 If your family goes out camping, having a camp radio can be very useful for keeping in touch when family members separate to go hiking, or other camp activities. You can’t rely on cell phones, as there might not be any cell phone coverage where you go camping. So having an alternative method of communications can be very comforting – and possibly necessary in difficult situations.
When choosing a camp radio – power requirements should always be kept in mind – some radios will work off of batteries for a long period of time, others will work for a few hours, then give up the ghost. Nothing is more useless than a radio that has no power. Some camp radios designed for outdoor camping will come with a crank & built-in dynamo, that allows you to recharge the radio’s battery just by cranking the handle for a few minutes.
 For those of you who RV – you can also buy solar panels that can provide long-term electricity as well as being able to recharge your electronics. But if you’re bringing along electronic gadgets, you should also be bringing along spare batteries. It only makes sense.
For those who are driving to the campground – and you don’t want the headache of solar panels, a good alternative is a portable power pack, several manufacturers make them, and they are a reasonable compromise between bringing a gas generator or solar panel, and having nothing more than a few extra batteries laying around.
Our society has gotten used to having the power of electricity around – and if you’re going to have a camp radio or two around, you should be prepared to power them as well. Make plans in advance, and your camping trip will go smoothly and be fun for all. Lose power, no extra batteries, no planning, and you might regret your camping trip!
Two Way Camp Radio
When choosing two way camp radios to keep family members in contact, keep in mind that the distance claims you see will be for flat land with no obstacles. It will be unlikely that you’ll get more than 2-3 miles use out of these portable GMRS two way radios – but most of the time, that’s all you need. And again, I hate to harp on this, but bring spare batteries. You may not need them, but it’s better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them… right?
You’ll see specifications on how many channels and how many ‘private’ channels they have – ignore it. Nothing is really private, others will be able to monitor you if they want to – and the chances that you’ve camped at a spot where every channel is in constant use is so slim that you are probably at an Olympic event, or the Rose Bowl. Just get a good solid brand name, and spend as much as you can afford – the more you spend, the better your radios will be. (and consequently, you’ll be able to use them on more camping trips!)
For larger families, look for the multipack deals on camp radios – you’ll save money by buying them all at one time. I’ve seen three camp radio packs, and I’m sure I recall seeing a four-pack. You won’t regret buying these camp radios, because you’re certainly going to camp in the one area where your cell phones don’t work. When your cell phones die, and you’re in the middle of no-where, and the kids want to hike out someplace, you’re going to be very happy that you planned in advance to have a camp radio! 
 Learning used to be done at the foot of our parents, and grandparents – but not everyone goes camping these days – so sometimes the best source of camping knowledge is to buy a camping book. Fortunately, there are many excellent camping books that go into all sorts of camping folklore and knowledge. Everything from the best camping BBQ recipes, to how to survive in the wilderness.
You can even get many great camp books on your Kindle – such as the book shown here on Camping BBQ Recipes. Food at a camp doesn’t have to be second rate – you can have really excellent meals if you bring the right ingredients and learn to cook outdoors.
 Another excellent source of exotic camping information is our own government – they put out some really great survival oriented camping information for our military troops. You can find these at any military surplus store, and of course, Amazon carries these books as well. You’ll find such books for all branches of the military – but since I served in the Marine Corps, I’m afraid that I’ll have to show just the best of the lot. 
Keep in mind another great source of camping wisdom – the Boy Scouts of America have put out many fine books and manuals on the topic – so if you have a Boy Scout organization near you, check out their Scouting Store – you’ll find all sorts of goodies to help you have fun camping.
 But you don’t have to be the Rambo type to get great information on camping – even if you’re driving your own campground everywhere, better known as RV’ing, you can find good information to help you have the best of times.
Driving your own campground from one parking spot to another can have it’s own problems that hikers will never learn – so find out how to really enjoy your retirement, or rather, how not to RV…
Outdoor camping is such a wide spectrum of activities, when we can go from the solitary hiker carrying 55 pounds of equipment on his back, all the way up to the RV’er – who drives their house from one camp to another.
