I like minimal camping; I’ve never been a fan of giant tents or these crazy amenities that so many of my friends bring along. Give me a camp fire, I’ll cut my own firewood with my ax. Give me a one room, bare-bones tent, I have a sleeping bag. I bring matches, but I don’t need them. I’ve been camping for more than half my life and there were a few times we forgot our matches.

I went camping with my ex-fiancé shortly after we started dating. I’m a creature of habit and I have a few spots that I often return to but most of these require a lot of hiking and climbing to get to. This was one such place and thirty minutes into our hike she began complaining. The whole hike consisted of this and by the time I was ready to make camp, she was exhausted and refused to help me with the tent. I should have known right then that things wouldn’t have lasted.

I’ve only been camping twice this summer. I wish I could have gone more often. I have plans to go camping this weekend and when I told my friends about how I like to camp, they decided they were going to raid my closet and we would all wear flannel. I’m not a lumberjack, I’m just a man of the earth. Flannel is both warm and comfortable when you’re sleeping outside; it’s practical. Most of these friends are new and have never been camping with me, or at all. I think they will find that raiding my closet for extra flannel is an excellent idea.

Considering the cold temperatures that have plagued us all summer, I would think that they would rush to find their winter jackets or buy better sleeping bags, but they haven’t. I don’t think that they realize how cold 30-40 degrees is when you’re out sleeping in it all night long. If they wake me up in the middle of the night, I will most certainly clock them in the face and/or set them on fire.