Camping is a fun and rewarding experience for the whole family. However, if you fail to observe some really important camping safety tips, you may have to cut your trip short and head home, or worse, rush to the hospital. It’s unwise to take unnecessary chances. It’s your safety, and maybe your life, we’re talking about here.
There will seem to be an endless list when it comes to safety guidelines on camping. After all, the safety of your family is paramount. All we can do is narrow it down and deal with the most fundamental safety precautions we can observe while camping.
Pre-Camping Safety Checklist
Always be prepared; even if you have not left for the campground yet. Safety starts at home, and you need to pack it in when going on a camping trip.
- Make a reservation well ahead of time and ask for any pertinent information, such as any necessary special permits. You may also want to know if the campsite is in a bear country so you can prepare appropriately.
- Check the weather forecast of the campground for the duration of your stay. Bring any required camping gear suited for the weather.
- Before leaving home, inform someone where you’ll be, leave the contact info of the campground, the name and phone number of your contact person in case of emergency, as well as the time and date of your return.
- If you bought new camping equipment, try them out at home first. Pitch your new tent in the yard. Try out all your new gears at home before packing them for camp.
- Get your vaccines and make sure that your family’s vaccines are updated. Depending on your camping destination, history and other factors, your doctor will likely recommend tetanus and meningitis.
- Plan your itinerary and ensure that you have fun yet camp duties are not neglected. It will also keep everyone busy and avoid boredom. With a properly planned camping trip, you will arrive at camp early and have enough time to inspect the area and set up camp.
- Double check your camping gears and supplies. Make sure you have everything you need so that you won’t have to improvise with other materials not really suited for the task.
Once you’ve done these things, you’re well on your way for a safe and fun encounter at the Great Outdoors. Keep these travel safety tips in mind especially if you have children with you.
First Aid Kit: A Must-Have
It’s a must-have, not only when you go on camping but just about everywhere you go. A first aid kit is also one thing every home should have. It can be very helpful when someone had an allergic reaction or got cut. Listed below are some of the essential contents of a first aid kit.
- Personal prescription medications
- Bee sting kit
- Snake bite kit
- Bug repellent
- Burn ointment
- Sunburn lotion
- Eye drops
- Thermometer
- Antibacterial soap
- Latex gloves
- Sanitary napkins
- Tweezers
- Safety pins
- Bandages
- Adhesive tape
- Antiseptic wipes
- Sterile gauze pads
- Scissors
- Splinting materials
- Heat/cold packs
Take a First Aid class as well as a CPR, and make sure you’re updated on this information. Make sure that you know how to use everything in your First Aid kit. Keep your box heavy-duty and waterproof container and maintain that the contents organized and well-supplied. Keep it within easy access at all times as well.
Cooking and Fire Safety Tips
Cooking while camping is very different compared to cooking at home. Fire, though very important while camping, can be the cause of a major disaster if left unattended or handled carelessly.
Some campers don’t build fires at camp anymore. This is mainly for safety reasons as well as for lessening one’s impact on the camp environment. You can bring a camp stove which makes cooking more convenient and the fire hazards are less. Yet, of course, a flickering campfire after dark is something that simply cannot be recreated. It has a mesmerizing effect on campers as well, that even after a tiring day of travel and setting up camp, all the weariness ebb away as one stares into the hypnotic dance of the campfire.
So if you need to build a fire, the following cooking and fire safety tips must be observed:
- Set up your kitchen area at least 30 feet away from any tent and preferably upwind (that is, the wind is blowing away from camp) as well.
- Build your campfire in designated areas only.
- Keep fire small.
- Never, short of an urgent emergency, light a fire or use naked flames inside the tent. Use a flashlight or torch instead.
- Always make sure your fire is attended. Rotate fire watchers among your party, let the children participate.
- Keep a bucketful of water and a shovel close by.
- Dowse your fire completely before going to bed or leaving camp. Even embers can reignite if not put out completely.
- Do not smoke inside your tent.
- Keep your matches or lighters away from children, if possible lock them away. Get them only when needed.
- Keep your flammable liquids well away from children and away from your tent.
- Cook in your kitchen area only.
- Check your camp stove before packing it in for the trip.
- Softwoods, including cedar, pine and fir, are good for starting a fire.
- Dry hardwood, on the other hand, such as oak, birch and maple are best for creating a bed of hot coals.
- You may want to bring a small amount of firewood since earlier campers may have done with all the firewood around your site.
- Gather firewood some distance from camp so as not to make it appear unnaturally bare.
- Leave the fire ring clean of unburned trash for the next campers.
