I normally go boat camping.
There is a lake in northern CA that has really nice 2-story floating camp grounds that you need to boat to, and they have everything (gas BBQ,sink,lock closet,table and a clean shitter)on them except AC for $40 per day and are spaced about 500yards from the nearest next one.
We normally go with about 10 people that are in our group and fuck off for about 3 days doing water sports and stuff.
I don't like to go with newbies.
Our group is well trained and without drama.
If it's an all nighter for the fish I only like to bring one other (two at the max).
With boat camping I normally just bring 2 pistols.
Dirt camping I bring a shit-load of guns/ammo and try to get a spot as secluded as possible near water.I always sleep with a loaded pistol where ever I camp.
We even have a code for a pistol its called "soda pop" (long and different story)and yes this code has come in handy more than once
We normally just use the tent for storage and changing.I dig looking at the stars.
On dirt camping trips I bring the dirt bike.
With the meal duties we normally pick a couple of meals and cook and clean up on them shifts and the others with us do the same.Pizza works good for the first night and a run to town for a what ever meal works good for kicks.
We always bring our own drinking water.
I normally don't bring the dog (130lb pitt/weiler)on any of the trips but he did real good on the last dirt trip.
I'm not much on hiking (too many road marches in the old days)so other than 4 wheeling we don't get that far off the roads.
For the most part we have it down for what works best for us.
Every year it seems to get better.

As I am the Camp Ninja, I must get in on this.  As for me, my family and occasionally friends, it's in a pop-up nowadays.  Used to do a lot of tenting, still have an impressive amt. of equipment.  But, I just gots to have my comforts these days.  Stove, heat, a/c, running water, I love it!  Yes, I will always a "soda pop" or two about, regardless of regulation.  Fraqnkly, I pay no respect to regulations of limited safety!

I drive my truck to a nice clearing, go to the woodline and stretch out a big tarp over the bed of the truck after clearing out any brush and small trees with an axe and machete.  I make my camp fire out in the open in front of the truck (the headlights make lighting a fire at night so much easier).  I sleep in the bed of the truck on a foam mattress in a old G.I. sleeping bag, with blankets when it's really cold.  My truck bed can comfortably sleep 2 people.  Anybody else who comes along would be stuck in a jump seat in the back (which sucks on the fire roads I drive up), and would end up sleeping in a tent off to the side of the truck (in case the parking break fails).

My cooler is normally filled with hot dogs and frozen bulk hamburger patties.  Canned or jarred beans (B&M is the best) are always present.  Canned food is great because I can cook it in the can.  The engine of the truck is great for baking or broiling stuff after a few hours of driving by the way.

I hike camp. Go about 6 miles in the first day just to get some privacy. Usually just two, sometimes three, but the tent gets real small then.
I eat MRE's and since we are usually at 10,000 feet just boil the water for drinking.
I always bring a pistol, usually a BHP and then my Browning takedown .22 in the pack.

It is really nice getting away from it all. For booze, we stick to hard liquor, (lighter than beer).

I try to go at least twice a year, Early June and early September are the best times to miss the bugs.

Usually just take a magazine with me, I’m not there as long as the wife says.
SSD

Like this...

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Aviator%2Fcold2%2Ejpg[/img]

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Aviator%2Fcomfy%2Ejpg[/img]

I am usually way out in the boonies gold mining/dredging. I like to be comfortable so I bring a lot of stuff. It all packs down and fits in the Jeep trailer with enough room to load my dredge on the top of it. Works well.


Aviator

I usually camp alone up north of Hell's Kitchen(Phoenix). Everything I take fits in an Eagle Becker or a larger frame pack depending on weather. I limit myself to three firearms; The AR15, either a G23 or HK Tactical, and a .22 rifle to shoot squirrels while I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually go on shorts hikes <3miles and only take an fanny pack and the handgun. Sometimes I hunt, sometimes fish, sometimes I hike, but I always have a flask to keep me warm. Camping season up north is pretty much over for me around this time of year, time to head south.
If I can't pack it, I probably won't bring it!

whenever i go camping, it usually ends up being at a Marriot or best western...

Tent
Sleeping Bag
Matches
Newspaper (for burning)
Saw
Food
Maybe a football or frizbee...
Deck of cards

Most of my camping trips have been car-camping, but I've also done backpacking and canoe-camping.

If I'm car camping (i.e. car in the site with the tent), I bring dry wood.

There was a nice bear-raid last time I went backpack camping (no one was hurt, but he did some damage to our equimpent, and yes, we put our food up. Another group that was in at the same time we were actually got physically attacked), so I may add a gun of some sort if I go backpack camping again. The only thing is, I don't currently have anything that would be effective against an angry black bear... 9mm or 45ACP would just piss it off, .223 seems a bit light (and I'd catch some odd 'Is-that-an-M-16-on-your-back' stares with the AR-15 strapped to my backpack)...

Ahh... Another person who plays CS realistically...

Although I preferr the SIG Kommando myself...

I'm thinkin'  camping is you, the outdoors and stars... oh and maybe a tent.

then I see this picture, and I knew exactly what it was.. one them friggin 'campers' who make on-line games so bleepin' long... LOL that was a good laugh [:D]

www.woodscanyonlake.com
My kinda camping. Me and the GF went up there in Oct. We were the only ones there. We were carcamping at the RIM campground, which is .5 mile from the actual Mogollon Rim, for those of you who know. Any way, we get there and the Camp host tells us that they are off tuesday and wednesday, that we would be alone...ALONE!(we went up there on a monday)
It was great, we just sat with the fire at our backs watching dvds on my laptop...i mean watching the stars...:)
I ALWAYS bring a 9mm. I don't care what anyone says, i've watched the Blair Witch Project and a GUN would have saved them, if you put 17 rounds of hydra-shok hollowpoint ammo into a bears face its dead.
I got my first handgun for JUST this reason several years ago. Gf didnt know till we got there and I strapped it on. She didnt say a word, just smiled. She woke me up three times that night with a REQUEST TO SHOOT. Her first time camping.:):)

Thanks for posting the pics of the tent, Aviator......damnit, did ya [b]have[/b] to post a pic of the stuff inside, too? Now, I'm probably going to drop $600-700 at Cabela's.[rolleyes]

Damn nice tent, though......how'd ya know that's exactly the tent I've been wanting to get?

