Cool Outdoor Camping Tricks

By developing useful camping techniques, you can make sure you stay dry, warm, well-fed, comfortable and safe as you enjoy the beauty of nature. Proper preparation at home is key to a good camping trip. Before you head out the door, make a checklist of things you want to take with you. It is often useful to have several standard checklists for car camping trips, backpacking and other camping trips involving particular recreational activities.

  1. Staying Warm at Night

    • An enjoyable camping trip starts with a good night's sleep. To stay warm at night, eat a good dinner so you have calories to burn as you sleep, and have a snack available if you wake up cold in the middle of the night. If you are in bear country, make sure any food is inside airtight containers. A water bottle filled with hot water will add warmth as you go to sleep. Make sure you have some insulation under your sleeping bag, such as a sleeping pad. On cold nights a warm hat and socks will make a big difference. Also, make sure your body is warm as you enter your bag, even if you need to do some calisthenics before bed.

    The Campfire

    • A well-built campfire in the right location can greatly enhance the camping experience. When building the campfire, construct a teepee shape, using twigs and tinder on the inside and progressively larger kindling as you work your way to the outside. Have extra fuel ready nearby to feed into the center of the fire as you start it. In damp conditions, it is useful to have prepared fire starters. Before leaving the house, coat some cotton balls with petroleum jelly, and place them in a zip-top plastic bag. Pine sap also burns readily, and can be used to help start your fire. Try to locate your campfire out of the wind. You can also enhance the heat of your fire by building it next to a heat shield, such as a rock face or boulder.

    Keeping Food Fresh

    • When camping, keeping food fresh makes meals taste better and reduces the potential for food poisoning. When on a multi-day car camping trip, keep a separate freezer cooler for food that will be used later in the trip. Freeze meats and other items, and store in the freezer cooler with dry ice. Leave the freezer cooler sealed as long as possible until the food is needed. In the regular cooler, use frozen water bottles to keep food cold and your cooler dry. As they thaw, the water can be used for drinking. Do as much food preparation as possible at home, and store separate meals in zip-top plastic bags to keep cooking and storage areas clean. When preparing raw meats at camp, avoid cross-contamination by cleaning any utensils thoroughly before using with other food.

    Campfire Rock Oven

    • Using the campfire for cooking is fun and particularly useful when backpacking. A rock oven is excellent for cooking fresh-caught fish as well as meats and vegetables. First you'll need six correctly sized rocks, which need to be cleaned thoroughly. Do not use river rock as it can explode in the fire. Place a large flat rock near the edge of the campfire pit, making sure it is level. You will need rocks of equal height to form the sides and back of the oven. Three rocks is good, but it is possible to use more if needed. It is most important to avoid big gaps between rocks. Another large flat rock server as the top of the oven. Make sure the oven is tall enough to fit food inside, and sturdy enough that it will not collapse while cooking. Build your fire so it completely surrounds the oven, back, sides and top. You should have one extra rock to serve as the door once you have placed food inside.