ok, some of you are probably a bit more hardcore than i am when it comes to camping but... i do the best i can.  i just figured this would make an interesting thread

Paul Bunyan Forest in Minnesota is a pretty big area, i try to find the deepest post in it with my four wheeler and camp out for the weekend, or during deer hunting in November i just camp out in my 3 person tent for a week. everyone says im crazy, but the last two years its only gotten down to 10 degrees at the coldest at night, so my -35 bag keeps me plenty warm.


so... tell about your camping stories- ever have bears invade your campsites? get lost in the woods? pistol-whip a mountain lion to death?  

lets hear them

Well I ran out of toilet paper and had to use a pine cone!
Just kidding!

I was camping in my class A motorcoach and I didn't have any TV reception!

We were camping in the forest when a bunch of bears came into camp, While they were eating my family I ran into the woods and got lost. 3 weeks later while still lost in the woods, a mountain lion attacked me. I beat him to death with my erect penis. Then I found my way home.

Extreme camping?  Dude, you rode a 4-wheeler.

Try the military.  I slept in a water filled ditch in Panama once.  Snowbank in Germany another time. Then there was that week on the side of a mountain in Turkey.

Kind of turned me off on the whole "sleep with nature" thing.

Spent a week with 35 Cub Scouts, aged 10 and under.
That is Extreme Camping!

I used an open cookie bag for a pillow once.  

Fuck bears.


Fuck their couch.

Pfft. Extreme Camping, my ass.

Now, THIS is extreme camping

I consider homelessness extreme urban camping.

I went winter camping once.  Never again.  Skiied up and over some moutains and camped in a valley back there, near Glenallen.  Holy crap it was cold, -5 F at least.  Camping with my dad always resemebled death marches more than anything else.  Camping with friends' families, they seemed to stress comfort and food.  My dad always stressed hardship, exertion, and accessing remote areas.

Got stung by a scorpion while camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  My arm was numb for two days.

Quoted: Extreme camping?  Dude, you rode a 4-wheeler. Try the military.  I slept in a water filled ditch in Panama once.  Snowbank in Germany another time. Then there was that week on the side of a mountain in Turkey. Kind of turned me off on the whole "sleep with nature" thing.

Johninaustin, were you with 6/502d Inf BBDe?

Quoted: Got stung by a scorpion while camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  My arm was numb for two days.

I give it a 9 unless you cut off the scorpion's tail and ate it--then it would be a 10.

Quoted: I consider homelessness extreme urban camping. I went winter camping once.  Never again.  Skiied up and over some moutains and camped in a valley back there, near Glenallen.  Holy crap it was cold, -5 F at least.  Camping with my dad always resemebled death marches more than anything else.  Camping with friends' families, they seemed to stress comfort and food.  My dad always stressed hardship, exertion, and accessing remote areas.

Our fathers must be related.

Quoted: Quoted: I consider homelessness extreme urban camping. I went winter camping once.  Never again.  Skiied up and over some moutains and camped in a valley back there, near Glenallen.  Holy crap it was cold, -5 F at least.  Camping with my dad always resemebled death marches more than anything else.  Camping with friends' families, they seemed to stress comfort and food.  My dad always stressed hardship, exertion, and accessing remote areas. Our fathers must be related.

......to who? Alexander the Great?

we was camping at the lake one time and the camper air stopped working.
i drove 20 miles to the nearest walmart bought a 15k btu window air and  a insulation board from the local hardware store.

stuck the window air in the back door of the camper as it was to big for the camper windows then cut the insulation  board to fit the rest of the door opening.  sealed with duct tape. worked great

i did my share of extreme camping in the military no more for me, now i want a full size bed, heat , air and a microwave for my popcorn and a vent in the bathroom

Nudist camping in the Catskills in January.

Ah, I almost forgot one.  Friend of mine and I camped at Havasu Falls for three nights a few years back.  We wanted to pitch our tent right down by the falls but the Havasupai Indians who run the place only allow tents to be pitched in the campground up the hill above the falls.  So for three nights my buddy and I slept on the ground down by the falls sans tent.  Great weather, no bugs, stars above us...it was awesome.

Quoted: I consider homelessness extreme urban camping. I went winter camping once.  Never again.  Skiied up and over some moutains and camped in a valley back there, near Glenallen.  Holy crap it was cold, -5 F at least.  Camping with my dad always resemebled death marches more than anything else.  Camping with friends' families, they seemed to stress comfort and food.  My dad always stressed hardship, exertion, and accessing remote areas.

That is great stuff there!

