One of the reasons I am so excited about my upcoming camping trip is because it’s the absolute perfect time of year!

My two most favorite times of year to camp are between September and November and from March to May. The weather absolutely cannot be beat during those two times of year up here in the NOrtheast.

From your fall foliage and your nice warm days and cool evenings to your “spring is in the air” smell it just makes my skin tingle when I think about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have camped and will camp in the dog days of summer and in the dead of winter. The only thing that has kept me from going on a particular trip had nothing to do with the weather forecast it had to do with my kids. Even now at ages 9 and 7 I don’t take them winter camping. They are still just a little too young for it.

I’m a big guy (height and weight) so the heat and humidity of a Jersey summer kind of get to me at times. Our trailer doesn’t have air conditioning (you can bet your last dollar that our next one will!) so when it’s late JUly and into August I sweat my butt off while camping. I would still rather be out there then sitting in my air conditioned office!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my excitement about my upcoming camping trip during the most beautiful and most perfect time of the year!

Have a Great Day!

I don’t know about you all, but I start getting really, really excited about a camping trip about two weeks beforehand.

For instance, my family and I are going to Belleplain State Forest in Woodbine, NJ on September 23rd for the weekend. Here it is September 9 and I’m already getting excited and planning the trip.

I just love being out there, sitting around a campfire or fishing with my boys or splashing around the pool or the pond.

I just can’t wait!!!

This trip is doubly special because it looks like we are going to be joined by a new family this trip. We have spent a pretty good amount of time with this family in the last couple of years due to scouts and baseball and both living in a pretty small town. We know they camp because we have talked about it and compared notes on the different campgrounds we’ve both visited.

This is just the first time we have been able to coordinate both families hanging out together, so I think this is going to be a really good trip if not “one of the classics”. I will explain that later, I don’t have the time to go into “the classics” at the moment.

They seem to be similar minded when it comes to activities and schedules while on a trip – which just means they agree that schedules don’t exist and we do whatever activities the kids feel like almost whenever they feel like it. No, we don’t allow our kids to play flashlight tag at the top of their lungs at 11pm.

So I am excited and hopeful. I know we are going to have fun because I decide to. I hope things work out with this other family as it will give us another family to share our fun with while camping.

Talk to you soon!

My family and I spent a weekend at the Allaire State Park a year or so ago and though we had a good time I don’t think we will be back anytime soon.

There was nothing wrong with the park, there was nothing wrong with the quaint little village and there was nothing wrong with the antique railroad that resides there.

There just wasn’t a whole lot to do there.

I understand that it’s a State Park and they aren’t notorious for activities and amenities, but it was just okay.

We went with another family that we have been camping with many times in the past and we had a bunch of fun with them. We get along very well with this other family and are very likeminded in our objectives when camping: have some fun and relax.

The sites at Allaire are of a decent size, the restroom facilities were clean and seemed to be fairly well maintained and of course the antique village and railroad are right around the corner so all in all it was a decent campground.

I don’t really know how to explain it except that we had to work at keeping the kids occupied through the weekend, something which none of us enjoy and none of us want to do.

So final rating:

It was okay and I would probably only go back with a larger group of people and with at least a handful of coordinated activities planned to keep the kids active and happy.

So we have already talked about shelter, now it’s time to move on and talk about clothing.

When it comes to packing your clothes for a camping trip there are several things you have to keep in mind:

1. Where are you going?
2. When are you going?
3. What are you going to be doing?
4. Are there children involved?
5. What’s the weather forecast looking like?

Pretty standard and obvious stuff right? Not Really.

I have been on literally dozens if not hundreds of camping trips in the last couple of decades with a variety of people and one things I have noticed is that most people (including myself for a long time) have literally no idea how to pack for a camping trip clothing-wise.

So let’s take these one at a time:

Since I am most experienced in camping in and around New Jersey I am going to speak specifically about camping in that area but the basics will apply whether you are camping at the Jersey Shore or in a remote jungle region of Central Africa.

Where are you going?

This is basic common sense but I am going to go over it anyway (since common sense isn’t so common anymore). If you are camping at the Jersey Shore you will need different clothing and shoes then if you are camping along the Appalachian Trail. Makes sense right?

Once you have determined where you are going you can start to to narrow down your list of requirements already. For example: if you are going to the shore you probably won’t need those heavy duty hiking boots or that -40 degree mummy sleeping bag.

When are you going?

This one is pretty easy. You obviously pack differently if you are camping in the dog days of August versus the middle of January.

What are you going to be doing?

