Want to make the next camping trip really enjoyable and impress your campmates with your incredible knowledge of outdoor tricks? Here are some amazing snippets of useful tips that will make them wonder how you acquired such information. A warning though: you have to swear to keep these things secret. Like a magician, you never reveal your sources.
– Rub liquid soap on the outside of pots and pans. The black soot will come right off after cooking over an open fire.
-Keep the bottom of your pots that you use over the open fire clean by wrapping them in tinfoil.
– Spray flies or bees with hairspray and watch them run for cover
-Spray your garbage and trash with ammonia to keep animals away.
-Sleep naked in your sleeping bag. It will reflect your body heat back to you
-Use baking soda to rid your clothes and hands of cooking odors so the bears won’t smell food on you.
– Take some warmth from the campfire or stove to bed. Keep a pot of hot water simmering on the campfire and when you turn in fill up water bottles and place them in your sleeping bag.
-Buy orange juice in plastic bags and freeze it so it can be used instead of ice in the cooler. Then,when it thaws out you have refreshing cold juice for later.
-Take a headlamp, instead of a flashlight,so your hands are free
– When finished eating an orange, wipe exposed skin with the inside of the peel. Insects will stay far away from you.
-To cut down on cooking time of baked potatoes, start the potatoes in your microwave and bake till half done before you leave. Wrap them in aluminum foil and toss in the cooler until yo need them.
-Old shower curtains make great ground tarps to pitch your tent on.
-Waterproof matches by dipping them in nail polish.
-Waterproof matches by dipping in melted paraffin.
-To Dry wet socks, sleep with them around your middle. Your body heat during the night and your warm sleeping bag will dry them by morning.
– Whenever you leave camp always have a watch, a whistle, a cell phone, a flashlight and a knife with you in case of emergency.
-Bottles with sticky contents (corn syrup, honey, maple syrup) can get harder to open so before using the bottle for the first time, wipe the threads with a light coating of cooking oil. The lid will never stick and won’t be difficult to open or you can wrap a small bit of plastic over the bottle opening after you open it.
-To keep warmer at night wear a hat to sleep in. You lose 80% of your heat heat through your head.
-Use glow sticks for a bit of soft light at night.
– To hang a lantern, get those lightweight metal rods that are used for hanging plants and stick them in the ground.