Canoeing

Are you looking for something to do this summer, spring, or even fall? Whether you are looking to do so something independently, with your family, or with your friends, have you ever thought about going camping?

The vast expanses of wilderness, mountains, forest, canyons and coastlines lend themselves to a wide range of outdoor pursuits.

From trekking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, whitewater rafting through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River, canoeing down the Mississippi River, fishing on the Great Lakes, sailing in Florida, diving in Hawaii to skiing in the Rocky Mountains, every activity can easily be arranged.

Here are the most fun and thrilling camping and outdoor activities.

Camping

Hiking/Trekking

Before there were Land Rovers and mountain bikes, there was hiking. The inclination to pack it up and hoof it for long distances can be traced back to our days as nomadic hunter-gatherers, and the goal is little different now than it was back then: Traveling to exciting and unseen places powered by will, stamina, and whatever provisions you can carry on your back.

Today, getting there is all the fun, what with newfangled backpacks to ease your burden, allowing you to drink up the unfolding scenery and let your mind wander.

Canoeing

When it comes to sex appeal, the canoe always seems to lose out to its sexier stepsister, the kayak. Be it the boat’s relative clunkiness next to the kayak’s sleek lines, or just a quirky, passing trend, canoes have somehow come up less cool.

Yet the underdog status just seems to add to the canoe’s appeal, especially among advanced paddlers, who argue that paddling a canoe takes more finesse.

Scuba Diving

Prepare to get hooked on scuba diving the moment you slip below the water’s surface into the peaceful silence of the undersea world.

You’ll finally understand what Jacques Cousteau was raving about all those years as you swim alongside graceful manta rays large enough to eclipse the sun’s filtered rays, or when you come face to face with a hammerhead sizing you up.

Fortunately, 70 percent of the world is covered in water, so there’s never a shortage of great dive sites to feed your submarine cravings.

Mountain Biking

It’s easy to spot mountain bikers–they’re the ones with scab-covered limbs talking animatedly about bonking while riding a wicked singletrack.

Indeed, they are a peculiar lot, but only because of their passion for the sport. They don’t seem to mind the murderous workouts–they actually celebrate sore muscles–as they attack intense rolling trails in pristine wilderness.

The exhilaration of nailing a technical ride in the world’s most stunning places is more than enough fuel for mountain bikers.

White Water Rafting

For those who gaze at their washing machine’s spin cycle and hear the call of roaring rapids, paddling is more than a pastime, it’s a passion. And who could blame them: Whitewater serves up heart-pounding thrills and adrenaline-pumping action in some of the world’s most spectacularly beautiful spots.

Skiing

Planning a ski vacation, whether alone or with the whole family, starts the fun that you will get from the actual trip. Skiing is basically using gravity to move downhill by gliding over snow conditions using two long and thin boards to keep balance and control.

Snowboarding is a similar snowsport which uses one wide board instead of the two thinner boards that skiers use. Skiers use both boards to coordinate their movements and control their speed and direction. Balance, weight, and edge control are the tricks of the trade in Skiing.

Snowboarding

Bird Watching

An activity that was once considered to be something of a ‘nerdy’ practice, Bird Watching has now become a pastime that encompasses both young and old and allows both experienced ‘twitchers’ and novices to come together in pursuit of some of most common and indeed rarest birds.

You can organize your own Bird Watching excursion to coincide with a camping trip. Many people think that there is a lot of equipment necessary to go Bird Watching but really the most important elements are a decent pair of binoculars, a bird handbook, a notebook and pen, and a keen eye for detail.

Fly Fishing

Camping and fishing often go hand in hand. Whether it’s a young child simply trying to catch a few sticklebacks with a piece of string with a hook tied onto a tree branch to the full blown night sight and sound equipment needed by the serious overnight angler, fishing is certainly one of the most popular pastimes to combine with camping.

As fish often tend to bite earlier in the morning, you’ll want to try to choose a site that’s as close to the action as possible as you’ll be getting up early enough as it is.

Caving

For all the natural wonders aboveground, don’t forget about the ones below. Visiting the depths of a cave offers an experience you just can’t find anywhere else on earth.

Far below the surface, rocks that look like popcorn, butterflies, and bacon strips hang from the ceiling. Explorers of the subterranean realm can wander through the cold shell of a lava tube, listen to musical stalactites, or take in the spectacle of a huge underground waterfall.

Biking

Under your own steam, at your own pace, and requiring fewer technical skills than mountain biking, cycling is the best way to experience a new place. When you travel by bike, with panniers carrying your necessities, you become part of the neighborhood, village, province, or country.

