Pamela:
Hello, and good day, eh? Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.
Tim:
And I’m Tim
Pamela:
and we are from supergoodcamping.com. We are here because we are on a mission to inspire other families to enjoy camping adventures such as we have with our kids. Today, we wanted a rapid-fire, impromptu episode: “What’s the worst that could happen while you’re camping, and what could you do about it?” So we made up a couple of lists and probably have far more than we could do in one episode. But if you enjoy this episode, let us know, and we will do the same thing again.
What If You Forget To Bring Something Camping?
Pamela:
First on our list is, what if you forgot equipment? For food, in the front country, it might not be such a big deal, but the backcountry is a different issue and probably has happened to us at least once.
Tim:
So yes. For the last few years, I’ve tried to dump some responsibility on the kids and make them do stuff. They do. They do a better job now but have historically done a terrible job. That’s part of the learning process. So that’s kind of okay, not so good when you show up in the backcountry, and you go, “Hey, where’s the _____?” And you get that blank look or that “Oh, poop!” look.
Pamela:
“There’s another bin at home that we didn’t bring.”
Tim:
We don’t bring bins in the backcountry. Front country, it’s not such a big deal. Backcountry, if you show up without a stove, things will suck. If you show up without a water filter and don’t have backup iodine pills, things will suck. What do you do? You build a fire. You have to go to great lengths. We have a list. I’m a list-driven sort of guy. I do double-check marks. I put check marks to ensure that it ends up on the table or in the bag or a pile, and then I do check marks to ensure that it ends up in the vehicle to go with us. Those are both stumbling points, easy places for things not to play out well.
Pamela:
Something that was supposed to come got set on the table beside all the camping stuff and didn’t make it in the car.
Tim:
Yeah, that happens. That happens far too often. The important things I make a point of overseeing. There’s supposed to be a lighter, whether a barbecue lighter or your standard BIC lighter. There are also supposed to be waterproof matches. Both are highly important, especially if you’re into rain, if you took the canoe, etc. The waterproof matches will be your lifesaver. There’s supposed to be the MSR Pocket Rocket in there. Should that happen not to go, which thankfully hasn’t happened yet, or the fuel doesn’t make it, theoretically, as long as you’ve got a source of flame, you can set a fire, you can cook your food, you can boil water so that it’s drinkable and you don’t run into beaver fever or anything nasty. Showing up without food that’s not going to go well. You can, but you need to know or have a source of information about what’s edible in the backcountry.
Pamela:
You need to do some foraging, do some fishing, gather some nuts…
Tim:
Fishing is a good thing. Mushrooms are a good thing, but they can go poorly.
Pamela:
They can be poisonous.
Tim:
Poisonous, or you can have a different experience than you intended. Yeah, lack of food is unlikely to play well. This past trip, and this isn’t picking on him, actually, the past two trips, breakfast things didn’t go in. I’m still unsure what happened, but our freeze-dried eggs didn’t go, our oatmeal didn’t go, and our bacon didn’t go. We had a lot of granola bars that were meant to be snacks. They became breakfast.
Pamela:
So you adapt, or if worse comes to worst, you might have to drive around and change your trip. Go to the grocery store and get some stuff.
What If You Get Sick While You are Backcountry Camping?
Tim:
We’ve done that. We made some adjustments on both of these past backcountry trips to accommodate things that didn’t make it with us and due to weather because the weather can also go wrong. I got sick last year. I started running a fever on day three, I think. And we rode it out for another couple of days, but we shortened our trip. We just bailed and paddled through two more days’ worth of camping. We just paddled our way out and came home. I can’t say that I minded the deliciously decadent burger and fries earlier than we normally would get them, but I missed the two days we didn’t get camping.
What If There Are Holes In Your Tent When You’re Camping?
Pamela:
You’re fine when setting up your tent, and everything’s good. Then the rain suddenly hits, and you discover holes in your tent that you didn’t know existed.
Tim:
Yeah, or the waterproofing has worn off. Welcome to the nature of the beast. That’s just how it goes. So yeah, what’s the phrase? You don’t know your tent leaks until it does. Tarp. We tarp every time unless we are only there for three days, and there’s a 0% chance in the forecast of rain, we tarp. You could also run into a situation where there aren’t trees around to tarp. You know what? Just drape your tent with a tarp. Use rocks to peg down the corners and keep the tarp from blowing off if the wind picks up. That’s a poopy one. I can tell you from experience that being in a wet sleeping bag is no fun.
What If Your Canoe Gets Overturned?
Pamela:
And what about if your canoe gets overturned?
Tim:
There are differing opinions on how to load your canoes. With that in mind, there’s a school of thought that you should tag everything to your canoe, like tie it off, so you don’t lose it. Personally, I’m not an expert. I am not an expert at all. I would rather go downstream. I don’t care if I take half an hour to find my gear and stuff and potentially not get some of it back. I’d rather be able to turn my canoe back over. If it’s got all that gear tied to it, yes, I have all my gear, but I’m also kind of screwed. I’ll never flip that canoe with all that gear tied to it. I’m also highly unlikely to get to shore to deal with it in any other way, shape, or form. So if your canoe tips, you’re hoping you can paddle to somewhere where you can put your feet down and be able to flip it back up and drain it out. There are ways to do it. Thomas and I did a thing where we were both in the water and managed to flip our canoe back up. It’s hard. It takes a boatload of core strength, which I don’t have. I highly recommend not tipping your canoe!
Pamela:
Maybe somebody else is around to help you tip it back over?
Tim:
Solo would be brutal, and that’s a scary deal, man. To be out there and flip it on your own is something outside of my wheelhouse for sure.
What If You Thought Your Campsite Was Electric and It’s Not?
