaps.
...c) Stop rolling it up wet and storing it that way...life is too short to breathe in mildew and mold.

But seriously, I loved to go camping up until a few years ago; still have all my gear, and might do it again. But I need a neck pillow to sleep on these days, and the ground wouldn't do my back any good. ::sigh:: Still, there's nothing like waking up in the north woods breathing that marvelous green air and hearing the birds all around you. The smell of woodsmoke, oh yeah.

And getting back to civilization a few days later and taking a shower. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[HeeBGBz]

38. I plan to camp this summer

I figured I would practice being homeless. I want to go mobile. I am buying items that would enable me to have temporary shelter in the trunk of my car.

I used to be a gypsy in the 70's. I may end up that way again.

I like sleeping outside sometimes. To wake up in nature. To be eaten by bears.

[ConcernedCanuk]

39. Space and Freedom!

.
.
.

You can have THOUSANDS of acres as your "backyard",

TRILLINS of gallons of water in your "swimming pool",

and wear whatever you want, or not :silly:

Beauty sunsets and sunrises,

STARS, that you would rarely see in any city (smog),

and fresh FRESH air!

Fish cooked over an open fire, minutes after they are caught

I gave up the tent camping 15 years ago for an old slide-in camper on my 4x4 - THAT's freedom, and comfort!

Propane fridge fur da beer, solar panels (cheapies) to keep my batteries up for my night reading

That's just a few of the reasons, of course the SCENERY . . .

Clik on my eyes below for hundreds of pix of my "whys"

(Dcamper)

[EstimatedProphet]

41. Well, to start with-air out your tent

Why I camp:
Last summer the Prophetess and I went camping a few times. Some times were better than others, but the best time was when we just went down the road to the Corps of Engineers lakeside camp for a weekend. I had set up a hammock, and I was kind of sleepy and relaxed as I lay down in the hammock, and I swung back and forth in the breeze all afternoon, napping and relaxing. Time stopped that afternoon. There were no pressures. I didn't have to worry about work then, or money, or anything. I just laid back and half-napped in the shade, and watched the clouds go by.
That's why I camp.

[Renew Deal]

42. You better learn. Peak Oil is coming.

:tinfoilhat:

[alarimer]

43. there is nothing like it

Nothing like having a pack of raccoons steal all your food (clever little bastards!) and nothing like hearing a noise in the middle of the night, thinking it is a bear and it turns out to be a possum. Also nearly tripping over a skunk in the middle of the night is pricelsss I swear!!

Seriously though sometimes it is fun to get away from it all and in some remote locations you have no choice. There are no hotels.