[Sportsandrec] camping

[Julie J.]

Heya!

It's me with another adventure vacation question.  Last year it was sea 
kayaking, clam digging and fishing.  This year my teenage son and I are 
going camping.  Actually we are going to survival school where we will 
be learning how to build a fire without matches, tie knots, make rope 
from native plants, which plants are edible, how to make tools from 
natural materials at hand and all sorts of other stuff.  I'm 
affectionately referring to this adventure as my opportunity to learn 
independent living skills. *smile*

I looked at loads of opportunities we could utilize to do this and 
settled on one of the less intense options.  We are going to be staying 
in a cabin and doing day hikes to learn and practice the survival skills 
we have been taught.  I'm not quite as adventurous as I once was. 
Sleeping under a hedge and being reliant on figuring out which mushrooms 
are edible won't be a part of this trip.

Still it will be a lot of new things for me and a lot of skills I 
haven't used for around 15 years.  I don't anticipate having any 
particular difficulties because of my blindness, but I'm trying to 
figure out as much as I can ahead of time.

I would love to hear from people who have been camping both the normal 
variety and the rougher sort of survival camping that is becoming 
popular.  Also ideas on keeping oriented where there are no paths would 
be helpful.    If anyone can think of specific non electronic blindness 
equipment I should take along that would also be helpful.

I welcome all thoughts and ideas.  If you can think of something that 
I'm overlooking in preparing for this trip please let me know.

Thanks in advance!  You guys always have awesome ideas and have been 
really helpful.

Julie