Campers Info Source

Camping in Pennsylvania has some surprises for everyone.  The Allegheny National Forest is a site that is outstandingly beautiful, offering deep trees that will literally run for a hundred miles before you see daylight.  What I can tell you is that camping in

Chinook Tradewinds Guide 6 Person Tent

a national forest requires that you have a good solid tent and you need to watch your step.  You have to be careful about what you’ve heard about bears and their sleeping habits because it’s sometimes not true.  Chinook tents are good solid tents and are perfect for camping in national forests.  If you believe everything you’ve heard or read about bears and their hibernation or migration patterns, you might not be too worried about camping in the late fall.  No bears right? Great time for camping. I’m here to tell you that you may be very wrong.  Late fall appears to be a great time for bear migration.  If camping in the late fall in any national forest, I highly suggest you hang garbage food from high tree branches far away from your campsite so bears will be distracted by the scent found far away.  Or dig a hole and put some garbage food in it and cover it with a few logs to keep the bears busy.  Make it look natural.  I did this once just as a precaution because although we knew bears were in the area, we assumed the bears to be already in bed and sleeping.  However, our camp site was visited one night and our Chinook tents were snuffed by no less than four bears that night. Don’t ask us if it was four different ones, or all the same–we didn’t open the tent to find out.

Mosquitoes can be a real pest in the spring and fall when camping, hunting, fishing, backpacking, kayaking or four wheeling.  Mosquitoes are especially bad in the Minnesota Boundary waters where campers report them to be carrying off small deer.  But time in the field or at your campsite no longer has to include swatting bugs or messing with smelly sprays, greasy lotions or cumbersome

Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Appliances Realtree Camo

netting. ThermaCELL®, the unique butane-operated mosquito repellent system, is the perfect hunting companion-small, portable and highly-effective, and it fits nicely into a pack or vest pocket.

ThermaCELL creates an odorless 15 x 15-foot comfort zone, which offers up to 98% effective protection against mosquitoes and other biting insects. With the click of a button, ThermaCELL is on and repelling insects by creating a comfort zone in under 10 minutes.

The unit operates on a single butane cartridge, which heats a mat releasing allethrin, an insect repellent that is a synthetic copy of a natural insecticide found in chrysanthemum flowers. Each mat contains enough repellent for four hours of protection and each butane cartridge will operate the unit for 12 hours.

ThermaCELL is a must have for your camping gear. “ThermaCELL is one product that will change the way you hunt,” said Huntin’ the World Southern Style co-host Hal Schaffer. “It really is the most innovative product to be introduced to the hunting market in the last 20-years.”

ThermaCELL has been evaluated and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for safety and effectiveness. The ThermaCELL unit measures 7.5″ x 3″ x 1.5″ at the top, and 7.5″ x 1.5″ x 1.5″ at the bottom. It weighs a mere 6.4 ounces with a full butane cartridge so it is very easy to pack in your backpack. 

Utilizing the same highly effective mosquito repellent as the original ThermaCELL unscented mats, the new Earth Scent also emits the smell of musky dirt and decaying leaves — a convincing scent designed to mask human odors and linger continuously for up to four hours per mat. The ThermaCELL Earth Scent mosquito repellent refill kit includes one butane cartridge and three Earth Scent mosquito repellent refill mats.

Those brand new Coleman tents were due for a workout and like money in your pocket tends to burn a hole, the tents being still in the original bags was driving us all a little nuts.

It was time to air out the camping gear and get set for another summer. Early  springtime in the California mountains wasn’t the best

Coleman Hooligan 4 Tent 9 x 7 4 Person

time for camping, but everyone was anxious to get a jump start on the summer time fun. We drove to an area that we knew would be less populated–in fact there was literally no one around–and set up those Coleman tents to get started on another summer of outdoor fun.

It was late evening–could have been our eyes, but we’re all pretty sure that it wasn’t, when the very tall and very hair covered animal entered our field of view just inside the treeline. It was upright, moving at a very startling gait toward our campsite, stopped, seemed to listen and watch a moment as we held our breath, then turned and rapidly loped off into the other direction, headed back into the mountains.

