Family Camping Guy

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Cooking Outdoors Posted On 2008-08-28 , 6:52 PM Cooking Outdoors Nothing tastes better than when you are cooking outdoors. After a long day on the trail, or activities around a campsite, food always smells and tastes better when it prepared over an open fire. Just because you are cooking outdoors, doesn’t mean you have to skimp on the menu. You can get a head start on your meals at home prior to your outing. If you are at a campground, you probably won’t have to carry a cooler very far, or you can get one with wheels on it so you can afford to maximize your food. Maybe you want to have ribs one night. Put a dry rub on them consisting of cayenne, garlic, black pepper and some salt. Cover the ribs completely and wrap them tight with saran wrap and refrigerate. Cooking outdoors will give them a great woodsy taste they will be really tender. Unwrap them and put them in foil to grill. Try not to put your ribs in direct fire, use the radiant heat to cook them. Vegetables can be made on a Stove, either boil and serve for convenience, or you can take fresh veggies earlier in the week, clean and cut them, put them in some lightly salted water, and store them in Tupperware or large zip lock bags. You could take these fresh veggies and lightly sprinkle olive oil on them, season to your liking with salt and pepper, and put them in foil or right on the grille to cook. Cooking outdoors gives you the flexibility to do many things that you may not want to try at home. For desert, take a can of cherry or apple pie filling and a yellow or spice cake mix. Bring out your Dutch Oven and lightly oil it. To make cooking outdoors clean up a little faster and easier, line it with foil. Oil the foil slightly so your food won’t stick and pour in the pie filling, add an eight of a cup of water and put a couple tablespoons of butter or margarine on top, pouring the cake mix over it. Spread this out evenly and put a couple more tablespoons of margarine on top and cover with the lid. After your coals or wood has burned down, set your Dutch oven on top of a bed of hot coals. Put a thin covering of coals on top and let cook. Check this after about 20 minutes by removing the lid being careful not to let any coal dust get inside the pot. The cake should have raised and when you stick a knife into it, should come out clean. Cooking outdoors can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Taking the time to plan out your meals is well worth it when you want to enjoy yourself while camping. Your fellow campers will be jealous when they smell the gourmet meal cooking outdoors at your campsite, and may just want to stop in to check out the feast. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different recipes and spices when cooking outdoors and become the one everyone will be talking about after the campout. comment
Island Hiking Posted On 2008-08-04 , 6:40 PM Island Hiking We spent a week in South Carolina at Hilton Head Island and found some very interesting places for hiking. Our favorite was on the beach. You can hike for miles right on the packed sand. We did this in the mornings before they filled with people spreading blankets or setting up beach tents. There is also a place called Pinkney Island Refuge. There are trails for hiking on with different sights for viewing, along with information about the wildlife on the island. There is a large fresh water lake hidden over a hill where birds rest and feed on the small fish. A butterfly garden gives you a chance to practice your photography. We took probably fifty photos while hiking the island that day. Only hiking or bicycles are allowed on the trails, and the bikes stay on the gravel paths. It is very peaceful as not many people were there the day we were. There is something about the ocean air, the smell of palm and pine trees while hiking. It is a fresh, clean smell that kind of energizes you. As any other hiking trek, take plenty of water as it gets very hot on the island and there is not much shade. There are many plantations on Hilton Head Island that you can park and go hiking or biking on the asphalt trails. Views of beautiful golf courses or perfectly manicured lawns make a day of hiking and sight seeing well worth it. There is always the chance of seeing an alligator in one of the many small ponds along the golf courses. Hiking can be anything you want it to be. Weather you are hiking the in the forest or in the city, a park or an Island. Take along a camera and binoculars and enjoy the scenery. You never know what might catch your eye. Early morning sunrises on the beach or sunsets though the palm trees, there are beautiful sites that you may never see again. comment
low impact camping Posted On 2008-05-14 , 8:02 PM Low Impact Camping Low impact camping is a great way to preserve the natural beauty we have to enjoy for hiking, camping or just sight seeing. By practicing low impact camping, our children will be able to have the same great experiences. It is important for us to teach them the proper way of low impact camping too, so the beauty lasts for a long time. There are plenty of books published on low impact camping, and I use some of what I have learned from each of them. Things like always staying on a designated path when ever there is one. With the added weight of a backpack, you could widen it by tramping down the weeds on the sides. This will promote erosion during heavy rains, which could wash out a trail, creating ruts, making it hard to walk on without twisting an ankle. Another method of low impact camping is to find an area to pitch your tent that does not have tall grasses that will get damaged. Dirt or sandy areas are best for low impact camping, as you will leave little or no trace of a tent being there. Using a ground cloth under your tent will preserve your equipment for years to come. If at all possible, do not walk in the same direction to your tent, as you will pack down the ground leading up to it. If you are going to build a fire while low impact camping, make sure to dig a “plug” out of the ground, big enough to build a fire in without burning the grasses around the hole. After you are done, clean out the clinkers in the bottom, and put the plug back into the hole. This will allow the grasses in the plug to continue to grow, and leave no trace of anyone having a fire there. When cooking while low impact camping, make sure to clear all flammables from the stove area. Do not dump grease or gray waters on vegetation either. Find a stump, or rocky area to dump the water. Try to strain foodstuffs before dumping the water. Put solids into a plastic zip-loc bag and take it out with you. While low impact camping, you no doubt will need to use the bathroom. Some areas have pit out houses along the trail for you to use. On ones that do not have them, you must dig a pit yourself to use. Always go off the trail a good distance and avoid water sources. Always carry very fast decomposing paper in your pack. Make sure to dig deep enough and cover up when done so it is concealed. If you only need to urinate, find a rocky area away from a water source. You don’t want to kill any more vegetation than you need to. There are a lot of little things you can do to preserve the outdoors. Low impact camping is a great way to ensure it is around for years to come. comment
