Currently, our annual camping excursions are what one would classify as car camping or maybe even "glamping": we load our car up with all of our gear and food, then drive right in to the campsite where we unload and set up camp. For certified-fresh city folk, it's not a bad deal.
Sometimes people will ask us will ask us why we camp. I'm never exactly sure how to answer, except in the immortal words of the French waiter (Eric Idle) from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life: "Well... Fuck you. I can live my life in my own way if I want to." If I sound bitter, it's usually because in context, it always sounds like I'm being asked to justify my hobby in a way I wouldn't if I was involved in a sport of some kind. But, I suppose, just like an activity that one might traditionally consider to fall under the sporting category, part of the appeal of camping is the challenge of living off of only the equipment and supplies you can carry with you.
Another part of it, I guess, is getting away from it all. Not in that sense of shunning technology and modern life, but just to keep that connection with the natural world. There's something uniquely meditative about sitting around a campfire at night, with a full view of the northern sky, the glow of the stars unobstructed by the glow of the city lights. A little beer or weed doesn't hurt either.
Camping also breeds an appreciation for just how easy life is for us in a First World country in the 21st Century. Getting home after a weekend of camping, it just makes everything seem so much easier, from access to hot water to access to beer and weed.
It was also through camping that we discovered on of the keys to enjoying life: hammocks. There are few feelings better in life than relaxing in the shade, swinging in a hammock on a warm, summer afternoon.
Typically, our family's camping season runs from June to August, but this year, due to conflicting schedules with other families we typically go camping with, we ended up going to a campground we'd never gone to before in the middle of September. We didn't have the access to a swimming hole like we would have preferred, but the park was pleasantly empty for the most part.
In lieu of spending time at the beach, which our camping trips typically revolve around, we resorted to other forms of outdoor entertainment. My wife bought a portable badminton set this summer, that definitely got its use.
The big event at the September camping trip was a passing of the torch, so to speak. My son, just shy of eight years old, built and started his own fire using only matches. He was pretty proud of himself, and it was pretty amazing to share that moment with my son. Luckily, I remembered to snag some pictures of my son and the very first fire he made completely by himself:
Now, I'm not a huge shutterbug, and it turns out that the photos I did take of our first September also have shots of some friends of ours, and it's typically my policy not to post pictures of people without their permission. But just to commemorate some happy childhood memories, I'll include some images below of camping trips from earlier in 2018 to give a real flavour of our family's camping adventures. For full effect, scroll through the following images slowly while listening to "With a Little Help From My Friends" (The Wonder Years version, of course).
Sometimes people will ask us will ask us why we camp. I'm never exactly sure how to answer, except in the immortal words of the French waiter (Eric Idle) from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life: "Well... Fuck you. I can live my life in my own way if I want to." If I sound bitter, it's usually because in context, it always sounds like I'm being asked to justify my hobby in a way I wouldn't if I was involved in a sport of some kind. But, I suppose, just like an activity that one might traditionally consider to fall under the sporting category, part of the appeal of camping is the challenge of living off of only the equipment and supplies you can carry with you.
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| Check out these packing skills. A perfect 5/7. |
Another part of it, I guess, is getting away from it all. Not in that sense of shunning technology and modern life, but just to keep that connection with the natural world. There's something uniquely meditative about sitting around a campfire at night, with a full view of the northern sky, the glow of the stars unobstructed by the glow of the city lights. A little beer or weed doesn't hurt either.
It was also through camping that we discovered on of the keys to enjoying life: hammocks. There are few feelings better in life than relaxing in the shade, swinging in a hammock on a warm, summer afternoon.
Typically, our family's camping season runs from June to August, but this year, due to conflicting schedules with other families we typically go camping with, we ended up going to a campground we'd never gone to before in the middle of September. We didn't have the access to a swimming hole like we would have preferred, but the park was pleasantly empty for the most part.
In lieu of spending time at the beach, which our camping trips typically revolve around, we resorted to other forms of outdoor entertainment. My wife bought a portable badminton set this summer, that definitely got its use.
The big event at the September camping trip was a passing of the torch, so to speak. My son, just shy of eight years old, built and started his own fire using only matches. He was pretty proud of himself, and it was pretty amazing to share that moment with my son. Luckily, I remembered to snag some pictures of my son and the very first fire he made completely by himself:
Now, I'm not a huge shutterbug, and it turns out that the photos I did take of our first September also have shots of some friends of ours, and it's typically my policy not to post pictures of people without their permission. But just to commemorate some happy childhood memories, I'll include some images below of camping trips from earlier in 2018 to give a real flavour of our family's camping adventures. For full effect, scroll through the following images slowly while listening to "With a Little Help From My Friends" (The Wonder Years version, of course).
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