Define "Camping"

[Hammer Handle]

What does camping mean to you?

Does it mean you are staying in a tent?

Or, does camping include staying in a camper/mobile home?

When you leave a camper on a lot year round, is that your "cabin", or is it still camping?

Just curious....

[IFallsRon]

Camping used to mean a tent, cooking on the campfire and no conveniences, an hour in the car, a couple hours in the canoe, across a few portages, loons, eagles, the sound of a float plane coming and going on a nearby lake.

We still try to tentcamp once a year.

We did a tent camper for about 10 years and now have a hybrid (hardside with tent ends) that's like the Holiday Inn on wheels.

Now when you look around the campground, it's not unusual to see extravagant units and pushers. People show up, plug in, turn on the air and hardly come outside.

[Powerstroke]

For me personally, I believe camping is being in a tent. If I say I'm going camping it means I'm sleeping in a tent or soon to be "in a hammock".

I'm okay with people who use small campers, pop-ups or slide-ins. I guess what I define as camping is the need to be outside for the functions of your daily routine. If you can live in your camper without setting foot outside, its not CAMPING. That means its got built in stove, bathroom, entertainment, refrigeration or heat etc. I prefer to think of camping as bringing shelter along and the rest is spent outdoors.

If you try to call your 26ft camper or 5th wheel camping, I will laugh at you. If you have a class C or bigger motorhome its not camping. Nobody says I'm going RV'ing, but seriously. Its like people who call their SUV a truck. Its not easy to say SUV all the time, but its certainly nothing like a truck.

I don't hate against the RV campers. Everyone has their own thing, but if you put a home on wheels and call it roughing it, I tend to disagree. My wife and I plan on buying a 5th wheel, but I won't consider that camping since I plan on doing Boundary Waters as long as my body will let me.

[harvey lee]

It use to mean a tent years ago, but a few decades later it means the Holiday Inn for me.

[irvingdog]

15# pack on my back. Comfortable shoes. A trail.

[sparcebag]

I do have a tent & bags for camping,However I go fishing on the Mn.River and take a cabover popup,Ref. Stove,outta the rain.but we then say were are spendin a few nights on the river!

[Ryan_V]

30' travel trailer with central air/heat, fridge/freezer, queen sized bed, bunk beds for the kids, hot water, tv/dvd......... Used to be a tent........then was a popup.......now we are where we should be with 2 young daughters!! not that's roughing it!!

[Nymph]

Miles of river, Canoe loaded with gear and cooking over a fire. Now thats camping !!!

[Powerstroke]

I can't wait to read more. I used to get in a bunch about what others called camping but to each there own. I will eventually graduate into campers and trailers, but it won't be camping to me.

[Hammer Handle]

Backpacking, staying in a tent, cooking over an open fire, and eating freshly caught fish and wild berries is camping to me.

I just get a kick out of the huge campers now that people call "camping". They are a cabin...and not camping to me.

[EricSan]

I kind of get a kick out of this!! While I would much rather hike into the wilderness with a tent it is somewhat hard to do with a 4month old in a backpack. To people that have young kids a camper is CAMPING or I suppose we could just stay at home and never venture out. I have a pop-up that we use to sleep in and hide from the rain, other than that we are out cooking over the campfire and chit-chattin while the kids play.

[trackerbrent]

Camping for me is hooking up the fifth wheel and boat, then heading up north. No better way to go. I have a toddler and a 90 lb Lab, tenting is not an option for me anymore with the family thing. Do I like to rough it in a tent and cook outside? Sure I do, did it all the time in Scouts until I got my Eagle rank, but it is much more enjoyable for the family with the ease of set up and conveniences of the trailer. Others have responded saying RV'ing is not camping, well to me it is.

[sparcebag]

OK powerstroke,I bet when you get older and get that 5th. wheel with three slideouts and can only get to the better sites cause your (camper)is too big to go down that dirt road (trail) you'll tell the younger folk you went campin over the week vacation.

[Duffman]

"Camping" does not need an electrical outlet.

"Camping" is relying on coolers to keep things cool and fires to keep things warm.

"Camping" is standing under a tarp during a rainstorm to keep you dry.

"Camping" does not involve generators, satellite TV's or air conditioners.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with RV'n, but let's not kid ourselves, it's called RV'n, not camping. When I sleep in a tent at a buddies cabin, am I camping? No. When people go to their property and sleep in a tent/RV/trailer/cabin, I'm pretty sure they don't really consider it camping, they call it "going up north" or "up to the lake". When we go out to Kewaunee salmon fishing and stay at the campground in our tents, I don't even consider that camping!

"Camping" should be a primitive term, the closer you are to nature, the better.

Says the guy who has plenty of Gore-Tex, Down air mats, LED lights and lanterns, titanium cookware, super small lightweight stoves, modern nylon Duluth packs, GPS, Two-way radios, and a whole crapload of unneeded camping gadgets.

THIS is camping.....

[CrappieAttitude]

Quote:

---

"Camping" does not need an electrical outlet.

"Camping" is relying on coolers to keep things cool and fires to keep things warm.

"Camping" is standing under a tarp during a rainstorm to keep you dry.

"Camping" does not involve generators, satellite TV's or air conditioners.

---

Let me add a couple more...

"Camping" is sleeping with your boots so they are not frozen when you wake up!

"Camping" is paddling a little harder to beat the other group to the "good site"

"Camping" is making sure that your food packs are hung up high enough to keep out the critters!

"Camping" is walking down a beat down trail at 2 am with a headlamp and a roll of TP looking for the latrine.

"Camping" is making sure that you set up the tent so your head will be uphill.

I love camping!!!

