Here is one to start off with.


If you have damp firewood that doesn't want to start, find a downed pine tree and cut out the heartwood.  It is so saturated with sap it will burn like a tire!  It worked for me this weekend even when a parafin soaked cardboard firestarter wouldn't work.  Even a piece as small as your fist will do nicely.

Anyone else?


Balming

Nice tips guys.

My tip: if you run into some poop in the woods that has hair in it, its cayote poop...so dont eat it.

could be wolf poop too.  if you find crap with seeds in it, bears.

If it has leaves of three DON'T WIPE WITH IT![shock]

If working with limited space, always pack a spare blanket in place of a pillow.
A blanket can be a pillow, but a pillow can't be a blanket.

Taking a bunch of newbies who dont know better "camping" in the "deep woods"....
(Which is actually a heavily wooded area on the edge of town that backs up to a grocery store)

Coming back to camp from a solo "recon" (to the grocery store) with a game bag full of fresh fish (that are not even indigenous to the area)
That were "caught" on the "recon"

This one is easy.  The cooler is for one thing only...BEER!  If you remember this your camping trip will be successful no matter what else happens. (Note: If space is limited then a bottle of your favorite liquor may be substituted for the cooler and beer.)

Always, and I mean ALWAYS bring a spare roll of toilet paper (in a different location such as the car) in case you forget the first.  There's nothing quite like wiping your ass with leaves..

no firewood?


burn cow pies


(this tip brought to you from the great plains)

Store toilet paper in a ziploc bag...ever try to use wet TP?  Or even worse, after it dries, you cannot peel it very easily.

I bring a shitload of ziplocs for various things...

[lolabove]Edited to add Hey stop looking at my keyboard.
Great mind think alike or we both like a clean ass.......

Take a couple of minutes and a roll of tp and a couple of zip lock bags. Start at the begining and roll the paper back on itself tightly. Keep doing this untill you have plenty for the amount of shit you will be gone. for a weekend for me its smaller than the thinkness of my thumb and thats a lot of wiping paper. Now do it again and put the rolls in two ziplocks and keep one on you and the other in the pack. Chick will dig ya and when the runs start from the bad water you will be happy too.  

A few things I learned from this past weekend's trip...

Salt & Pepper
Bring LOTS & LOTS of water & Gatorade powder, instead of gatorade in bottles.
Lots of ice
rope
Key to your hitch lock
big heavy-duty bags to cover shoes if you have to walk through thick/deep mud
Lots of ammo

etc. etc.

DEET

If you tip lavishly, your sheets may be changed and your laundry will be picked up and cleaned.
Don't forget the modem for the laptop/PDA! Not all facilities offer free 'net access over their LAN.

dryer lint makes a good fire starter.

Heavy duty tent/tarp stakes - those heavy "step" bolts used by utility companies in wooden poles, can be driven into just about anything but solid rock  and will hold, next most rugged are "L" bolts from Home Despot.  Price is good too.

Use frozen ground meat, well sealed, as ice substitute for coolers.

Use Marie Callendars Cornbread mix on top of chili or stew in your dutch oven.  Just about 10 minutes before your meal is done mix up the cornbread and add it to the top of the chili.  both get done at the same time and can be scooped out together.

Grande size Poppin Fresh cinnamon rolls are great in a DO.  Walking through a group camp with them when others are still fussing over breakfast and kids is unsafe though.

Most any battery and a big ball 'o steel wool make a great fire starter.

As learned from my philosophical wisdom gaining experience in Yes My Retarded Ass Singned Up (USARMY).

Go buy two (2)flea collars and wrap them around your boots/shoes at the ankles.Keeps the Chiggers/redbugs off.

saran wrap over the outhouse seat...

How does this work?

take a 9 volt battery and some steel wool. rub the contacts against the steel wool. sparks will start to fly. blow on the steel wool until the flames start flyin. throw some tinder on it and voila.....FIRE

Take a empty clean 2 Liter softdrink bottle,punch holes in the cap with an ice pick,fill bottle with clean water,screw cap back on and you have a cheap and water saving portable shower.Just remember to save enough water to wash your ass.(_!_)

A big heavy knife is the most important thing.  You can make anything you need with that (tent stakes, kindling cut vines for chord etc)  Never ever ever grab a fuzzy vine.  Poison ivy/oak/sumac, it is not the leaves that get you, but the vine and it is still effective when the plant is dormant in the winter months.  Always bring a small bottle of bleach.  If you do come across poison ...  immediately apply some bleach and it will neutralize the acid.  along with the knife, go by your local Boy Scout supply and get a magnesium fire starter.  Rake the knife across and you throw enough sparks to light just about anything.  TP is always important.  When you only have wet wood to burn, always keepa can of scout fire water handy (coleman fuel or gasoline)  If you have a lighter and any spray product, you can get anything burning [pyro]

And most important, if you pack it in, then pack it out.  Always leave a place cleaner than when you arrived.

