"camping Trip Cost Estimates"

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/camping-trip-cost-estimates


Good morning all,

Link is an intro article on costs for beginners' camping trip.

It is a good start.

Later, the couple with kids can figure that the red/white checkered table cloth can also serve other purposes.

A hiking pole can be made; not needed to be purchased. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts phasing out of American society. A tree branch - NOT from a public park ! - or piece of PVC can intro kids to hiking poles.

A method I teach is to look at premium outdoors catalogs and get ideas from the pictures. Glance at a Cabela's field kitchen arrangement and improvise from there. It's a table with a vertical rack w/ S hooks to hang some pots, pans. An old pegboard can work for the kids to learn.

 

When it says cost I believe its more to do with cost, as in transportation, logistic, consumable (provision, fuel, etc). And when its come about the price tag of equipment I don't have the slightest clue of my own stuff mostly due to depreciation.

This is my logistic planner sheet (including equipment list). And TBH I no longer could tell how much all those cost me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15_gS3qk9w-rmQIkXuoMg0OC3xiO3_YQ-9niQh8OgbNA/edit?usp=sharing

 

Some of you guys idea of camping is a lot different than mine . Camping to me consists of laying down on the bare dirt and going to sleep . If I am concerned about rain I might bring along a small tarp . We have a lot of vacationers come to my survival retreat area to hike . The locals can generally spot them at a distance . They are the ones with the walking sticks and sometimes wearing those stretchy britches like they saw a picture of in some hiking magazine . The locals are used to walking uneven and rough terrain . They don't need walking sticks . So what is the cost of camping for me ? Next to nothing .-- Now if my hiking is in conjunction with another activity such as hunting I may have a back pack with a few days supply of food in it , but I have a habit of eating regardless whether I am at home or out hunting so I don't consider food an extra cost . If my hike mission is hunting I normally do not even build a fire as I don't want smoke filtering through the hunting area or smoke on me as to alert my quarry of my presence . --- I have on a cold night out burrowed under leaves for warmth . When it is that cold insects in the leaves is no problem . --- Now if I have women and children in tow , I may not go as rugged and might get out one of my tents and not expect them to rough it . I do recall one camping trip in Idaho where my wife and two children 5 and 6 years old hiked about 6 miles to hell roaring lake in the sawtooth mountains and slept under a tarp and ate fish for several days . That was a lot of fun . Now cost , I suppose you could count the $6 tarp .

 

Good afternoon Varuna,

The method I use is - Replacement Cost Accounting -.

There is little relevance that I acquired something in the oil industry that I now use. Same for from a reserve unit or Responder org.

The relevance is when I must replace something. It's the current cost - all inclusive; shipping, insurance via DHL, postal, etc - that involves my limited funds. I typically do not consider repairs to stuff as a cost. I would never have repaired eg a theodolite and rely on it.

A " short sleeve shirt" ? No mosquitoes in Indonesia ?

 

Mosquito ONLY prevalence where there is sufficient amount of surface still water. Typically the further you went into the jungle (where water tend to always flow) the far less the mosquito. Moreover since I'm a smoker, non-urban mosquito will always staying away from me (my own body scent already act like DEET) with my blood seem to be poisonous enough for them.

 

Camping is as expensive as you make it. When I first got married my wife had never camped and we used my hill walking kit mostly. When our lad was born we were broke so I picked up used equipment, big frame tent, chairs, table etc.

Over the years I've come to realise that brand name + high price does not always mean high quality, I'm very selective on key items these days.

 

Good morning Varuna,

I understand the environment and range of the mosquito.

It is the Prepper / survivalist who must address changing situations. If you relocate from the mosquito area to the non-mosquito area, sleeves can be rolled up on a long-sleeved shirt.

 

Good morning Max,

You've described advanced-level Prepping.

Improvise, make substitutes, etc.

Buying a Judy survival bag is more dangerous than not having the few overpriced items. It gives a false sense of security.

 

Hey now at least you could afford to married someone. Me on the other hand couldn't afford any yet. More so with this great plague, falling crude oil price adding more financial misery.

Regarding price of equipment, I believe I had it on the cheap side. As you may see in my list above, I mostly use cheap thus disposable approach rather than expensive & durable. Although for expedition setup I also use standard issue items but very limited

 

I only wore long sleeved when its too cold for me, of which 21°C / 70°F is already too cold for me. And beside when mosquito became a problem all I need to do is to lit my cigarette and smoke away

 

We have pretty rough weather conditions in our mountain area, especially starting from the end of the September, so it's pretty important for us to prepare all the stuff we need for simple camping, like tent which would good and reliable enough for bad weather.