But no matter the style of camping you enjoy, there are others out there with the experience to share in their camping books of knowledge. So be prepared before you head out to your next camping vacation – be ready with new recipes to try, new activities to enjoy, more tips to make your camping experience more enjoyable. Buy a good camping book and learn to have fun!
 If you’re going camping in hot sunny weather, having an outdoor camping canopy is going to make the difference between a fun camping experience and a hot one. Most canopies are fairly easy to set up, particular with two people. And the shade that they provide will really make the difference on a hot sunny day.
What’s really nice about a camping canopy, is that they can also do ‘double duty’ by help you out at your swap meet booth, company picnic, or just a ‘garage sale’ in your front yard. So there’s many more uses for a good camping canopy than just your yearly camping vacation. You can find many other good uses for your canopy than just camping.
Canopies are generally categorized by how large they are – a 10 foot by 10 foot is a fairly standard size, and you can get larger ones if you plan for big parties or large family campouts. These camping awnings can be used to keep your tent in the shade if you want to take a cool afternoon nap in the tent. Naturally, in poor weather, having a camping canopy directly over your tent will be extra protection in rainy weather.
Camp awnings aren’t made for hikers – as even smaller canopies will weigh in at 30-40 pounds or more… but if you’re driving to your campground, or you’re in an RV – having your own portable shade canopy is going to really make a difference – you’ll make friends more easily – as everyone will want to sit down in the shade! So hikers are going to be pretty much at the mercy of the availability of natural shade, but you don’t have to be…
Camping Canopy
Buying Considerations
Another consideration will be mosquitoes & insects – you can buy camping canopies that have mesh screening – so you have all the benefits of the outdoors, without the pesky flies bothering you… excellent for sitting down to eat! So if you tend to camp in areas with a lot of flying bugs – be sure to check out camping canopies that have built-in mesh screens.
When deciding on the right camping canopy, if you’re trying to choose between different models, my suggestion is to go with the bigger awning size – you’ll never regret having a bigger canopy – it may be heavier, it may take more work putting up, and it will probably cost more – but you won’t be sorry to have as much shade as you can get!
Always remember – it won’t be used only for camping… you’ll end up running yard sales, barbecues, kid’s birthday parties, holiday festivities, wedding parties, or just lounging out on a nice day… there’s almost no end to the different uses you can make for your awning… You’ll get good value out of a decently sized camping canopy!
 A good camp coffee pot – a percolator you can use over the campfire – if you don’t have one – you might be in trouble.
I was at a family reunion a few years ago that was held at a Christian camp up in the mountains – log cabins, snow on the ground – deer wandering around… and each morning around 6-7am, about a dozen guys would gather in the main meeting room for our morning cup of coffee. One morning, we all gather together, and the coffee machine was loaded up, and we turned it on… and nothing happened.
We’d lost electricity.
We still had gas stoves working… and we ended up boiling water to make instant coffee… but as everyone knows, “instant coffee” isn’t really coffee. No-one had an old-style camp coffee percolator with them. Now, true, it wasn’t really camping that we were doing… no-one was pitching tents, or cooking over a campfire – but still – not being able to make coffee with a camp coffee pot really put a damper on the enjoyment that day.
I’m not a big fan of instant coffee – it’s something I can easily live the rest of my life without. How ’bout you? So if you’re heading out camping, whether hiking or RV’ing – having an old style camp coffee percolator that you can sit over the campfire and make real coffee is something you shouldn’t ignore.
I rather suspect that most people younger than I (and I’m in my 50′s) have never even seen an old-style camp coffee percolator, let alone used one. Times, they are a changing… I was speaking to a young guy in his twenties the other day, and he commented that he didn’t know anyone his age that had a regular phone at their house – everyone used cell phones. So society moves on – and changes are everywhere – but the old-fashioned coffee percolator still hasn’t been replaced at the campfire by anything better. Certainly not by instant coffee.
