Outdoors & ADVeNTure
HaPpY LITTle
CaMPeRS TIPS ON SURVIVING THE ELEMENTS (AND YOUR KIDS) ON A FAMILY CAMPING TRIP BY EMILY MORRISON
staying in a hotel with no pool. After we hit the mall and the movies, we’d go back to our air conditioned room, flip through the pay-per-view channel and say, “Next time, let’s make sure there’s a hot tub at least.” Like most Mainers, we had a camp, but we didn’t think of ourselves as campers. We had beds, stoves and screens in our windows. Life didn’t get much better than heading “upta camp.” It wasn’t until I married an outdoor enthusiast in my early 20s that I learned what camping really entailed and I gotta tell you, I wasn’t a big fan. No place to plug in a hairdryer? Bugs in the tent? Lumpy ground? Shared outhouses? No thanks.
But, after twenty years of marriage to my personal guide to the outside, I’ve learned a few things, and surprisingly, they’ve made the difference between booking a hotel with a pool and discovering how to rough it with the best of ’em.
PLAN, PLAN, PLAN It really pays to consider everything that can go wrong. Like, what if it rains for two days straight? What if the mosquitos are unbearable? What if the stove runs out of gas? What if the stove doesn’t work? What if someone gets hurt? What if someone gets really hurt? Answering these questions will help you prepare for emergencies, but you should also anticipate what creature comforts you’ll need. Planning for crisis and comfort prepares you for almost anything.
A FEW PACKING SECRETS Bring extra toilet paper and pack it in zip lock bags. Take it off the roll before you stuff it in the bag. And remember, it’s better to have too much “TP” than not enough. No
10 / MAINE OUTDOORS & ADVENTURE Spring 2022
PHOTO: COLIN FIELD/ADOBE STOCK
Growing up, my family’s idea of camping meant