I have a million of them, but here are a couple:

If it's really cold out, you can get your gas camp stove running by putting a military heater tab under the gas generator and letting it burn for a while before lighting off the stove.  

Always bring some sort of ground cloth or tarp to either gun under your tent or under your sleeping bag, lest condensation or seepage make the bottom of your sleeping bag wet (which sucks).

GunLvr

It's not just a 9 volt Battery, any battery will work.  Just connect the steel woll to the positive terminal and the negative terminal.

LOL.  That's the school of hard knocks!

Reminds me of a couple of tips:

1.  Bring the bolt to your gun.

2.  It's too easy to loose keys on the trail.
I make sure a spare vehicle key is with another driver in my vehicle.  Also when hitting the trail, I leash them inside my pack.  

Man, you guys do everything the hard way.  If it's cold and damp, which is when we like to go, take a blower without the tube to get the fire going nice and big.  A little paper trash, some gasoline and a match followed by the blower always gets you real warm.  Don't forget the chainsaw!

You wouldn't believe how much stuff we bring in a Toyota 4x4 with a shell, external speakers, tarps, rope and bunges, 5 man tent, full-size cots, plenty of food, and more.  Yet we still manage to camp in the middle of no where away from people.

Chevy 4X4, cases of Bud, cases of Busch, boom box with Lynyrd Skynyrd tapes, Confederate flag bandanas, number 3 flag, number 8 flag, ...

Just kidding, but this crew is usually at most bigger public campgrounds...

DrMark

On my list: CLP-equivalent for weapon.

I've called ahead and had the firewood distributer in the destination area deliver 1/2 a cord to the campsite.  [:)]  

Tent, campstove, gas bottle, folding chairs, utensils/dishes, tools, camplight, spare batteries, sleeping bag, solar shower, all the hardware needed.....I store it all at the ready in one of those big Rubbermaid storage containers with a latching lid and wheels.  When the urge strikes, I just throw it, some wood, and the cooler in the back of the truck and go.  Stop at the store on the way for ice, vittles and beer.  

Don't eat the yellow snow!

Ten miles of extension cord for your big screen TV.

Knife and matches.



(and a water purifier :) OH YEA!)

Bring and extra tarp (4x8 is nice) and stakes to make a front porch for your tent.

You'll leave most of the dirt and grass on the porch rather than tracking it into the tent.

This is a must if you are taking kids.

It also gives you a clean place to put your boots on in the morning.

  If camping in the rain lay down some tarp under your tent, roll up the sides of the tarp and duct tape it to the tent. Therefore you'll have no saturation from the bottom of the tent.

You now have the 11,245th way to use duct tape.

I will use some of these ideas, thanks!


Balming

Hey Dan, we really oughta get together our families and head out sometime this summer, really, let's plan it and make it happen!  There's a few great campgrounds up Bankhead way, we could leave the wommenz with the kids and sneak off and shoot!

Know how to build a fire.

BUT, also bring a road flare.
When you arrive at your campsite, pop the flare and start gathering wood.  Pile it on top of the flare.  Makes life easy.

For more subtle camping, rub chapstick all over a field-dressing.  It makes a good fire starter.

Everything in a zip lock.

If you see a bear, don't run, don't play dead....

...take out your Rambo-Knife and ATTACK!
It will make for a great story, if it turns out OK.

Always bring booze.

Obvious things like dig a trench around your tent to draw water away from the base. Hang your food in a tree if in bear country. If in bear country, make sure you are packing some serious firepower.

For food, use the store brand instant oatmeal. Store brands usually come in foil backed paper packets. Carefully tear off the top of the packet and it will be capable of holding enough water in the packet to make your oatmeal.

Freezedried foods and instant foods are key.

Premix powdered milk and Nestle's Quick in a container for quick hot cocoa or chocolate milk.

Pack a file or at least a piece if a file. If your camp axe or hatchet is dull, you can easily sharpen it. As an added bonus, if you use magnesium fire starters, the file make shaving the magnesium block a lot easier.

Trenching is not only un-necessary, but destructive.  The Boy Scouts stopped doing it a LONG time ago.  The Army still does it because those F&cking shelter halves have no floors.

A good tent with a proper floor should have no troubles at all in the rain, especially if you use half a gram of common sense and set it up in a spot that is higher than the ground around it.

Seam Seal your tent.  Few tent makers seam seal their tents.  It's obvious on those that do as there is usually a clear silicone looking tape heat sealed over the interior seams. I recommend going a step further and seam sealing the exterior seams as well.  It's ugly, but it prevents moisture from soaking into the thread and being wicked through.  Seal the interior and exterior seams of the tent floor and up the bathtub sides of the floor, then seal the tent rainfly inside and out.

