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Car
Camping
by Shirley Hickman
Car camping is an adventure for
middle school and high school youngsters. Many of the young people with whom ICO works come from cultures that do not encourage or
even allow sleepovers at the homes of friends so a car camping trip may be a youngster's first experience spending a night away
from home.
Youngsters should have gone on at least two ICO day hikes before they car camp. Thus, they will have had enough experience to know
they enjoy the outdoors. Their teachers will know how they respond to the outdoors. Car camping trips require a great deal of
planning. They may be a challenging experience to both the youngsters and their teachers, so it is best to:
·
Work out the logistics in their own setting,
e.g., at their school.
·
Determine together the rules for behavior.
·
Plan together the destination. Popular sites
in the
Santa Monica
Mountains
are
ü
Malibu
Creek
State Park
ü
Leo
Carrillo
State Park
ü
Sycamore
Canyon
Park
·
Possible sites in the
San Gabriel Mountains
are
ü
Chilao
ü
Manker Flats
ü
Buckhorn
·
Plan together the transportation.
ü
Most trips use a bus obtained by using the bus
request form on this website.
ü
If choosing to take cars, plan on one
standard-sized car for every 3-4 people as you have to transport food, tents, sleeping bags, equipment, and people.
·
Plan together the menu and distribution of
chores.
(See the samples at the end of this
article.)
ü
Who will purchase the food?
ü
Who will pack the food?
ü
Who will prepare the food?
ü
Who will do the clean up?
·
Develop a list of items to bring.
ü
What will ICO and REI provide?
ICO equipment is stored in Elizabeth Neat's garage in San Pedro. To make arrangements to pick up the equipment, contact
her at (310) 241-0502 or ean5455@lausd.k12.ca.us
ü
What will the participants need to bring?
·
Work together on setting up tents and sleeping
arrangements prior to the camping trip. This way when the youngsters get to the campground, they are confident about what they're
doing, and some of the squabbles and hurt feelings that can occur about sleeping arrangements are avoided. Some recommended
strategies:
ü
Take the tents to the school beforehand and
have the youngsters set them up.
ü
Ask one adult to supervise the boys as they
set up tents and one to supervise the girls.
ü
If one group finishes early, encourage them to
help others.
ü
Let the youngsters figure things out for
themselves. The one exception is if they attempt to jam the tent pole into the ground instead of putting the little, metal stick
inside. Intervene when this happens.
ü
Work out at the school who will
be sleeping where. To assign tent mates, give a quiet youngster a clipboard and assign him or her the job of signing people up for
tents with the guidelines that each group must have 3-5 people of one gender.
OR
ü
At the campsite, invite youngsters to form
into groups of 3-5. After verifying that everyone is in a group, pass out the tents. They are usually anxious to set up their tents, so they organize themselves quickly.
ü
In cooler weather, the more people in a tent
the better. If camping in an area where there are wild animals (coyotes, raccoons,
bears), youngsters are less likely to become frightened at night if there are several people in a tent.
ü
Always have at least three to a
tent, and never two girls in one tent and two boys in another. It is too easy for one girl and one boy to swap places.
ü
Nights are more peaceful when girls' and boys'
tents are separated by a road. In scouting out campsites, choose with this in mind.
OR
ü
If it is not possible to have opposite sides
of the road, ask the chaperones to sleep between the girls' and boys' tents.
ü
Recruit at least one male adult and one female
adult with whom the children are comfortable to supervise sleeping arrangements.
ü
When there are parents on the trip, encourage
them to have their own tent and not to share with the youngsters. This allows the young people more independence.
ü
Reserve three family sites. One site becomes the common area for food prep and a campfire. (In most parks, it is possible for 4-6 people to lift and carry the picnic tables. Put them all in a line in the common site.)
·
The following are suggestions for making the
camping trip fun.
ü
Build time into the agenda to just hang out at
the campground, for instance, playing Uno or climbing a tree.
ü
A short nighttime hike is usually a new
experience that goes over well.
ü
Consider multi-day trips so that participants
can develop a sense of a home away from home.
When leading car camping trips, ICO
leaders need to skillfully determine how much direction the participants need and how much of the planning and preparation can be
turned over to them. The first and primary goal is to insure, through careful planning, that the participants enjoy their outdoor
experience. The second goal is to develop the participants' confidence and skills in hiking and camping, and, more broadly, in
decision making and assuming responsibility.
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Sample 1:
Chores and Food Prep
For multi-day trips, set up teams,
but for a Saturday-Sunday overnight, have everyone sign up for chores. Soon after arriving at camp, pass around a clipboard with a chart such as this:
Sat. Lunch Prep and Clear:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Adult:
Sat. Dinner
Prep:
Clear:
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
4.
4.
Adult:
Adult:
Sun.
Breakfast Prep:
Clear:
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
4.
4.
Adult:
Adult
Sat. Lunch
Prep and Clear:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Adult:
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Sample 2:
Menus and Purchasing
There are many considerations in
deciding how to handle menus and purchasing. If you expect to work with a group on
several trips and want them to develop independence, it may benefit them to do the menu planning and shopping. However, you may need to talk about ICO’s budget of $3.00 per person per meal and eating
a balanced diet. You may opt to take care of the menu and food purchasing yourself.
A tested, standard, weekend menu:
Lunches:
Sandwiches (bread, lunch meat, cheese, peanut butter, jam, lettuce, tomatoes, spreads)
Apples and oranges
Powdered juice mix
Chips
Dill pickles
Dinner:
Chicken tenders (I marinate
them in equal parts of
dijon
mustard and soy sauce in a
ziplock bag for 24 hours before the trip.)
Tossed salad (2 kinds of lettuce,
tomatoes, carrots)
Dressing
Rolls
Water
S’mores around the campfire for
dessert
Breakfast:
Simple—
Cold cereal
Bananas
Muffins
Hot Chocolate
Tea and Coffee for adults
Ambitious—
Pancakes
Sausages
Fruit salad (3-4 different kinds of
seasonal fruit with yogurt and honey)
Hot Chocolate
Tea and Coffee for adults
Snacks:
Cookies or granola bars for a Sat.
afternoon hike snack.
If doing the ambitious option for
breakfast, you might leave a few youngsters and a couple of adults behind to cook while the rest go for an extra hike before
breakfast—for about 1.5 hours. Or everyone who is not cooking can sit around
drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the ambience. The latter works with a mellow
group. The former is helpful with a more energetic group.
Forms
for Leaders
Three forms for leaders are available online:
Outings
Information Form
Bus Request
Form
Trip Followup Form
Contact
ICO
View the About ICO page for contact information.
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