Our Gear

This post is all about what we take with us to be comfortable in the woods.  I spent the day before Easter cleaning gear in the driveway and thought some of you out there may be curious about what we take with us.  For those that have not seen my car, I drive a Toyota Matrix.  It is the size of a Corolla with a hatchback.  I have a roof rack on top that holds about 70 pounds.  We can fit the four of us plus stuff in my car for a three day trip.  What we take depends very much on weather and where we are going.  We have 2 very large shelves (unused closet doors on brackets actually) in the garage that we store our stuff.  We keep everything packed and ready so all I have to do to get ready is pack food/cooler, clothes, and linens.  Shawn keeps his backpacking stuff inside to protect it from the heat.  His stuff is more expensive and harder to replace because it is specifically made for backpacking.  Most of our gear was purchased at Target, Walmart, or Academy. 

Let's start with sleeping.  We have 2 family tents.  Our older tent is an Eddie Bauer 4 person tent from Target.  When a tent says how many people it sleeps, it means adults in a sleeping bag side by side without a mattress.  Our newer tent sleeps 6 and is a Coleman from Walmart.  We have heavy duty, regular, and sand stakes depending on where we are camping.  We also have 2 tarps, 1 for under the tent and the other to make a windbreak when we beach camp and a hammer comes on every trip for tent stakes.  We have 2 backpacking mummy style sleeping bags, Shawn's is very warm and mine is fairly warm.  The kids have sleeping bags from Target.  When they get bigger, we will upgrade theirs to nicer bags.  They don't cold weather camp much yet, so they don't need it.  We have a queen size Aerobed for us and the kids each have a twin sized air mattress.  Not sure why we bothered with Patrick since he prefers the crack between the mattress and the side of the tent. 

Moving on to eating.  We have a large grey bin that holds all the food stuff.  Paper towels, garbage and ziploc bags, reusable bowls and plates, plastic silverware, coffee cups, 2 non-stick skillets, 1 saucepan with lid, small dish soap, sponge, and plastic tub for washing dishes.  Another small container holds the sugar, salt, pepper, matches, can opener, and coffee.  We also bring small propane containers to fuel the lantern (which we don't always use) and the stove.  We have a two burner camping stove that runs on small propane.  This is useful for cooking, especially in a burn ban, and home cooking during hurricanes in FL.  We have a couple of sizes of coolers.  We try to bring the smallest one possible to conserve space.  We have a silver insulated drink dispenser (igloo cooler) and fill that with ice and water for drinking when we arrive.  This keeps garbage low and saves space in the cooler by eliminating bottled water.  The kids have hydration packs for long hikes.  We didn't get camel packs, just the $9 packs from Academy.  We also have 4 marshmallow sticks.

We have a military duffel bag that holds pillows and towels.  In warm weather, we skip the sleeping bags and just bring sheets.  We have 4 folding camp chairs and various colors. 

We bring water shoes and hiking or tennis shoes.  Lots of comfy clothes that can get filthy.  The kids always bring buckets and shovels.  We have a portable charcoal grill for beach camping and an inflatable boat with oars for river camping.  Miscellaneous things include drawing paper with colored pencils, walking sticks, fishing equipment, large nets for catching minnows and frogs, flashlights, a french press for making coffee, and card games.  And beer....always cold beer.

We usually buy firewood and ice when we get there to save on space.   Below are some pictures of our stuff and the small space we fit everything into.