I recently returned from a six night camping trip with my buddy Kim. We have camped together several times before, but not for this many consecutive days, so it was a new experience for both of us. I also camped with my sister Carol for a week (you can read about lessons learned and road trip tips from that experience here) in 2023 and my brother Daniel for a few days in March 2024. Combining these experiences, I’ve come up with a few helpful tips specific to sharing campsites and camping adventures with others.

Tip #1 - Flexibility!

Don’t make plans with a lot of preconceived ideas on “must-do” activities or routines (unless you are headed to a music festival or a specific event that is the entire purpose of the trip). That’s the magic and joy of traveling with others - you never know exactly how everything is going to play out. Embrace the unpredictability! Throw your daily routines and practices out the window - that’s part of the fun!

When camping, it’s important to remember that plans are always tentative, and every decision is up for grabs everyday at every moment.

Tip #2 - Separate Spaces

Despite the communal aspect to the camping and planning experience, being in close quarters and aware of all the comings and goings of your buddy doesn’t mean you will be doing all your coming and going in tandem all the time.

If you don’t feel like leaving the campsite but your buddy wants to go hiking, great! If you wake up early and go in search of a sunrise, great! You don’t have to wake up your buddy to see if she wants to go with you. If you need to go into town to find a gas station and recharge your electrical system because you almost ran down both fuel and batteries at the nonelectrical campsite and you are in danger of losing all power which would be a terrible, costly, disaster, great! You can announce your plan to drive into town at the earliest opportunity and invite your buddy to go with you and if she does you will have a wonderful time together, and if she doesn’t feel like going and would rather go hiking along the beach, that would have been just fine as well. And you never know, the trip into town might include a stop at an ice cream shop or a quirky antiquey, flea markety kind of place that you both love to explore - and it might still be open when you pass by. And you might just find the perfect piece of junk that will enhance the personality of your backyard!

Tip #3 - Buddy Check-ins

If you do go separate ways during the day or evening, it’s just good practice to let each other know generally where you’re going and what you’re doing. This is especially true where the internet and cell service may be spotty. I have not been in a situation where a true crisis occurred (i.e. camping buddy disappeared and did not return within a reasonable time), but it could happen and having someone else know what you are doing is always a good idea.

Caveat to the above: when camping alone, it is not unusual to go off into the far reaches of a park or wilderness area without first doing a check-in with someone back home. That said, when I’m out roadtripping by myself I always let someone (usually my siblings) know where I am spending the night and when I get there. It’s different when sharing a campsite with someone, however, and I believe it to be common camping courtesy to let your buddy know your general whereabouts when you venture away from the campsite for any length of time. When camping solo, you don’t get the luxury of that extra layer of safety net.

Tip #4 - Food and Meal Etiquette

Sharing meals is part of the fun of camping with others. It’s one of the things that creates a fun and rewarding communal experience. Kim and I always have some meals together at the campsite so we usually bring some supplies and ideas with us, some of which we may have discussed ahead of time. We also bring our favorite snacks and beverages to share.

Also, there is nothing like a grilled burger with onions, ketchup, and a sprinkle of dirt and charcoal from the firepit. Or barbequed chicken. And don’t forget marshmallows! Kim and I debated for several days about whether or not we “needed” marshmallows, and finally decided we did. No regrets! (We saved calories by not indulging in graham crackers and chocolate bars to go with the marshmallow, leaving us feeling quite virtuous overall.) And yes, we do include salads and veggies so it isn’t all unhealthy eating!

We also are careful to include eating-out opportunities to sample local cuisine, local breweries, wineries, distilleries, ice cream, the occasional food truck, etc. All of my camping buddies so far love to eat out almost as much as I do, which makes it easy and fun! And if you are bringing dogs with you, there are many great places where you can sit outside with your dogs by your side.

Tip #5 - Doggie Food Etiquette

Speaking of dogs, if you take your dogs with you, you may need to take special care to ensure they respect the space and property of their doggie camping companion. For example, be sure that the tethers of each don’t reach to the food dish of the other. Otherwise, you could find yourself with one dog gorged on two meals and the other one crying because of the theft. I promised Kim I wouldn’t name names in this section…

Dogs generally aim to please their people, and are fairly good at following the rules you set out for them and train them to do, until they aren’t. Both Beamy and Sadie transgressed from time to time, and not only when it came to food. That said, they are both great campers and fun to have along.

Tip #6 - Mutual Care

Be mindful of health issues that may occur while you are out camping together. For instance, if your camping buddy steps on a tiny piece of glass and it gets lodged in the bottom of her foot, be prepared to assist with first aid supplies and even helping to pick it out when you can see and access the spot more easily than she can.

Also, if you break your foot two weeks before going on a camping trip, don’t expect it to be fully healed before you leave. And if you decide to behave as if it isn’t broken, don’t expect to make any healing progress while you are on the trip. Your camping companion will understand your situation and not push you to do anything you shouldn’t. It is important to try not to make things worse, which may or may not be possible depending on what amount of stress you put on the broken foot during the camping outing.