When I was in the BSA we had an award in my area called the "hundred degrees of frost" award.  For instance if you camped out for one night at -20* you got 20 points and so on.  You had to get all 100 in one winter.  I got it easily, snow caves are actually pretty dang warm!  I can't tell you all the painful and unpleasant adventures we had on scouting.  I have a duffel bag full of "trophies" from the hundreds of camping trips.  Good times!  

I slept overnight in the bottom of Tunnel falls on Eagle Creek in Oregon, off the Columbia River gorge. It was early spring and still freezing at night. Everything was too damn wet to burn. We gave up on a fire after about two hours. That night the zipper on my bag failed and I spent the whole night trying to keep my mummy bag shut against the 98% humidity and 30 degree temps. Coldest I have ever been.

Another time my new bride wanted to go camping on a Thursday night. Again, early spring, everything wet. We loaded up my MOTORCYCLE and pitched at the nearest campsite to home a 35 mile trip. Turns out the only food she brought had to be cooked (eggs, potatoes, meat etc), I hadn't eaten since breakfast. Can't make a fire. It rained that night and swamped the pup tent, bags, clothes, bike, everything. The next morning we slurped and dripped into the nearest diner for breakfast. Both of us looked like we just exited the river after wearing helmets on soaking wet hair. The only others in the place were a group of seniors who had met for breakfast and they just sat there with their mouths gapping. Will never forget that.

Not extreme camping , but we do a annual winter camp out.  tents or tarps , no heaters, sometimes hike in with all the gear. been out in -8  degree weather .  No 4 wheelers for us. truck into a remote area, then hike .

i started early..  :)

when my parents didnt let me go camping < for whatever reason money... been to many times... whatever >

i would set up the tent in the backyard ,,

my dad would not let me in the house during my "outings" .. < mom would :) >  

been camping ever since .. any excuse is a reason to get away  ,,,

good day at the office...  hell im going camping!
bad day at the office .. hell im going camping...!

this thread brought back great childhood memories..


< cant believe i havent taken MY kids camping..  >

EXTREME CAMPING!

Tag

I'll get back to this thread after I take an EXTREME SHIT!

Quoted: Well I ran out of toilet paper and had to use a pine cone! Just kidding!

I use devils clubs.

Seriously.

Try posting this in the Survival Forum.

Camped every New Years eve for twenty years straight.

Many of those were a bit rough.


GM

Quoted: Try posting this in the Survival Forum.

just about to say that,,

exterme camping,, with a 4 wheeler  LMAO


unless you rode it 50mph baked and naked thru a biar patch at night in a hurricane,, i dont wanna here any thing that involves 2-4 wheels hauling your ass and junk in to the woods EXTERME  LOL...

linky to what some may call roughing it

Quoted: Quoted: Try posting this in the Survival Forum. just about to say that,, exterme camping,, with a 4 wheeler  LMAO

Hell, both instances I wrote about, I hiked there ~10 miles each way, uphill all the way out, in July heat in Arizona.  

Quoted: Spent a week with 35 Cub Scouts, aged 10 and under. That is Extreme Camping!

Been there, done that. Glad I never have to do it ever again in this life and feel real sorry for anyone that has to.

I went deer hunting last year for the second time in my life. I went alone to Norther Maine with a backpack and a 1 man tent.

I drove my car to the site, unloaded, then drove the car about 200 yards away.

I slept in the tent for three days. Used only what I had with me. Walked everywhere I needed to.

I woke up one morning to find snow on the ground, covering my tent.

This is bear country....black bears.

Had no luck, but tent camping is the only way to hunt.

I kept a .357 mag with me in the tent in case of bears or whatever.

The coyotes kept me awake most nights.......damn things would not shut up.

Loved it.

Quoted: Try the military.  I slept in a water filled ditch in Panama once.  Snowbank in Germany another time. Then there was that week on the side of a mountain in Turkey. Kind of turned me off on the whole "sleep with nature" thing.

Huge +1
I've had enough of freezing my dick off, waking up in a puddle, being dirty, sitting in an OP/LP in the rain for hours, etc to last me a lifetime.

People assume I would enjoy camping because I served in the military, quite the contrary actually.

I'm thinking about going RVing this summer. That's the closest I'll ever get to camping again.

Here is some:

Quoted: Quoted: Try the military.  I slept in a water filled ditch in Panama once.  Snowbank in Germany another time. Then there was that week on the side of a mountain in Turkey. Kind of turned me off on the whole "sleep with nature" thing. Huge +1 I've had enough of freezing my dick off, waking up in a puddle, being dirty, sitting in an OP/LP in the rain for hours, etc to last me a lifetime. People assume I would enjoy camping because I served in the military, quite the contrary actually. I'm thinking about going RVing this summer. That's the closest I'll ever get to camping again.

