My Favorite Camping Stuff!

Hikers Marc and John! (No, I'm not giving you the finger.)

John and I spent Thanksgiving again up at World's End State Park as we have done so for the last several years since my Mom passed away. It has become a nice break before the craziness of the holidays ensures. One day I do plan on joining my sister out in San Diego at my brother's for Thanksgiving but for now, this has become a nice tradition.

So the holiday was spent hiking, cabin camping, feasting on smoked turkey, toasting marshmallows, drinking some fine ass bourbon and smoking Cohibas cigars. I love getting back to nature and believe it or not, having no cell service. Well, at least for a while. LOL

Sporks aplenty! 

Kelty sleeping bag

Awesome coffee pot

It's pretty funny walking into one of the local bars up there with WiFi and having your phone start pinging madly a dozen times with notifications from any half a dozen social media websites I am a part of.

My fav mug

ID holder

My knives

While packing up all of our stuff in the cabin on that final Saturday morning, I began to think about how much I loved my sleeping back. I 've had it for about half a dozen years and it is still the most comfortable sleeping bag I've ever owned. It is a Kelty brand sleeping bag, specifically, their Light Year 3D 25' degree bag. It is so warm. I've slept in it while camping in Maine where the overnight temp dropped to 20'F, woken up with snow on the ground, and still been warmly snug as a bug in a rug. Kelty is a well known outfitter for camping, hiking, and back packing. Check out their website for great stuff: www.kelty.com.

SO, without further adieu, my list for my favorite camping items is as follows, in no particular order:

1. my Kelty sleeping bag (see above)
2. pan scraper:  Unfortunately it broke but with some black Gorilla duct tape, it is as good as new! It works just awesome when scraping burnt camp food off the bottom of the frying pans.
3. sporks: Sporks are an odd invention. I do like my sporks though but I tend to also stab myself in the mouth when I use the spoon part, or is it the fork part? Either way, OUCH.
4. camo hiking pants:  I've had these hunter green camouflage pants for years. They have worn so much that they are now so soft and comfortable to wear. But they are camo and I blend in so I am forced to wear ... 
5. my orange cap:  I always wear the orange cap while hiking. I know people tease me about it but it is a necessity when you are hiking along trails in PA State Game Lands. I don't want my ass to get shot!
6. favorite mug: I used my blue speckled enameled mug for coffee, for soup, for hot chocolate, beans, red wine, bourbon, other whiskys and assorted alcoholic libations! And YES, I do rinse it between the beans and red wine. I also like my kinda matching red tumbler for the same reasons. Except I don't eat beans from it.
7. coffee pot: This awesome vintage coffee pot is a relatively new purchase. John and I used to each have our own small individual coffee pots but they never made enough coffee for two mugfuls before that early morning hike. This one does and then some. It's mid-century, aluminum with a red Bakelite handle. A little pizzazz for your campsite!
8. ID holder: My great hard plastic black ID holder is waterproof, can old a couple pieces of ID, that important medical card if you take a tumble, and a key to your cabin or car. Wear this and you won't lose that wallet scrambling up and over a house-sized boulder.
9. knives: I have two favorite knives I take camping. The first one, the white handle one, is a Boy Scouts of America knife. It was a gift from my Mom and Dad waaay back in the early 80's; a sort of coming of age gift. I never made Eagle Scout, dropped out actually of Scouting but this knife is one of my most treasured possessions for whom it is from and what it represents for me. The second knife, is a gift from John. It's an awesome large folding knife. Perfect for slicing off cheese, dry sausage, or a huge turkey leg from the smoked bird as I did on Thanksgiving. 
10. Tapatio hot sauce:  This California hot sauce is just hot enough for a nice kick for this guy. I'm not a big fan of thermo-nuclear hot sauces. I just want some flavor with a kick. I also don't like hot sauces which are too vinegary. Tapatio is just a damn tasty kick in the pants!
11. hiking gloves: Every serious hiker should have a nice pair of light weight hiking gloves. It will help prevent callouses, prevent you from accidentally getting poison ivy (as long as you don't scratch yourself with the gloves on - LOL), holding onto that walking stick, grabbing onto boulders or questionable logs infested with questionable bugs.
12. hiking stick: Every hiker should have a good ... no scratch that ... a GREAT hiking stick! It should be just tall enough to be comfortable to hike with and not too heavy to become a burden. And sometimes you even pretend you are a martial arts warrior taking down unseen bad guys in the woods... whaaat? Oh never mind. LOL After years of hiking with your walking stick, you will get comfortable with it as your side piece. It is a must have!                                                                                                                                                                                 

My hiking stick for years!

Gloves gloves gloves

I hike and camp with Tapatio! 

BLOGGER's NOTE: Sorry for the wonky picture setup. Don't know why it was doing that and I did try to fix it. I may be eventually moving onto a more "user" friendly blogging site.