Is it possible to be addicted to camping?

When I get back from a trip I think about all the fun we had, the solitude and quietness I enjoyed while there and write up several trip reports about what we experienced.

I begin getting ready for the next trip weeks before we go, I plan the menu, I plan the activities, I research the campground, I spend time cleaning and preparing my gear and in general just begin "anxiously awaiting" the time when we can leave.

I read camping forums, camping blogs, I surf the websites of all the major equipment retailers and manufacturers to see what is new and what is on sale.

I make at least a semi-annual pilgrimage to Cabella's even if I don't need anything…just to see what is new and different.

I post to this blog on a daily basis, I spend time on my site looking at the different campgrounds that I have been to, the ones I haven't been to and planning when I can go to them.

I read every campground review site I can find on the net, I have a list of campgrounds around the country that I plan on visiting based on those reviews and other research I have done.

I have created camping checklists for each season of the year, for each type of camping I do (family, friends, solo, hiking, boy scouts, organized, unorganized, etc…) and I keep them and review them after the trip to determine if I had everything I needed and/or if I had stuff I didn't need.

My wife had to just about threaten to leave me a couple of years ago because I had decided that the family vacation that year would be another camping trip even though she and the kids had their hearts set on a cruise…so what was my compromise suggestion: let's go camping in the Bahamas!

In the past 10 years I have hiked just about every published trail in the state of New Jersey, I have camped at roughly 83% of the campgrounds in the state, I have 250 nights of camping in that same 10 year period of time.

I have camped in nor-easters, blizzards, 50mph winds, and every other weather condition there is. I have gone through 14 tents, 9 pairs of hiking boots, 27 twenty pound propane tanks, 4 grills, 7 two burner camping stoves and enough bug spray to protect every citizen of this country for an entire summer!

I currently own six different sleeping bags including one double sleeping bag for the wife and I, a 40 degree bag, a zero degree mummy and a minus 20 mummy bag. I have three different backpacks depending on the type of trip I will take and a HUGE dufflebag that can carry all of my gear for a family trip (sleeping bag, pillow, three pairs of shoes and enough clothes for a week).

Just the fact that I have all of that information in my computer smacks of addiction to me!

Is this natural? Is this an addiction? Or is it an obsession?

Is there a 12 step program for campaholics?

Till Next Time…

Eric

Tags: Camping, camping in nj, camping new jersey