Pamela:
What if you get to your site and realize it wasn’t an electric site?
Tim:
Well, if you’re car camping, you’re SOL.
Pamela:
No electricity for you.
Tim:
Yeah, hopefully, you’ve got headlamps with batteries, or you’ve got luci lights
Pamela:
or solar panels or something.
Tim:
The important things are shelter and being able to feed yourself. We can make a whole list, but those are the important ones. So you’re good if you’ve got a tent, your camper, or whatever it is. You’re good if you’ve got a tarp, at least to get underneath. Most cooking things aren’t electric unless, I suppose, it’s in your camper, and it’s electric, but even those are mostly propane.
Pamela:
My sister likes to glamp and bring a toaster.
Tim:
Your sister’s…no, I’m not going there.
Pamela:
She’s family!
Tim:
We have a toaster but use it on a fire or over a Coleman single burner. That’s how that works for us. It’s also about 30 years, no maybe 40 years old. Sorry for sidetracking there. If you don’t have an electric site and were planning on it, it sucks to be you. It’s as bad as forgetting the extension cord that you need. That’s the one that is a big deal. But most Park offices, certainly in Ontario, you can go and borrow one from them. They often have them. They have descriptions on the website about how far it is, how far they anticipate you parking, from the post that has the power, and that number isn’t always how it plays out. Many people complain about being farther away from the electrical plug posts. We generally don’t do electric sites. I can’t think of a time when we’ve done an electric site.
What If Your Car Breaks Down While You Are Camping?
Pamela:
What if your car breaks down?
Tim:
CAA, that’s it.
Pamela:
This happened to us.
Tim:
Yes, this happened to us. We’re going back quite some time ago. My car slowly lost power. It was a five-speed Sunfire, and at some point, I would say less than an hour up the 400 highway, it became a four-speed, and then it was a three-speed, and then I just rolled off at the next overpass and parked it because it was screaming in third gear and doing 70 kilometres an hour on the highway. We had CAA Premium at the time. I understand it’s considerably more expensive now. But I had a 200 kilometre limit for the tow, and we were 193 kilometres from Killbear, from where I found myself on the side of the road. So buddy threw us up on the hook, and Thomas and I climbed in the truck with him and had a great trip. It was awesome. He was a super outdoors guy. We spent two hours just yakking while he towed and dropped us at our campsite. We found a local guy not far outside of Killbear. There was a per tow thing we were allowed under two hundred kilometres, or I had enough buffer left or whatever. The same guy came the next day or the day after that, towed it from the campsite to buddy’s garage, and he replaced the transmission, which turned into a whole thing. But that worked out well. So CAA. CAA is a potential lifesaver as far as that goes for the win. So yeah, there you go.
What About Environmental Disasters Like Forest Fires When You’re Camping?
Pamela:
And what about fires?
Tim:
So yeah, forest fires. So what happens, for the sake of argument, when you’re deep in the backcountry? The front country is not going to be such a big deal. You’re gonna get notifications from the park staff, from the park office. They will come around and let you know if there’s an evacuation. It’s a little more difficult to get that information in the backcountry. This segues well into a lack of available communication meaning no cell signal, that sort of deal. What do you do with that? We take a weather radio with us. I think it’s called an emergency radio, but whatever. We listen to the weather bands. We had a hurricane warning when we were in the only site on the lake. That was, I don’t know, it was the better part of two clicks portage back into the middle of nowhere. A hurricane warning. Ahhhh!
Pamela:
Batten down the hatches!
Tim:
If there is a localized emergency of any type, they also broadcast it on said weather band. So yeah, that’s the win for us. I suspect if there was an emergency on your Garmin or your InReach or for us, it’s a Zoleo. They would probably broadcast something similar to what we have here in Ontario with an Amber Alert. Yeah, get the heck out.
Pamela:
I believe there was an evacuation of the French River one year; wasn’t there with the forest fires?
Tim:
There was something. That was only a few years ago too. Yeah, well, welcome to climate change. If you suspect anything, you smell smoke, maybe adjust your plans and play safe. Always play safe.
What If You Get Lost While You Are Camping?
Pamela:
What if you’re lost?
Tim:
Stay where you are. The very first thing: Stay where you are. Look for something to signal with. Find a nearby beach within 10 metres, or so, take rocks and build an SOS sign, or start a signal fire. Hopefully, when you’re traveling, even if you’re just on a hike off your site and you’re lost, hopefully you have been smart, and you brought a pack with you. It has some snacks and water because those are really important things to you. If you leave your site because of the potential to get lost or, who knows, some kind of accident, you break your friggin’ ankle, whatever. If you’ve got those things, you’ve probably got a first aid kit. If you’ve listened to me talk about first aid kits, in my first aid kit is where my emergency blanket is, which is a reflective piece of mylar that’s meant to reflect body heat back at you, but boy, does it ever work well as a signal device as well. It reflects light. At some point, there will be search planes or parties; hopefully, that’s your best bet. If it’s dark and you’re lost, you can’t see because you don’t have your headlamp. You do have a map and a compass or whatever. Okay, so sit tight. Pull out that reflective blanket, wrap yourself up in it, eat a granola bar, drink water, and get a good night’s sleep. And then in the morning, when you can see, pull out your compass, pull out the map you have smartly brought with you, and unlostify yourself.
Pamela:
In our episode on essentials for camping and hiking, backcountry camping and hiking. We’ve just listed a lot of the things that Tim just said. So if you want to listen to that episode, it ties in nicely.
Tim:
Yeah, there you go.
Pamela:
And that’s it for us for today. Thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed our episode. If you want to hear more, please do let us know. Our email address is hi@supergoodcamping.com. And we are on all the social media. We would love to connect with you. Talk to you again soon. Bye!
Tim:
Bye!