If you’ve never camped before and are staring down your first outing, don’t worry. This short post will have you covered by the bare essentials.
Once you’ve booked your stay with the state, national forest, or whatever other entity operates the campground you’ll be visiting, you need to pick out some camping supplies and other basic equipment.
For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume you’ll be car camping, which means you’ll be camping at a site close enough to your vehicle to use it as a base for storage and what not.
With that said, here are some of the basic camp essentials you should have.
The Camping Supplies You Need
- Appropriate clothing and footwear: First and foremost, dress for the weather, and go a little beyond what you need. Even if it calls for hot temperatures, make sure you have another layer in your car or pack you can throw on if you get cold. Also, never go camping without either a waterproof outer shell/jacket or a poncho. As for footwear, make sure you wear sturdy, supportive, closed-toe footwear. Waterproof, breathable hiking boots are best for basically any camping trip.
- A tent: Just how big your tent must be should be dictated by how many people you’ll be camping with. Size it a little bigger than you think you need, to ensure you all have room (and room for your camping gear) and are comfortable.
- Two tarps: You’ll want one tarp to put under the tent for moisture ingress protection, and the other as a spare, which can be stretched over the tent to supplement the rain fly in particularly severe adverse conditions.
- A sleeping system: Unless you go with a camping hammock, you will want a ground pad as well as a sleeping bag. Bring along a small camping pillow too, just in case, and some wool blankets you can throw over the sleeping bag (or bring into the sleeping bag with you) in case you get cold.
- Flashlights: Bring several spare flashlights and lanterns, along with changes of batteries for each. Once the sun goes down in camp, it’ll be pitch black unless you have the means to make light.
- Basic tools: Fundamentally, this means two knives; one for general utility and campcraft and preparing fuel for the fire, and another for food preparation. It also helps to have a small hatchet or a trail ax, along with a folding saw or a wire saw. Other helpful tools include a trowel or shovel for digging fire pits, latrines, and other general campcraft, as well as multi-tools which offer a variety of functions.
- Food: This should be self explanatory, bring whatever you intend to cook and eat.
- Fire starting essentials: Make sure you have more than one. A lighter and some waterproof matches are a good start. It helps to have wax-impregnated fire starters, too, along with a ferro rod that you can use to strike fires in case your lighter runs out of fuel or you exhaust your matches.
- Cookware and flatware: Keep it basic in camp; a pot, pan, some utensils, and basic enamelled plates and cups are all you need.
- An emergency communication device: Your cell phone should suffice here, but it doesn’t hurt to bring along an emergency solar or crank-powered radio.
- Some creature comforts: Sunscreen, bug repellent, OTC pain killers, and any other prescription medication should also go along with you. Other nice things to have include vaseline, chapstick, and basic first aid supplies like topical disinfectant and bandages.
Gear Up with Camping Supplies
This list of camping supplies is far from complete, but it should at least get you familiar with some of the things that you should bring along with you on the trail or in camp. To explore these and other camping essentials, visit CH KADELS. They carry these and many other kinds of camping gear, many of them unique and highly utilitarian.
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