When camping out, less is more when it comes to gear. Especially if you plan to do any hiking, you don’t want to go camping loaded down with unnecessary equipment. And there’s no point in spending more than you need to, either. A wise camper sticks to the most essential equipment when they camp out. This article will give you some guidelines for selecting the most important camping equipment for clothing, shelter, food and water, and other basic needs.

Clothing

You don’t need a full outwear designer wardrobe to enjoy camping. You do need a few essential clothing items. Here are some principles to guide your clothing selection:

• Your clothing selection should be dictated by the environment you’re camping in. You’ll need different gear if you’re camping up north than if you’re camping out west.
• Pack one change of clothing from head to toes. Everything should fit into an 8-inch by 12-inch nylon stuff sack. This applies whether you’re camping for a weekend or a month.
• Take a hat for protection from cold, sun, and rain.
• Wear wool. Don’t wear cotton, except in the hottest part of summer, and don’t wear jeans, which make you susceptible to hypothermia if they get wet.
• Light colors are less attractive to insects than dark colors.
• Take a breathable nylon jacket for protection from wind.
• Take rain gear. A two-piece rain suit is better than a poncho or a knee-length shirt. Construction rain gear from industrial supply stores is best. Gore-Tex is a quality brand. Protect your rain gear by storing it in a nylon sack and only wearing it when you need it. Don’t use it for wind protection; use your nylon jacket instead.
• Take long underwear if the climate dictates. For material, wool is good, and polyester smells better than polypropylene. Thermax and Thermostat are good brands.
• Wear two pairs of socks. The inner pair should be made of lightweight wool or polypropylene. The outer pair should be made of heavy wool, at least 75 percent. To prevent blisters, wear the inner pair turned so that the seams are away from your foot. Change the inner pair daily and the outer pair every two to three days.
• Wear the lightest, most flexible boot you can find, unless you need specialized wear for mountaineering or winter hiking. 9 inches is a good height for moisture protection.
• If you want to go swimming, be sure to bring a swimming suit and sandals to protect your feet.
• Your backpack will depend on what you’ll be doing. For backpacking on good trails, an aluminum-frame backpack is best. Rock climbing and canoeing require specialized backpacks.
• For shopping, army surplus stores and discount stores are your best bet.

Shelter

Your most essential shelter items are your sleeping bag, trail mattress, or hammock; your tent; and a tarp, which is often overlooked but extremely important.

• Your sleeping bag selection depends on how warm you need to be and how much you want to spend. Many campers buy bags that are warmer than they need for where they’ll be camping. If you’re not camping in a cold climate, you may want to consider saving money on your sleeping bag. A trained Boy Scout can get by with a pair of loose-woven wool or airy acrylic blankets folded into a sandwich. This is about the same quality as a low-end astro-fill blanket. At the high end are down bags, which last longer but cost about ten times as much.
• A trail mattress is an alternative to a sleeping bag. Air-filled foam pads are the best choice. Fabric-covered open-cell foam isn’t as good for storage or insulation. Closed-cell foam isn’t as comfortable, but is good for subzero camping. Air mattresses are only good for car camping.
• A nylon hammock with a zippered fly and waterproof bug net is another good sleeping option. It won’t fall down in the wind or leak in the rain.
• For general camping, any simple forest tent is sufficient if it has a bathtub floor with no perimeter seams at ground level and a waterproof fly that stakes nearly to the ground and covers every seam and floor cover. A vestibule for storage is recommended. Each person who will be in the tent needs about 2 1/2 feet by 7 feet for stretching out and 3 feet by 7 1/2 feet with headroom for dressing for comfort. 6 feet by 8 feet is ideal for two people. The tent should weigh under twelve pounds, the lighter the better. A-frames are less expensive than high-tech domes and tunnels. Install a plastic ground cloth inside your tent, rather than using a plastic sheet under the tent, which can trap water under the tent. Windproof tents are not necessary for general camping but are useful for mountaineering. Use aluminum tent poles with shock-cording for easy assembly. Use stakes appropriate to the terrain. To cover the major types of terrain, carry twelve-inch long arrow-shaft aluminum stakes or u-shaped staples for sand, sharp aluminum skewers for compacted soil, and narrow steel wire stakes for rocky ground.
• Carry a nylon rain tarp, 10 feet by 10 feet or bigger. Pack it in a nylon bag with 60 feet of parachute cord cut into 15-foot lengths and 6 wire tent stakes.

Food and Water

Your next category of camping essentials is items related to your food and water supply. Here are some tips:

• To carry water, bring a canteen or plastic water bottle.
• Steel bottles and thermoses are useful for other liquids.
• To make water purification easier, bring water purification tablets, an ultraviolet light purifier, or a purifier/filter unit. A filter alone will not strain out all microbes and will not kill any, while a purifier alone will not filter them.
• When considering food choices, take into account that while it’s possible to cook a wide variety of foods while camping, the more time you spend on food preparation, the less time you’ll have for other activities like hiking. Also, remember that if you plan to cook, it may rain and you may have to build a fire in the rain. Finally, maintaining a cooking fire in a state park campground where you have to pay for firewood can get expensive.
• For snacks, a good choice is hiking food like dehydrated fruit, mixed nuts, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, and cheese crackers. For efficiency, pack meals in premeasured units into waterproof nylon sacks, with color coding for easy identification.
• For a stove, reviews favor an integrated canister stove.
• Many cooking kits are available. A basic cooking kit should include the equivalent of a canteen cup with a wire handle, a small frying pan, a tin cup, and utensils.

Other Essentials

Finally, here are a number of other essential items any camper needs:

• A first aid kit is your most important item.
• A Leatherman Wave multi-tool or a Swiss Army knife or similar tool will cover a wide range of tool needs. Avoid nylon tool sheaths with Velcro closures.
• A good knife is vital. For slicing foods and scooping peanut butter, it should be 4 to 5 inches in length and have a thin, flat-ground blade, no more than 1/8 inches thick. A folding knife costs more than a sheath knife. You will probably want two knives: a multipurpose folding knife and a thin-ground kitchen-style model for preparing foods. To keep your knife sharp, carry a synthetic diamond stone and/or a medium-grit soft Arkansas stone. For a finer edge, add a hard Arkansas stone. You will also need cutting oil for your stones.
• An axe is also essential. A hand axe weighs less than a big axe. Gransfors of Sweden is a top manufacturer.
• Pliers with a cutting edge and a folding saw should round out your essential tools if they’re not included with your multi-tool.
• A butane lighter and waterproof matches. Use the lighter normally, and save the matches for emergencies. It’s also advisable to carry some other chemical fire starter.
• Nylon parachute cord or rope.
• Duct tape.
• A small LED head lamp will serve most lighting needs. A more powerful focused light is also useful for things like finding missing children and scaring bears away.
• Insect repellant should be carried, and supplemented by wearing light colors, which attract insects less than dark colors.
• For navigation and communication, carry a map, compass, GPS unit, and cell phone.
• A folding camp stool, while not essential, is very handy. A collapsible model that sits on two parallel aluminum rails is better than one with individual pointed legs that can sink into soft ground.
• Binoculars and a camera will add to your enjoyment of your camping experience.

“My Small Survival Kit”: A Worthy Video

We found this Youtube video by an expert outdoorsman; nothing for sale, just several helpful tips.

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