We hadn’t been camping for a while, so when my husband I headed out last weekend, we were a little rusty. Sure, we tested our headlamps at home but when the sun went down, we realized neither one would stay on unless we held them upside down (a minor inconvenience).
We ditched our old but reliable camp chairs for two new ones we picked up at a sidewalk sale last summer and had never used (and which broke as soon as we set them up and leaned back). We packed trail mix with unsalted almonds, and sorely missed the salt after a long, hot hike.
But we did a couple of things right – along with our GPS unit, our lightweight single-wall tent and state-of-the-art down sleeping bags, we packed our umbrellas, the small foldable kind, and we threw in our old Radio Shack transistor radio.
Yeah, that’s right – umbrellas and a radio – two decidedly old-school ways to make a great camping trip even better.
I learned the umbrella trick years ago when I interviewed Ray Jardine, who was a pioneer in ultra-light backpacking.
Jardine, a native of Colorado Springs, made a name for himself in the 1990s with his unconventional camping and hiking methods – he chose tennis shoes with the tongues cut out instead of hiking boots; a quilt instead of a sleeping bag, and rayon instead of Gore-Tex. And he always carried an umbrella. (He still preaches the lightweight way on his Web site.)
Ever since then, umbrellas have saved us from stinging hailstorms and blazing sun. Earlier this summer, when we were caught in a storm that threw quarter-sized hail at us, we opened our umbrellas, linked our arms and walked down the trail, our beagle trotting comfortably between us.
On our most recent trip, we set up camp in full sunlight. It would be perfect the next morning because the sun’s rays could warm it quicker, but it was hot in the afternoon. So we opened our umbrellas and relaxed in comfort. The only challenge? Keeping the beagle from hogging the shade.
– Deb Acord
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