Swimming, fishing, mountain biking, 20 mile hikes, leisurely strolls along a beginner trail, hanging around the campfire and beach time all require different types and quantities of clothing.

Most likely you are going to be doing a little bit of each of these (as well as several other things) while you are camping so you can combine items that will work for both to reduce the amount of clothing you will need to take.

Are there children involved?

No matter what type of camping you do, no matter what climate you do that camping in and no matter what activities you will be doing while camping…if you have kids the amount of clothes you will end up bringing with you will literally double if not triple.

Kids get dirty, kids get wet, kids dribble s’mores onto their nice and clean pajamas 5 minutes before bed. Kids also have a way of knowing that you have just changed into your last clean pair of jeans and come and find you with something really nasty and sticky all over them and want a hug!

I have two children of my own and I love them dearly and wouldn’t trade them for all the money in the world so please don’t think I’m anti-kids. I’m just trying to let you know that not only do you have to content with bringing multiple changes of clothes for each kid for each day you are there but you will most likely have to bring an extra set of clothes for you too!

What’s the weather forecast looking like?

In my opinion, you should always have at least some basic rain and foul weather gear with you just in case. Weather changes and weather changes very quickly. So you need to be prepared. That might just mean running to your local Wal-mart and picking up a couple of those 99 cent emergency ponchos and throwing them in your first aid kit. That is the absolute minimum I would do and only if the weather forecast is absolutely picture perfect from three different sources.

If you are expecting some foul weather while on your trip then you need to bring more then just the ponchos. You need actual foul weather gear – raincoats, rainpaints, waterproof shoes of some sort and an extra set of clothes to replace the ones that still get wet somehow.

Now that we have gone through all that, here’s the checklist:

Jeans or other long pants – At least one pair per day for adults and probably two pair for kids. If you are camping in the middle of summer I would still bring at least one pair for the trip per adult and two pair for each kid.

Shoes – This is really a personal preference and it depends on your planned activities. Here is the list I usually choose from: sandals, flip-flops (to/from pool), sneakers, hiking boots. Always bring a backup pair of sneakers that can just stay in your vehicle unless you need them.

Shower shoes – An absolute must unless you have a large enough RV that you can shower in it. No matter how spotless a campground shower facility looks you never really know what is going on in the shower so you don’t want to go barefoot.

Shorts – For adults I suggest two pair a day and for kids I suggest a minimum of three pair per day if it’s summer. If it’s spring/fall/winter I would still bring at least one pair just in case you have an unseasonably warm day.

Sweats pants / shirt (or Sweater) – Mid-summer I will still bring at least one per person. It can get pretty chilly at night once you get away from the city and out into the woods or mountains.

Swim suit – 1 pair per adults and 2 pairs per kid.

T-shirts – Same as shorts – 2 per day for adults and 3 per day per child.

Underwear – 1 set should suffice for adults but for kids I would pack at least 2 per day and I usually throw in an extra pair for every 2 or 3 days we are there just in case.

Pajamas – Adults could probably get away with one pair since they could probably use a tshirt/shorts or sweatpants if there pj’s get dirty. For kids I would always bring a new set for each night and probably an extra set just in case.

Rain Gear – I always have 5 or 6 ponchos in my first aid kit and if the weather forecast is calling for any sort of rain during the trip I will be more durable foul weather gear including a coat, pants and boots.

Socks – Adults and kids each need to have 2 pair per day.

Jacket – I always bring at least a windbreaker for each person. Again you never know what it’s going to be like at night. If you are camping in the winter or early spring/late fall I would recommend bringing two jackets per person, a windbreaker and something a little heavier just in case.

Warm gloves/hat – For any camping you do outside of mid-summer I would definitely recommend a pair of gloves and a warm hat at least for the kids.

That about covers the clothing to death.

Until next time.

We stayed at Avalon Campground this past summer for a nice long weekend. We were there with our two kids and two other families. There were about 12 of us total including 6 kids between 5 and 9 years old.

Between the three families we had just about every kind of camping shelter imaginable, except for the full monty bus sized RV. We had a pop-up, a hybrid trailer, a large 3 room family tent and a couple of small pup tents (the kids decided they didn’t want to sleep in the same shelter as their parents, they wanted to sleep in tents with each other).

We were the first ones to arrive at the site and even though we got there a little early we were able to check in without a problem. We payed a little bit more so we could be together with our hookup necessary friends and so we went and found the sites.

