The Joy of Camping

My tent

A friend of mine recently returned from an ecotourism conference in the Philippines where he gave a presentation on the joy of camping. As I am getting things together for this trip to the Pacific Northwest, I have been thinking a lot about camping. I am hoping to do 5 or 6 days of camping in Olympic National Park in Washington. Most camping and hiking horror stories happen because people are not adequately prepared for their adventure. You can find checklists online that can help you pack all of the essentials but the best to thing to bring with you camping is your common sense.

Hiking in Denali NP

Last summer in Denali National Park I watched a video about bear safety in the park and I was amazed by the stupid things people did. They talked about people approaching bears so they could get a better picture and were hurt or killed. I was hiking a trail near the Eielson Visitor's Center in the rain last summer when a bear crossed the top of trail about 1000 yards ahead of me. He or she disappeared in the fog that had rolled in and covered the trail. This is when stupid people would continue on up the trail trying to get a better picture of the bear. Thankfully, I was born, or more likely taught, some common sense. Of course I wish I could have gone to the top of the trail. I had been hiking for an hour in the rain and was looking forward to reaching the top, but standing there in the mist and the fog I realized that I had no idea where th bear really went. I was disappointed for about 30 seconds until I thought, "hey, this is their home and who wants strangers intruding in your home. " I turned around and headed back down with a story about how I saw a bear in Alaska. That's a much better story than my parents telling someone their idiot daughter got mauled by a bear.