Camp Etiquette

Camping is like golf; there are certain rules of etiquette we all must follow to get along. It’s a lot like the school playground when we were kids. Remember? We couldn’t pull the girls hair or put insects on them or erase their hopscotch court or many other fun things that would make them squeal like little pigs. Although at the time I thought many of these rules were not really needed, I see now that they were for the little girls to have fun at the playground.

Most of the campgrounds we go to have rules. The rangers or park staff enforces these rules. However, there are other things that are not clearly laid out in the rules that can ruin a camping trip or make it very exciting, depending on how you look at it.

We have gotten some mail lately from people complaining because the park staff ruined their camping trip with all those rules. They don’t understand why they can’t set up camp and get hammered, play loud music, and make all kinds of noise until the wee hours of the morning. Hey, if that is your plan, do what we do and go to a location where you will be the only party there. We like to party too, but we pick a better location for it than a public campground.

One thing that really irritates me when camping is other people walking through my campsite. This does not happen much at all when you are in the backcountry. But in the campground, it happens quite frequently. It has happened to us on our last two camping trips.

On one trip, our site was located near a trail to the amphitheatre. The trail to the amphitheatre was about 15 yards beyond our campsite, but people kept taking the shortcut through our site. I don’t know why they were going there, nothing was going on. On more than one occasion I stopped the offenders and advised them that this was my campsite and the trail they were looking for was just down the road. One group of three came from the amphitheatre and asked which way was the parking lot. I never saw them go to the amphitheatre from the parking lot, so I didn’t know where they had come from. Naturally, I directed them in the opposite direction of the parking lot I knew about because they obviously didn’t park there.

On another outing, our site was located near the bathhouse. The campers in the site behind us decided to take the shortcut to the potty and come through the middle of our campsite. I tried to advise them that they were not to cut through campsites occupied by others but they were not in the mood to accept any advice. They advised me that we didn’t own the land, it was public land and they could walk through my campsite if they wanted to. I acknowledged that I was aware that I did not own this land. I also pointed out that I did rent this land and my receipt was on the post if they cared to look at it. After both parties tossed around a few insults, they threatened to call the park ranger on me! When he came, he advised the Einstein family not to walk through campsites occupied by others. Boo Boo wouldn’t let me stick my tongue out at them and say na na na na na.

Now we don’t set up camp on sites that look like they are on a trail or a shortcut. We try to select sites on the outside of camping loops with as much isolation as possible. Boo Boo has learned that it is best to set up camp where I am not exposed to others any more than necessary.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. The best place for your dog when you camp is at home. Your dog is not cute. I do not have any desire to pet your dog. I am not amused at your dog jumping on me or licking me. I get real tired of hearing your dog bark at every little thing that comes along and sometimes at nothing at all. I really hate it when I have to share the bathhouse with you and your dog.

Most campgrounds that allow dogs do so with the stipulation that the dog must remain on a 6-foot leash. This means that you are also on a 6-foot leash. Next camping trip I go on I’m carrying a tape measure because some people don’t know how long 6 feet is. Six feet don’t stretch from your campsite to mine.

Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs. We own dogs. Our dogs don’t like to camp. Know why? Because we are in charge of our dogs and we told them they don’t like to camp.

Now this next item is both an irritant and a source of great pleasure on some camping trips. This is the playing of music at the campground. Ever notice how the party playing music generally has worse than bad taste in music. The general rule is, if anyone else can hear it, it is too loud.

We have a teardrop trailer that we like to camp in occasionally. The trailer is really set up for tailgating but it can be a lot of fun on a campout. It has a high power amplifier and four outdoor speakers. It takes two batteries to run it and you have to plug in the charger or turn on the generator to keep the power up. Yeah I can knock the fillings out of your teeth if you are in the site next to me.

The last time I got to use this toy was at a campground on a Sunday evening. The campground was small, about 35 sites, and everyone left that afternoon except us and one other group, with one empty site between us. This group put a CD in the car stereo at about 3 PM and turned it up. At 5 PM I had heard that one CD enough. We moved the trailer around a bit so the Einstein’s could get full benefit of the oncoming storm. I knew since they had played the CD player on the car stereo for these 2 hours they couldn’t go much longer and still crank the car. Advantage Yogi. The ranger pulled up and asked if we wanted him to tell the group to turn it down. We advised no, that we figured since they were playing their music so loud they wouldn’t mind if we turned on some music. After about 30 minutes, and a demonstration of what was about to transpire, the ranger said have fun and he would circle back just before quiet time to see if all was well.

We opened with “I Love Rock N Roll”, “Highway To Hell”, and “Cocaine”. It just got louder and rowdier from there. As I said, this system was setup for tailgating at concerts and I only rarely get to use it when camping. But when I do get to use it, it sure is fun.

Word. If you want to listen to music at the campground, bring your ipod and your headphones. If you want to share it, get a Y adapter and another set of headphones. Look around before you crank up a boom box or a car stereo. If you see a white teardrop you are going to want some earplugs. If I can hear your music in my campsite, it is on!

For more camping fun come see us at http://www.campsite190.com