You know you’ve created a comfortable campsite when you find a stranger asleep in one of your hammocks at dawn. At least, we guess that’s a good sign. Whether chairs around the campfire, an outdoor carpet for a guest to lay out his bedroll, or hammocks hung between trees (regardless of whether stragglers catch Zs), camping culture calls for a welcoming encampment. What pieces are required to create a perfect campsite? We have a few suggestions below. We’ll dig into some product reviews down the road.
People outfit their home patios with chairs, tables, and tunes. No reason the campsite can’t own a similar spirit and a vibe all its own.
Permanently stashed in our campers’ pass-thru are a plethora of essential items. We have shade sails and tarps, ground covers and patio carpets, chairs of various sizes – from papasans to rockers to field chairs we’ll fold to take to the festival fair grounds, and those all-too-inviting hammocks. We also have yards of rope, hammock straps, and carabiners needed to string it all up.
Most recently when we set up camp at the Wanee Music Festival, we slung our two hammocks between a trio of towering oaks at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in rural north Florida. Beneath and around our awning and shade, our encampment featured festival tapestries; a few carpets, patio mats, groundcovers, even a rug up to the outdoor kitchen. Nearby, a half dozen chairs dotted the campsite.
Above, the Kelty Noah’s Tarp provided shade beyond where the awning itself ended, keeping sun, rain, dew, and leaves from sneaking in from above.
Not to leave our senses under-stimulated, our campsite is a multimedia experience – even before we step foot on the festival fairgrounds. The green beams of three laser lights stream into the tree canopy above to the sounds of the Bluetooth speaker playing the festival’s Spotify playlist (or iTunes, if the park has limited Internet service [a review of Mifi hotspots will come soon).
All this outdoor glory comes before you take a single step inside the camper itself (No, fine guest, that was not an invitation).
So maybe that stranger’s onto something about how comfortable a campsite we created. Besides, he was a friendly creature come dawn and complimented our comfy confines. Which was nice…