Camping Resolutions

Pamela and Tim share some thoughts on resolutions that will help make your camping experience better in 2025!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hello and good day. Welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

I'm Tim.

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

And we are from supergoodcamping.com. We're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Today being we're recording this at the beginning of the year 2025, we want to talk a little bit about maybe camping resolutions. Maybe you have some plans or goals of what you would like to do this year that might be advancing your skills from previous years. So we just thought we'd go through some ways you could do some goal setting things that you could up your game a little bit with your camp.

SPEAKER_00: 0:37

So for me, one of the things I intend to do this year is plan more trips. I have additional vacation time this year so i'm going to get out there and do more more trips and uh i'm going to spend some time looking at sort of bucket list-ish sort of sort of trips and see if i can maybe squeeze one in

SPEAKER_01: 0:58

we talked to so many people too and they're all like oh we did the east coast trail it was so beautiful and we hear all of these fabulous adventures and it's like oh You need to add that to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09

Like the list is getting longer. It's not supposed to go

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

like that. You could improve your camping skills. So maybe if you feel like you have a weakness or something feels particularly challenging to you when you're camping, like you're not that great at map reading or you could use some help with cooking, how to cook better in the backcountry, things like that. Anything you want to do to up your skills, there's all kinds of resources available like YouTube. You can watch more YouTube videos, right, Tim?

SPEAKER_00: 1:38

I don't know what you're talking about. Improve your sustainability. We've talked about this before. I'm a big tree hugger. We're tree huggers, for sure. The moniker fits. Things like plastic. So Pamela got me, they were Cabela's, and I know it's not the right brand, Ziploc bags. But they're heat sealable. So normally I package my dehydrated food in plastic envelopes and vacuum seal them. These are Ziploc versions. So A, I can package differently. It doesn't have to be a per serving or a two serving package. It could be whatever because I can zip it back up, which will still hold it for, you know, certainly for the amount of time we're in the back country. And if when I come, if I bring the back with me. So good. I can cut the bottom off, fill them again and, and vacuum seal it again. So I could, in theory, they're, they're heavy enough. I could get more, more uses out of, it's not, it doesn't, it isn't a single use plastic at that point.

SPEAKER_01: 2:46

Multiple uses. Yeah. Until it gets too teeny tiny and you cannot, you can block one. Physical fitness. So we've talked to several people too, as I've talked about a particular adventure that they were planning on and they've said, yeah, we, we had to train for that. We had to carry around heavy backpacks around the block in the city while we were kind of getting ready or preparing or just working out more, going to the gym, more running, more hiking, more doing things so that they were mentally and physically prepared

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

for that. Yeah, I think Sherry mentioned something about stairs near their house. Sherry from Beauty of the Backcountry mentioned training on a set of stairs that is close to their home just to make sure that her legs are in better shape. I think she was worried about having to lug Jay out of the woods. I think you get left behind, Jay, just saying. Safety. Yeah, that's a good one. And preparedness, I suppose. You know, let's go fairness first, make sure that when you have a checklist for loading your stuff up so you don't do things like forget your paddles or you wanted to take, you know, the weather was looking kind of crappy. Are we

SPEAKER_01: 3:59

looking at

SPEAKER_00: 4:00

Jane, Sherry? We are. The... it's two tarps because you looked at the weather and you went, you know what, one over the tent and one over by the fire pit. Wouldn't be a bad idea. Make sure you do that. So there's preparedness, um, safety wise, you know, make sure that you've got a first aid kit. You've got some first aid training, uh, that your, your first aid kit has up to date medication in it. Not stuff like, I think the, I went through ours about three years ago and found stuff that was 10 years old. So maybe not doing what it's supposed to do anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 4:34

So goals, just just look over your equipment, make sure that things are in good shape, and you're prepared. And then drag in other people, I would try to get other people engaged in camping, try to get your friends and your family. And you know, the funny thing is, I was not a big camper before I met him. I'd gone once with our family to Niagara Falls camping when we were kids and once in a tent trailer with me and uncle. And I've been, I don't know how many times now, at least probably 20 times we've been camping since we've known each other. And it's awesome. So anyway, people don't know what they don't know. They don't know that it's going to make them feel more relaxed. They don't know how much they're going to enjoy being out in nature. They don't know the beauty of a campfire and sitting around and enjoying food at the end of the day after you've done a paddle and whatever. So yeah, anyway, so maybe you can make it a goal this year to drag some of your friends and family out.

