I ran out of space (and time) to
complete last weeks article, so here is the rest, and remember there is no such
thing as a “perfect” campsite, but knowing the Five S’s will help
you find a “good” campsite. The
next most important things to consider after safety and shelter are supply, space
and slope.
Supply
You need a good supply of both water
and wood, unless you are planning to use camp stoves, in which case you can
skip the wood.
The U.S. National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends a daily fluid intake of about
15.5 cups (3.7 liters or one gallon) of fluids per day for men, and about 11.5
cups (2.7 liters or ¾ of a gallon) of fluids a day for women. This is just water for drinking, for cooking
and washing you will need at least one gallon each.
Your campsite should always be
located near a water source. always
collect your drinking and cooking water upstream” from your campsite. Be careful where you collect water, remember to
search upstream for at least 75 steps, 200 feet or 60 meters, above where you
intend to collect water to make sure there is no garbage, dead animals, or
anything else polluting the water.
Bear in mind the place for washing
clothes and other water-related activities, such as watering animals, is always
downstream of where your drinking water is gathered.
The average campfire burns
approximately one cubic foot of wrist thick hardwood an hour, the same amount
of soft wood, pine or fir, will burn twice as fast1. This is a stack about half as high as your
knee, since the average adult knee is about 20 inches, 51 cm, high, this is a pile
10 inches high, 16 inches long, and 10 inches wide To keep a large crackling fire burning from
evening to morning takes between ten and twenty cubic feet of wood, although a
small campfire can be kept burning with just five to eight cubic feet of wood. To maintain a single campfire for several
hours or two shorter fires, you will need between four to five cubic feet of
wood per day, and usually you will need one to two cubic feet of wood to cook a
meal.
Space
Remember, you just need to find a
flat space large enough to hold your sleeping pad, or two, or four pads if
you’re camping with a partner or partners.
If there enough level space for every tent or shelter, then it is a “good”
campsite.
Slope
The ground where you decide to camp should be “level”, with a very gentle or gentle slope, otherwise you will be sliding downhill all night long in your sleep.
To find out if the ground is mostly
level, you can eye-ball it or, as Philip Werner from SectionHiker suggests HERE,
you can use “The Bottle Level Method”. Place
a clear plastic water bottle, tipped on its side, on the ground you want to
measure; the water bubble will tell you whether the surface is level or
not.
Flat ground can be tough to find, so
if there is a slope, you can pitch or build your shelter either parallel with
the slope or perpendicular to the slope, and which you choose may come down to
a combination of personal preference, the steepness of the slope and what gear
you have available.
The most common recommendation is to pitch your tent parallel to the slope, with your head and the entrance
uphill. This way:
· You
won’t wake up in the middle of the night with a headache.
· Your
entrance to the tent isn’t downhill so you and your gear won’t shoot out in the
morning when you open the door.
Pitching your tent parallel to the
slope is fine when it’s a gentle slope, however on steeper slopes, place your
backpack and clothes under their feet down at the bottom of the tent to keep
from sliding.
The other option is to set up your
tent so that the opening of the tent is perpendicular to the slope, and your
head and feet are level, with one side lower than the other when you’re
sleeping. Unless it is only a gentle slope,
you’ll need to pad the downhill side of your sleeping pad or camp mattress with
your backpack or clothing to create a level surface. This way:
· You
won’t keep rolling onto your downhill side.
Now you know the Five S’s, it’s time
to find a “good” campsite.
POP QUIZ!
Did you get the correct answer? I hope so.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Ten Essentials of Winter
Camping ©”, where we will talk about how to camp in the winter wilderness and
stay warm and safe.
I hope that you enjoy
learning from this resource! To help me
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Thank you and Happy Trails!
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hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
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That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Sources
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accessed March 29, 2025
Buck, Jordan; “How Much
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