CA

[so haaad]

I started doing more camping on the St. Croix the last few years, so now camping often means going from Jeep to Tracker to Kelty. "Camping" is not include a HUGE motorhome. I never understood some of the HUGE motorhomes that would practically get stuck trying to get into some of the small nat. park service campgrounds out west. Why don't they just park on the street or a parking lot???

[EricSan]

Like I said previously. Try some of your definition of "Camping" with young children!! To me, I would much rather go CAMPING in my pop up with the family along side of me rather than sit in the middle of the boonies talking to a tree!! How many of the people that are camper bashing actually spend time with and take your entire family out with you?? And we ARE only in the pop up to sleep, I think it would be miserable to have a 4month old kid in a tent at a primitive site trying to keep the mosquitos away from him. And I don't consider my pop up RV'ing....

[Hammer Handle]

I don't have children, but two of my brothers have had their children sleep with them in tents since they were very small.

My 4 year old niece stayed with me and my wife last weekend in a tent. No problems. My husky was with me too.

Now, would I take her to Boundary Waters and rough it? No. But, you can start them sleeping in tents when they are babies.

When my back can't take sleeping on the ground I may get an RV or pop-up or build a cabin. Then, it will no longer be camping.

[Muskie-searcher]

If you can get there via road, I don't consider it camping. Thats just my opinion though. I agree with people that under certain circumstances a pop-up may be needed, and electricity might be nice, I just wouldn't use the term camping. I think vacationing would be the proper word for this, and vacationing with the family can be a lot of fun.

[Hammer Handle]

My wife defines three ways of camping.

Camping - stay in tent, cook over fire, backpacking, etc.

Car Camping - all your supplies are in the car and you drive up to your spot. You still sleep in a tent.

City Camping - drive up to your spot, sleep in your camper or pop-up.

I guess all are camping in a way, at least you are outdoors. Well, kind of.

A friend of mine has a camper by a lake with stove, refrigerator, and even a TV in it. He goes up every weekend "camping". Sorry, that is not camping. If I grill and have a Bonfire in my backyard, am I camping?

[Duffman]

I wasn't bashing RV'n, just sayin it ain't camping in my book. There's plenty of couples that take their young ones tent camping in the middle of nowhere every year. I'm sure it takes a lot of planning and patience, but it's done all the time. I've even seen a couple with an infant and two golden retrievers in a canoe up in the Boundary Waters, she was nursing the infant as we passed. I was impressed, they looked like they knew what they were doing, heck, they even beat us to the next portage. It can be done, you just choose not to, no biggie.

If a camper gets you and your family closer together and in the great outdoors, that's great, more power to ya! I just have a hard time thinking that camping has anything to do with electrical and water hookups. Not to mention a person is staying at Site #137.

[sparcebag]

Ha Ha Ha I once camped out in my cabover, while family was visiting 225 miles from my home in Southern Cal.It happened to be in downtown LasVegas yep right on the street across from their hotel! NOW THAT WAS CAMPIN!! 3 nights no water hook ups but 12 volt elec. I cooked there too!No one ever asked what I was doin there not even the cops who walked by many times.

[Powerstroke]

I also was not bashing to RV folks. I fully plan on being one someday.

I'm open-minded. I'm not as strict as some ideas here. I consider car-camping "camping" as long as you' just used your car to get there. Maybe even to lock up your food at night. Nothing wrong with that.

I am 27, married with 2 daughters ages 7 and 4. Both girls have been camping since before they were 1yr old. One came with at 11 months and the other at 8 months. Tents have doors, windows and screens to keep out the wind water and bugs. We used to have a 12x8 tent and we brought a Pack and Play collapsable play pen. Baby slept in there at night and for naps. If we went out on the pontoon we brought the play pen out and threw a blanket over the top for shade and keep the bugs out. Once the kids were old enough to sleep in sleeping bags we bought a ::GASP:: smaller tent. We even brought a potty-chair along when they were toilet training. Talk about a riot.

Now my girls are 4 and 7. They have ultralight down bags and carry their own gear. We are taking them to the BWCA for the first time this summer and plan on having a blast. This year we went camping in May and it was 37*F in the morning and the girls stayed in their bags reading books and coloring while mom and dad slept in.....in the same tent.

Kids don't change things, they just add a new challenge. I never let my kids change my life. They've made it better.

Try camping in the tent with your kids sometime. even if its just the backyard. If you really like tenting so much you should be happy to share it with your kids. If you really think you need the pop-up, thats fine too. I just get annoyed when folks say they had to change when they had kids. Now, if your husband/wife insisted on having the camper, then thats a different story. My wife is my favorite camping buddy and we tent everywhere we go.

[EricSan]

So when your kids were younger you didn't 'camp' by your definition did you???? It would be kind of rough on the back to carry the pack-n-play and pontoon on your back to your primitive 'camping' spot!!!

[Powerstroke]

Actually its not that bad. Fortunately I don't have to carry the boat in, its already there. The pack and play is a bit heavy, but not anymore that a comfortable camping chair. I never said my definition of camping was primitive. It just happens that our favorite camping spot has no water, electricity or bathroom. We pitch tents in the middle of the woods near a small lake where we've stashed a boat. We bring in fresh water, use a stove and go potty whereever as long as you're away from camp. I know its not for everyone. Thats kinda how I weed out my friends. Its my favorite hobby besides hunting so if you don't like those 2 things then we don't get along.

The trip in May in the cool spring was at a state park. Nothing primitive there. I got water from a spigot and we went to the bathroom in an outhouse. (not your normal RV's everywhere state park). Its primitive to some who want flush toilets and showers daily, but not me. I think they are luxeries. Just my opinion. I like primitive camping, but like I said, I do a lot of car camping and thats fine to me. I use my car for driving only. I don't sleep in it and I don't turn the stereo on or watch movies in it while I'm camping.