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

I'm not, I'm not averse to doing that. It means I get out there more, right? Journaling. So I, I, I'm, I'm a hit and miss on it. Sometimes I take really good notes and sometimes we're just, it's knuckle down and go, go, go on the trip. And I don't take as much as many notes. Uh, although I do tend to take boatloads of pictures and I can usually remember the things when I look through the pictures later, but journaling is not a bad idea, you know, uh, especially if, uh, maybe you're going to do that trip again or some some part of that trip again then you'll have notes to say you know this campsite was was good this campsite had you know there was nowhere that was that was flat it all had you know a tilt to it so you're you're you have feet full of blood or you have a head full of blood you know depending on where you put your tent there's lots of uh There's lots of online resources where you could contribute to say exactly that about or when you're looking for the portage, despite where the symbol is, it's actually you need to veer a bit to the right of that or whatever.

SPEAKER_01: 6:35

Yes, documenting your trips, whether that's by photography, by video, by journaling, by writing. So you don't have to, if you're not into writing, maybe you prefer to take pictures. And then giving back to nature. So you can join like Friends of Algonquin, something like that, where you go in, and I know with Algonquin specifically, you can pick a trail and you hike that trail and then you kind of clean up if you notice empty water bottles or whatever has been strewn about the trail, which is sad, but still you can contribute to making those parks be a better place for everybody.

SPEAKER_00: 7:12

Yeah. And we've, I'm sure I've told a number of times stories about just, you know, you get to a site and you find 14 grills or there was one, there was one where you found a bunch of fry pans. It was like, wow. What the hell's wrong with you, man? But yes, you can give back by lugging that stuff back out with you. It'd be nice if the people who took it in lugged it out. And yes, I'm giving you an evil eyeball if you're listening.

SPEAKER_01: 7:38

Pushing your comfort zones. So maybe you want to, I mean, you've done lots of camping and this is where you always go and this is what you always do and it's always a summer trip and maybe you want to try a winter trip instead this year. Maybe you want to try, if you've always gone with other people, try a solo and again, coming back to Chancery because We just talked to them recently. Sherry did a solar trip and she said, you know, she wanted to feel like she was confident being able to do that. If heaven forbid something ever happened and she had to get them out on her own, she wanted to feel comfortable knowing she could do that.

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

Yeah. Or you could do a, I mean, we did that, the one in the Massa Saga there in the fall. That was a one site, you know, maybe, maybe we do one where we do two sites, you know, set up, pack up.

SPEAKER_01: 8:22

Tim's always pushing me out of my comfort zone. See, there you go. And, or you could do something a bit more remote, but you just want to make sure that you're prepared to do the, get the skills and stuff, make sure that you

SPEAKER_00: 8:32

know what you're doing. And that could be that you could factor that in with your bucket list thing where it's, you know, for me, it might be, it might be go hike, you know, Jasper. Um, I don't know that I would do hiking all that well, but, but that's kind of, you know, you could do that sort of deal.

SPEAKER_01: 8:48

So that's it. What do we have specific resolutions? We should probably shoot.

SPEAKER_00: 8:53

I, I, I don't, um, Camping more. Camp more. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

And we'll try, as Tim said, we did a Massasauga trip that was pretty, pretty simple. And it was, that was because of me. But maybe we'll make it be a little bit more challenging this year.

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

Hey, listen, if it gets you out, I'm good with it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:12

That's it for us for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please do check us out on all of the social media and we would love if you subscribe to us on YouTube. It helps us if you download the episodes and listen to the download versus just listening to it online. And if you would like to talk to us, we'd be happy to talk to you. So please talk to us on any social media or also email us at supergoodcamping. We are at hi at supergoodcamping.com. That's hi at supergoodcamping.com. And we'll talk to you again soon.

UNKNOWN: 9:42

Bye.

SPEAKER_00: 9:43

Bye.