Essential Guide for Inexperienced Campers

If you're an inexperienced camper then planning for that first big camping trip can seem a little overwhelming. What should you take? How much of it should there be? These choices can be the difference between a pleasant trip or a nightmare.

Generally, I would say that you will always need a tent, sleeping bag, food, clothes, water, soap, toothbrush, and knife. That would be the absolute bare essentials, but I would advise to do the following:

1. Make a list and double check it. No, you're not Santa, but you also don't want to get out there and then realize that you've forgotten some necessary item. The length of the list will depend on a lot of things, such as, the type of camping you'll be doing and how long you'll be out there.

2. As you're making the list, try to group like things together. For example, keep all food items together, and all personal products together. This will let you quickly scan your list to see if you're forgetting anything. You'll also be more likely to jog your memory when you have forgotten something in that group.

3. When it comes to deciding what food to bring, and how much of it to take, just remember that there should be three meals a day. Break everything up in breakfast, lunch and dinner and figure it out per meal as you would at home. Also remember to bring plenty of water. Don't underestimate how much you'll need and leave yourself dehydrated.

4. Remember to bring some personal care products such as toilet paper, soap, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Especially if you're spending multiple days out in the wild, you will have to take care of yourself somehow otherwise you might start to offend people with the smell.

5. Make sure that you're prepared for all types of weather. Just because the weatherman said that it's supposed to be sunny doesn't mean that he will be correct. You don't want to get caught out in the rain with the proper gear. You'll end up miserable.

6. Put a tarp in the bottom of a tent to keep yourself dry at night. Also, extra padding is a good idea to stay warm because the ground will get colder than you expect it will.

7. Clean up after yourself. It will make things easier in the long run and it doesn't take very long.