Helpful Survival Tips for Campers
Showers are important but not required. Showers with hot water and no charge are preferred.
Some State, National, and Provincial Parks charge a small fee for what ycampers to use their showers and usually ou receive for the monetary amount you’ve paid to use their facilities is short and sweet and most of the times cold. If you are camping on a shoe-string budget and cleanliness is important to you, make sure you call the park you are planning on visiting. Ask them if it is free to use their bathing facilities and if not what the charge will be.
Are Campfires Allowed?
To protect the environment has priority. If allowed, finding free, dry wood is mandatory. Especially helpful are bikes and kids to survey the campground upon arrival in order to find fresh wood at departing campers’ sites. Especially since the fee for a small bundle of firewood can cost upwards to six dollars. Most State parks allow you to cut up any dead wood that is lying on the ground to keep your fire burning. Ask a park ranger when you enter the park what their rules are pertaining to the harvesting of fire wood in their forests. Also, make sure you ask the rangers if they are allowing you to have campfires when you arrive. In certain regions the parks experience bouts of extremely dry weather, and campfires pose a hazard.
Where is the Water?
A spigot at the campsite is best. A short walk is typical, and a long walk takes muscle and planning.
Food Provisions
Camp stores can be extremely pricey, as well as any small town grocery and convience stores you may come across before you enter the park. Shopping in big cities with cheap prices is important. Planning ahead for trips into “the wild” is mandatory. Make sure you ration food based on itinerary and length of time between cities. Packing to protect food in bear country is survival!
Budget
State, National and Provincial Parks are preferred sites for budget. Ice by the bag or block is very important, and cost is high priority. If at all possible fill empty milk jugs with water and freeze them before the trip for your cooler or ice box. Less gas and more hiking and biking enhances budget, body and mind, and environment.
Entertainment
Park programs are most entertaining, and usually free. Explorer programs for kids are a wonderful way to teach young children about the environment in which you are visiting. Cards and puzzle books last the longest. Reading is great during times of light. Campfires provide huge entertainment, and warmth. Owls, skunks, bears, and raccoons etc. are helpful in preventing the feeling of loneliness, especially at night. Also, radios which run on solar power or cranks will fit nicely into your budget, since powering these items are free of charge.
All Around Priorities.
Plan to travel on 2-laners rather than expressways. Learn the geography and the culture of the areas visited. Enhance the visit by heing a participant in any ongoing local events. Buy worthwhile supplies, and avoid materialism. Disperes small amounts of money to children so that they can keep their own budget. Keep an open mind in order to absorb the smells, sights, sounds and feelings of the new surroundings which allows understanding and use of information in future relationships.
