Camping in Weather

For this week we have an update to our camping section, with tips on camping in weather. You may wonder what we know about camping in the rain since we live in sunny California, but we both grew up on the east coast and have plenty of experience camping and hiking in the rain!

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Unless you only camp if the weather is perfect (like summertime in California) you’re going to have to have contingency plans to deal with weather when you’re camping. When you’re an adult, it’s a lot easier to just wing-it when the weather is bad but with kids having a good plan can make all the difference. Here are our recommendations to keep everyone happy when the weather isn’t perfect:

Cold:

• Don’t take them camping in cold weather until: 
  • You know they can stay in their sleeping bag and stay warm reliably.
  • Or if they’re small and trapped in a sleep sack, until you feel comfortable that they will be warm enough or can tell you that they’re not warm enough, especially on their fingers and toes.
• Bring more layers for everyone than you think you need - someone might be colder than expected and that way you can usually share something.
• Get kids into warmer gear in the afternoon/evening before it gets cold or as soon as you stop exercising.
  • They might not believe you that it’s important, but when it’s cold later, ask them if they’re glad they did it and remind them the next day that they were happy they did it.
• Feed them lots of warm drinks and meals.
  • If you need to, let them sleep in while you make them some hot cocoa in the morning.
• Make a campfire for them to sit around in the evening (of course, not if there’s fire danger).
  • Watch out for kids wanting to get too close to the fire to get warm! Our kids have almost melted their shoes for example.
• Consider an earlier bedtime to get them into their sleeping bag to get warm.
• Just like with adults, have them take off some of their layers when they get in the sleeping bag and have them put any clothes for the next day in the bottom of their sleeping bag (or yours).
  • Consider having them change underwear or long underwear into clean clothes the night before when they’re warm so they don’t need to do it in the morning when they’re cold.

Rain:

• A tent over the cooking area is key for rainy camping days - consider one with removable wall panels that can also function as a screen tent when it’s not rainy.
• A vestibule for your sleeping tent is useful as a place to take off your rain clothes before getting into the tent.
• Prepare your tent for the rain: if you know it will rain, stake out all the guy lines and double-check the tightness before the rain. 
  • Consider having the kids sleep in the middle part of the tent, not touching the walls, so their sleeping bags don’t get wet wicking through the tent walls.
• Make sure you have good rain gear for the kids and parents: rain pants or bib, jacket, boots, hat or hood, and maybe mittens.
  • Also have plenty of extra dry clothes, especially socks, to change into after playing in the rain.
• Have a plan for rainy-day outside activities:
  • First: understand if there’s any potential for lightning danger that day.
  • Hiking (with your good rain clothes) - look for the things that happen in nature when it’s raining or look for natural shelters in caves or under trees.
  • Swimming (if there’s no lightning danger and it’s warm enough).
  • Keep a close eye on the kids to make sure they’re not getting too wet or cold.
• Prepare a “rainy day box” with activities to do in the tent - only bring this out when camping in bad weather so that everything in there is exciting and special.
• If you need to do something outside, have a list of places inside that you can drive to, such as a bookstore or library, indoor play area, small local shop, or restaurant. 
  • Save these places to go to if it’s rainy, so they’re still special, and make this plan before you go on the trip.

Wind:

• Similar to rainy days, bring the right kind of shelter: 
  • Make sure to have a wind shelter for cooking, and watch out for the winds getting so strong they break poles.
  • Stake out all the guy lines on the tent really well.
  • Pick a tent with a vestibule big enough for eating (not cooking!!) so you can use that as a back-up plan to the wind shelter.
• Make sure to have wind-proof layers for everyone, including warm hats and gloves.
• Plan hikes to sheltered areas, and if there’s nothing good then see the list of rainy-day inside activities above.

A cold night of camping: we forgot our son's warm jacket, so he had on long-underwear under his hiking clothes and soon he had on his dad's jacket before he got in his sleeping bag.