Camp Coffee Pot
Aluminum or Stainless Steel?
Now, just a thought when looking for a good camp coffee pot – I’ve seen too much research about the dangers of aluminum and links to Alzheimer’s disease, among others. I don’t necessarily accept the dire warnings you see, but if a stainless steel camping coffee pot works as well as an aluminum one, why risk your health? Some readers may feel it’s a risk you’re willing to take, others will not. Just a thought to keep in mind when you look around for a good outdoor camp coffee pot.
The only real advantage, in my mind, that aluminum will have over stainless steel is that the camp coffee pot made out of aluminum will be a lighter load to carry than the one made out of stainless steel. But the only outdoor campers that will be concerned with this factor would be those of you who hike to your campground – and most hikers don’t need an 8 cup, 12 cup, or 20 cup camping coffee percolator. But only you can be the ultimate judge of which type of outdoor camp coffee pot you prefer.
 For the hikers who want to keep down all unnecessary weight, how about a chairless chair, a chair that’s not a chair?
Quite frankly, I wish I’d had one of these when I was in the Marine Corps – I was often in places where there wasn’t any place to sit comfortably, and the idea of having a “chair” in my pocket would have been quite appealing. (And what’s really sad – is that as Marines we have all we need to construct these… any rifle sling would probably work quite well – all we needed was the original idea!)
Now, while you can buy a chairless chair (and in a multitude of snazzy colors!), why not just make one? I’m sure that many people have the parts needed just laying around somewhere, and it’s so lightweight that you can pop it into the backpack and never notice the added weight.
According to Vitra – the manufacturer, the chairless chair relieves the spine and legs, so that hugging your knees, or using a support, is simply no longer necessary. They claim that because pressure is taken off of so many areas of the body, that you end up being more relaxed. I’ll admit to having a homemade version, and they are indeed quite relaxing when you don’t have a chair to sit on.
 Although ‘designed’ by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, this seating strap is commonly used by the Ayoreo Indians, one of around 18 different tribes that live in Bolivia & Paraguay.
Being by their very nature, the experts on outdoor camping, its interesting to see a method of sitting down for long periods of time that is both comfortable, and is ‘chairless’. This chairless chair can also be used anytime you head out to an event, a picnic, a park, the beach… anyplace where you might not find a chair to sit down in.
So modern society learns from an ‘uncivilized’ hunter/gatherer tribe. A brilliantly simple device, the chairless chair will make you comfortable sitting around camp. So, sit down, cross your legs, and sit down in your chairless chair – and you’ll be able to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories around the campfire for hours.
You can even think of other uses if you’re creative enough – I know my Dad would have reached for the chairless chair if one of us kids started acting up.
An old camp favorite is easy baked beans done in a bean hole. This is a trick that has almost been lost – and yet is a wonderful way to do some family cooking that everyone will enjoy.
 There’s no shortage of good recipes, but the method is different, and the next time you’re out camping with the family, give this easy baked beans recipe a try. One recipe to get you started:
10 cups of dried Great Northern beans
1 pound of Salt Pork
2 onions
2 1/2 cups of Molasses
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
4 teaspoons dry hot mustard
1/2 cup butter
1. Start off by digging a hole about 3 feet deep, and wide enough to leave about 6 inches all the way around your pot. Now, line the hole with rocks.
2. Using dry hardwood, build a fire in the hole, and keep it going for 3 or 4 hours, until the hole is 3/4 full with hot coals.
3. While waiting for the bean hole to be ready, boil the beans for 45 minutes, or until their skins begin peeling back.
4. You’ll be using a separate ‘bean pot’ to cook your easy baked beans in the bean hole, caste iron is good, but whatever you use, make sure it has a tight lid, and preferably, a handle to work with. Stir in the black pepper and hot mustard into the cooked beans. In your bean pot, slice one onion and place it on the bottom. Pour in half of the cooked beans, then layer over that the other sliced up onion, and slice up the salt pork and place on top. Pour the other half of the beans in, and then pour the molasses and butter on top of everything. Add in enough boiling water to cover everything by one inch.
