It’s easy to make food taste good while you’re camping—everything seems so much more delicious after a long day outside. But Likens’s key tip is “never forget the spices.” Salt, pepper, garlic powder, some cayenne, and other seasonings go a long way in transforming a bland meal into wilderness gourmet.
Camping food can be simple—say, those hot dogs roasted over your camping stove—but sometimes it can be fun to make a more elaborate camp meal.
“I think there is a stigma that you can’t eat delicious and fresh food when camping,” Taylor says. “But it’s relatively easy to blueprint what you make at home and make it a campsite.”
One-pot meals like ramen and curry are the easiest to clean up, but food like fajitas, burgers, and egg scrambles really hit the spot when you’re camping. On the other hand, if you’re not feeling actual cooking, you may want to think more about meal assembly instead: Stocking your cooler with pre-cooked foods like rotisserie chicken, tuna packets, salad mixes, or summer sausage can drastically shorten the time you’ll spend preparing to eat.
Cleaning Up Your Food
Final note while cooking, whether you’re making a meal from scratch or simply slapping together some sandwiches: Make sure to keep your camp clean. It may be tempting to sweep a few food scraps onto the ground, but you should clean up all your food messes, even crumbs, by disposing of them in a trash bag “so you’re not attracting wildlife, or worse, ants into your campsite,” Likens says.
When you’re camping it’s important to leave no trace, so you should pack out all your garbage and uneaten food waste, including things like bacon grease and food scraps. If your campsite provides trash services, you can dispose of it there. However, many primitive campgrounds will not have waste or recycling bins, in which case you should take it with you (extra trash bags are handy to contain the mess!) and throw it away next time you have the chance.
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Then put away all your food and cooking utensils into closed bins or coolers. If you’re car camping, store them in your car. The one exception, which we mentioned above, is if you’re in bear country. In that case, store all food and scented items in bearproof boxes. Proper food storage is crucial because once critters know where to find food, it’ll be pretty much impossible to keep them away (which is bad for you and the wildlife.)
What to Know About Sleeping While Camping
You’re probably going to feel zonked after a long day of hiking or exploring, so getting quality sleep is important to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on your next adventure. But we get it—that’s easier said than done. However, once you learn a few tips for sleeping while camping, you’ll learn to love cozying up in your tent nearly as much as sleeping in your own bed.
Choosing the Right Tent
Your tent is a vital piece of camping gear that shouldn’t be overlooked: The right one can keep you warm and dry—and not be a complete nightmare to pitch. There are a bunch of factors to keep in mind when choosing a tent, but some to consider include weight-to-space ratio (so lugging it is not too difficult), durability, ease of setting it up and taking it down, waterproofing, and usability and comfort. SELF has a complete guide to the tent-buying process, as well as some awesome tent picks to get you started.
Setting Up Your Tent
Your first step to sleeping well when camping is finding the best tent spot—the one where you can sleep most comfortably and safely. Most developed campgrounds will have obvious tent pads, but sometimes you’ll need to decide where to set up camp. Taylor suggests following these steps:
Source: https://www.self.com