Three very nice, very clean sites all together in a row, kind of off to the side of things which was really nice due to the little kids. As I start unpacking all of our gear our friends show up and between the three guys we have the shelters (all five of them!) setup in relatively short order. We put the pup tents, the family tent and the pop-up all basically on one site. We put the hybrid on the farthest site and all the gear and campfire in the middle.

We had an absolutel blast there. The people were very nice and friendly, the kids had plenty of activities and crafts. The local amenities (pool, swings, etc…) were very nice and well maintained. We spent most of one day at the shore (which was about 15 minutes away from the campground) and we basically spent the rest of the time in and around the campground.

I would definitely stay here again and I know that both of the families we went with have already stayed there since our initial trip last year.

Just yesterday I wrote the first installment of the series I am calling “The Modular Checklist” which is all about what to take and what not to take camping.

Well this morning I was looking around some camping related websites that I like to keep an eye on and came across an article which goes into some pretty good detail about choosing the right tent.

Check it out:

Campers all over the globe prefer to use tents in their camping trips. With so many different kinds of tents available in the market, it becomes very difficult to choose the type of tent which is suitable for your needs. This article describes the essential criteria that you should look in a tent when going in for your next camping trip.

Size

No matter what you have heard of, size does matters! Typically tents are advertised as 2 person tents, 4 person, 6 person and so on which means that there is a room for a maximum of 2, 4 and 6 person in the tent. But buying a 4 person tent for a group of 4 people is not a very good idea.

While a maximum of 4 people can accommodate in a 4 person tent but the comfort level of these 4 people is not very good due to the space constraints. It is advisable to buy a tent that is advertised as 2* number of group members using the tent. So if you are traveling with a partner, then you might want to buy a 4 berth tent as it will provide good comfort for just 2 people.

High End Vs Low End

Markets are full of different kind of tents; some of them are pretty expensive while others are quite cheap. Sometimes it becomes difficult to choose from the high priced tagged from those low end tents. The simple solution for this problem is to judge your frequency of camping and then choose the right type of tent.

So if you are a frequent camper and love to go out often, even in bad weather, then you might want to buy a high priced tent that is durable and more comfortable than most of the tents available in the market. On the other hand, if you are an occasional camper who moves out once in a while then it will not be good to invest a considerable amount in buying the tent and you may go for any of those cheap alternatives available in the market.

Features

Modern day tent are equipped with a number of additional features that can turn your camping experience into truly memorable one. If you are going to buy new tents then you might want to look out for features such as roof vent, rain protection, strong stakes and heavy duty zippers.

Roof vent are used to provide an extra path for circulation so that the level of oxygen inside the tents keeps on a healthy level. This is very usable if you have kids in the tent and if the camping is done in hot weather.

Similarly looking out for good and strong stakes will help you much in a storm like condition where weak sakes easily breaks down. Most of the high end tents comes with heavy duty zippers that last long enough but you have to be extra cautious while going in for those cheap tents as quality of zippers is quite low.

Ian Wide has contributed many sport and leisure articles to sites such as tents and trampolines.

This place is pretty cool.

We went there with another family that has kids the same age as ours (7 and 9). We were tent camping but they have hookups for just about any size or type of RV.

They have plenty of activities and amenities to keep you busy on property for a couple of days easy. The kids got to do some arts and crafts (the one things that my kids still remember to this day is making their own pottery – they are boys so of course they created alien space monsters!), a fishing tournament, ping pong, basketball, volleyball, hay rides, a pretty nice jungle gym and a ton of other stuff.

We were there for a long weekend and I we didn’t leave the campground once and we were never ever bored. If you have kids (especially under about 10) I would very highly recommend this campground.

There were only two minor things that I didn’t like and neither of them would keep me from returning there in the future:

1. The tent sites were somewhat small and kind of pushed together. Almost like they were an afterthought. But since we had two site side-by-side for our families it worked out as we were able to put the tents & vehicles at opposite ends of the sites and have a decent sized “common area” for the meals and campfire stuff.

2. Saturday night about 1am we were awoken by some pretty rowdy and drunken kids (late teens or early 20′s). But they didn’t wake up the kids just us adults and when we woke up in the morning their site had been emptied and the only remaining evidence that they were even there was a bunch of empty bottles that some campground employees were quickly removing.

Overall a definite must see in Southern New Jersey!

This is the first post in a series I am going to do over the next couple of weeks or so about camping checklists.

Over the years I have read about and seen a couple of dozen different camping checklists, everything from the basic checklist for the day tripper to to the multi-page two hundred item checklist for the person that won’t leave the house without everything including the kitchen sink.