5. Remove 1/3 of the coals with a shovel, lower the pot into the hole, then fill the sides and top with the coals you pulled out. Now cover everything with about 2 feet of dirt on top. If you’re smart, you’ve set up a stick so that you can pull the bean pot out easily (as shown in the illustration above)
6. Now just let the beans stew overnight, dig ‘em out the next morning, and enjoy!
Easy baked beans in a bean hole is just the beginning – enterprising cooks can make a very nice chili using the same method – or take any favorite bean recipe that you like, and try slow cooking it in a bean hole – eating outdoors while you’re camping with the family will take on new memories when you try new cooking methods.
 “. . . We had our own cooky. ‘Dog Face’ is the only name, I recall, we had for him. He was a good cook and made dandy sour-dough bread, was a good bean cook, too. Lots of times he fixed us bean-hole beans , that is, beans cooked in a hole. Dog Face would dig a hole in the ground, line the hole with stone, then build a fire in the hole and keep it burning for several hours. Those stones would get pipping hot, then the hole was ready for the beans . He put the beans into an iron kettle, with a tight cover, set it in the hole and covered it with sand. There they would be left for several hours. He seasoned the whistle-berries with bacon and molasses. I am telling you, those beans were fitting to eat. Beef, beans, a few canned vegetables and dried fruit was the chief chuck on which we lived. Half of the time we ate the chuck sitting on our haunches behind the chuck wagon.” – Henry Young
So be sure to tell the kids that this is how the cowboys enjoyed easy baked beans while out on the trail.
 Knowing how to make a snare trap is a survival skill that most people simply never learn. But if you enjoy outdoor camping, there may come a time that you get lost in the wilderness, or get snowed in, or some situation where it would be a good idea to know how to live off the land. Learning how to build your own snare trap – in this case, also known as a ‘Twitch-Up’ – can be a fun activity to practice while camping outdoors.
You can build traps like this with brush to either side, to ‘funnel’ your prey into the trap, and also use food to entice them. This is where your experience will help – if you know where the animals you want to trap are at, the paths they take. These traps can be quite effective near water, as all animals need to drink. If you can figure out the paths that they take, and set the trap there, you won’t go hungry the next day when you check your traps.
Another thing to keep in mind is that trapping is a ‘numbers game’ – you might go hungry if you only have a single trap out – but if you have a number of them, you’ll certainly end up catching some food. Be sure to check your traps every day, and remove them when you’re finished camping.
 The only items you’ll need to make a snare trap is your knife – and a piece of string. Your shoelaces will do in a pinch, but to be prepared, steel or brass wire works best… If you’d like to make your your own snare trap, bringing along some 22 gauge brass or steel wire makes things so much easier! Precut into 3 foot long sections, you’ll make your loop with this wire – make sure you ensure that it’s free sliding.
When setting up the trigger, you want the surfaces to be as horizontal as possible – so that the trigger doesn’t require very much movement to trigger. After you’ve constructed your trap, rub it with mud or decaying vegetation to mask your scent – animals ‘see’ as much by smell as by sight – and your scent is going to scare them off. For each animal, you’ll need to position the trap appropriately, for example, to catch rabbits, make the loop about four inches in diameter and about two inches off the ground. For squirrels, the loop should be about 3 inches in diameter, and set two to three inches above the ground.
You should practice how to make a snare trap so that if you ever actually need to do so – you’ll be prepared. Survival skills are always worthwhile things to have, and how to make a snare trap is elementary, yet necessary if you don’t want to starve.
You’ve decided to buy a tent, because you’d like to take a vacation – maybe a weekend – and go camping by yourself, or with the family. So the first thing that strikes your mind is what kind of tent do you need? What factors should you consider when trying to decide which tent to buy? How much money should you spend on a tent? Where should you buy a tent?
