So... why the hell do people camp?

[Jesda]

When I took an interest in joining the boy scouts at age 7, my parents told me it was a weird thing white people did, so I didnt join.We have climate controlled buildings with big cushy beds, wireless Internet, and flush toilets. Why do people insist on camping, when we've spent thousands of years putting nature in her place?

My grandfather goes camping, but thats for fishing. Where he's at in rural Thailand, there isn't exactly a Wal-Mart nearby with prepackaged lobster.

I'm not criticizing the practice. I just dont understand why Americans do it. Enlighten me!

[Rex]

I'm not sure I can explain it, but let me try this ...

You by far prefer to drive cross country than fly, and those are the reasons (except for the 100mph part) why people like to forego the basic amenities and luxuries and spend time out in the wild.

[Graphfixz]

my wife is from Cali, I am from a poor family from South Texas. For years she has tried taking us camping!

No Way! My house growig up was a one room wooden house that had holes, all of my brothers and sisters slept in one bed while mom and dad slept on the ground. The bathroom was outside. We had chickens, rabits, snakes... heck all of my childhood can be considered as being camping!

No more! I am with you! I am too comfortable with the things I have worked hard for.

[Scooby24]

I was a boyscout so I'll chime in. It's a bonding experience with friends. You all have to work together to get things done and it's fun being out in the wilderness...learning to do important things we should learn to do...like how to start a fire...or how to pitch a tent....or how to cook on an open flame....and there are a ton of other things we learned.

I may never need to use the skills I learned but we have a motto in scouts..."be prepared"...in if anything ever happened that required me to be able to use what I learned...I was ready.

[themadscientist]

white people do strange things, how many black guys bungee jump? See a lot of indians skydiving, how many chinese dirtbike stunt riders you seen? White guys seem to need to prove their manhood whenever possible so don't wonder why, just enjoy the show. I can't go into a lot of detail, I have to get to the bar in time to jump on the mechanical bull!

[Scooby24]

white people do strange things, how many black guys bungee jump? See a lot of indians skydiving, how many chinese dirtbike stunt riders you seen? White guys seem to need to prove their manhood whenever possible so don't wonder why, just enjoy the show. I can't go into a lot of detail, I have to get to the bar in time to jump on the mechanical bull!

I take offense to this post. You are generalizing all white people the same. This, in its very nature, is racist.

[NISTECH]

My reasoning is to get away from the city life. I am very intolorant of a busy life style and being surrounded by population day in and day out gets under my skin. Simply staying in a bed and breakfast on the coast doesnt do it for me as I am still surrounded by people in the rooms there. I preffer to drag my travel trailer to the middle of no where [ not a camp site infested with city life people pretending they are camping] and enjoy being away from ringing phones, a place where my cell phone has 0 reception. no tv, no radio ,nothing that will connect me to civilization. My travel trailer is self contained and has most of the imminities you have in your house, a flushable toilet, a stove, a oven, a refrigerator , a shower with hot water as the trailer has a small hot water heater. The water tank has an electric pump to pressurize it. Used only to build pressure 2 to 3 times a day with the car connected and running for a few minutes. So i dont do with out technoligy only without the social expectations of others.

[skydragoness]

white people do strange things, how many black guys bungee jump? See a lot of indians skydiving, how many chinese dirtbike stunt riders you seen? White guys seem to need to prove their manhood whenever possible so don't wonder why, just enjoy the show. I can't go into a lot of detail, I have to get to the bar in time to jump on the mechanical bull!

I'm only 1/2 white but I could never understand why my dad's side of the family (caucasian side--my parents are divorced) would choose the most remote, mosquito-infested, 'resorts' ( i use the term loosely) for their family reunions. The locations usually consisted of a few cottages rented out by some creepy hick family and the place would be infested with ticks and mosquitoes. Now, I can rought it-- i've gone to summer camps in my pre-pubescent years. But christ, when i am going to go on a 'vacation' it sure as hell ain't going to be out in the middle-of-nowhere getting eaten alive and having nothing to do but ride a boat across a lake. They are so freakin weird. Ugh.