As you leave behind the confines of the car, every hill and valley you conquer comes alive.

Sailing and Yachting

Sailing is the ultimate adventure. After all, it’s how the explorers of old used to travel.

Today you might not discover uncharted waters, but you can certainly reach unknown lands–or at least lands that are unknown to you. Whether you’re cruising in the Caribbean, the Seychelles, or the Mediterranean, you decide the where and the winds decide the when.

True, you are at the mercy and whim of Mother Nature, but setting off into that great blue is the truest test of your mettle and where you’ll find your greatest freedom.

Horseback Riding

There’s nothing quite like seeing the world from the back of a horse. We humans have been riding for 4,000 years, but ever since the introduction of the Model T, we seem to have completely lost touch with our equestrian past.

Thankfully, trekking across the countryside on horseback is a surefire way to reconnect with those bygone times. Let your trusty steed take you across the steppes of Mongolia, explore the game reserves of Kenya, or practice your roping skills on a Wyoming cattle drive.

Wherever you go, you’ll have fabulous fresh-air views, completely unencumbered by that steel-and-glass box–you know, the one that gets us there quicker, but without all the fun.

Wildlife Viewing

We are all attracted to the great outdoors for a variety of reasons. However, one of the things most of us have in common is our love of the abundant wildlife that surrounds us on our adventures.

When the mountains give way again to the deserts and plateaus of the West, you probably thought you had veered off the road and into an alternate reality, where the earth is pink and rocks stand on end.

Pleasing as this scenery is to look at through the car window as you speed along the interstate, it’s much, much more. That’s habitat you’re looking at, full of living things.

Neelima Reddy, author of this article writes for CampingTourist.com. For more information on back packing, camping spots, camping activites, camping equipment, camping gear, rv camping , camping tips, hiking Visit Camping Tourist

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This article will take a look at living and traveling in your recreational vehicle (RV) either part or full time during your retirement years.  The advantages and disadvantages of this lifestyle will also be presented.

When considering retirement, there are many different ways that you might envision your life and how you would spend your time once you are retired.  In retirement, some people choose to travel extensively in their RV, with some living and traveling full time in their RV once their house and possessions related to the house have been sold.

You don’t necessarily have to be a travel enthusiast to pursue this lifestyle, as staying and living in one place with the RV is done by many, but most people do at least travel part time when living in their RV.  Many people who are retired use their RV to travel to and stay in the southern or southwestern states during the winter.  The people who go south with their RV in the winter are referred to as snowbirds.  The snowbirds fill RV parks in the warm climate states from November through March every year.  Snowbirding not only gets you out of the cold weather, but it very often lands you in an RV park in the south where you will be meeting up with friends and will have many planned activities in which to participate.

There are several major advantages to living and traveling full time in your RV during your retirement years.  The first thing that you will have is complete independence.  You can be anywhere at any time that you desire.  If you don’t like a particular place, you can just head down the highway the following day.  A second advantage is the vast array of experiences you will have by being free to move around the country at will.  You might be sipping mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and fishing off the Atlantic coast the following Saturday, the possibilities are endless.  You will certainly meet many interesting people in your travels, with some becoming your friends.  The other big advantage of retiring and living in your RV is that you can follow the warm weather, and essentially live in perpetual springtime.

There are a couple drawbacks to living in an RV, one of those is obviously space.  You will have to part with many of your possessions to make full time RV living a reality, and for many this can be very difficult.  The other main disadvantage is that you will miss some family occasions at such times as holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries, as a result of being on the road at least part of the time.

If you have interest in learning more about part or full time RV living during retirement, I recommend that you talk to folks who are currently doing it and ask them lots of questions. You may also want to rent an RV and take a trip in it to see how you fit with the whole experience, if you do not currently own one. Living and traveling in your RV is a great way to spend your retirement years, give it careful consideration.

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There are so many different types of tents out there that it might get very confusing to follow up on all of them and find the best ones. So this is why I am writing this article, simply for the purpose of helping you get your hands on some of the best tents out there and at the same time not spending too much money doing it. To start off you will need to establish a budget for your self and figure out what kind you will be aiming for. Since there are so many different variations you will need to aim for something a little more specific.

So to start off lets look at the most important aspect, ask your self what kind of camping trips you go on usually, and for how long. This is important because it will be one of the deciding factors when it comes to picking your specific tent. So after you have figured that out you will want to look into something more specific, so if it with a family that you usually go on trips with you will want to get something in the lines of family tents, or large tents. There are many variations so pick the style of camping trips you go on specifically, there is surely a tent that will fit exactly in the style that you will need.