Use a groundcloth under your tent.  It's not so much for waterproofing as to reduce wear under your tent that will reduce the waterproofing and lifespan of the actual tent floor. Tyvek works well.  Size the groundcloth to be slightly SMALLER than the actual floor size.  You don't want to see the groundcloth poking out from under the tent anywhere or it will funnel water running off your tent underneath it.

With a properly sealed tent, I have slept DRY through the night with water running under the tent floor.  

A proper sleeping pad will increase your comfort and the range of your sleeping bag by a large percentage.  THe insulation of your bag works by trapping air warm air in place and holding it there.  When you get into your sleeping bag, the insulation under your body gets compressed.  There is no air to insulate you underneath (or very little) So your body heat is sucked out of you by the Earth (which is a very BIG heat sink).  A sleeping pad such as a Therma Rest or a Ridge Rest or Z-Rest closed cell foam pad, trap air and make up for the insulation value lost in the sleeping bag. A closed cell foam pad is light and cheap, but bulky, a thermarest self-inflating pad is costly 50.00 and up, but very comfortable and fairly compact. A sleeping pad is a good investment.

Headlamps allow you to light your workspace while keeping your hands free to actually work.  The newest LED models are really energy efficient and throw plenty of light for normal camp chores.

I generally do not recommend camp fires except in established campsites with established fire-rings.  Poorly managed campfires start an awful lot of forest and brush fires. It is important to understand that a fire built on the forest floor can start root systems on fire, and even after the surface fire is out, those roots can smoulder away and restart the fire several feet away from the ring.  So campfire rings should be built on mineral soils (gravel and sand) without any roots intruding into the ring.  A campfire should NEVER be left unattended and you should always have a means of putting the fire out immediately at hand. When you go to sleep, the fire goes out.  If you leave camp, the fire goes out.  Keep the fire small and consider a windbreak to prevent a wind gust from picking up embers and tossing them into dry vegetation.  Keep your firewood length short enough to fit inside the confines of the ring. A small fire with small wood, is easier to extinguish.

Treat your drinking water.  Unfortunately no surface water can be considered safe anymore.  The worst contaminated water doesn't run out of beaver ponds though, it runs out of campsites where people improperly dispose of bodily wastes.  Most cases of giardiarsis and cryptosporidia infections can be traced to HUMAN feces...mostly in day care centers.  Most backcountry infections come from failing to wash hands properly after defecating.  So wash your hands after shitting!

A proper cat hole:

A cat hole is a personal latrine trench for one time use.  You dig a hole 6-8 inches deep, preferably in organic soils (where there is plenty of bacterial action).  Do your business.  DO NOT URINATE IN THE HOLE (urine is a sterile fluid with a high salt and ammonia content and it inhibits bacterial action.)  If you choose to burn your TP rather than carry it out, burn it IN THE HOLE and make certain it is extinguished with WATER before covering the hole with the material you originally dug out. This is a remarkably simple process once you get used to it and smells a lot less than many other options. Leaving your filthy turds on the surface, especially with a pile of TP next to them is not only unsightly and smelly, but also a health hazard to other hikers and campers and the local animals.  SO DON'T DO IT!!!

Back to water treatment:  There are a lot of decent filters out there that will make your drinking water reasonably safe.  Katadyn is the grandaddy of filter companies and they have options to fit most budgets including some nice gravity filters.  Almost all pump-type filters can be set up to siphon water through them as well, so you can filter your water unattended while carrying out other chores.  It is un-necessary to filter cooking water since you will be boiling it anyway.  No cooties known, even encysted parasites can survive at boiling point, even at higher altitudes, 160 or so kills everything quick, so bring the water to a nice rolling boil and it's safe.

Many folks in the backpacking world are learning the joys of packing light.  I know folks who can go out for a week with less than 25 pounds on their backs including food and a liter of water. That's a little extreme, but with careful selection of equipment and judicious paring down of extraneous equipment, it can be done.

Alcohol stoves are an efficient cooking method for a solo backpacker.  They take a bit longer to boil up water than white gas stoves, but they do so silently, with little extra light and no descernible fumes.  Alcohol stoves are also dirt cheap, super light and relaible thanks to a total absence of moving parts.  People are even making very functional alcohol stoves from beer cans, JB Weld and metallic tape.  One of the slickest designs I've yet seen is scarcely larger than a can crushed down on its long axis. Boils a pint of water in about 7 minutes or so. Costs about 12 bucks to buy and less to make. Another company called Brasslite, makes very expensive alcohol stoves with jewellry maker's precision.  They cook real fast for alcohol stoves, are very light, durable and are good looking to boot.

Jungle hammocks are in serious vogue among ultralight hikers.  Basically this is a hammock and a tent rolled into one.  The downside is if you sleep poorly in a hammock or are hiking in a treeless environment, you are SOL.

Sleep with your boots or any other clothing you'll be putting on in the morning, inside your sleeping bag. They'll be warmer to put on.

That's one of the suspected causes for the so-called Gulf War Syndrome.