After I got out of the military it took me five years before I wanted anything to do with camping or hiking again.

had a friend in highschool who was thrown out of a plain nakid from 10,000 feet in the middle of winter in alaska 400 miles from the closist town, had to make survive by hunting polar bears with his bare hands. killed a walrus, skinned it and and made a eskimo suit. lived off the land for 2 years before he rode an old kodiak bear he had tamed out of the woods info a small trapping community. ended up marrying an eskimo princess and starting his own tribe in northern canada.

Backpacked 60 miles on the John Muir trail a while ago.2 weeks,no re-supply points either.Started atop Mt Whitney as well.

I was a guide for Scout groups doing winter camping in northern Wisconsin.  This involved loading up a sled and skiing or snowshoeing 2-3 miles then building snow huts or other improvised shelters, camping overnight, cooking meals etc.  Coldest weather was 20 below but the only time I was really cold was when I stayed outside in a trench in the snow overnight instead of the snow hut.  This was really not very extreme camping.

I also had a canoe trip in the BWCA in northern Minnesota.  Carry all the supplies and equipment in packs for portages--two of the portages were pretty awful.  Otherwise it was great--catching fish and frying them up every night, drinking water straight from the lake.  Seeing no other people and no motorized boats or vehicles was great.

GunLvr

This is where I spent a lot of my childhood. My grandmothers place.



Hauled our water in  when the well would go dry, raised sheep ,goats,  a few cows, and a couple horses.

Sleeped under a summer house (tree branch shed) during the summer.

Cooked all our meals on a fire.

It gets 110+ degrees in the summer and below frezzing for weeks in the winter.

No you did not 'ride out' when you grew tired.

The mountian is Navajo Mountian. about 40 miles away as the crow flys, it's 10,388ft high.

Beautiful place to be from.

When I camp I take anything I want, I have done my share of extreme camping thank you.

I was camping a few weeks ago with my rubber girlfriend.  She exploded and left my camp in ruins.  I have the story on my myspace account.  If you want to read it look at the ARFCOM ARMY group, on myspace.  I go by jeepers its a mouse.  I doubt anyone can top it.

in the late '90s I was into this really long endurance type of running, known as ultra distance running, and I ended up in some harsh situations at night. The worst 3 I ended up very cold and curled up in the fetal position without tents of sleeping bag or anything.

I did this 1 thing only a handful of people would do in colorado, where you had 60 hours to bag as many 14'ers, peaks exceeding 14,000 feet, as you could in the sawatch range, it has 15 of them lined up in a row of about 50 miles. It wasn't really an organized event.
It was on foot from start to finish, no rides between peaks or anything and the 1st time I did it in '99 I was completely by myself that year and ended up sleeping on the summit of mt. princeton, 14, 000 some feet behind the rock shelter curled up in the fetal position in high winds and cold.

www.mattmahoney.net/nolans14/

I ended up sleeping like that high up on mt. whitney at around 14,000 feet after summating mt. whitney which was the end of a course known as badwater. That route goes from the lowest point in the lower u.s. at - 282 feet below sea level, across death valley and to the highest point in the lower u.s., the top of whitney.
The actual race can't finish at the top of mt. whintey because it's a protected area, so it stops 8 miles shy and 6,000 feet lower than the whitney summit. But the spirit of the route as intended finishes at the summit. So I wasn't going to stop shy of the summit.
I was almost 60 hours reaching the summit. I had no sleep during the event and finally couldn't go any further because of lack of sleep on the descent and there's a lot of fatal drop offs along the higher whitney trail so I finally just curled up and slept with a friend, almost hypothermic, 1st and only time I've ever used bodyheat with someone else to be warm.

www.badwater.com/

A 3rd time in '00 I was doing a course known as the "barkley", from which my alias is from. A brutal 20 mile loop through steep woods in tn., times 5 in 60 hours if possible, and on loop 2 I was 1 of maybe 6 people who started a 2nd loop and got caught in a violent rain and wind storm and had to take shelter in a damp mine shaft and ended up sleeping curled up in a trash bag for warmth in the sandy ground in it, at least it was out of the rain and wind.

www.mattmahoney.net/barkley/index.html

Back in the good old days when Bodie State Park (California ghost town) allowed limited camping, the high school age guys in my BSA troop talked a few of the dads into taking us there instead of a light overnight that the younger boys were slated for.  Tough guys that we were, ground clothes and no tents. We knew it was going to be cold in August. Bodie is at about 8100 ft and the only thing that breaks the wind up there is the othe scouts or dads.  Middle of the night snow flurries. Yes you can get snow in the Sierras in August.  Most of us just pulled another tarp or something over our heads to keep the snow off and then back to bed.  That wasn't too bad, we were prepared for pretty cold weather.  Then about 3 in the morning a herd of range cattle wandered through.  Now that was too much.  Cold and snow is one thing but getting stepped on or cow flooped on by a cow is asking a little too much.  So we were sitting up and trying to scare them away. Easily of course, you don't want to get a scared cow herd running and shitting in your camp or on you.