So I decided that it was time that somebody put together a comprehensive checklist that comes in parts that you can piece together depending on the type of camping trip you will be going on.

Let’s get started.

I don’t have any particular reasoning as to why I am starting here but I am going to start with the housing. When I say housing I mean your tent, RV, Pop-up, Hybrid or lean-to. Basically whatever it is that will protect you from the rain and weather while you are enjoying nature.

Here is a basic list of what you need when it comes to your shelter:

TENT- This is pretty obvious and yet it can be one of the most complicated parts of your planning. Where are you camping? When are you camping? What is the weather forecast? How many will there be in your tent? What size/kind of tent do you need?

TARP – This is one of the items that alot of people overlook or forget about. But it is extremely important. If you are sleeping in a tent having a tarp on the ground below your tent can make all the difference in the world. It is worth the time and money to get yourself a good quality tarp, it will give you that extra protection you may need to keep that dew or rainwater out of your tent.

SLEEPING BAG – Another obvious item and yet again another item that needs to have some thought and planning put into it. If you are camping only in July and August in the Northeastern United States then a very basic type of sleeping bag will do just fine. If you are a winter camper then you need an entirely different type of sleeping bag. Put some thought into it and you should be okay.

SLEEPING PAD OR AIR MATTRESS – This one is entirely a personal choice. Some people like the extra cushioning of the air mattress, some people prefer the sleeping pads because an air mattress can transfer the cold from the ground directly through it into your body.

COMFORTER – This is pretty much a must. You can always just leave it in the car but you’d be surprised how often it gets chilly up in the mountains or at the beach even in August!

THROW RUG OR MAT – You need to get one of these, it is pretty much the only way to keep the dirt and sand from the campground from invading the insides of your sleeping area. You would be amazed at how much dirt can get tracked into a tent no matter how attentive you are to keeping your feet cleaned off.

PILLOW – “There’s no place like home”, “There’s no place like home”. If you want to make sure you get a good night sleep in your tent, away from home and away from everything you are used to when going to sleep then you need to make sure you bring along your own pillow. It might be a subconscious thing but if you don’t bring your own pillow you will know the difference.

SMALL HAND BROOM – Keep one of these right inside the flap of your tent. Use it whenever you enter the tent to clean off your feet and lower legs. Use it to clean up inside the tent throughout your stay and use it to clean out the tent before you break it down. You can even get one of those little battery operated Dirt Devil things if you want. It makes life a whole lot easier.

HANDHELD RAKE – When you first get to a site you want to use the rake the site to remove any large rocks, branches and any other stuff that would make your sleeping uncomfortable.

Well that should get you started. We’ll talk more in the next installment.

Once again, this is a New Jersey State Park Campground. All that means is that there are no hookups available for campers or RV’s of any sort.

We went here for a long weekend to celebrate a good friend’s 30th birthday. We were there with six other families (2 of which were “surprise” additions). We had four sites reserved for the weekend and very easily accomodated the other two families without any problems at all.

The sites here are very large, grassy and are just fantastic. We had enough room to put up six tents, two popups and a couple of canopies. In addition we were able to have a nice big ring of chairs/loungers around a campfire.

We very much enjoyed the fishing and swimming in the nice cedar lake on the property as well as the hiking trails around the lake. The restrooms were nice, clean and well maintained.

I can’t think of too many places you can go for $15 a night and occupy about 15 kids for a weekend!

Overall, a very nice facility that I will visit again and again.

This campground will always be one of my favorite campgrounds in New Jersey.

This State Park is not the for those people out there that like to leave the comforts of home.

There are only two ways to get to the tent sites from the office:

1. Bring your own boat and row across the 3 mile wide lake

or

2. Hike around the lake to your site. The hike is estimated to be around 5 miles.

Like I said, not for the timid or weak at heart.

The sites are clean, the bathrooms are immaculate and the quiet is absolutely awesome.

I spent the weekend here a little while back with my Dad. We took his folbot (canoe like boat) and rowed across the late to the sites. We setup a tent and then we just hung out for the entire weekend.

Me, Him and nature. We hiked the trails, we rowed around the lake, we fished and we just spent time together.

I couldn’t have asked for a better or more memorable weekend.

If you like “wilderness camping” which basically means you get a site and access to the bathrooms or if you are looking for a way to connect to somebody or reconnect with somebody thru a day or couple of days of just the two of you against Mother Nature…then Round Valley Recreation Area is PERFECT for you!

If you can’t live without your chemical toilet, electrical hookups, heater and screen tent you might want to look into Spruce Run Recreation Area instead.