newbie camper a few questions

[kc0myy]

I am going camping this summer for the 1st time. I am 21 years old and i love the outdoors. Hunting, fishing, anything outdoors. but never been camping. so first quetions

1. what size cooler? (i.e. 50 quarts 70 quarts) (it will just be my girlfriend and I for 3 days 2 nights. I have been looking at the 5 day coolers too)

2. cleaning cookware?

3. meals?

I just want to pick you fellers minds about camping. we are going to lake carlos state park. july 11-13

All I have a gear right now is a 5 person tent bought it new 2 years ago and a air bed

[eyemaster]

Get yourself a good cooler that will keep ice. As far as the size it is going to depend on what you are going to bring for food and beverages. For cooking you are going to want a decent fry pan.I would look at a cast iron one. They can be used on a cook stove and an open fire/coals. They are not hard to maintain, you need to season them and then DO NOT use soap to clean them. Make sure you buy a good quality one. I would also get another kettle for other things and getting hot water for dishes. The gas stoves are nice I would go with a coleman propane stove and lantern. A good sleeping bag is a must also.

[Dave]

I have a Coleman Extreme cooler from when they first came out, I believe, maybe 8 years old. Works GREAT! Ice still in it after four days. It's all white plastic, has a gasket betwwen lid and cooler and the lid has a latch to lock it closed. I thinkk the latch helps a lot. My wheeled Extreme cooler's lid has no latch and I don't think the ice lasts as long. I would get a cooler where the lid latches closed.

[bikeoutback]

First 5 day coolers are worth it but not 5 day coolers if that makes sense. To make them 5 days you need some crazy number of pounds of ice in them that that takes up alot of space but still keep ice longer than a regular cooler. Also use a block of ice, here is some tips:

1. All food at one side of cooler. Place block of ice right next to cooler as it keeps longer. Sprinkle a little ice cubs over top of food but not much as block will keep stuff cold. Other side of block put beverages with ice cubs mixed in. I then also place a 5lb bag of ice cubs on top of it all then again using the solid bag keeps longer as one than spread out ice cubs and allows me have ice for making some drinks if necessary.

2. Use gallon or half gallon jug frozen for block of ice. Gives drinking water for later if necessary. I don't count on it for drinking water just as backup if necessary.

3. If you don't want to invest a lot in cookware then you can pick up some metal skewers at any store with camping supplies and make hotdogs on a fire. Also pre-cook (boil) brats at home then freeze or refrigerate and can cook over fire also. Throw in some deli salads and chip and pretty simple meals.

4. Can cook lots and lots of stuff in cast iron fry pan if want to go that route as eyemaster stated. I love cast iron for car camping - eggs and bacon, burgers, anything you can fry.

Have fun and let me know if you have any other questions. I could go on and on and on as I'm sure many others could also. If you like everything else outdoors you'll like camping and before you know it if your like me you'll have enough stuff to go camping with just a backpack full of stuff or an entire pickup truck full of stuff

p.s. If can't decide cooler size and gets to last minute go bigger if you have the vehicle room and not carrying it far. Can always just put less food/beverage in it or more ice but can't make more room in a smaller cooler.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Welcome to camping!

It can be as laborious, or laid back as you choose.

Meals can be simple one pot items like stews, or chili. You can make stuff at home and then just heat it up at camp. You can buy a bucket of chicken at KFC on the way and enjoy a hassle free meal.

I don't like to spend my camping time cooking, so I'm always looking for a easy way out. I bought a vacuum sealer and bring prepared meals from home and just boil them in the bag. No clean up required.

A small grill, or the fire grate make for easy cooking of steaks, brats, burgers, etc.

Regarding sleeping bags, I have never been cold, but I have often been to warm. I now use a light weight fleece bag inside my heavier bag for cold trips and the fleece by itself on the warm weather ones.

Your air bed will get cold on cold nights. You will want some type of foam pad under it too.

A Thermacell unit helps control bugs if you don't like sprays.

Bring either a tarp, screen tent, or rain fly for the food area.

One more thing, don't believe the weather man... it always rains one day at least, in spite of what they say

[Redlantern]

KC, for what you're describing, I think a fifty quart would be fine. My kids got me one of those huge coolers for my birthday one year. It's great, holds the cold and a lot of food. Trouble is, once it's full, you need two people to carry it.

I also like to use frozen one liter soda bottles for holding my ice. If it melts in the time your using it, you have another source of water. It also doesn't get everything wet in the cooler.

Cooking gear can be something out of your kitchen. I have no problem raiding from my cupboards for camping trips if I'm not using a campfire to cook on. I just don't like getting soot all over my stuff for home.

For washing the dishes, I use a large pot that holds most of my cookware.

[deerminator]

In my opinion, a basic camp stove makes things much easier than relying upon a grill or fire. It's quick, easy and reliable heat. Besides a few pots to cook and boil water with, get a decent griddle to put across that you can make your breakfast on and grill hamburgers and hot dogs on too. For food, we like easy too and freeze all of the meat before putting it into the cooler so we need less ice and everything stays cooler longer. Anything you can do beforehand, do it, like scrambling eggs and pouring them into a glass jar so you just pour it into the pan. Takes up less room that way too.

