TheCampingGuy.com Blog | Camping Tips

The nights are darker, colder and dry. The wind is whistling through the trees and the stars are staring at us, sharp and clear. Costumes and candy cover the shelves in every store and the cackle of fall can be heard at dusk… Halloween is here again and it’s a great time of year to camp!

Whether you’re planning a rough and tumble get-away in a tent or a convenient, cozy hole-up in a cabin or trailer, camping during the Halloween Holiday can be a fun and spooky experience. Knowing this first hand, The Camping Guy suggests a few fun things to do for a creative, safe holiday:

A Pirate’s Camping Party
Ahoy mate! Add adventure to your camping trip with a Pirate theme. Stockings, long socks, boots, beads, eye patches, bandannas, scarves, wide brim hats, costume hats and make-up are a great start for costumes. Add pirate themed food like glaze-grilled turkey, wild rice, pineapple slices, fresh coconut and papaya for atmosphere. Canned fruits work especially well for those tropical fruits that are not in season. For drinks, serve pina coladas and rum with cola for the adults and tropical fruit juice for the kids.

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I’m sure you’ve heard about Lyme disease and how it’s carried by some ticks so here’s a few tips on how to prevent getting ticks while camping and what to do if you get one.

First of all, let’s focus on protection. Here’s a couple of tips.

• Wear light colored clothing so you can see the ticks on you.
• Pull your socks up over your pant legs to prevent ticks from crawling in.
• Wear a long sleeved shirt and a hat.
• Wear insect repellant. I tend to spray an extra dose around my ankles when I’m hiking on trails.
• Check yourself and others for ticks after a hike, especially around the head and ears.

If you happen to get one attached to you, here’s what to do.

• Stay calm
• Take some tweezers from your camp kit or first aid kit and grasp the tick close to the skin and gently pull until it comes out. You don’t want to rip it out, or you might leave the mouth parts in your skin.
• Wash the wound with soap and water, put on antibiotic ointment.
• After dealing with the tick make sure you wash your hands.

Watch for symptoms over the next 48 hours to week, which are:

• A red ring-like rash may appear around the bite area
• Flu-like symptoms like fatigue, muscle and join pain, headache, fever, swollen glands, sore throat and stiff neck.

If you experience these symptoms after tick remove, please see a physician.

Above all, check with the Park Ranger of the campground to see if ticks inhabit in your camping area. He/she will give you some advice on local conditions and possible areas to stay away from. Then you’re prepared to have a fun campout!

Sorry…post removed while I fix incompatibilities with YouTube and WP 2.2.2

In the meantime go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoToVxLJ0Xc

When I was a beginner camper I would try to remember to pack everything I needed, but I’d always show up late at a campsite and forget some thing like a frying pan for the scrambled eggs! Not to mention, my wife used to get upset when some of her kitchenware was missing for the weekend! So, I eventually got my own camping kitchenware, some checklists and “kits”to help me remember what to bring.

Over the years camping I’ve put together a couple of Camping Kits that make packing and camping a whole lot easier. I can load the truck quickly and know that I have everything I’m gonna need in those few kits - along with tent, stove, sleeping bag and food! There are many kits that you can make to simplify your campout. In fact, I’ve even run across some “Rainy Day Kits” that include games, books, puzzles, etc. But, you can decide what works best for you. Let me show you a couple that I use and see if they’re useful or maybe they’ll give you some ideas for something better.

My kits cover the essentials - Eating and Cleaning! First of all, I always bring my Cook Kit, which has all the pots, pans, cutting board, and all the cooking utensils I’ll need to whip up a tasty camp meal. Here’s a full list of what’s in my Cook Kit.

Next is my Cleanup Kit. Ya, you guessed it, all the stuff you need for cleaning up. A full description and pictures await you at Cleanup Kit.

If you are really ambitious you can create a Camp Box, like the ones we use on Scout campouts. This box has hinged sides that fold down to create two working/cooking surfaces with all cooking and cleaning items in one spot. We drilled four holes in the bottom for legs and got some 3 ft. sections of aluminum pipe for legs.

As you see there’s a couple of ways you can go with your Camping Kits - from small to large. Just get one or two and make your camping easier.