What kind of camping experience have you had? What were your best and worst experiences?
Created: 12/24/18
Replies: 20
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
Join Date: 07/16/13
Posts: 117
Join Date: 06/05/18
Posts: 263
I was a Girl Scout for many years as well as a Girl Scout leader so camping has always been a fun experience for me. My experiences have ranged from sleeping in A-frame lodges with dorms, indoor bathrooms and showers and huge kitchens to what is known as "primitive camping" where you pitch your tent outside and dig your own latrines (toilets) to everything in-between. The best experience was bonding over an open fire either cooking or sitting around talking and singing at night. The worst experience was being out for a week where it rained all week and the walls of your tent get moldy. Winter camping is not wonderful either when you are sleeping outside and you wake up with a sheet of ice on your sleeping bag.
Join Date: 05/11/15
Posts: 100
My family and I took a cross-country camping/visiting friends and family trip the summer I turned 12. It was a wonderful experience. The next time I went camping was a year after I was married - an awful experience! We camped where it turned out there were many large bugs which we woke up to, all over the tent, the sleeping bag, and us. (We realized why all the other campers were in trailers, or tents on a platform, not right on the ground.) I never went camping again!
Join Date: 08/07/18
Posts: 15
Join Date: 06/23/13
Posts: 142
Most of my camping experiences were cold, uncomfortable, damp affairs I really did not enjoy. This past fall we rented a Winnebago and met family in a State Park for the weekend. What an improvement! Hot showers, comfortable bed and a microwave. I will definitely do this again.
Join Date: 10/27/15
Posts: 146
I didn't enjoy camping until college, when there was alcohol.
I enjoyed it after college without alcohol until it just wasn't comfortable to sleep on the ground or an air mattress anymore.
I do think I'd enjoy glamping though, so will add that to my bucket list.
The best thing about camping is being able to see so many stars on a clear night. I live in a pretty metropolitan area so it's difficult & rare to see a lot of stars at night.
Join Date: 10/23/12
Posts: 35
Best time was on our honeymoon when we were in Rocky Mountain national park,to wake up in the morning and looking out the tent and seeing a herd of elk in the valley. The worst was on our first weekend trip before we got married,weathering a monsoon rainstorm in a not quite waterproof tent and watching the water rise in the tent bottom soaking our sleeping bags and everything else,luckily I was given another chance,and here we are 30 years later
Join Date: 01/01/16
Posts: 476
I have not done any overnight camping for years but when I was younger I did love it. I still love being in the mountains on day hikes. Overnight camping, I loved seeing the stars at nights, the insects chirping, being away from all the city noises. The best was being with family and friends. The worst I would say being at Mt Rainier and not putting our food in a safe place from the bears. We survived but our chocolate did not! I am no longer adventurous enough to overnight camp.
Join Date: 12/01/16
Posts: 292
I also had many camping experiences similar to what the others have shared. Mine started with the Girl Scouts then with family during the summers on the beaches of Florida (now condos have taken over most campgrounds that were on the beachfront). I was also part of a field hospital in the Army Reserves, so yeah we did a lot of "camping". The best times were at the beachfront campgrounds and the worst were with the field hospital experiences in knee-high grass, lots of bugs, digging latrines, bathing out of your helmet, etc. Good or bad, I wouldn't have traded any of those experiences because they each enriched my life in one way or another.
Join Date: 04/21/11
Posts: 338
The first real camping experience was going to Yosemite on my honeymoon many years ago. My most vivid memory is hearing bears growling in the distance! Then two years ago we hiked into Manchu Picchu and camped for three nights going in. It was nice having porters carrying everything for us and this time there were no bears!
Join Date: 03/13/12
Posts: 564
First, let me say: I HATE camping. I like rigorous, outdoor adventures but afterwards I want a regular bathroom and a somewhat comfortable bed. I have been forced to go on long camping trips as a teacher. They were miserable, facilities were dirty and unacceptable; both adults and students were mostly miserable.(The administrators never went on this trip, and most teachers thought up some excuse to not be on this trip. Sadly, I was young enough, healthy, and athletic enough to always be assigned this dreaded trip.) I don't want to freeze in a sleeping bag and end up getting sick when I get home for a supposed bonding experience, so I totally related to the women that were unhappy with their mandatory corporate experience.