My sons troop did some snow camping if possible, and in Orange County CA that isn't real easy on weekends.  Screw that I stayed in the back of my truck.

Tents, sleeping bag, ATV?  None of these go with extreme camping!



Yep, military will introduce you to all new camping styles!

Wow! I have a bunch of extreme camping stories. I will post a few of them.

First one is kinda funny.

I used to go camping with a friend every year in early February high up in the mountains. We did this for 15 years. We were anal about reducing weight, we would even cut off the edges of our maps. On one of our earlier trips we even decided to go without tents. Our only shelter was 6' x 8' tarp and a -40 degree rated sleeping bag made of goose down. We were even dumber than that on this trip, we brought along a hammock. If you've never slept in a hammock at -30 below then you don't really know how stupid this is.

Anyway, one night I was listening to the radio and they announce the temperature (down in the valley) was -35 degrees. Now we are thousands of feet higher and it is even colder than that. I was hanging in my hammock and could not feel anything from my knees down. We were on a pretty steep hill BTW. I have the sleeping bag sipped up so tight. I scrunched straps around my head as far as possible to retain heat, there was a hole only 1/2" across for air to get in, and I covered that with a bandana to warm the air a bit as it came in. All of a sudden while I was trying to shift from one side of my body to the other, I fell out of the hammock. That nylon sleeping bag was like a sled going down the hill, and I am for all intents and purposes tied into a straight jacket inside my bag. About 50 feet later I stopped when I ran into a bush. My buddy was laughing so hard that he fell out and did the same thing.

That was the last night we slept in the hammocks. We built lean-to's the rest of the trip.

Quoted: Tents, sleeping bag, ATV?  None of these go with extreme camping! Yep, military will introduce you to all new camping styles!

It damn sure will! I took a catnap once while we had some downtime, and slept lying down and leaning against the road wheels of the howitzer. A little while later, I woke up to find that it had rained while I was asleep. I was lying in about 4 inches of water/mud, but was since I was already in a comfortable position I figured to hell with it, and went back to sleep.

On the same trip as my previous post we had another good story.

In the deep of winter high up in the mountains.

We built lean-to's out of a small 6' x 8' tarp and some pine branches underneath for insulation.

One night we were camped out in a open field and it snowed about 18" inches. I woke up and climbed out of my sleeping bag and I was shocked to see my buddy had packed up and left. We were 20-30 miles from anywhere and I had no idea why he would just leave me alone in the middle of our two week trip. I packed up my stuff and began looking for a trail in the snow. The snow was still coming down heavy and all the tracks were covered up. I began calling out his name and circling our camp. I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I was really getting nervous at this point. We were in a pretty dangerous place to be.

All of a sudden I see the snow on the ground moving a bit. I walk over and brush away some snow, only to find my buddy fast asleep under the snow. The weight of the snow had collapsed his lean-to and perfectly covered his camp. He said he was warm and comfortable under there, snow is a good insulator.

My wife, trying to be a sport and showing how earthy she can be, decided to forego the use of toilet paper even though we had some. She went tinkle near a bush and grabbed a handful of moss to wipe herself.

All of a suden she is screaming, it was a horrific blood curdling scream. She was running around in shear panic completely out of control. I ran over to help. Had she actually examined the moss she picked up she would have easily noticed the brigade of red ants crawling all over it. They were fire ants, and they bit the hell out of her private parts. She is much more careful now

Quoted: I was lying in about 4 inches of water/mud, but was since I was already in a comfortable position I figured to hell with it, and went back to sleep.

Absolutely one of the best cat naps I ever had in service was in a flooded mud hole!  Sleeping up in the trees in the jungle, waking up with critters curled up with you, or having an orngutan trying to remove your wrist watch.  The many wonders of militry sleeping fun time sin the field. LOL

My wife recently expressed interest in us going camping sometimes, she wants to know where we could rent cabins with full utilities or a nice big loaded RV.  Sigh.....

Quoted: We had to keep getting new room keys at the Sofitel in Manhatten!

LoL. I love the Sofitel in Philly.

Quoted: I was camping in my class A motorcoach and I didn't have any TV reception!

WHAT! No Dish TV? Oh the horror of it all!