Camping for Girls

By Sharon Judlowitz

This guide will get women and girls ready to get out in the woods but do not know how or have limited experience and need assistance. I will detail everything from purchasing your tent to picking your campground. We are not men, and we have different needs. We are not going to sit around the campfire and duplicate a scene from Blazing Saddles.

This guide will outline two basic styles of camping: car camping with the site next to the car and parking the car and walking into the campsite.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499070422

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Sharon Judlowitz.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4990-7043-9

                eBook           978-1-4990-7042-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/29/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Preface

CHAPTER 1 Introduction to camping

CHAPTER 2 How to buy a tent

CHAPTER 3 How to buy a sleeping bag

CHAPTER 4 The sleeping pad:

CHAPTER 5 Camp clothes

CHAPTER 6 Cooking

CHAPTER 7 Basic first aid, essential gear and safety tips

CHAPTER 8 Wildlife

CHAPTER 9 Review

Reference list

PREFACE

This guide will get women and girls ready to get out in the woods but do not know how, or have limited experience and need assistance. I will detail everything from purchasing your tent to picking your campground. We are not men and we have different needs. We are not going to sit around the campfire and duplicate a scene from Blazing Saddles. This guide will outline two basic styles of camping: Car camping with the site next to the car, and parking the car and walking into the campsite.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to camping

The National Parks department, State and County Parks departments and KOA: Kampgrounds of America, all have campgrounds for tents. The National parks department usually has restrictions for dogs, fire, and garbage. Some campgrounds are seasonal and have a waiting list. Others are open all year round but have more popular months than other months. The best one stop shop website for booking your camping trip is: reserveamerica.com. Look for the official site. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on Camping Directory. There you will have a list of National, State, Private and choice picks of the best campgrounds. They are organized by state. Click on your state and click on family camping. There are other types of camping, but if you have never camped before, you want Family camping. Family campgrounds will have amenities and entertainment. I recommend not straying too far from familiar territory. Pick a campground in an area you have heard of before. You can even contact your local county parks department to see if there is something more local. You might get lucky and the campsites are for residents only. You also have the option of going to an outdoor store and looking at their bookshelf. There should be books by state on popular camping areas and day hikes. If you are planning on camping in the summer, I recommend a campground with water: a lake, river, pool or ocean. You will be hot and there is nothing better than getting wet while camping. Somehow all water sports are better when camping. Some campgrounds may offer canoeing, kayaking, rowing or sailing. Life jackets should be provided. If camping in the fall, look for campgrounds with fire rings. You will be cold at night. Night comes early in the outdoors. Once the sun sets, that’s all she wrote. You are finished for the night. Evenings are very long and cold. There are no lights in the woods. Sitting around the fire will be your source of entertainment. Once again, there is the benefit of longer day light in the summer. The most popular camping seasons on the east coast are May through October. Full amenities are available from Memorial Day through Labor Day. I have camped the week after Labor Day and the stores are basically empty, the concession stands have limited hours, the general stores are trying to pack up and are not well stocked and the entertainment is gone. The end of the season is a great time for experienced campers to try new things, but I recommend the height of season for neophytes.

A. The first question to ask when making a reservation or inquiring about the campground: What type of campground is it? Is this a campground for trailers or tents? We are looking campgrounds for tents.

B. The second question to ask: Do you have Family campsites? You are not deep woods camping and you need facilities. How many campsites are there? Are some better than others?

C. The third question: Do you have flush toilets? How many toilet areas do you have? Flush toilets are very important. This will determine how long you will be at that campground. Not all toilets flush. They can be outhouse toilets, or Port – O- San. There is nothing more disgusting than a full Port –O-San in the summer in a park and an outhouse toilet in the heat. When I was on vacation in the Peruvian Amazon, my group visited a campground around 150miles down the river from the nearest town. The allure was sleeping in hammocks and being as natural as could be in 100deg heat and 100% humidity. Well, I was not feeling particularly well that day, as it was hot and I ate fish from the River the day before. I needed a toilet fast! I ran and found their bathroom. I did not need any directions. The smell and flies led the way. Any animal waste boils in the heat. From the outside, it looked like a nice rustic barn type bathroom shower facility. Open the door and there was a toilet seat on a wood plank over a hole. You sat on the plank and your business dropped down the hole. You prayed that it was not full enough to splash back up. Yes, you can directly and clearly see down the hole. Needless to say, there was no camping in the Amazon. We were happy we chose the American accommodations in the Amazon with a flush toilet, running hot and cold showers, a pool that actually had water and chlorine in it and filtered water stations everywhere. It was ok that everything ran on a generator. We had a schedule for when the hot and cold water would be running and when the electricity would go off. My best bathroom was on a photographic safari in Tanzania. The porters dug a hole. They made a mound with the dirt and put a shovel on it. There was a tire over the hole. One sat on the tire, covered their business, their used toilet paper and other personal supplies with the dirt. It was very clean, dry, no smell, or bugs. That was civilization with a tent.

D. The fourth question to ask: Is the water safe for drinking and/or cooking? Not all water is