ANNOYING TAKE-HOME CAMPING HABITS

[Maddy]

Great thread!
I shop only at EMS, Mountain Goat, and Adventure Outfitters. Recently I had to attend an orientation for new monitors, etc where I work. I arrived with my injured knee sporting my hiking staff which has animal footprints carved into it. I bring all my winter gear to work when we have big storms and drive everyone nuts because it takes me 20" to gear up to go home. I have stabilizers, instep crampons, Bear Sorel Boots and No Face boots that I wear depending on conditions in suburbia. I have actually walked out of the hospital at night wearing crampons when we have ice storms. I sometimes walk around my yard with snowshoes on.
I carry my -30 No Face bag in my truck all winter and also all my other "emergency" camping gear. I sleep in a lightweight down bag in the house and I leave all my camping gear in a corner of the living room all summer.
I build campfires in my yard and hope this storm dumps at least a foot of snow so I can set my my winter tent and sleep out with the dogs tomorrow night. Full moon is up.
My purse is a small Mountainsmith fanny pack. My books and DVD's are mostly related to bears/wolves/sledogs and mountaineering.
I wouldn't have it any other way!!!

 

[timmus]

When I want a glass of water, I never use a glass. My Nalgene is never further than a foot or two from me. I also use it as a measuring cup when cooking. Or juice pot in the fridge.

When I prep my gear before leaving, my boyfriend HATES when I put my backpack on the kitchen table. I don't see where's the problem.

I like the fact that I am never wet when we go slide with the kids on warm sunny days. The other parents, with their stiff jeans and wet fleece gloves are sooooo jealous of my Gore-tex !

 

[AntlerPeak]

My marking the hallway from the bedroom to the bathroom with blue blazes really got the whole family's ire up.

 

[Quietman]

My wife always wonders why there are yellow spots in the snow in the back yard, especially since we don't have pets. Wouldn't want to track mud and snow into the house.

 

[Periwinkle]

Does anyone here airate their lawn with crampons?

Ah, I think that would be our Sherpa. And I believe he's proud of it.

As for using gear at home, why not make good use of things that didn't cut it after trail testing? I wear clothes that are trail retired, the old headlamp is in my toolbox, and always pull out the overnight gear box stuff when the power fails.

My only true trail to home habit: I'm a Gatorade junkie. I need it half strenght and powdered. Gotta have it.

 

[BorealChickadee]

I drink my water out of gatorade bottles everywhere. At work while I teach, at the dinner table, in the living room, in the car, I mean everywhere I am my water filled gatorade bottle goes. There's a permanent one in the car. The kids in school don't even give it a second thought that I drink out of a quart gatorade bottle all day long. And I do have a beautiful set of glasses in the cupboard.

I read trail guides for pleasure reading. Joy is an EMS gift certificate.

I wear polypro under dresses for work.

My bonus questions on quizzes are things like name the highest mountain in NYS and give its elevation.

I build fires in the back yard and I live in a village.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Ah, I think that would be our Sherpa. And I believe he's proud of it.

I've seen things similar to crampons sold in lawn and gardening catalogs. I used to have a pair, 2 wives ago! The ground where we lived was very hard, so I'd walk around with them while I mowed.

 

[Greg]

Very funny thread

but any bad habits that I bring home, the wife soon beats out of me.

 

[Mike P.]

No day is a bad day to be outside in CT. Just told my daughter about the "big" blizzard expected here tonight & tomorrow. We get to wear all the hiking clothing dad has & I can put my spares over my daughters so we can go outside in blowing snow & 30 MPH winds & play with our snowshoes & get hot chocolate as soon as we are done.

I almost exclusively day hike Habits, a car that just can't seem to lose that poly-pro smell, water bottles, boots, some spare gear & Cliff Bars left in my car 24/7 in case i find myself near someplace interesting...

