[leadin]Everyone has an opinion on ‘best practices’ when it comes to camping. See 50 opinions, ideas, and warnings below, culled and inspired from a mega-thread on Reddit asking about ‘mistakes’ commonly made when pitching a tent to sleep outdoors.[/leadin]
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1) Don’t attract bears!
Clean up food and cooking stuff after your meal. Otherwise it attracts pests of all types and sizes.
2) Not bringing enough beer.
Self explanatory.
3) Stake down tent for wind.
Setting up late one night, my buddy forgot to stake down his tent. We returned after a long day away to find it soaking wet. It had blown into a stream, and some passer’s by had thankfully rescued it.
4) Don’t forget a headlamp.
And spare headlamp. Because you don’t want to be the only guy who can see what he’s doing, you’ll end up doing everything, or loaning out your light. Use said headlamp to delegate tasks.
5) Don’t forget your rain fly.
Camping in Colorado one very rainy night, one of my friends wound up spending the night in his (short) Jeep because he left his rainfly at our last campsite — 100 miles away. Hilariously, it was returned to him, after he’d bought another tent.