- Ask about the fire-fighting procedure on the campsite.
If building a fire is a must, then you must practice caution when doing so. You are more vulnerable to creating a fire in the Great Outdoors so exercise care when building a fire and cooking.
Camping Safety Tips When Setting Up Camp
As mentioned previously, plan your trip well so that you arrive at the campsite early and with enough daylight in order to inspect the site location and pick a good spot to pitch your tent as well as select your cooking, washing, and toilet areas.
Once you’ve found the most ideal location to set up, it’s time to get all those gears and supplies from the car and store them properly in your camp site. Here are a dozen suggestions for a comfortable and home-like camp site.
- Be sure to check your chosen location for potential dangers – sharp objects, low branches, large ant beds, poisonous plants, bees, as well as unsafe terrain.
- Look for a level, high ground to pitch your tent. Avoid low areas with signs of previous flooding. An area with a natural screen composed of trees and shrubs can help obstruct strong winds.
- Choose a spot well away from other campers. You don’t want to ruin their experience, and you certainly don’t want fellow enthusiasts to unintentionally ruin yours.
- Do not dig trenches around your tent. This practice damages the camping site. If rain clouds are over the horizon, practice proper rainy weather camping techniques.
- Set up camp 200 feet away from any water source.
- Set up your kitchen 30 feet away from your tent and your toilet area 200 feet away from any water source.
- Make sure you make as little impact on the site as you can. Do not clear shrubs, grasses and debris to set up your tent, kitchen, washing and toilet areas. If you need to build a fire, use existing fire rings.
- Practice proper food storage techniques. Pack them into ready-to-cook packages.
- Secure that the lids are tightly closed since any good smelling stuff will likely attract wild animals. You may also hang them at least 12 feet from the ground along with other aromatic items such as lotions and even toothpaste.
- Observe proper waste disposal. Segregate your waste and throw each into the appropriate garbage receptacle before leaving the camp, or bring your waste with you if the campgrounds have no garbage cans.
- Delegate the workload around camp. It’s fun to go camping but someone still needs to wash the dishes.
- Put away flammable objects, sharp stuff, and other hazardous items out of your children’s reach.
A well-planned camp setup is fundamental to a safe and enjoyable time in the Great Outdoors. Make sure you’ve exercise all necessary precautions when setting up camp.
Food Safety Tips While Camping
Practicing proper food handling procedures while camping is very important, primarily to prevent food poisoning as well as to avoid food spoilage. More often, food safety is not an issue around camp; not until someone gets an upset stomach. These food safety tips while tent camping will help you prepare and handle your food properly and ensure that everyone enjoys a delicious and safe meal.
- Prepare a menu before going to camp. This will help you avoid food spoilage as well as ensure that the whole family enjoys nutritious meals while camping.
- Wash your hands before eating. Other than that you should also wash your hands when setting the table and more importantly when preparing food for cooking.
- Another challenge when camping is keeping your perishables from spoiling. You can avoid this with a good ice chest with a lot of ice, and replenish the ice as needed.
- Handle high risk foods properly. These foods include pre-cooked meat and poultry, pre-cooked meat products, egg products and dairy foods. Keep them separate from raw foods always.
- Store your raw meats, poultry, fish and vegetables in a separate ice chest.
- Keep your food covered at all times.
- Clean all work surfaces and equipment before and after use.
- Cook food thoroughly and consume it as soon as possible.
- Ensure that you have enough drinking water to last for the whole camping duration. Use a water purification system if you need to.
- Again, observe proper food storage techniques. Do not store you food on the ground. Put your ice chests on top of the picnic table and hang your food bags up a tree.
- Check the expiry dates on the cans before bringing them to camp.
Practice proper food handling techniques as well as kitchen safety procedures that you have at home while camping. These food safety tips are really important. There are a few challenges when it comes to storing food at camp since you don’t have access to a refrigerator, but with a few tips, you can enjoy your camp meals without fear. No Salmonella-flavored potatoes for you!
Ideas to Keep in Mind When on the Trail
What’s camping when you don’t hit the trail and see the sights? So prepare your day pack and be ready to enjoy and experience the Great Outdoors. But before you do so, there are a few camping tips to keep in ind when on the trail.
You have to be dressed properly if you plan on hitting the trail – no short sleeves or shorts. Apply insect repellant to clothes and any exposed skin, whether you’re hiking or just chilling around camp. Watch out for ticks and remove then immediately. These bugs are annoying, that’s for sure, but there are those which you need to worry about so be prepared to fight the bug bite.
