Post your thoughts, stories and camping adventures.
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It’s great if you like the feeling of being gently gnawed at all night by a variety of invisible creatures, and kept awake by animal sounds you don’t usually hear.
I mentioned in another thread I was going camping and would start a thread. I was going to go to the Angeles National Forest, but the sites my friend recommended were closed. I really wanted to do dispersed camping, but he thought there were very few places suitable anywhere around there. So, I went to the cabin in Idyllwild that I had mentioned that belongs to an recreational/outdoors organization with an old socialisty history. It was cool. I shouldn’t say this because I guess it wasn’t allowed, but the dog really enjoyed getting way off leash. There were no other people/dogs anywhere in the immediate area.
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Some pics are necessary.
In theory I’d love to just sleep under the stars in a sleeping bag, but mosquito bites suck. You shouldn’t have bugs on you in a tent. California is pretty lucky in the bug department. I’ve been in other parts of the country that are at least 100 times worse than anything I’ve experienced in CA.
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I’ll ask nanodaughter to forward me some. I didn’t carry my phone with me.
Mosquitoes are a major concern for camping on Ontario. Sleeping under the stars would drive you nuts here.
Also much of our good camping is on or around lakes, so the air is quite humid. Apart from the hottest midsummer nights I think if you slept outside here you’d wake up damp.
Link please?
The last time I tried it was so long ago I’m sure the tent tech has improved since then to keep unwanted visitors out.
The best night’s camping I can remember was here when I was 16 (Zep at Knebworth)
and then another time the previous year when my dad’s usual trick of driving through France until it was time to find a cheap hotel or camp site totally failed and two of us slept in the locked car in a field and my dad and I in sleeping bags on the ground next to them. The sky was beautifully clear and we talked about stars and universes until I fell asleep. 
dad
Actually that was the best time.
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Probably silly not to post it, but meh, I’m not and will PM it to pretty much anyone who wants it - including you.
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The bugs are why I’ve never been able to get into camping. Which is a shame because I love hiking. Not liking camping pretty much restricts me to just day hiking.
Bug spray?
Go camping when it’s cold?
I hate bug spray, avoid it unless absolutely necessary. And when it gets cold here, it generally means it’s also wet.
It’s not a huge deal to me. I’m sure if I wanted to I could plan a hiking trip in suitable conditions, I just haven’t really bothered. A PCT thru hike (at least a partial one, anyway) after I retire seems pretty appealing.
Sometimes out here in the West in places like Lake Tahoe or Colorado it can be very low temperature but so dry it doesn’t really feel cold. The winter before last we were in t-shirts while x-country skiing when it was around 15 deg in freedom units.
we used to tent camp all the time. Then we got big dogs and it’s just easier to have an RV if we want to take them along, which we do. I kind of miss it, but having fun with the dogs more than makes up for it, and we can still get to beautiful places.
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I would never go camping. Just a horrible, insect-filled bad temperature time spent doing nothing. I can do nothing at home. And if I want a vacation I want it to be nicer than my normal life, not worse.
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That’s you? Nice class C.
You can’t get the dogs in a tent? I haven’t yet because we were in a cabin the other night, but I was planning on putting the dog in the tent. 70lb German Shepherd. It’s a big tent though (rated 6-man, but I’ve been in a “6-man” tent with 5 men and it was not great. But we’d be 2 or 3 people + 1 dog).
Yup. Alabama Hills.
Heh, we have a 50-lb chow and a 90-lb lab (who’s also still a “teenager”). Let’s just say it would not be fun.
We’d have to buy a family-sized tent, and at that point, may as well take the RV.
Nice. That looks like a pretty good spot. It’s BLM so that was free dispersed camping, right? 3.5 hours from me. Maybe in the fall when it cools off a little.