Camping Checklist - Essentials for Camping

Jason, 20, was all excited about his forthcoming hiking and nature camp. He was all messed up and was confused as to what to include in the camping checklist and what to exclude. One of his friends stepped in then and sorted out his problem in a jiffy. He simply asked him to jot down the most essential things in general and asked him to categorize them later.

Generally, camping is fun, but things can go horribly wrong if you miss out on essentials for camping or perhaps you are skeptical about what is essential and what is not. Therefore it is imperative to enlist camping checklist essentials. The following text will tell you what all you need for a smooth camping endeavor.

Camping Checklist

Shelter and Allied Things: If you are going on a nature camp or jungle trail, shelter is the most important thing. For protection against rain, cold weather and such, you need shelter, for example a tent. Moreover, you cannot just lie down on the ground, so there are other things you need which are as follows:

• Tent
• Tarp
• Sleeping bag
• Sleeping pad
• Headrest

These are an important part of the camping gear, be it any kind of camp.

Safety Comes First: Yes, first aid kit this is an extremely crucial aspect of a camping expedition and is one of the basics of camping checklist essentials. Injuries, medical emergencies, etc. do not come with a warning. So to deal with any mishap, it is necessary to have a first aid kit or first aid box. This is specifically required when it comes to camping with kids. Checklist will make sure that you are well equipped with emergency safety measures in case the kids undergo an injury. That, which is of course very plausible. In addition to the emergency factor, if there are elderly or middle aged people or any person of the group who has to take some daily medicines, one would also need to carry them. The things include:

• Personal medication
• Bandages
• Aspirin
• Tylenol
• Medical tape
• Sterile gauze
• Elastic wrap
• Antibiotic Wipes
• Antiseptic cream
• Burn ointment
• Sunburn lotion
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Eye wash
• Sanitary napkins
• Snake bite kit

Gourmet Gauging: Now, there are people who eat to live and there are those who live to eat. You could be the former or the latter. But the fact is that one needs to eat to survive. Even if it is not either a do or die or a exaggeratively adventurous situation, cooking outside could be real fun. Hence, one needs a camping food checklist. The smell emanating could be a real tickler for your taste buds and gastronomic senses. Further, while camping you would obviously not expect any thing fancy, right? Therefore what you need essentially is:

• Water
• Food
• Camp stove
• Cooler
• Mess kit
• Charcoal
• Can opener

In addition to this, you can also carry things like hot dog sticks, folding table and chairs, pie irons and few more things. If it is a trailer camping checklist, you might as well carry these things to have complete 'similar to home' kind of an experience! Allied to this is the chuck box, where in you have pots, pans, plates, plastic glasses, napkins, trash bags and so on. You could also include cork screws, aluminum foils and stuff like that.
Read more on camping food in camping food recipes.

Clean Scene: By clean scene I am making an allusion to things which you would need for cleaning the kitchen things or generally for personal hygiene like soaps, detergents, brush and so on. You would not want to get up on the first day of the camp saying 'Gosh I do not have my brush'. How bad that would be. Hence, here is what you CAN carry for personal hygiene:

• Tooth paste
• Tooth brush
• Comb or Brush
• Wash rag
• Towel
• Toilet paper
• Nail cutter or clipper
• Razor

Other cleaning items include:

• Broom
• Dust pan
• Lawn rake
• Dish pan
• Whisk broom
• Detergent
• Dish rags
• Pot scrubber

Spur of the Moment or 11th Hour Things: These are the things which you do not write in the essentials for camping. But seasoned campaigners surely remember to take them. If not that, it would strike you to carry things like camera, binoculars and things like that, once you start packing and think about the venue and what you would do there. So, these are those kind of impromptu things which you realize you have missed out only when you are almost done with the packing according to your camping checklist.

• Binoculars
• Bug spray
• Camera
• Candles
• Playing cards
• Cell phone
• Clothe's pins
• Duct tape
• Compass
• Fishing gear
• Flashlight
• GPS
• Pen and paper
• Matches
• Rope
• Sun block
• Tools

GPS, compass and similar things are necessary for a car camping checklist. You would normally find this in any camping checklist template.

These are generally the things you would need for a hassle free camping tour. Other than this, it could be anything you think of as important for you, like may be your I-pod can be a part of your camping checklist essentials. A printable camping checklist available on the Internet would be a better option if you do not want to write down the essentials for camping. A camping checklist in pdf format is one of the most common on the Internet.

There you go! After such a long list of things needed for camping, I am sure you are itching to go out there and have fun! So go ahead! Have a blast!