First camping trip

foxylady · 10-26-2011, 07:41 PM

My first camping trip was an overnight stay with some friends to go canoeing. We had a great time and I cherish those memories. What was your first trip? How old were you? What are your favorite memories of that trip?

vino · 10-26-2011, 08:22 PM

I can't remember my first camping trip because we've been camping since I was a baby! One of my favorite camping trips was a trip we took to Virginia Beach with friends. We had a great time and there was a lot to do!

KatieMarie · 11-12-2011, 08:15 AM

I'm not sure if you would call it a camping trip or not but it was when I was still a child and we got to 'camp out' in the backyard.

To us it was camping and we had a great time.

LivingToCamp · 11-12-2011, 08:25 AM

I went on my first camping trip when I met my now hubby many years ago. It was a short one and in a tent but turned out to be a lot of fun and I've enjoyed all the others we have been on since.

OldSole · 11-12-2011, 10:53 AM

I grew up camping so I don't remember. My parents were big outdoor people and we were always going on a trip somewhere. My normal weekends were to do homework on Friday after school, pack up everything and put it in the car and head out. We usually wound up at the local state park but we always had a blast.

hummingbird · 11-12-2011, 11:05 AM

My husband actually got me into going camping when we first got married. He is a big outdoor fan and I have had a good education in outdoor skills and lore. I loved it from the first time I went though.

briansnat · 11-12-2011, 08:23 PM

My first camping trips were little more than parties in the woods when I was in my late teens and early 20's. We'd go to a spot in the Catskills in NY where you could pull up your car, open the hatch and blast the stereo. Bring a few kegs, pitch a tent and drink all weekend.

I owned no tent or sleeping bag. I used my father's Korean War era full length winter coat to sleep in if it was cold, otherwise a blanket. I'd wander around looking for floor space in a tent when it was time to sleep.

We had a lot of fun, that's for sure. We made a lot of noise, but it wasn't like we were disturbing anybody, because everyone else who was camping there (and there'd be a dozen or more other groups) was doing the same thing.

Once in a while we'd even leave the keg and bonfire to take a hike or to or do some fishing. It is a beautiful area.

Eventually I got into backpacking and left that sort of camping behind and haven't joined them in at least 20 years.

30 plus years later my friends are still getting together once a year on Memorial Day Weekend for an old fashioned weekend party in the woods at the same place the Catskills. They still bring a keg or two and blast the stereo, though now instead of using the car stereo they bring a real stereo system and a generator.

I prefer to go backpacking with my wife that weekend but keep telling them that one year I may join them. I have a few old friends who I haven't seen in many years, who fly in once a year just for the party in the Catskills. I'd like to see them again.

Grandpa · 11-13-2011, 01:19 AM

Other than with Mom and Dad or older brothers, I must have been 8 or 9 when a mom hauled 3 of us up the canyon and dumped us off and another mom come got us 3 days later. We had a hoot of a time with no one to tell us we had to go to bed or get up. All 3 of us had been around camping since we could remember but this was our first real boys outing. We only saw one other person the entire time. At that time, there was only a long shot chance of a cat coming around and no chance of a bear or wolf. I wouldn't dare let my grandkids do that now, even though they are competent. Too many carnivors in that canyon now.

ejdixon · 11-14-2011, 12:31 AM

Headed over to Yosemite with my college buddies. It wasn't my first camping trip ever, but that was the first camping trip that I enjoyed so much that I got hooked to camping to this day.