If you’re ready to head out for a campout, you should review your supplies and ensure you have what you need. You don’t want to end up lacking the necessities in the middle of nowhere. Nor do you want to leave your campsite alone and have to take a long road trip to the nearest store because you forgot something. Here are four things you should always bring on a campout.
Food and Drink
Unless you’re planning to engage in a live-off-the-land sort of trip, you need to ensure you have enough food and water for your campout. A good rule of thumb is to calculate how many calories a day you’ll need for basic survival. Some recommend 1½ to 2 pounds of food per person, per day. If you plan to hike or engage in other physical activities, increase the amount to compensate for the calories you’ll burn off, but go for food that’s simultaneously light and packed with nutrition. Naturally, if there’s no water source near the campsite, bring your own. You’ll need about two litres of drinking water per person per day and a few litres more for washing yourself and your dishes.
First Aid Kit
Even if you plan the most low-key camping trip possible, where you’ll just be reading and lounging in a hammock strung between two trees, you need to be ready for injuries. Cuts and scrapes, insect bites, burns and bumps, broken bones, and more—anything can happen on a trip.
Be sure your first aid kit has bandages, tape, scissors, various creams and salves, disinfectant and antiseptic wipes, pain relief medicine, and the like. If you know the area you’re visiting can cause a specific type of injury due to its landscape, flora, or fauna, be prepared for it.
Campfire Tools
There’s nothing like a toasty campfire on a cool night. But be ready to prepare a fire while keeping your and the surrounding area’s safety in mind. Abandoned campfires are a major cause of wildfires. You can bring some helpful firefighting tools that can prevent a major conflagration. You might also want to keep a bucket of water nearby to douse the flames and a folding shovel to cover the ash afterwards. It never hurts to be too prepared.
Sleep-Related Supplies
Here’s the last of the four things you should always bring on a campout, and it should be an obvious one. Sleeping under the stars is romantic and poetic and all that, but you’ll feel a lot better throughout the night and in the morning if you bring shelter and a comfortable sleeping bag with you.
The tent, of course, provides warmth and protection from the elements (and any falling twigs, insects, or other things). Your sleeping bag should be insulated and rated for however low the temperature dips. An inflatable mattress or firm mattress pad should provide good back support as well as a comfortable sleeping surface. Happy camping!
Also, read: 6 Creative Ways You Can Remodel Your Camping Van