Backyard Camping Posted On 2008-04-15 , 6:13 PM Backyard Camping Some of the best times we’ve had in the outdoors were Backyard Camping, whether it is in someone else’s yard or ours. Backyard Camping gives you the freedom from restrictions that would be enforced at State or private grounds. All you need is a place big enough to accommodate the number of tents that will be pitched, plus a fire area and activity area. A well thought out Backyard Camping weekend can be very relaxing and enjoyable. If children will be present, make sure there are plenty of activities for them to participate in. Keeping the youngsters busy is a big key to success. Ask each guest to bring along at least one game for the age groups. That way the older kids won’t feel like Backyard Camping babysitters the whole time, and they just may enjoy themselves a little more. Layout the land for your Backyard Camping area ahead of time to save aggravations the first day. Plan where you will have the tent area. You will have all sizes and sizes and shapes of tents so give everyone plenty of room to move around. There will be dome and cabin style tents and maybe a 1 or 2-man tent for extra gear. Make sure they are well away from a fire ring. Clear out the flammable materials and always have buckets of water close by for emergency purposes. Set up an area for cooking also, everyone will get hungry and you want to have everything accessible. After all, you really don’t want people in and out of the house all day. The object of Backyard Camping is to get away from the house. Having the proper gear helps too. Everyone wants to be comfortable around the fire in the evening, and no better way than with folding camping chairs. We have had all kinds at our Backyard Camping events. Everything from old style strap to folding chairs with built in foot rests and cup holders. They come in different styles and sizes and are relatively inexpensive to purchase. When it’s our turn to host the Backyard Camping weekend, we set up a few screen tents by the cooking area so everyone can get out of the sun while eating, and away from the bugs while playing cards or socializing at night. This allows the kids to enjoy their own area to hang out in. Propane stoves are hooked together to a gas grill size bottle for convenience. Hook up a gas tree and you can mount a lantern head to it for light at the Backyard Camping cooking area. We use the fire ring area for the Dutch ovens to cook dinner. Everyone pitches in and makes their favorite dish to pass around the Backyard Camping crew. One thing is for sure we never go hungry. In the fall, we have had chili cook offs that have been fantastic. We are always looking for new recipes to try at our Backyard Camping outings, so if you have a favorite one you would like to share, let us know. The kids love to make smores and the parents enjoy a little adult beverage. No matter if it’s just your family or a group of friends, Backyard Camping can be very rewarding. Once you get started you will want to go Backyard Camping all of the time. There is something about the smell of a fire that excites me and makes me want to get ready for the Backyard Camping season already, even though its only April. comment
Fishing in Canada Posted On 2008-03-18 , 8:00 PM Fishing in Canada Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s was a great time to go Fishing in Canada. My parents went to Lake Nipissing in Callander Bay Ontario for vacation every year when I was young. Dad would tow his 18foot lymann from the east side of Cleveland to Sunbeam Bungalow. This was a cabin resort for fisherman. Not much else to do there, but play on the beach and swim a little, when the water wasn’t too cold. Dad had gone Fishing in Canada with his Fisher Body buddies a few years before he took the family. He just got tired of them drinking all night and not wanting to do what he loved the most, Fishing in Canada. They rented boats when they went and dad did the same when we first started going. He decided he wanted a boat of his own to enjoy Fishing in Canada to the fullest. This was dads baby, he never really used it except for Fishing in Canada. Once in a while he put the boat in Lake Eire, but that was only when my moms brother in law wanted to show off his boat. It never matched up to dads, and he loved it. Fishing in Canada is what we lived for as kids. The last week of school always seemed to take forever, as we would leave when the season opened in Ontario, which was shortly after school was out. We went after walleye, perch and northern pike. We always seemed to have a great catch every time we went out. The lures of choice for Fishing in Canada was a night crawler harness, june bugs and when we had to troll, the rapala and red eye spoons worked great. Dad would do the cleaning of the catch himself. He was particular on how they were filleted. My mom did most of the cooking. She would put them in flour, egg and saltine cracker crumbs. Then she would deep-fry them until golden brown. Add some fries and cole slaw and you had the rewards of Fishing in Canada. Dad and mom enjoyed Molson beer with theirs, and we had Kool-Aid, unsweetened of course. A short walk to the office store got you an ice cream cone for dessert. I liked chocolate, but mom liked the rum raisin flavored the best. The one thing I remember the most about our vacations was the amount of time we spent on the water. My brother and I would sleep in the boat while my parents and sister, who was an infant in the mid to late 1960’s, would stay in the cabin. One year, dad had to row us out to the boat that was staked off in the bay, so it wouldn’t get damaged by the docks. After he left us, we were there until he came to go Fishing in Canada in the morning. As much as we may have grumbled at the time, looking back now, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. The last year we were Fishing in Canada was around 1976. Due to some health issues, my dad never made it back. I took my wife there in August of 1995 to find the owner from when we went as a family, was still there helping his son who was running the place. We talked about old times, how the Fishing in Canada had started to taper off and my dads boat. He always loved it. I haven’t been back there since. While writing this I Googled Sunbeam Bungalow, only to find that it’s still in the family, and the son is still running the place. I have re-kindled my desire to go back Fishing in Canada, stay at the same place, and to sit back in the Adirondack chairs and remember all of the good times we had. comment
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