[nchopp]

You'll usually get a bunch of ****ty, stereotypical answers about "getting back in touch with nature", blah blah blah. Personally, I've always appreciated getting away from the stress of work, traffic, and all that stuff. Generally if I go camping it's to a campground with running water and those types of amenities - not so much for one of the taking a crap in a hole in the ground.

[NISTECH]

I take offense to this post. You are generalizing all white people the same. This, in its very nature, is racist.

Funny your offended even though it was a white man saying it..lol

[Scooby24]

Funny your offended even though it was a white man saying it..lol

hmm...so I guess racism is only racist if you're talking about a race other than your own?

kay

[Graphfixz]

I thought so too... but was unsure so I didn't say anything

[skydragoness]

TMS was merely stating the stereotype. As much as people don't like stereotypes sometimes there are a lot of people out there that uphold it.

[Eikon]

This is a very funny post.

Here's my two cents... I'm not at all offended by the comment.. I'm white and I'll be the first to admit that white people do most of the camping. Why? I couldn't begin to explain, but it's pretty much the truth.

I enjoyed camping very much when I was young. We lived in Denver and would go up to the mountains and find the world's most beautiful scenery. We would get together with great friends and have an adventure together.

It was an escape. An escape from the drudgery of city life. An escape from the mundane work week. It was an adventure!

The thing is.. it was in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It really was breathtaking. Truly an adventure. We'd hike and fish and sit around a campfire and tell stories. It was a fantastic bonding activity for my father and I and his friends and their kids.

Have you guys ever really seen the stars? Up in the mountians away from all the lights you can see the most spectacular things in the sky. You can about 1000000x more stars that you can in the city. You can see the milky way galaxy! I am by no means a star gazer, but it just something cool to see if you've never really noticed before.

Do I camp now? NOPE. I live in Green Bay, WI. Sure there are some pretty areas around here, but not pretty enough for me make an adventure out of it. I also don't have a kid yet... My first is due in Jan. Someday, for the sake of bonding with my son (if I'm blessed with a son), I will most likely take him camping.

[NISTECH]

hmm...so I guess racism is only racist if you're talking about a race other than your own?

kay

I started to answer but realized it was crossing over into politcal issues , and we cant have that here. I will mearly say I am white and was not offended so it must just be an opinion and not racism.

[Rex]

Ok, lets make this about camping not anything else. TMS was trying to be "self-effacing".

[thekage]

I love to go camping. Why? Becasue I do enjoy nature. I love photography and you can find so many breathtaking pictures when you camp.. early in the morning, through out the day, and as the sun sets. When I camp it is usually on a lake or river. So you bring a boat with you and some friends. You make a camp fire and roast wienners and marshmellows and drink a lot of beer and jungle juice. Some one brings a guitar and you all sing your heart out and then play some p0ker. Someone gets naked and runs around the camp site. HOW CAN YOU RESIST??? Its so much fun!!

[HashiriyaS14]

Not only do I camp, but I camp in ways wherein most OTHER people who camp still generally think I'm insane.

I like solitary, *very* cold weather camping.

This is for a number of reasons. Primarily, it grew out of the necessity for said style of camping to backcountry skiing, which I am quite fond of and have done for years. Climb up, Ski down, etc... (this is for areas where there are no lifts, no resort, etc...).

I started to realize that I enjoyed the camping almost as much as the skiing. This has something to do with the fact that I love winter weather almost as much as I hate my fellow man, so being by myself at 10,000 feet in the dead of winter actually sounds fairly appealing.

One of the founding partners at my Dad's firm did an expedition to Antarctica last year for some reason or other, mainly because he just wanted to do it. I was hella pissed that I couldn't go, but it would have been fiendishly expensive and like 3 weeks long.

[nab911]

Seriously... why camp?

