Setting up camp

Now that you've got your equipment prepped, and your location picked out, you need to know how to set up camp when you arrive at your campsite. The three most important parts of setting up your camp are making sure that you aren't under any dead or dying trees, you aren't setting up on top of a wild animal's den, and you aren't too close to a body of water that might flood.

Many public campgrounds will have sites similar to the one shown here with a picnic table, a fire pit, and sometimes a post with outlets and water taps however, if you're going for a more wilderness-type campground, there may only be a firepit for you to look out for. When making camp you generally want to set your tent up about 200 feet away from major hazards, be them fire pits, or water sources, both for your safety and to decrease the risk of introducing pollutants to an ecosystem. another thing to be aware of is how you store your food, there are 2 main ways to store ingredients when camping, when available you want to store food in a locked car, otherwise, you want to use something called a bear bag and hang your food from a tree as to keep wild animals out of it. Under no circumstances do you want to store food, especially not open food, in your tent as that can attract wild animals, and can lead to you or your fellow campers being attacked by animals in your sleep. When setting up your tent you will want a waterproof tarp under it when possible to keep the bottom dry, you may also want to tie down your tent or its rainfly if there are high winds in the weather forecast to keep your supplies from blowing away. That's just about it for what to be aware of when setting up camp, for tent-specific questions you may need to check the manufacturer's website as no two brands of tent are exactly the same. Thanks for reading, and until next time, safe travels and happy trails.