Join Date: 10/15/14
Posts: 363
My camping experiences have all been with my spouse and have been weekend drives and overnights in state parks where everything was close at hand, comfortable, well marked and/or lighted. If weather had become an issue, we could simply have gotten into our vehicle. I've never done any camping similar to that described and undertaken by the women in this novel.
Join Date: 07/16/14
Posts: 405
Several of my earliest camping experiences, when I was in my 20's, were in a two man pup tent out in the mountains of Vermont. One of them was my honeymoon--we and the dog hiked down two ravines to the edge of a small mountain stream. It was quite dry --rocks with little puddles of water, actually. Not even large enough to be considered trout pools. As we made camp it started to rain, large smattering drops but not a deluge. By the time we ate and cleaned up, the deluge had arrived. Into the tent we went, hubby, dog and me. Night fell, the deluge continued, hubby and dog slept, I sat awake with my cigarettes listening to the water rise and rush down from above us. Terrified listening to the males snoring and the water raging. Morning came, hubby had to ford the water above our camp with our gear, come back and carry the dog across and then come back once more to hold my arm to keep the water from knocking my legs out from under me. That was the last time I camped in a tent-from then on it was State Parks and lean-to's. We camped often when our daughter was little. The best experience was in Jamaica State Park when she and hubby took a hike with her Teddy Bear to the Falls. They were back sooner than expected, seems he turned back when he realized the falls bathers were au naturel. Had a private laugh about that. The worst was at another park, when I woke up to find a raccoon walking around my daughter and her friend, who woke up also. I had to try to keep her from frightening the coon and perhaps getting bitten since it did not seem in the least concerned that I was trying to shoo it out of the lean-to and I was worried it might be rabid. It finally decided there was nothing interesting there and left, but my heart and breathe stopped at the thought of the girls being bitten.
Join Date: 10/13/14
Posts: 176
Join Date: 08/07/11
Posts: 54
I have five children. My second husband and I were married when he was 28, and he got an instant family. For our honeymoon he took me and three of the five children on a camping trip to Montana and Wyoming and one of the exciting adventures was white-water rafting on the Flathead River. The most exciting part of the honeymoon was that our equipment (all paddles) broke and two of the children and I ended the trip in the water--literally. As we held on to the side of that huge raft and neared the falls, I managed to get the raft and us to a rock on the side of the river as he was frantically getting the rangers. That was the worst. The next worse was in Alaska, a fishing trip on the Deshka River with my husband and three grown sons. We ran out of food, I ended up in the river once again (thankfully this time the water was warm and shallow), and my husband missed his flight home. We had to borrow money from my dad so my husband could fly home. The best trip was camping the entire AlCan Highway from Wasilla, Alaska, to Wyoming with my husband. We had food and enough money and a van to sleep in, and he did all of the cooking.
Join Date: 10/29/14
Posts: 26
Join Date: 04/07/12
Posts: 265
I have had a few camping experiences over the years, but the ones I remember the most were in very crowded campgrounds where campers were almost on top of one another, so no chance of being lost in the woods! Most annoying were the drunk young men who showed up on the adjacent site around 3 am. Also the Boy Scout weekend trip that took weeks of planning only to be rained out (flooded out, really) by midnight the first day.
Join Date: 06/25/13
Posts: 347
We used to go camping as a family when the children were at home. We never had any terrible experiences, as in this book. One time we couldn't find an open campground, so we ended up camping where a farmer had a sign up "camping". All was well until I got up at night and opened a camper door and found the campground was full of cows. I am a city girl. The worse camping experiences are when it rains all weekend. When the children grew up, we sold the camper and bought a cabin. As we got older, we found we liked our comforts.
Join Date: 12/04/17
Posts: 54
Join Date: 05/07/13
Posts: 105
My first experience at camping taught me about the danger of standing downwind of a huge campfire created by sticks and brush from a sumac tree. Apparently my Brownie leader didn't understand that concept either. Within 24 hours I was in the emergency room of a local hospital undergoing treatments to ease the pain and swelling. The last part of my treatment was being painted with a purplish spray, which didn't wash off for weeks. I didn't recognize myself when I looked in the mirror. I was very young and resilient. I loved camping all of my life, but not any more. At my age I like a more comfortable surface on which to rest my head.
My best experience came while camping in the Smoking Mountains. A deer approached our campsite and ate a cookie out of my six year old's hand. Then the doe walked casually away.
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