3 Easy Steps to Becoming a BackCountry HeroWritten by Chuck Fitzgerald
Have you thought about helping to protect wildlife or wild flowers, but you don’t know how? Or maybe you want to protect your favorite camping site or that cool little stream nobody else knows about? Making a difference in backcountry is easy for anyone – you don’t have to be Ted Turner. Not every one can fly to Amazon delta to move bird nests or trek off to Aleutian Islands to remove crude oil from a pristine beach. But everyone can help right where they are. Follow these 3 easy steps, and you’ll be on your way to giving back to your backcountry and you’ll have a ball doing it.First step is to take inventory of your backcountry interests. What is your favorite outdoor activity? Is it fishing, rock climbing, bird watching, hiking, camping, canoeing, hunting, skiing, classifying plants, kayaking, horseback riding or something else? Take a few minutes to really understand what excites you about being off pavement and in backcountry. Once you have pictured yourself engaging in your favorite outdoor recreation, you’re ready for step two. The second step towards becoming a backcountry hero is to do a little research. If you love to hike, perhaps spending some time researching American Hiking Society and some of its projects make sense to you. If bird watching is your thing, BirdLife International may be worth looking into. The easiest way for many to do research is on internet. But don’t forget about book stores, libraries or sport specific organizations like ones just mentioned. A more comprehensive list can be found on-line in our Education Center at www.backcountrytoys.com.
| | Camping Makes the Weekend PerfectWritten by Chuck Fitzgerald
Do you have a weekend without anything to do or a weekend when you don’t want to do anything? I know what I’d do. I would pack up truck and head for woods. Sitting by a camp fire with your favorite people solves many problems, so you shouldn’t wait too long between fires. My favorite thing to do on a weekend is to camp. Are you looking for an easy way to camp? How about car camping? I love it! First of all, let’s define car camping? When you can drive your vehicle right up to camp site, that’s called car camping. Even if you’re driving a truck it’s still called car camping. The advantage of car camping versus primitive or base camping is that you can take anything you want with you. If you want to take a hammock or huge grill or a stack of magazines, you can. Load your car or truck with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, games and anything else you want to take along and get going. It’s really that simple. So where can you car camp? Just about anywhere. National and state parks don’t allow car camping except in designated campgrounds, other than that, you can car camp virtually anywhere on public lands. The internet is loaded with websites that can help. Start looking at www.backcountrytoys.com/education.htm. Our Education Center is loaded with up to date camping information.
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