We discussed that sighting for hours. It wasn’t a wolf, we were sure, it wasn’t a bear, it walked only upright. Had we just encountered some strange new breed? Did such a thing really exist?  We shared the tent that night, although we’d pitched three of those new Coleman Tents. 

 The next morning, we went scouting for footprints and found just one. It was about 14 inches long, and belonged to no animal we knew of. What did we see in the California mountains?  Could it have been the legendary Sasquatch?  What do you think we saw?

Explorer 2 Model Tents - Sleep Utility Vehicle

Lake in northern Minnesota in 2009 and I slept in the bed of my truck with the tail gate down.  I was very fortunate that the camp ground had been sprayed for mosquitoes that day because the bugs were not too bad.  But on any other night, I would have been eaten alive by mosquitoes. 

Summer is the favorite season of all and this one was no exception! We finally were on vacation in southwestern Colorado and camped in the middle of some of the tallest mountains I had ever seen. It was the middle of July and there was fresh snow on the tallest of them!   The place where we camped was a good campground with a fire pit and lots of spruce and pine trees nearby, so

KELTY Green River 4 Tent - with Rain fly

firewood was no problem. 

Kelty tents are available in many different shapes and sizes and the camp ground we stayed at had a large number of Kelty tents that looked just like ours.  Our Kelty tent was big enough for all five of us to sleep in and we soon had it set up and sleeping bags unrolled before exploring the tiny park we were in. A creek was just off to the right and my sister was hoping that she would see some of the deer or maybe even elk nearby.

Well, we explored and ate beans and hot dogs for supper and watched the fire die down to embers. I had the job of making sure there was enough kindling chopped for the morning fire and my sister was responsible for making sure that the water pail was full. 

During the night we heard something nearby, it sounded like a giant rat or gerbil munching on a very large stick of celery. When we poked our heads out of the Kelty tent, we saw a huge porcupine chewing on the wooden handle of the hatchet I accidently left by the woodpile! About a half hour later, he left and the handle was nearly chewed in two pieces.

Driving and riding an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV)  or Four Wheeler is one of the most fun activities you can do outdoors for young and old.  Many people will debate the age when kids should be allowed to start driving but most laws

Justin and McKenna Riding A Four Wheeler

require kids to be at least 16 years old before driving a four wheeler.  Some state laws vary but regardless of law, what’s more important is that the child be mature and practice safety all the time.

And parents need to model safe driving habits because children do what they see.  My son-in-law Justin recently took my grand daughter McKenna for a very short ride on a four wheeler.  Just seeing her in this picture was amazing.

Even at this age, she had so much fun.  Grandpa is probably going to have to buy her a four wheeler when she grows up.  The next time you plan to go outdoors and play with mother nature, consider buying and using four wheelers vs hiking or biking and remember, “The Joy is in the Journey”.

Duck hunting season is right around the corner.  The cool air just arrived in Minneapolis yesterday and that smell of Fall is in the air.  The leaves will soon change color and fall from the trees as the temperatures begin to drop closer

Jenny and Baylee feeding the ducks

to zero degrees in the coming weeks and months.  As an avid duck hunter, I have lots of Hunting Gear to get ducks to fly close enough for a shot including duck decoys, duck and goose calls, camo clothing, shotguns and shot gun shells.  But even with all of these things, my grand daughter Baylee found something that brought ducks closer to her than I have ever gotten ducks to come to me.

Baylee and her mom Jennifer took some bread slices to a local pond and tons of duck walked right up to them.  How fun!!!

If you haven’t ever used bread slices to feed ducks with a young child, give it a try.  Do it next time you go camping. So next time you plan a duck hunting trip or a camping trip, bring an extra loaf of bread to feed the ducks and remember, “The Joy is in the Journey”.