 Well, first of all, if you’re climbing in the Himalayas, what are you doing reading this blog??? Close your browser and go away!!! This website is dedicated to the recreational hiker and family campers – not extreme cold, breathing with oxygen tanks, etc.
Don’t get me wrong – I admire people who’ve camped in such extreme conditions – More power to you! You’ve been places I’ll never go, and you’ve done things I’ll never do. But when I go camping, I do it not for “thrills” – but for enjoyment and relaxation. I think I’d have a hard time relaxing in windy, 20 below icy weather… But that’s just me.
Now, for everyone else who’s not planning to climb Mount Everest this summer… The very first consideration you need to think of when you buy a tent is how many people will be using the tent – take that number, and add a 1 or 2 to that number. So if you’re going out by yourself, you want a two or three man tent. If you, your wife, and two kids are going out, you need a 6-man tent. You see, tent manufacturers take into account how many people can sleep in a tent, they don’t take into account the extra gear that you are going to be storing in the tent at night. It can get mighty snug if you buy a tent based on the manufacturer’s idea of how many people can fit in their tent! You’ll never hear people complain that they bought a tent that’s too large…
Buy A Tent – Considerations
After you’ve decided how large the tent needs to be, what type of camping are you interested in? I hope we’ve dispensed with any pretense of catering to the Himalaya crowd, so you’re probably one of three things:
 1. The individual or (preferably) a few people who are hiking to a campsite. (Not that I’m trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but going hiking by yourself is not a very safe thing to do. Break a leg, and you could end up dying for such stupidity… but I digress…) As a hiker, you’ll be concerned with weight issues, and when you buy a tent, you’ll be carefully considering weight rather than size. As a hiker – you backpack all your gear, you’re going to go with a lightweight ‘Dome’ type of tent. When backpacking, weight is always a consideration, and all the gear you carry is going to have weight considerations. The Dome tent construction is also the type of tent you want for extreme weather conditions - properly anchored, it will withstand far more windy conditions than a full sized family tent can handle.
 2. An individual, couple, or family driving out to a campsite. You’ll be hauling most of your gear via a car, or possibly bicycle… you’ll have less concerns about the weight of the tent, and far more interest in the size and ease of setup. And while there are some ‘Dome’ tents that are large enough for a family (and allow you to stand up inside), you’ll not be as restricted in your choices when you buy a tent. The larger family tents are not always ‘freestanding’ like dome tents – they often need to be staked down with rope & stakes to stay upright. Before you buy a tent, you’ll also want to look at the ‘rating’ of the tent – is it a “Three Season” tent? Or the slightly more expensive and better constructed “Four Season” tent? Most people can get by with a “Three Season” tent.
3. An RV’er. In which case, you’re probably not going to buy a tent. Your tent rolls on wheels – and is quite weather resistant already. While RV’ing has it’s own enjoyments – it’s just a little different from a more pure form of camping. Nothing wrong with it, I’ll probably switch to RV camping as I get older…
Since a good tent is one of the more expensive items of camping gear you’ll acquire (and must have), careful attention to matching the tent to the style of camping you enjoy will pay off when you buy a tent.
Okay – you’ve arrived at the campground, you’ve set up the tent, your kids are standing around wondering what to do now that they can’t play “Call of Duty” or text their friends – have you prepared some camping activities for everyone?
 Fortunately, having the foresight to come to this website, you’re prepared. I’m a big chess fan, so a Chess board is always included in my camping trips… I can while away many fun hours defeating all challengers (and occasionally suffering an embarrassing defeat), so Chess is a favorite of mine.
Just for the fun of it, try the chess game to your right:
1. Black to mate in one move.
2. White to mate in either 5 or 6 moves.
Great camping activities can include board games of all sorts, Chess, Checkers, Monopoly merely being the most common ones that can engage the entire family. You could spend time learning a new board game, the game of ‘Go‘, for example, is not well known in the USA. A deck of cards is quite lightweight – yet can lead to dozens of fun card games at the picnic table. Doing things together as a family is something that fun camping activities allows, so take advantage of the surroundings, and enjoy some fun board games with the family!
