Pulling the Plug on Doomed Adventures (And Some Post-Trip Tips)

If you enjoy the outdoors, you know that some trips just aren’t meant to be. The weather turns to crap. Your gear fails spectacularly, and you wake up in a stream of water. Maybe you get really “lucky”, and the kids start projectile vomiting in the tent.

None of the above sounds good, but it’s all part of the deal. Real camping isn’t what you see in #vanlife influencers’ Instagram feeds. Nope. Some days camping is magical. On other days, it’s a lot less than that. When it’s truly awful, you might need to put down that trip like Travis did Old Yeller.

Sure, some rough patches require you to bite down and get through it. That said, if you’re convinced that your trip is a bust, there’s little harm in calling it a day.

Heck, you went out when others were eating corndogs at the shopping mall. So, you won just by pushing yourself to go outside. Besides, you probably learned something from this not-so-great experience that’ll come in handy on future trips.

Consolation prizes

If you do pull the plug on camping, you needn’t flush the entire trip. Sometimes this presents an opportunity to reward yourself, and those with you, to a few indulgences.

Find a local restaurant where you can dive into a burger and fries while enjoying the wonders of electricity and central heating. These modern miracles seem remarkable after some time away and a few wrong turns. If there’s a hotel in the area, treat yourself to a stay. Take a long hot shower, order a pizza, and watch a Will Ferrell movie in bed. It’ll be awesome. I promise!

When we awoke to a deluge at Martha Creek Park, we didn’t know what to do. So, we got in our cars and drove into Revelstoke for breakfast burritos. We then found a community pool where we spent the next 4 hours bouncing between the pool and the hot tub.

By the time we left, the weather had shifted. We made our way back to the park, put some pita-pizzas on the campfire, and worked our way through a case of beer. Rain doesn’t last forever. Sometimes you just need to find a warm place to wait it out.

Dryness is the essence of cleanness\\\*

Once you do get home, don’t put off unpacking. Wet items left in closed spaces are prone to mold. As you know, mold makes for added cleanup and ruins good gear. Before you even sit down, unpack entirely so that job is out of your way.

Spray down any muddy gear and string it up inside, where it can dry properly. Pull out your tent and let it air out. If you live in a small space (like I do), this is inconvenient. It is, however, necessary. The more camping you do, the better you get at doing this efficiently.

Moisture is your enemy. If you have a trailer or RV, you can open windows and vents, turn on the heat, and run a dehumidifier to dry out your rig. Even small adventure/utility trailers are prone to moisture. In my sauna trailer, I use a moisture absorber (a plastic bin containing inorganic salt) to prevent mold.

* Yeah, that’s a Zoolander reference. Sorry.

Get ready for next time

Once your gear is dry, you ought to get it ready for your next outing. Fold it back up and put it into its proper place. Doing so sets you up to just go when you next find yourself itching to get out in nature.

While you’re at it, pull out your camping checklist and look for items that need to be replaced or replenished. (I keep our checklist with us at camp and highlight items as we go through them. On a related note: How can we always be out of sriracha?)

Check your gear for items that are oversized, underused, or not working as they should. Then remove or replace them as necessary. Do you need two extension cords? Are your knives begging to be sharpened? Is that spatula just too big for your tiny grill? Your camping setup isn’t static. The more you camp, the better equipped you will be to customize it to your needs.

Well, that’s it—the end of this series of articles. Thanks for reading through our Fall Camping Guide. We hope you found some useful information within it. We also hope you feel inspired to get out camping this fall and spend some time in nature!

Did we make a mistake or miss something important? Email us to note errors or offer suggestions. We’re not perfect, but we’re trying. As such, we’re happy to improve these posts—just like we do with our camping setups. 😉 Have fun out there!

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Kudos to Jake Stark for the image up top. (He’s @mr_stark on Instagram.)

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