Some of my favourite camping gear

We haven’t been camping as much in the past couple of years so this year I’m delighted to be out for more than a week. It isn’t the same as travelling across Canada to the East Coast or to Vancouver Island or to Yukon and the Northwest Territories. With Covid 19 this summer it’s just nice to be away from the city and in a situation where it’s not difficult to maintain physical distance.

Despite the fact that we have a large water tank in the van we’ve always travelled with a five-gallon blue water jug. We tend to spend as much time outside as we can and that jug allows us to have a source of drinking and cooking water on the picnic table right next to where we are working. When it’s the dead of winter I sometimes escape by reading about various camping hacks. One of the ones I found was to take a jug that detergent comes in and use it as a hand-washing station. I’ve been saving such a jug for a couple of years and this is the first time we’ve brought it and used it. It works well. Pushing the little red button is easier than turning the stopper on the blue jug and it stops immediately when you release the bulb. Using those two portable water sources helps us to extend the time between filling the van’s tank. At night the two jugs sit between the seats in the cab out of the way.

Another much-appreciated piece of kit is the shelter that goes over the picnic table. it saved our bacon in 2014 when we were hiding out from the tail end of a hurricane. It kept the rain off, extended our living area, and allowed us to cook outside. We have a two burner stove in the van and find it is much more convenient to cook and eat outside whenever we can. There is more space and better scenery. There are a few pin holes in the roof of the shelter that I’ve patched with hockey tape and six years on it’s holding up fine. Not really expensive when you amortize the cost over a number of years. It does take up quite a bit of space in the van though.

Last summer when we were out camping we had to return to the city because we forgot Richard’s coffee. At home he has an espresso machine which he loves. Somehow coffee grounds in a melitta filter with hot water poured over them just isn’t the same. I went looking for other solutions and found an aeropress and a manual coffee grinder. It delights me to see Richard happily grinding his favourite beans and enjoying his two cups of coffee in the morning.

Another delight is a pair of solar-powered, blow-up, lights. I think I got them at Lee Valley. You let the air out during the day and set them somewhere that they can charge in the sun. At night you can hang them up and they give a nice warm light and are certainly bright enough to read by. The van has LED lights that are slightly colder in colour temperature so we often use the blow up lights which are homier. They weigh hardly anything and will substitute for a flashlight as well.

Perhaps the best gear we have is our sleeping bags. We bought them to hike the Chilkoot seven years ago and they are so light and so comfortable that we sometimes forgo the quilts we have at home and sleep instead in our sleeping bags. I know it’s weird but until we can get a comforter that is even close in comfort to these bags, we’ll continue to use them for more than camping in the summer. They are mummy bags and we’ve found it is very comfortable to leave the bags unzipped and throw them over top of us like a duvet. The bags have the extra advantage of a pocket for your feet.

Another acquisition for the Chilkoot hike was a jetboil stove. It isn’t great for cooking four-course meals but it is fantastic for boiling water. We have a dedicated box that holds the jetboil, the coffee and tea, the sparker (the internal sparker on the jetboil no longer works) and the milk which we take out of the fridge just before R makes the morning hot drinks. Then we sit out and watch the squirrels, crows and songbirds go about their business as we start our day. We’ve debated getting rid of the jetboil because we don’t need it but we’ve decided that it is so handy and efficient that we’ll hang onto it. Knowing that we can boil water easily and quickly also gives me a sense of security when the wind blows the rain in.

Although I’m not within cell phone range at the moment I’m writing this on a portable keyboard connected via bluetooth to my phone. It seems to be quite satisfactory. The keyboard is easy to use and we can either charge our phones using the recreational battery in the van or using a power brick which is a new addition to our travel gear. We charged it when we were home and have yet to use up all the juice despite repeated charging of our phones. Of course, if we’re in a campground with power, we're all set.

I’d be truly neglectful if I didn’t mention my hiking boots. Having suffered through years of blisters while breaking in boots, it was an absolute delight to order boots online a week before the trip and have them arrive two days before we left. Even better, they fit from the moment I put them on and I’ve had no blisters. One day we hiked 12km and yesterday we hiked 14 km, hardly world record distances but long enough to make me want to take a rest day today and to appreciate my new boots. I hope they will last as long and take me to as many interesting places as the Keens did.

I’m sure there are other pieces of gear that deserve to be in this post although I can’t think of what they are at the moment. I’ll stop here and quietly appreciate them as they come to mind. What a privilege to be able to be so comfortable in the outdoors.