The key with tent camping gear and equipment is the more you have the more you have to bog you down. Like any possession, it owns you just as much as you own it. Personally, I perfer to apply the backpacker mentality when aquiring camping equipment. Of course, the object of the game in backpacking is to have exactly what you need, no more no less. In roadside tent camping our vehicle carries our equipment for us but we still have to find a place for it, load it, unload it and just deal with it in general. Therefore the old saying of "less is more" truely does apply here. I am even going to suggest that the less camping gear and equipment you have the more you will go camping.

That is not to say that we can't have a few convieniences. I've heard of a hunting team that keeps and old couch they throw in one of their pickups and take because it gives camp that homey feel and ups the comfort level a bunch. I imagine that would be a welcome piece of camp furniture after one has been humping up and down hills all day. My whole point here is that your camping equipment list is really up to you and the ones you camp with. So as always I am just trying to give you a way to look at things, not neccessarily the way to look at things.

Additionally it's good to ask yourself how much of what you consider required equipment is determined by that constant barage of advertising from TV, magazines and certainly the internet.

So the question becomes what do we need for tent camping? Basically there are three areas of consideration one must examine when aquiring camping equipment:

1- Body maintenance items
2- Shelter and sleeping
3- Food and water

Body maintenace items and concerns

Clothing is probably the easiest item to over and under do. It must be appropriate to the given season, conditions and activites. How it facilitates retention or dispursion of ones body heat is a paramont issue.This is complicated by the fact that when outdoors, daytime tempuratures can be blistering while nighttime tempuratures can be numming. Layering tends to be the recommended technique. Generally it is good to have clothing that repels water but still 'breathes' as with Gortex tm fabric. Additionally, clothing should sheild ones skin from potentially harmful foilage such as cactus, or poison ivy.

The personal hygene items required for camping are not as obvious as you might think. It's a fun an interesting exercise to keep track of all the various things you use to maintain that body of yours. Things like toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, and combs, brushes, clippers and files abound. It is surprising, if not staggering, how much stuff we use, although much of it is not neccesary. Of course, this will vary a great deal from one person to the next. Still you need to make decisions that address what you really need and minimize the extras.

Outdoor conditions will dictate certain items like sunblock or lip balm. Hats are good when camping.

Shelter and sleeping

Well obviously us tent campers are paritial to tents by definition. But of course there are other neccesities like sleeping bags, padding or cots, etc..

So the trick here is to find your 'tent camping' mentality and this will then lead you to an appropriate list of camping gear and equipment..