[PantherRacer]

Govenor General Youth Award....A conspiracy to get a bunch of children out of their parents hair to take them "camping". only to have them walk 25-50 miles through bush, over[very] jagged cliffs, through streams and creeks, down never-ending dirt roads just to get to a VERY accessible camping spot.you learn a lot but, this island is only 21x7 you gatta be goin in circles if you make teenagers find a way to walk 30 miles

It is a fun bonding experience though, and afterwards (after all the aching) you do feel a bit rejuvenated and stronger, and you come away with memories (and scars and bites/stings). And white ppl aren't in the majority over here so we took the liberty of camping ourselves lol.

come on, you get to sleep on the hard ground, sneak around an toothpaste people, sneak over to the girls camping area, get a girl then dissapear into the bush...cough cough

yea, camping rocks....with a lot of ppl

[nab911]

I actualy like camping. Down here in the stix... georgia... we go muddin*1 and at the end of the night get really trashed and build huge bon fires*2. Its a lot of fun.. or it was in high school.

*1: Muddin: A term used by southerners for takeing 4x4 vehicles off road and getting them muddy*3

*2: Bon Fire: Really big fires out of whatever you can find... and grain alcohal or shine*4

*3: Mud... is just wet dirt.

*4: Shine: Liquer thats way too strong for you yankees.

[scorsone]

Camping is one of the best ways to refresh oneself after being overloaded with daily boredom. I always go camping by canoe, it makes it much easier to go farther when you don't have to carry everything on your back.

I find it humbling to be suurounded by nature without the sounds of civilization. I am always happy to come home when my trip is over and it makes me appreciate my wife and home more when I am able to get away for a while.

I don't camp when it's hot, that's not fun at all. Camping in the cool fall weather is the best but the spring is just as good.

I will take my daugher when she is older and teach her how to truly enjoy the outdoors.

The world has enough attractive prissy girls, I have decided to raise my daughter to enjoy the finer things of life; cars and the outdoors.

[nismofly]

because theres no houses in the infield of the race tracks?

[vvaffle]

2 summers ago I went canoeing in the boundary waters between minnesota and canada for 8 days with barely any contact with anyone besides for the 6 people I was with. I thoght it was awesome. We brought enough food for all 8 days and purified water while we were out there. It's definetly one of the greatest things I have ever done. My confidence was alot higher knowing that I could do that.

I also like skiing so I have gone winter camping a few times but not as many as I would have liked. Camping for me is also a way to experience something I would definetly not experience otherwise.

[StrangeLove]

I used to belong to this high adventure group. We'd go on week long hiking trips all over the country. Last one i went on before the group disbanded was to tennessee. I forget the name of the trail, but it was 17 miles long through some hellish terrain. Walking over bowling ball sized boulders for 4 hours carrying my 50lbs pack follow by an hour of switchbacks up the side of the mountain,. That very nearly killed me, I barely made it, I practically crawled to the camp site, and that was day 1 . But, I've never felt so good, and nothing has been able to match that.

Once you experience

We have climate controlled buildings with big cushy beds, wireless Internet, and flush toilets.

Thats why I enjoy camping, to get away from all that. Although, being away from my bed for week makes me really appreciate it

[Puchi]

I can't go camping. I'd have nowhere to plug in my computer so i could play WOW.

[Rex]

... The world has enough attractive prissy girls, I have decided to raise my daughter to enjoy the finer things of life; cars and the outdoors.

Nice plan, but the boys will still find her ... unless you lock her in the basement until she's 30-ish.

[nab911]

The world has enough attractive prissy girls, I have decided to raise my daughter to enjoy the finer things of life; cars and the outdoors.

Ever been to Nopi or Country Fair

[metalsyth]

I love to fish and being on a sandbar gets you closer to the fish. The beautiful scenery when the light hits the river first thing of a morning. It is also a great escape from the daily troubles you go through between the hassle of work and/or life.

[hannibal]

Camping is simply a way to simplify your life. Get rid of all the things we think are important that distract us from the things that truly matter. Leave your cell phones, laptops, TVs, and cars (GASP!), and spend time with your family and friends.

Ive done some real camping twice in my life, both times in high school. My family used to take 'camping' trips in the summer. We stayed in a state park in a cabin with electricity, TVs, and running water. Thats as far as my mom and sisters would go. Thats a shame...