The first time we used our new Eureka family tent was during spring vacation.  My dad heard that Eureka family tents were high quality tents so he bought one and was anxious try it out.  Our family decided to go to on a camping trip to see the area around

Eureka! Grand Manan Tour Family Tent

Arches National Monument in Utah. We drove nearly half of the day to get there and find the camping spot my Dad had reserved.  The whole area was filled with different shades of red, gray or pink sandstone and a few tumbleweeds that drifted with each gust of wind that blew through the campsite.  My brother Jerry and I ran towards the concrete bathrooms, leaving our parents to unpack and set up the tent.

A short while later, we returned to find the cooler, gas grill and tent spread out on the ground. Dad was on his knees in the back of the station wagon, hunting frantically for the ground cloth and rope we used to help keep the tent stable when the wind was blowing hard.  Minutes passed without any luck then finally Dad appeared, with a shout of “Eureka!! I found them!” as he tossed out the rope and ground cloth.  Jerry and I helped finish setting up the tent and were nearly blown away when a gust of wind caught the tent-it was only the rope that kept us from joining the tumbleweeds as they blew off of the nearby cliff edge!  Eureka family tents have always kept our family safe and dry no matter what mother nature decided to throw our way.  If you are looking for a great family tent like our family has, you’ll be blown away by the quality of Eureka familty tents and NOT by the wind.

Last summer we packed our fishing gear and I took my son Ryan and my 4 1/2 year old grandson Jacob fishing to one of my favorite lakes in Minnesota…. Lake Jane.  Jacob had gone fishing several times before but this was a special trip.  Jacob had practiced casting for hours in my front yard before we left to go fishing.  We were out on the lake in my 16 1/2 foot Alumacraft fishing boat but we

Jacob Caught All The Fish

hadn’t caught anything.  So after a little while, we decided to move the the other side of the lake.  Jacob had been doing a great job of casting his bait into the water.  He had always been safe that day and cast his bait almost 100 feet out from the boat every time.  Then it happened.  Jacob caught a fish (a small sunfish) but he had trouble getting it in the boat.  So his dad (Ryan) showed him how to lift the fish from the water by the edge of the boat into the boat.  Jacob was so proud of himself.  I told Jacob that if he wanted to catch more fish, he had to kiss the fish on the lips.  I showed him how by kissing the fish myself then after a little reluctance, he kissed the fish on the lips and threw it back in the lake.  He actually touched the fish all by himself.  We all laughed and shared a toast of pop by clanking our cans together as it was getting really hot.

Then it happened again… Jacob caught an even bigger fish (a big 2 lb Largemouth bass).  This time Jacob was able to get the fish into the boat all by himself.  This fish had much bigger lips but he still kissed the bass on the lips before throwing it back.  Ryan and I went back to our casting and we wern’t paying any attention when Jacob caught his 3rd fish (another small sunfish).  We couldn’t believe it.  Jacob was catching all the fish and we hadn’t caught any fish.  After an hour passed by without anyone catching any fish, we headed home whereby Jacob told grandma about his fishing success over and over and over again.  He was so proud of himself and we were even more proud.  It had been a great day. 

Besides Jacob catching all the fish that day, it turned out to be a success because we packed the right fishing gear, brought lots of night crawlers, had a fishing boat and practiced safety throught the day, including wearing life jackets.

I have lived in Minnesota for most of my life and I’ve seen lots of Pontoon Boats but they’ve always been big wooden or aluminum platforms on top of two or three aluminum pontoons capable of holding 8-20 people.  Some have even been called

Classic Accessories™ Fremont Pontoon Tube

“Barges”.  I’ve often gone fishing with an entire Cub Scout pack or my family and another family all fishing over the side rails of the pontoon.   One man pontoons are now gaining in popularity as effective rafts or fishing vessels to add to your fishing gear.  These unique boats are now inflatable and can fold and fit into a compact 46-lb. carrying case making them very portable and easy to store over the cold winter months. 

These boats are great for fly fishing and getting up close and personal with those under water monsters like Northern Pike, Large Mouth Bass, Walleye, Sun Fish and Crappies. 

You should consider adding a one man pontoon like the Classic Accessories Fremont Pontoon Tube to your fishing gear or get two and paddle around with a friend or family member.  It’s a fun past time and a unique alternative to kayaking.