 

[AdkWiley]

My wals are decorated with my packs haning from hooks and maps pined up on teh walls. I use my head lamp all the time for doin reapirs in hard to get to spots where i need boht hands. My nalgene is never far form me. I cook at home using receipes from backpacker and various other articles for camp cooking. There is always a camel back bladder filled and ready to go in my fridge. I always throw down the sleeping pad and lay out on the floor when im doing work or studying. Im always weraing a winter hat. I have had my rear seats folded down in my jeep since ive gotten it so more room for gear. I made special racks in my car so i coudl hang my packs in it leavin the floor space open for other gear. My car look slike a gear storage facility. If i ever neeed to spend the night in the car , ill be well prepared. Oh and i know that following a bearing of 84 degrees ill get to the bathroom in my appt.

 

[focusonbalance]

great thread
Most of the above, nalgene, headlight, the house is called the gear room, frequently caught cooking new recipies in the house on the whisperlite, test new gear in the snowbanks(not this winter though), hard to use tissues instead of booger rag, blizzard coming tonight-kids want to set up the new tent and sleep in the most exposed space, but Quietman, I like yours-

"My wife always wonders why there are yellow spots in the snow in the back yard, especially since we don't have pets. Wouldn't want to track mud and snow into the house."

Currently I have my belay jacket on , we of course keep the heat down, warm air would not feel right in the winter. Why turn the thermostat up and waste oil when we have the right gear handy? We just tell the kids to get their indoor jackets on.

 

[cbcbd]

My wife always wonders why there are yellow spots in the snow in the back yard, especially since we don't have pets. Wouldn't want to track mud and snow into the house.

We only have one working bathroom at the moment. When it's taken in the mornings and I have the urge, I just join the dogs outside

And related to that - I've had to stop myself a few times from just going anywhere

 

[Mark]

I grill all winter using my headlamp for checking the burgers. My kids often steal my sleeping bags out of the attic and pull them on to watch TV or do homework. (Hey, it's not that cold in my house!)

 

[coldmountain]

I have taken over one of our closets and converted it into my personal gear shed. Backpacks, tents, snowshoes, crampons, camping crap, polypro this and that, and the walls are plastered with maps.
The smell is a little rough sometimes. It's almost like a walk-in hockey bag.

 

[mudhook51]

Getting calls from preschool about my son peeing behind the swing sets.

 

[David Metsky]

First, you wound me, implying that I would object to this thread. It has "camping" right there in the title, how could it be off-topic?

Second, after trips my house tends to get fully strewn with gear. I refer to it as "Presidue".

-dave-

 

[Gris]

haha - gotcha!

"Presi-due"

I LOVE IT!

 

[Umsaskis]

There are trail maps sitting on the clock next to the bed, for use as bedtime reading material. The Campmor catalog sits on the stand in the bathroom (also for reading material ).

The perpetual presence of a backpack spewing forth its contents onto the living room floor in the corner. I unpack what needs to be dried out but leave everything else, including the pack, on the floor. Because hey, I'm just going to pack it up again next week! My husband doesn't seem to mind. Half the time his backpack is sitting next to mine spewing its own contents onto the floor.

But my most annoying habit? That would be at about 6:00 on Saturday morning when I shake my poor husband awake and say, "It's time to get up! We have to go climb a mountain!"

 

[KayakDan]

We hang around the house in Bergelene and hiking socks
Hey,if it's good enough for Harvard Cabin-it's good enough for home!

Gaiters,wind pants and a shell for cleaning the driveway-makes perfect sense to me.

Can't find our kitchen table under all the gloves,neck gaiters,Campmor catalogs,Nalgene bottles,mailers from REI,EMS,etc,backpacking food packs,oh...there's the other headlamp!
Sooo..now we eat in the other room!

 

[BobK]

A camping item now used at home

On many of my trips (particularly boat camping) I use a plastic box with a rubber gasket to bring an assortmemt of crackers and prtezels. This keeps them dry and breakage to a minimum. Sometimes it comes home with useable contents. My wife has now gotten used to having the "cracker medley" in continuous use and sit on the dinner table or come out with the cheese platter.

Camping equipment has served us well during power outages too including my trip to S. Florida last Nov. post Rita. Like some others, catalogs, guidebooks and maps are in a basket for reading in the "in-house".