Feel Like Going Camping Today? Well, Here’s Your Basic Gear

With spring kicking into high gear and summer being just around the corner, your long awaited camping plans can finally come to fruition. If you’re a seasonal camper, then you probably already have all that’s needed for a pleasant camping trip. However, if you’re a newbie, the wisest thing to do is make a list of the things you’ll need to bring so that you do not end up regretting your days spent out in nature.

When shopping for outdoors camping gear, it’s key that you differentiate the essential from the “luxury”, as camping gear can be quite pricey, and you don’t want a trip to the woods to cost you like a vacation on Hawaii. Anyhow, here’s a list of the 3 essential pieces of equipment you should have on your first camping trip.

Tent
A piece of camping gear that you need regardless whether you camp in your backyard or at Mitchell Falls. There are tents for every budget and weather condition and it’s not uncommon for seasonal campers to own a few for different occasions. When buying one, it’s important to figure out how often you’ll be camping, and in what seasons.

Tents are rated as 1-season, 3-season and 4-season. Generally, 1-season tents are decent only in the summer as they have extra ventilation features and a rain fly. 3-season tents are generally good from spring to autumn and have better insulation and water proof features than the 1-season tents. And finally, the 4-season tents are usable in all seasons as they’re built to withstand any weather, but are usually a bit pricier than the previous two types.

Sleeping Bag
One of the best moments during a multi-day camping trip is slipping into your sleeping bag, getting cozy in it and just staring at the stars. But comfort in this case is pretty much predetermined by the choice of a sleeping bag – make sure yours is durable and pleasant to lie in. Otherwise, you risk spending the night in misery, struggling like a fish out of water.

Same as tents, there are different types of sleeping bags suitable for different weather conditions – summer bags, 3-season bags and winter bags. The summer bags are (as you might have guessed) recommended for the summer months when it’s warm outside. The 3 season bags provide better insulation than the summer ones and some of them have water resistant properties. Winter bags are to be used in the colder months, for optimum warmth and protection. If used in summer, you may find yourself sweating profusely.

Knife
Knives have served the same purpose for thousands of years – they have retained the basic elements handle, point and blade and can cut basically everything – depending on their size and sharpness. Every camper should own one as it can be used for many activities like boning, gutting, cleaning and so on. Camping knives are usually thicker and better for the purpose than kitchen knives are as they are much more durable. So don’t fool yourself thinking that a kitchen knife alone will be good enough to take it on your camping trip. There’s a wide variety of knives to pick from when shopping for outdoors camping gear, so make sure to have a couple of different ones to serve you a variety of purposes.