Keep in mind that if you choose to impose upon your broken foot any of the avoidable stresses listed above, even the best supportive shoes or foot braces won’t prevent the occasional (or sometimes frequent) bending of the broken toe in the wrong way as you lose your precarious balance on the rocks or make a misstep on a dune. Prepare yourself for the ache at the end of the day after you have tried to ignore the problem for 12 hours straight, and console yourself knowing that the reward for your pain was the beautiful vista awaiting you just over that next dune. By morning you’ll feel great and ready to do it all again.

In your more lucid moments you should opt for some down time at the campsite and let your camping buddy do her own thing so as not to hold her back. See Tip #2 above, which came into play several times during our week together.

Tip #7 - Dog Camping Buddies

If you are camping near water and your dogs are with you, it is important to find places to let them run, play and swim, untethered if at all possible. Sadie and Kim’s dog Beamy are good friends and both love the water. We stayed at two different provincial parks in Ontario and in both places were able to find big stretches of beach with no one around.

Tip #8 - Go With the Flow

This one is similar to Tip #1, but different. Going with the flow means approaching each day without a clear agenda, staying laid back, remaining open to new experiences, being comfortable with silences and gaps, and allowing conversations to meander naturally according to whatever you or your camping companion happen to be thinking or curious about. Have things ready for your own amusement during down times. A good book. Practicing banjo. Writing. Going for a solitary walk. Topics covered during camping buddy conversations can be intimate and deep, revealing thoughts that you may share with few others. Or they can be light and airy and fun, depending on mood and what’s going on around you. In either case, there is an unwritten understanding that the campsite is a sacred, safe space to be your authentic self. Open, honest, respectful, kind and real. All ok. And necessary, given the close physical proximity of communal life in the woods.

Tip #9 - Weather Events

If your internet or cell service is spotty and the last message you received was from the National Weather Service (or the Canadian equivalent) that advised you to seek shelter immediately because there may be an impending tornado headed right at you, don’t assume that your death is imminent. Take a deep breath and look at the sky. If it is still blue or lightly cloudy, it’s probably ok to simply cross your fingers and hope for the best. Chances are that whatever is happening up there won’t affect you in a life-threatening way. Be watchful and monitor the situation as best you can, and prepare to hunker down when the rainstorm that is indeed headed for you actually hits. That means put up your awning or lower your camper’s poptop so that if you do get blown over by a big gust, at least part of your rig may remain intact.

The reality is that, in the great scheme of the world, the chance of getting hit by a tornado is pretty slim and most likely won’t happen. And if it does, you and all the other campers in that campground are all in the same boat, and maybe there is some comfort in that? Look around. Are any of them rushing to seek shelter? Have the boaters and paddlers headed in from the water? If not, things will probably be ok. No need to panic and run. And if the worst happens, you’ll have your camping buddy to brainstorm with on how to stay safe.

Note: I don’t mean to make light of a serious and dangerous possibility, but the truth is that when you are camping in the woods, there is a limited amount one can do if a weather report tells you to seek shelter “immediately” - where are we to go exactly???

Tip #10 - Humor!

Enjoy your time with your camping buddies for as long as you are together, and keep a sense of humor when things don’t go as planned. Bring games and have fun! (and make sure you laugh instead of cry when your camping buddy is playing for the first time a game you just taught her, and then breezes to the win on the first go). Try to find the humor in whatever goes wrong, like when your dog jumps off the narrow boardwalk in the woods and lands in a creek that is actually a muddy bog of a stream and you have to drag her out when her paws get stuck in the muck, and she comes out black, muddy, wet, and oh-so-smelly, but then shakes herself off a foot from where you are standing, spraying your whole body with black, smelly muck. (in this instance, I was very glad to have the shower nozzle on the back of the camper and enough water in my tank to wash Sadie thoroughly before letting her back into the camper after our hike).

Final Thought

Following these tips will help manage expectations and free you up for a wonderful camping experience, no matter who you are with. I try to go into every shared camping experience with a willingness to follow the lead of my camping partner. I may have some ideas, but nothing that isn’t negotiable. If you don’t feel strongly about any one thing then you will not be disappointed or upset when it doesn’t happen. And if there is a “must see” or “must do” on anyone’s camping bucket list, it is important to make that known at the beginning of the trip or even in the planning stage so that the buddy can either participate or opt out, no hard feelings or questions asked. At the end of the time together, ideally you will both want to do it again.

Kim, thank you for being such a fun and easy-going camping buddy! And same goes to sister Carol and brother Daniel!

Next Steps

Kim and I have a couple more outings planned for the summer and fall, so stay tuned for more reports from the road (or after the return). I also have other camping outings planned with family in July and August, firm details yet to be determined. Lots happening on the home front in Ann Arbor as well, which I will include here from time to time. Busy summer!

Stay tuned!