It's probably in my Top 5 things to do. When I was young and, well, young - I used to love hiking and backpacking in the wilderness, sleeping under the stars. In my 20s I loved tent camping and tailgating. Now I have a small trailer my family can all barely fit into.
Who else is into pretending to be homeless? What's your gear? Where do you go?
I'm supportive of them but hate that Colorado has statewide fire bans across most of the camping season. The most quintessential part of a camping trip is waking up early, stoking a fire with a dutch oven in it, and cooking the crispiest breakfast possible. The whole evening is ruined if I'm stuck in a tent because it's otherwise too cold and dark to do anything.
My go-to spots are Red Feather Lakes, Pingree Park, far back in Poudre Canyon, Lost Creek Wilderness Area, or North Park. The big gem though is if I can score the Longs Peak boulder field sites at 12.7k'. Permits go on sale once per year and sell out within a few minutes. If the weather isn't perfect you're in an extremely dangerous place. However, it shaves about 5 miles off of a 16 mile hike and lets you acclimate better to the 14k' mountain above you. I'd like to do a photogrammetry shoot of the summit at sunrise, or even just some quality spherical photos, over the course of a couple days. Last time I went up there someone brought their stuff up using pack llamas and then camped in the alpine tundra with their llama friends.
Camping is like the only time I feel happy lol. Planned a 5 night trip to a lake earlier this year and had to leave after 2 nights because the Forest Service closed every single inch of National Forest in California because of fire danger. I was crushed.
I've enjoyed camping but I think solo camping is more my speed though so I've been slowly collecting inexpensive used gear. Its been kinda hard because where I live gets really hot and buggy, so I want to winter canp, but that's way more expensive. I love liquid fuel stoves and I really want a liquid fuel lantern, they are so cozy! My grandparents are big trailer campers, and they'll often go on several month long camping trips all over north america. I never understood that though I like going out for just a weekend.
i've progressively got into more hardcore backpacking as i've gotten older and have a bit more $ to spend. gotten my pack to reasonable weight for overnight and do hammock camping now, which is nice and comfy and so easy to roll up into a tiny ball. distant dream when my job finally destroys my body is a simple used RV/trailer
Used, small RV life forever on this end. Love me a small box trailer.