1. What’s your Poison?
Get to know the potential poisonous plants you may found along the trail – poison ivy, oak and sumac – are just three of the most common plants you’d want to avoid. It’s also imperative that you know the first aid when you accidentally, and unluckily, come in contact with a poisonous plant. When you do, immediately wash the affected area with water and apply soothing lotion.
- Poison ivy has three pointed and shiny leaflets. They also have white berries during the summer.
- Poison oak closely resembles poison ivy but it has rounded leaves and looks more like the leaves of the white oak. It’s a vine commonly climbing shrubs and trees in forests and sunny, dry slopes.
- Poison sumac, on the other hand, can be identified with its seven to nine pointed shiny leaflets. It also bears white berries in the summer.
2. Lost and Found
It can get pretty easy to get lost in the wild especially if you traveled off trail. So to avoid that, and for safety reasons, do not go off the trail! But it still can happen, so you might as well as learn how to get found.
So before going on a hike, make sure people at camp know where you’re going and when you’ll be back. Get a buddy to join you. Study the map. Also make sure you have everything in your day pack – food and water, granola bars, first aid kit, compass or GPS, a map, an extra jacket, emergency blanket, whistle and a mirror you can use to signal.
It may be natural response to go back the way you came but chances are, you’ll only get lost all the more! So find a place to sit on and wait for the people looking for you. Stay calm, do not panic. Remember that you told people back at camp of where you plan to go and the time that you’ll be back.
3. Compass: The Modern Polaris
Know how to use a compass is one of the first things that you may want to learn if you want to go camping. This knowledge can prove very useful especially when you find yourself lost. This is how you use a compass:
- Turn the compass until the north arrow on the face of the compass has aligned with the north end of the pointer.
- Now, be aware of the numbers. They signify degrees which is another form of measuring compass direction.
- Next, turn and face any direction and place the compass on your palm. Then point the arrow in the direction you are facing.
- Turn the dial on the compass until the arrow facing north is aligned with the pointer. The degree that index line crosses is your direction in degrees.
- Now, to find your bearing, place the map on a level surface or on the ground. Decide where you want to begin and end. Align the compass so it matches both points. Now turn the dial the north point until it’s at the same direction as the north on the map. The index will line up with the correct bearing on the dial.
You may even enjoy a few simple exercises using the compass to demonstrate how well you have understood how to use it.
Encounter with Wildlife
An encounter with wildlife is such a rewarding experience. However, you have to behave appropriately, travel in groups (no less than three), and during the day only. Make some noise, but don’t be too noisy, when walking on the trail. You certainly don’t want to catch wild animals unaware and trigger their natural responses, most especially if it’s the mating or breeding seasons.
If you’re in bear country, better be noisy than sorry. Bears are amazing creatures when seen in their natural habitat, but they don’t want to be surprised (and threatened) with you suddenly appearing in the bushes.
If you do happen to encounter a wild animal, do not run or make sudden movements. Move slowly in an unthreatening way. Let them go about their business and they will likely to allow you to do the same. Do not panic, run and make a scene – though gentler animals may run away in fear too, large predators may run after you causing a bigger problem.
You can observe wildlife safely and need not be an expert to find joy in this experience. You have to learn to learn where, when and how to look for animals. Observing the tracks around your camp will give you an idea of the natural fauna that roam in the area. Some research before going to camp will also educate you on the animals that live in the campground.
To prevent unwanted visitors in your camp site, the first thing you need to keep in mind is to store you food properly and keep your garbage in a safe place. You can hang them in a tree some 100 yards away from the tent. Do not store food inside the tent.
Look after your pets responsibly. Keep your dog on a leash all the time. Walk him during the day and don’t go into wooded areas. Make sure you have a designated sleeping space for your furred buddy inside the tent and bring him in at night.
It’s a no-no to feed wild animals or leave food for them. When a wild animal becomes adapted to eating human food, they become scavengers instead of foragers and present a potential risk to the public. Make sure you left the area free from any leftovers once you break camp and head for home.
An encounter with wildlife in their natural habitat can be surreal. Take pleasure in this rare and priceless experience at a safe distance of at least 50 yards and keep a close eye on your children and pets. Also do not invite unwanted visitors to your camp by being careless with your food.
Always practice safety precautions in camp, while hiking, or simply taking a walk into the woods. Do not take unnecessary actions. An encounter with wildlife may be an amazing experience but make sure you are at a safe distance. Ensure that your food is safely stored and the garbage are securely kept away as well. Keep an eye on your children and pets at all time.
Utilize these camping safety tips, have fun and Leave no trace.
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