Backyard tent-check (BenSheldon on Flickr)
With most of the country beginning to thaw out, now is a great time to start planning for your first family camping trip, this spring. For many families, this will be the first camping trip since Labor Day. That means camping gear that has been in storage for months needs to be checked before hitting the backcountry. Also, springtime weather is unpredictable, so it makes sense to prepare for the worst, regardless of the weekend forecast.
A camping grill, in addition to a camping stove, can be a real benefit if you like to cook more complex camping meals for your family. A separate grill frees-up burner space on the camping stove for side dishes, like baked beans, corn or potatoes. The Weber® Q® 220 is a portable gas grill that meets our family cooking needs nicely, without taking up too much room in the car. It’s not a lightweight piece – the Q-220 tips the scales at 45 lbs. and measures nearly three feet long.
It’s always been my contention that when it comes to camping gear, you have to pay a premium for the lightweight backpacking variety. That logic got stood on its head when Eureka!® sent me one of their Kotey 35-degree bags, which weighs just a shade over two pounds and retails for less than $100.
East Harbor SP (basile12 on Flickr)
Every year, Steve Cheslock takes his family camping at East Harbor State Park, on Lake Erie in Ohio. Like most of us who camp, Steve had seen his share of people struggle with tent stake removal over the years, but last year he got to experience it for himself when it came time for him to tear down his tent. This got Steve to thinking about a better way to remove stubborn tent stakes from the ground and, in January of this year, the STAKE BUDDYâ„¢ was born.
This is what camping geeks look for on the Internet: vintage stoves! Call it a sickness, call it a midlife crisis, but when I saw this early 60’s Coleman® 425C for sale I just couldn’t pass it up. The “C” model of the 425 series was made in 1961, 1963 and 1964. I do not think there is any way to tell exactly when this particular one was originally sold, but it’s fun to have a forty-something year-old camping stove.