Gotta admit, the tent rocks. Love the floor. Inside I have carpet, Army field desk, wood stove, queen size air bed, and chairs. When there are 3 or more of us we use army cots and I set one of those patio tables with holes for umbrellas around the center pole and we have a place to sit and bullshit or play cards near the stove with room around it for the cots. Works well. Cabelas is selling a 12x20' versiono of it now for $799. Also have come out with a vestibule thats pretty big for all 3 sizes.

Aviator

Most tents designed for serious hunting/camping trips will have a cutout for a stove pipe in the roof, also with a flap to close it when you don't use a stove. Around the hole for the pipe they have flame-retardant material. The stove he's got in it is I believe a "sheep-herders" stove, which sits off the floor.

main reason i hate CS i play relistic and people get pissed at me and call me a AWP whore.

I head way up in the mountains and try and find little lakes that others don't fish in, unless it's hunting season.  I usually bring my sleeping bag and a tarp.  Sometimes my friends and I do a little snow camping in the winter which can be quite interesting because of the avalanches.

[shock] No Generator and satellite TV? You camp pretty primitive....[rolleyes]

small dome tent, sleeping bag, 9mm, small portable (the one burner, sits on the fuel can type) coleman stove.  Usually only camp over weekends (between school and work its hard to find time during the week, even during summer).  Cooler full of beer, burgers and hotdogs. [:D]

FOTBR

LOL!  I was about to post something like that!  It was the first thing I thought of when I read the topic.

cyrax777, if you like to play using real tactics try Americas Army.  I haven't played ANYTHING yet that is as true to real teamwork, movement, communication and tactics as AA is.  CS is a joke to me now.

Hey, leak--what kind of squirrels you shooting out there--ground/rock types or tree types?  How big are they?
And for all of you southern AZ campers:  What do you do about water?  Very nice thread, folks.

Camp GAB

I am lazy now - only camp in sand.
[img]gab.specialservicesmfg.com/pics/campgab1c.jpg[/img]

What toys do I bring... I don't talk about firearms in the PRC.
[img]gab.specialservicesmfg.com/pics/banshee1b.jpg[/img]

A view of a cluster of friends, away from it all.
[img]gab.specialservicesmfg.com/pics/campledgend1.jpg[/img]

Need my own RV now instaed of just the trailer.

prof, I guess your second pikchure answered the water question--you HAUL it in.  Really cool set up.

When my wife and I were first camping we carried everthing on our backs.  75 pounds between the two of us would sustain all our needs for four days and include some recreational items too (frisbee, book, cards).

Then we bought a canoe, a green canoe.  Now instead of making 8 miles on a good day we can now easily do up to 20, depending on the number of portages.  We have not camped for a few years due to very young children.  The oldest (4 yrs) is getting to the point where day canoe trips are easy and fun.  Another couple years and the youngest (20 mos.) will be an easy rider in the canoe as well and we will resume our wilderness trekking.  Eventually I'm looking forward to the day when we have to buy a second canoe because the boys are big enough to propel themselves.

We typically camp in Northern Ontario were once you are "X" miles off the road you are "X" miles from the nearest source of civilization and help.  Unfortunately, the Canadian government frowns on personal firearms for protection, so we carry a tomahawk and large knife for protection.  We count on the fact that if a bad guy wanted to do us harm he would have to work very hard to get as far into the wilderness as we are and therefor is not likely to choose us as a target.

When we canoe in the Upper Peninsula of MI I carry either the 1911 or the .41 mag. depending on my mood.  It's hard to get more than a few miles from the nearest road there.  

It has been my expirience, however, that when you are well back in Gods country you tend to meet the nicest people.  I have a handful  of stories where we have shared a campfire with people who were strangers just a few hours earlier and had a great time.  I have zero stories of meeting people that caused me concern.

Kent

86 VW pop up camper van

The van has extra tall springs I can keep up with most 4x4 pickups on the fire roads.

20 gallons of water. Solar shower and a detachable cook box with stove and all the comforts of the kitchen outside the van. the pop up bed is the best in hot weather open the flaps and the wind blow right through when it is cold sleep down stairs and plug in the 12 volt heater and set to 55 deg.

all with nobody around [:D]

F-350 pickup, 28ft Triumph 5th wheel, generator, kayaks. We also will drag out the tent and such if the mood strikes.

Green_Canoe knows how to do it.  For me, camping is about MINIMALIZATION.  Why "get away from it all" and bring it all with you?  I have a small tent that I use only if I'm caught in a downpour.  Otherwise, its me and a sleeping bag on the rocks on the shores of Lake Superior.  Last time there was 3 inches of snow and we were loving it.  No radios, no inflatable matresses/dolls/whatever.  Once you get away from the "conviences", you may begin to realize how little you need to not only survive but thrive in comfort.  I would encourage anyone who has any interest in survival skills to begin by simply removing one to two items per camping trip, until you get to the minimum.  Cook on the fire.  Forget the tent.  Loose the radio.  Stare at the stars and contemplate things older than the Earth.

Where's that soapbox icon?