A few weekends ago, I headed on an adventure with some new friends of mine – who I’ll affectionately call (because they named themselves this) the Adventure Squad. They’re an excellent group of people, and they agreed to help me share some things we learned on our adventure with all of you.
It’s not as if I’m assuming you’re going to be hoping in a car with a bunch of strangers who pick you up on the side of the road, but it’s important that you go with people you know. The more you know the people you’re with, the better time you’re going to have – mostly because they know your quirks, they know if they have to consider your dietary restrictions when picking restaurants, and they know if you’ve never been camping and are kind of nervous about it (I’m speaking largely about myself here, of course). You’ll also be more comfortable to be yourself, as it’s never find trying to navigate new relationships on a weekend where you’re all sleeping on the ground and not showering.
Don’t feel pressured to have a set schedule.
I am a constant planner, someone who feels like if I don’t have a list of things to do on a particular day, I won’t use my free time wisely (I know this from experience). On trips, though, I don’t like having a lot of plans. I like exploring. Adventure. And that’s exactly what we did on the coast that weekend – we explored Fort Stevens, an old military bunker turned state park; we explored Seaside, spending the majority of our time in an arcade; we explored Long Beach, home of Marsh’s Free Museum and Jake the Alligator man; and we explored Astoria, home of The Goonies and the longest flight of stairs I’ve ever climbed. We didn’t plan anything – we knew the things we wanted to see and do, but otherwise, we made decisions when we woke up, and on the fly throughout the day. It was relaxing and fun, which is how you should feel on a camping weekend.
Do your research – there are always free/inexpensive things to do/see, you just have to know what they are.
Having grown up in Washington/Oregon, myself and a couple of the other people on the trip knew about the cool and free things we could do on the trip. Marsh’s Free Museum is, obviously, free, and full of ridiculous knickknacks, nickel peep-shows and some of the weirdest statues and displays you’ve ever seen in your life. Seeing The Goonies house was free, the Astoria Column only cost $2 for parking, and the Oregon Film Museum was only $6 and ridiculously fun. Our most expensive excursion was the arcade in Seaside. There’s no reason to not go on a camping trip because you haven’t got a lot of money. Even if all you can afford is the campsite, the gas, and the food, and you’re doing free things all weekend, if you research the area you’ll be able to find all of the great things to do that won’t cost you a thing.
Check out your school’s rec center – if you need something that you can’t afford to purchase, see if you can rent it there!
While this applies predominantly to people still in college or graduate school, there’s always a way to find free things. We needed an additional tent, two sleeping bags, two coolers, and a camping stove. Everyone on the trip (except me) is working towards either their Bachelor’s Degree or their Master’s Degree at the same campus, so they went to the Rec Center and reserved everything we needed. We were going to split the cost but started asking co-
workers and family members and ended up acquiring a tent, a sleeping bag, both coolers, and a camping stove. Only having to rent the one sleeping bag was really nice, but even if we’d had to rent it all it would have been exponentially cheaper than purchasing the things we needed.
This was definitely true – there were a couple of people who had been camping before, but I hadn’t been since I was 17, and never without an adult. I in particular was lucky that there were other people on the trip who knew more than I did about setting up tents, building fires, cooking over a fire, and finding cheap things to do in the area. Next time I go, I’ll know better how to prepare for the weekend.
Hopefully you’ll hear more from the Adventure Squad soon. I hope if you’re camping soon, you have as amazing of a time as we did!
All photographs were taken by my wonderful friend Kerry Layne Jeffrey. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook at @klajenstein.