 

I do two forms of camping. One with the wife, which is just short of glamping and having the kitchen sink. The other when I'm alone or with my brother when we travel light and sleep on a tarp with a tarp over us. We hunt for meat, so we pack a lot more out than we pack in.
I have NO idea how much camping stuff I have. Quit trying to track it when the wife started buying some of it. LOL! Her idea of camping includes kayaks, tent and the side by side. Now she's wanting a small camper to haul in place of a tent.

Dale

 

we camped while on vacation as long as the kids were home. The reason is that in a lot of ways it was about as cheap as staying at home and we were tight for money at times. You can't count the price of food. you will eath whether you are at home or camping. We usually camped out neat Garner State Park. The primary entertainment was free. You went upstream and hopped in the fast-flowing crystal clear river and tubed back to camp. Entrance and exit were free because I always bought a statewide annual pass. I used it a lot because we have several state parks near us and I like to fish in them.

Camping gear is a one-time investment and for us has multiple uses. When the power is off we have a full kitchen and cooking is fun and easy. When the kiddos were little they loved to camp in the yard. Also when the power goes off in the summer the tents and battery-powered fans are great!

the cost of our camp site was actually offset by the fact that we were not at home burning gas running the kids to town and cooking. We also didn't have to wash since we wore the same clothes in the river every day and just hung them to dry in the sun when we were done.

I also carried my tools and would often work off some of my site cost fixing things like Refrigerators and such in the fancy camper cabins. Entertainment was free. we swam, tubed, played cards, and dominos, read books, hiked around, met and visited with the neighbors, We usually went to Garner state park in the late evening for their dance and would also set up a bat mitten net and usually had a lot of kids there pretty soon.

the only cost was the site cost and the gasoline to get there but even the gas was almost free. I live 25 to 30 miles from town and we ran back and forth to town all the time taking my daughter to her summer track activities and softball games. just driving 300 miles or so and staying there didn't burn much more gas.

Camping is a together sort of thing and is good for the family. The kids get to do a lot of fun things WITH the parents and it was a great bonding experience.

 

And talking of all these stuff and tents for long trips, few weeks ago I could find a resource called outdoorfunmag with dozen of different tent models. The one called Coleman Hooligan backpacking tent - is seemed to me like the best choice of quality and price ratio. Do you have any experience of using it?

 

I have a tent that is very similar and I carry it in my boat. If the weather goes totaly to crap I am not going to drown trying to run through high seas to get back to the launch site. I have everything that I need to spend a reasonably comfortable night ashore.

My favorite tent is an old school 12 foot hexagonald dome tent. It has a 6' 6" center height so I can stand up in it. The reason that it is my favorite is because a few years ago on our camping vacation we got hit by a BAD storm with high winds and a little hail. My wife and I were in a fairly new 8X12 coleman tent it was rectangular and only had two hoop poles holding ot up. It was roomy and comfortable... until a high wind CRUSED it on top of us.

My Girls were in my old 6 sided dome tent. It shook like jello when you dump it out of the mold but stood the test with no damage and no problem. The difference was that it had three hoop poles and along with it being staked to the ground it had guy line on all 6 down poles about 4 feet up to stakes.

In fair weather, the rectangular Coleman is comfortable and dry. Both tents have a full rain fly. But I'll never forget the feeling of waking up with the tent on top of me flattened with the rain and small hail beating on me. It was hard to find the door in the dark and get it open from the inside while it was blowing around on the ground.

Now being as I am the forever boy scout I had what I needed and I repaired the pole that snapped with little problem the next day and we still had a great time with a little more adventure than expected.

When the sun came up it was pretty apparent that the storm may have been more than just a severe thunderstorm. It had shredded a couple of popup campers and turned a couple of travel trailers over onto their side. There were also some trees down. A lot of people had gotten into their cars and their smaller tents that were probably not staked down securely had disappeared.

 

Glamping idea

 

Tubing is a great way to spend a day.

 

I have done a lot , i mean a lot of camping in my life. mountain climbing camping, canoe camping, winter camping, fishing trip camping, hunting camping ,car camping, and one thing that jumped out at me about this so called expert on camping is that he or she does not know stuff. for example he say that for two people get a two person tent. Just there is see a big mistake, I would suggest at least a three or more person tent. You need a place for your gear .
Also the advice on sleeping bags is all wrong. I stopped reading at that point .

 

When I was a kid we did a lot of camping things. We did float trips on the river fishing during the day and landing and camping ashore at night. We would also load up on our bicycles and just head off into the woods and camp. Outdoors was where kids lived back them. Mama fed you breakfast and you hit the road. If you came back before lunch she assumed that you needed something to do and gave you a chore. People didn't hover over their kids when I was a kid. I do not remember the last time that I saw a bunch of kids on bikes with baskets going someplace. Kids don't play baseball of football as just kids activities anymore either. I actually don't see most kids doing anything anymore other than peer at their video games or cell phones. So sad. So DEADLY if things go as most of us here expect. Did any of you ever read The Lord of The Flies? Today's kids wouldn't survive a week!