My final tip is to try it out for a night or two before you decide to stay a week. My wife and kids love camping for two night in our tent set-up. Anything past that, though, and they start getting stir crazy.

[sunniewally]

over the last 40 yrs of camping i have found a led headlamp really comes in handy

[echotrail]

Get a couple of 25 gal tupperware storage bins. I stock one for camping items and one for kitchen items. Keep all of your misc. supplies in them and there will be no need for a long check list every time you want to go camping. When you get home from a trip restock what you need and your ready for the next trip.

[Dave]

over the last 40 yrs of camping i have found a led headlamp really comes in handy

The FleetF store has those five bulb under the baseball cap models, for $4 nowadays.

[kc0myy]

Thanks guys for the info. I just really love the outdoors and want to do more outdoors. the egg idea in the glass jar is a great idea. keep the ideas coming guys.

[HookEmHard84]

I highly suggest getting some ear plugs. They are a must if you want to sleep in, or take a nap. Also my wife sometimes gets nervous about all the noises at night, helps for that too. You can get them in the pharmacy section at wallmart or target.

[itchmesir]

I have a Coleman Extreme cooler from when they first came out, I believe, maybe 8 years old. Works GREAT! Ice still in it after four days. It's all white plastic, has a gasket betwwen lid and cooler and the lid has a latch to lock it closed. I thinkk the latch helps a lot. My wheeled Extreme cooler's lid has no latch and I don't think the ice lasts as long. I would get a cooler where the lid latches closed.

i have a coleman extreme wheeled cooler.. doesnt hold ice for a 24hrs.. very [PoorWordUsage] product

[phishhead]

I freeze used 2 liter pop bottles filled with water for my food cooler. This keeps all of your food from getting soggy. We tend to drink a lot of beer when we are camping so I bring a food cooler and a seperate beverage cooler. I keep a couple frozen bottles in the beverage cooler along with cubes (I like really cold beer!) Echotrail has it right with the tupperware containers. I use one for kitchen stuff, one for misc. stuff and one for clothing. Have a great time!

[bikeoutback]

phishhead reminded me also that I have forgone the 1 massive cooler for 2 smaller one's and do the same thing with keeping all the food in one and beverages in another. We also tend to go to the food cooler twice per meal, once to get everything necessary out and once to put it left overs back. So if making burgers you get out the burger, ketchup, mustard.... all at once. Less often open a cooler longer the ice lasts. With my coleman Xtreme I can can camp for 3 days with a block of ice in it, 5lbs of cubed ice and by the time I go home my block is still 75% of it's size and I'll still have cubes left in there. I also place my coolers in the shade and move them if necessary to keep them in the shade all day long. Even my beverage cooler does well but we tend to take out 10-12 cans at once and put them in a soft pack as we head out on the boat fishing or wherever and then repeat as necessary through the day.

[woodsmanmn]

Make a list of the stuff to bring along. Keep it on your computer to use over and over. As time goes by, you will be adding to it. I keep my list in an excel spread sheet and it contains everything I have ever wanted to take on a camping or hunting or fishing trip. Then when I'm planning a trip, I make a copy of the master list and delete what's not needed for the upcoming trip. I've been camping for..., oh geez, it's been that many years??? I never plan a trip without the list.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Make a list of the stuff to bring along. Keep it on your computer to use over and over. As time goes by, you will be adding to it. I keep my list in an excel spread sheet and it contains everything I have ever wanted to take on a camping or hunting or fishing trip. Then when I'm planning a trip, I make a copy of the master list and delete what's not needed for the upcoming trip. I've been camping for..., oh geez, it's been that many years??? I never plan a trip without the list.

Ditto that, I do the exact same thing with an Excel spreadsheet too

[bikeoutback]

Is it bad if my list has the weights in ounces of everything that I might possibly take with on backpack camping trips so I can adjust it to the weight I want to carry?

I'm just glad I'm not the only one using Excel to keep lists like this. My fiance thinks I'm crazy even though she's the type to write everything down. I keep telling her if I wrote it down I couldn't read it later but if I type it in I can print it.

[woodsmanmn]

ummm Camping geek?

[chuckwagon]

can I ask about the cast iron pans and how to season them and why not to use soap and water for cleaning?

[Determan]

If you wash it with soap, you will taste soap in anything you cook in the pan for a very long time. Just wipe it out good with clean paper towels. I keep my pans in a plastic bag.

[Comit 2]

Quote:

1. what size cooler? (i.e. 50 quarts 70 quarts) (it will just be my girlfriend and I for 3 days 2 nights. I have been looking at the 5 day coolers too)

Wow!

When it comes to camping less is more! Don't over work yourself with a lot of cooking. Take easy foods at first. I used to cook a lot of food when camping then I noticed that the parks were empty at meal times. Find the nearest state park and hike around the camping area and see how many are cooking out and see what they are making. You can always pickup some hot dog and buns when you get there.

I always make coffee when I camp so get a french press.

Quote:

can I ask about the cast iron pans and how to season them and why not to use soap and water for cleaning?

RUST!!!! Do not add water. Cast iron is great. If you are afraid of germs, just get the pan good and hot. Sear them germs.