After you have done that it is on to the step of research, this is where you will start learning to save money. The first thing you need to do is go online and start checking on the latest deals going on. This is important because not all tents are cheap, so looking for low prices is something that should always be on your mind. Make sure to check out all the brands before you go buying, each brand has their own positives and negatives, so looking at all of them is important. Apart from that go ahead and get some advice from other people as well and see what they are saying, this will help you out a lot when it comes time for the purchase.

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Well winter is fast approaching and your all done with your RV or trailer. Now before the winter comes, you have to winterize your RV. Hopefully you’ve done it already like myself because winter is already here. If you live in a warmer climate, maybe the winter hasn’t hit you yet. So you will have alittle longer to do this or your still using your RV or trailer.

Where I live, right after the Thanksgiving long weekend, I get myself ready to winterize my trailer. First I take out all the food, clean it up, put things in their proper place and just basically tidey it up. I give the trailer a good washing on the outside, also don’t forget the awning as well. I open it up, prop the support arms underneath the trailer so the awning top is flat to the side of the trailer. A good power wash will clean whatever has gathered on the top of the awning. I then clean the wheels with Armoral to protect the sidewalls and then cover them with wheel covers.

Now I’m ready to flush the all the tanks. I always do this every fall to make sure the tanks are in good condition for when I open the camper up for the new season. Now once everything is cleaned out, I drain all the lines inside but running all the taps so alittle as possible of water is not left inside the lines. Now I have already bought my RV anti-freeze so I’m ready to run it through all the lines. I usually use about 4 gallons of anti-freeze so I always have some onhand in the garage. I drain the hot water tank and make sure I have the by-pass value turned on. Some RV’s have the by-pass kit already installed on the pump but I didn’t so I had to installed my own.

Now that the hot water tank is drained, I re-place the plug, flip the by-pass valve on the hot water tank and now turn the by-pass valve on at the pump. Now I place the suction line on the pump, place it in a jug of anti-freeze and turn on the pump to prime the pump with it. Now I go to the farthest tap which is my bathroom and start 1 tap to get anti-freeze through it. Once you see the pink color, stop. Go to the next tap and repeat. Then do the bath tub and shower. Once you see the anti-freeze come out, stop as the line is full now. When the jug run’s out, just replace with a full one. Now do the taps in the sinks as well. Also don’t forget to do your toilet to! On my camper the lines are clear so I see that all the lines are full of anti-freeze underneath my sink.

Once all the lines and taps are full, I pour some anti-freeze down all the traps, in the black and grey tanks and the fresh water tank. I also go outside to the city water connection, pull the mesh screen off and push on the little plug to get anti-freeze through that as well. Now my camper is winterized and good to go for the new season when I open it up and flush all the anti-freeze out!

I run a online outdoor store which I just opened recently and would like to invite you to check it out! I’m a avid outdoorsman and I wouldn’t sell something that I wouldn’t use myself! I’m adding products everyday and hope you might need something or if I don’t have it, ask me and I’ll see if I can get it for you.

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There are many dozens of different styles of backpacks out there that are really good to use for camping trips or traveling in general. But how do you pick out the ones that are the best for you? Well it isn’t all that hard, but it will require some research and looking into the many different brands and type available for you to buy. So to start off lets take a look at the many different types you can look into. In fact before we do that lets look at the types of camping trips or travelling that you usually do, because this is a lot more important when it comes time to decide the type you will need to buy.

If you are taking nice long trips and travels you might want to get an expedition backpack, something large that can last you a long time. If you are going for a walk in the park or for a night or two on a camping trip you might want to consider looking into something smaller such as daypacks or general backpacks that are very light on the shoulders and waist. These are some of the aspects you should also be looking when you are buying a backpack it is important because it allows you to continue your journey for a lot longer, the more comfortable it is the better it will be in the long run.

Next you want to check the most sensitive areas in a backpack, which can be the shoulder straps, check to see these are really cushioned. After that you want to check the back in general and see if that is comfortable, also make sure to check the waist area. There are many different types of brands as well; each brand has its own ups and downs when it comes to backpacks. The more brands you look into the more deals you will find. So make sure you do all the research and ask people around at the same time, this can be very important because this is exactly how you start your way to saving money when you are shopping.

The hiking backpacks can be found in many places, doing the right research is how it begins.

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