Found this on the "other" forum. Has some great info.
Camping with your car (or Jeep) is a fun, easy, family-friendly thing anyone can do with just a little preparation and planning. There are many different definitions of "camping", but the one I use describes using a
tent, with all your food and gear carried in your vehicle. RV's and trailers are fine if you want to take your home with you, but you'll be missing a great deal of what the outdoors has to offer if you bring the indoors out there with you. There's nothing like sleeping under the stars, or in a comfortable tent, for a few days.
We in the USA are fortunate to have plenty of room to get out and play. It gets a little crowded on the east coast and near heavily-populated areas, but with a half-day's drive, you can generally get away from all the crowds, cars, pavement, noise, and pollution. A great place to start is at your local land management offices (i.e., State Parks, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, etc.). Chances are, there is public land near you that is open 24/7 for you to enjoy, so long as you follow the rules designed to protect and preserve it. Go to the office, ask questions, get maps, get informed, and get moving!
Keep It SimpleMost people take WAY too much stuff, and make too big of a deal about gear. All you really need are the survival basics: food, clothing, shelter. In camping lexicon, that means: food, clothing, and shelter! I like the time-honored outdoor saying, "If you don't use it at least once a day, you don't need it."
Also, remember that one of the points of roughing it for a few days is to make you appreciate the conveniences and amenities of modern, civilized life. You won't die if you don't get to shower every day! In fact, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy getting back to basics for awhile. Leave the iPods, Blackberries, boom boxes, and Game Boys at home. Turn the cell phone off. Give your internal clock a chance to reset. Sit down in the sun with a good book for a day, go for a walk, talk around the campfire, sleep in. It's truly amazing how nice it feels to get away from electricity (the curse/blessing of the modern age) for awhile.
The more you go camping, the easier and more rewarding it becomes. That means the first few trips are likely going to be the most daunting, but hang in there! Pretty soon, you'll have your own checklist going and be a camping wiz. There are also plenty of excellent resources on the web and at your local library. But to help get things off on the right track, consider the following as my .02 cents worth:
Camping Checklist for a Typical Weekend Getaway/Jeep Trip:Tent and tarp
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping Pad
Camp Stove
Extra fuel for stove
Flashlight
Extra batteries
Saucepan with lid
2 small bowls
Something to boil water in
Mug
Utinsels
Can opener
Matches
Rain gear
Hat
Leather gloves
Change of clothing
Baby wipes
Sanitary hand gel
Paper towels
Plastic garbage bags
1/8" utility cord
Pocket knife
Camp chair
A good book
Paper and pen (great time to write that letter!)
First aid kit
Warm jacket (yes, even in summer in Arizona)
Small cooler
Water jugs
Small daypack
Sunscreen
Insect repellant
Lip balm
Leatherman-type belt tool
Food
Note: this list does not include those items that should already be in your Jeep (i.e., recovery gear, shovel, saw, etc.)
If you have kids, also consider:
Snap-type light sticks, glow-in-the-dark stuff, favorite book, outdoorsy toy, an expendable wool blanket, and plenty of marshmallows! (They are KIDS!)
Gear TalkOf course, what kind of gear you ultimately take depends on you and where you plan to go and why. There are too many variables to go into detailed recommendations here, but I can offer some basic advice when it comes to outdoor gear as follows:
1. You get what you pay for. Buy quality if you can for the items that matter the most: shelter and sleeping. That cheap tent may look okay, until the storm hits. And that fluffy sleeping bag rated at 5 degrees may be great, until you get it wet.
2. Do your homework. Ask knowledgeable people for suggestions. Research products online. Know what you are buying, and that it will do what you expect it to do. Shopping for outdoor gear is actually a lot of fun.
3. Know your gear. Once you've bought it, take it home and use it. Learn how it works in a comfortable setting before you need it when things aren't going as planned.
4. Function over form. As with any other kind of industry, the outdoors market is thick with all kinds of gadgets and doo-dads and overcomplicated, overbuilt, and overpriced gear that you do not need but which is very tempting. There's also some excellent stuff hidden in all that junk, but it will take time to learn how to recognize it. Until then, the general rule of thumb is to keep it basic and functional. It usually comes down to asking how much comfort and convenience you really need. People have been living outdoors forever; it will come back to you!
Other Random Advice1. "Nature is your friend." NONSENSE! Nature is neutral. Nature doesn't care about you one way or the other. If you are behaving stupidly, nature will let you know. Treat her with respect, and you'll be richly rewarded, but have no illusions. The outdoors is your home and your origin, but remembering what that really means takes time and practice. Walk softly and with reverence, or pay the price.
2. Don't bite off more than you can chew. A lot of people with good intentions try to subject their family/loved ones to far too much in too short a time. Keep the drive time short, stay local, and make it reasonably comfortable. Check in frequently with the kids (and adults) to make sure they aren't freaking out; it can be kinda wierd to be outdoors if you are used to living in the insulated, climate-controlled, steel, glass, and electronic coccoon environment we call "civilization".
3. Camping is survival practice. Yep, that's right! After a few camping trips in the great outdoors, you'll be much better prepared to camp out in your garage or living room should disaster strike. Pick your disaster: flood, fire, hurricane, tornado, meteor, earthquake, volcano, blizzard, trucker strike, flu pandemic, zombie attack, alien invasion, etc. Just remember: THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS "NATURAL DISASTERS". THERE ARE ONLY NATURAL EVENTS FOR WHICH MAN FAILS TO PREPARE. So you see, there's a practical side to all this fun, too!
4. You have five senses; use them! In case you forgot, you experience the world around you through the powers of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. If one or more of those are missing or comprimised, the others fill in the blanks just fine. And if you get your senses working reasonably well together (such as when you are immersed in nature on a camping trip), you might begin to wake up your "sixth sense", which also goes by the name of "intuition". Google it.
5. Keep it real. Think carefully about everything you pack and try to imagine actually needing to use it in a realistic setting.
Convince yourself that you are going to need it. Often this little psychological push will help you find problems in your equipment or approach or help you fine-tune things before you have no choice. The outdoors can be unpredictable sometimes; that is part of the fun. Stay flexible, be prepared, keep it real. Pull your head out of the sand and ask yourself a few "what if" questions.
6. Watch the weather.
You are going outside. Weather matters here. Start planning and watching the weather about a week in advance, and remain flexible enough to change your plans if things look bad. Once you're outside, keep an eye on the sky. Learn what the clouds mean. A little rain isn't going to hurt you (if you prepared properly!) and can actually enhance your trip, but know when to head for home (or not go at all).
"We brought too much food."Another common camper error is the tendency to fill every available nook and cranny space in the car with food of all descriptions. People usually take way too much food. A much better approach is to plan your meals and take only what you need,
plus a little extra. If you bring too much of anything, make it water.
Have fun, be safe, do it again!
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Subject: Beach Camper Essentials List 
Fri 17 Jul 2009, 9:36 am