Camping Activities Using Balls…
It almost seems almost too obvious to mention a round ball… softball, hardball, football, soccer ball, basketball, volleyball, tennis ball… take your pick. There are enough games related to a round ball to keep you busy for a summer’s worth of camping, let alone a day or two. And although it’s rarely fun by yourself, games utilizing balls can start with just two people, and go all the way up to a crowd of people.
Something as simple as playing catch with the kids – all the way up to organizing a softball or football game. It all depends on how many campers there are.
Entire books have been written on the topic of camp games, so if you’re a beginner at creating a fun atmosphere of camping activites, by all means, head over to Amazon and pick up a book on the topic.
Camping Activities Involving Hiking & Woodcraft
If you manage to find a great campground with hiking paths – be sure to take full advantage of them – but before you start out, have everyone break out a knife and carve a good walking stick. Find a good sapling, and using your knife, trim off all the unneeded wood. Now, a real walking stick will need the bark removed, the wood dried out, sanding it, oiling/waxing it, and then decorating it. But for the purposes of a day hike, you can skip everything but finding a good sapling or dead wood, and trimming it up.
Take your time on your hike – the object isn’t to see how fast you can walk it, but how interesting the trail is, and what you can see and hear. You can challenge your kids to find the first lizard, or the first animal tracks… showing them what places would be good camping spots if they were lost in the woods. See if there’s anything edible as you take your hike… For the real hardcore survivalists – step off the beaten tracks an build an animal trap with nothing more than some string and your knife.
Building a fire from scratch is a good game that can be played… hand all contestants (or teams) one book of matches and one knife. The first one with a good fire that has used the least number of matches is the winner. Obviously, anyone who built a fire without consideration of proper safety (clearing area, surrounding fire with rocks, etc) would be disqualified. Using a magnifying glass is another option – and for the truly hardcore campers – see if you can do it the old fashioned way – friction with a handmade bow & ‘drill’. This is so difficult that you can’t truly consider yourself a real survivalist unless you can do this.
Practice methods of building a fire with the least amount of ‘civilized’ help, if you’re ever lost in the woods, such a skill can make the difference between life and death. As a camping activity, the building of a fire can be a fun family activity, as well as a great learning experience. Don’t let it go to waste!
A camp without camping activities can be a boring place to be – no TV or Cable, no Internet, no video games, no places to go – so be prepared, camping can be a real vacation if you plan it right!
It’s hard to think of a more valuable tool – if I were stuck in the middle of no-where, and could only take one object, it would be the best camping knife I can own. With just a knife, you can construct a tent, create animal traps, skin & cut up trapped animals for food, cut firewood, even make clothing from animal skins…
 But what makes the best camping knife? Well, I know what every Marine is going to say… Ka-bar is the best camping knife! And in some respects, it can be… as it’s a fixed blade knife, the blade consists of a single piece of metal going down into the handle, so it’s very strong, and can take plenty of abuse without snapping off or breaking in half.
And if I had to pick just one knife – a Ka-bar, or something of a similar style and size would certainly be right up my alley.
Fortunately, I don’t have to pick just one “Best Camping Knife” – I’m strong enough to manage two of them… the Ka-bar, or similar knife, needs a sheath or carrying case, and isn’t lightweight… and particularly if you’re a hiker, you know that every ounce begins to count round about the 3rd or 4th mile… but I’m just quite convinced that the advantages of a fixed blade knife outweighs any other consideration – and I always have my Ka-bar with me when I go camping. The Ka-bar excels when it comes to more survival types of tasks, such as cutting saplings to create a shelter, or skinning a rabbit that you caught.
