A few months ago I took a week of
Study Leave away from work and did a Personal Spiritual Retreat.
My goal for this week was to remove myself from the normal, day-to-day
routine of life and ministry in order to focus, and reflect, on my work and ministry. Prior to this week I spent time
putting together a rather detailed, and ambitious, plan built around reading,
praying, personal worship, and listening to several podcasts. Several years ago I did a similar Spiritual Retreat while staying in a condo at the beach...not a bad way to get away from things. But this year I wanted to do something different, and so I decided that in an effort to create an environment
where I could better accomplish my goals for the week and to also relax, I would do this Spiritual Retreat while camping. Now, even though I had camped several times in recent history, all of those experiences had revolved around traveling by bicycle…this
would be my first car camping trip in some time.
When I camp due to bicycle
travel, I would describe my camping as being similar to that of a
backpacker…where weight is important and I am pretty limited on both what, and how
much, gear I can carry. But this trip
would be different. This week I would be
doing what is commonly referred to as “car camping”. The term "car camping" can have a couple of different meanings. For some people, "car camping" means that they actually sleep in the car, van, or truck. But I would suggest that I use it in its more common form...referring to a type of camping where you are able to drive right up to your campsite. While weight and amount of gear is a primary concern when bicycle touring or backpacking, when you are car camping this is not such a concern. Since you can drive right up to your campsite all of your gear can be packed
in the car, or whatever vehicle you happen to be driving. This means that the amount of gear you can
carry is limited only by your vehicle size and that weight is not really an
issue.
So, rather than my two-person
backpacking tent that I carry on my bicycle trips, I opted for a six-person person tent with standing head room and all of my stuff. Rather than my 3” inflatable sleeping pad, I
opted for a double chamber, twin-size air mattress with a built-in pump. Rather than my little single burner
backpacking stove, I opted for my Coleman liquid fuel stoves. Rather than being limited to nonperishable
food items, I would carry a couple of coolers to keep food and drinks
cold. OK…I could continue listing the
differences between bicycle touring camping set up and car camping set up, but
I suspect you get the idea.
In preparation for this trip I
did a lot of research on car camping tips and hacks…and over the next several
posts I want to share with you some of my findings by sharing how I approached
this trip.
For this trip I headed to the North Wilkesboro, NC area to stay in a campground located
along the Kerr-Scott Reservoir. This reservoir, which is a popular recreation area, was built and maintained by the US
Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps also operates three campgrounds on this lake. A month before my trip I booked a campsite at the Warriors
Creek Campground. But, to my surprise, when I pulled up to campground office to check in...I had a surprise waiting for me. Due to heavy rain and flooding, the reservoir was 19 feet above normal, my reservation had been cancelled…a little
fact I did not know earlier because I don't check my phone while driving. Of course, you would have thought that the water across the road 30 feet in front of me might have been a clue. Of the three campgrounds operated by the uS Army Corps of Engineers at Kerr-Scott Reservoir, two of them were completely flooded and closed. Fortunately, I was able to get a walk-in spot in the one campground that was open...it was open because only 70 or so of its campsites were underwater! And so, Bandit's Roost became my home for the week. While this wasn't my plan, I tried to roll with the punches and honestly, I cannot imagine that the week would have been as good as it was had I been in any other place.
One of the general rules, or pieces of advice I kept reading, advised trying to keep
your cooking and sleeping area separated. This is particularly true when camping in bear
country. Even though I wasn't concerned
with bears, I did try to set up my campsite with this idea in mind. As you can see in the picture below, I would
say there were three distinct areas in my campsite set up.
First, there is the cooking and
"hanging out" area. You might say that this area was my kitchen...which reminded me of how growing up our kitchen was where we cooked, ate, studied, and often entertained neighbors. This area was covered by our
10’ x 10’ awning, which also had a tarp attached to it to give me a little more
coverage and protection from sun and rain.
This space became my absolute favorite…it is where I spent the majority
of my time whether I was reading, eating, or just sitting and relaxing (which
didn’t happen too often). I really liked this set up better than the last time I car camped...on that trip I placed the awning over the picnic table, but it was really tight and just didn't work like I wanted. While there may be a few advantages to that
set up (at least in theory), having it in a separate area gave me so much more flexibility in how I could use the space. This was particularly true when it rained.
The second area was my tent. In essence, your tent serves as your
bedroom. Obviously it is where you sleep,
but it is also where your clothes and other personal items are kept. If there was a particularly hard rain with
wind it also serves as a place to retreat in order to stay dry. Being able to stand up in this tent was
awesome. And yes, I know that sounds a little
weird, but remember my most recent camping trips were in my two-person backpacking
tent. And you may not know this, but it is SO
much easier getting dressed while standing up as opposed to trying to dress
while laying on your back. (Well, at least it
is for this old man!) And the beautiful
thing about car camping is I didn’t have to worry about the size of the tent
nor the weight of it. In fact, most
articles or videos I saw on car camping suggest that you go with the biggest
tent you can. Remember this...when car camping...comfort reigns!
Lastly, there was the picnic
table. When it wasn’t raining, and
things had dried, out I did eat some of my meals here. It also provided another work table…whether
it was a place to set my tablet top grill or to set my pans for doing the
dishes. It also provided a nice area to
sit and write…it is much easier to write on a desk type of surface as opposed to
balancing a notebook on your lap or the thin arm of a camp chair!
So that was a general overview of my basic campsite set-up. In the coming weeks I will walk through some of
the particular parts of my car camping set-up while also sharing my favorite
tips that I found useful throughout the week.
See you soon!
-
PJ
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