 But unless you’re actually lost in the woods, the far more useful knife is going to be a small ‘Swiss Army’ knife… I emphasize “small” – because nowadays, they have dozens of Swiss Army knives that weigh more than my canteen full of water… and take two hands to hold ‘em. They come with USB drives, Magnifying glasses, scissors, corkscrews (has anyone ever figured out why you need a corkscrew on a camping trip?), flashlight, and many other silly gadgets… give me something simple – that’s just a tad more useful than your basic folding knife, and I’m happy.
In a normal camping trip, the Swiss Army knife is probably your all-around best camping knife, it’s better than a folding knife, and much smaller and lighter than a Marine’s Ka-bar. You’ll have dozens of different styles – but there’s nothing wrong with the basic ‘Camper’ model, which has everything I’ve ever used on a camping trip… It has both large and small blades, a bottle opener, can opener (Although I prefer my P-38), a small wood saw, and a few other odds & ends. Of course, if you want bragging rights, you can go with something costing 10 times as much, such as the Swiss Champ XAVT Knife.
A simple Swiss Army knife is a perfect gift to your children, if you’re out camping with the family… and they are relatively inexpensive. This is the sort of thing that creates lifetime memories, particularly for boys… giving them a knife on a camping trip, and teaching them how to use it safely. Then showing them how to use it to create simple animal traps… or creating a fishing pole out of a sapling. Sometimes the best camping knife is a memory. Why not give your son one?
 Regular folding knives, while useful, will not prove to be as valuable as either a Ka-bar type of knife, or the Swiss Army knife – the regular folding knife has the same weakness as the Swiss Army knife – the blades will not stand up to heavy usage – yet don’t have the many different functions that the Swiss Army knife has… If you don’t want to buy a Swiss Army knife, and already have a folding knife, it will do in a pinch… it simply won’t be the best camping knife you could own. Ironically, the photo above shows a folding ‘Ka-bar’ knife, it seems that the name is so famous that knives benefit from the name, even if they aren’t the real thing. A real Ka-bar is shown at the top of this post – don’t get confused!
 One of the most overhyped type of knives, in my opinion, are the ‘All in One’ multitool knives – the most common feature being the pliers. I can’t recall ever using pliers on a camping trip, although I’m sure it would come in handy somehow… maybe while fishing to remove a hook. I just don’t think that it’s quite as good as a Ka-bar or Swiss Army knife … I would place such tools as a distant third to my recommended knives.
For some strange reason, I always think of ‘Tenderfoot’ when I see someone carrying a knife like this one, but I know it’s not necessarily true. I just get the impression that someone is trying to outdo the Swiss Army knife – and that’s just not possible to do. For the purposes intended, the Ka-bar and the Swiss Army knife are top contenders for the crown as the best camping knife.
But perhaps I’m just irritated that so many of these ‘multitool’ knives are so cheaply made – they break before you can get them to do anything. There are, however, good ones made… I know that the ‘Leatherman’ line is covered by a 25 year warranty – so clearly, you can buy quality if you’re looking for it. Perhaps for you it would be the best camping knife - but it just seems to me that the common things I need to do camping aren’t done by these knives. However, if you’re more into RV camping – perhaps this type of knife might bear a second look.
 Now, I can’t really leave the topic of the best camping knife until I mention the one knife that would give you bragging rights at any campground. The incredible Swiss Army ‘Giant’ knife – if you own one of these, you don’t need any more tools. You already have all of them.
Now, most of you reading this will think that I’m just photoshopping a bunch of Swiss Army Knives together and playing a little trick on you.
But I’m not – this is a real knife – and considerably more expensive than anything I’ve ever purchased. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. But just in case you want to see if I’m pulling your leg – and verify this for yourself… just:
Click Here To See The Swiss Army Giant’s Current Price
Didn’t believe me, did you? You just had to click…
You just couldn’t believe your eyes… and you couldn’t trust me… Okay – I’ve got your number! (My website is making a note of your IP address as you read this)
But seriously… if you want the best camping knife – the fancy stuff isn’t needed… just get a Ka-bar, and a solid dependable Swiss Army Knife, and you’ll be set for the rest of your life while camping.
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