Sleep in a tent, but feel like you are in an RV!
It’s an annual tradition for many Calgary families, head out to the mountains to go camping on May Long Weekend. You heading out? Why not take some luxury camping gadgets with you!
I’ll be on Breakfast Television Thursday morning showing off how to camp in the lap of luxury! Just because you’re in a tent, doesn’t mean you can’t have the comforts of home. Some of these have to be seen to be believed! Starbucks anyone?
Make sure to tune in to find out how to win!
I love your watching your segment and have learned lots but love being outside and would love to be entered to win the deep fryer from Bass Sports – love that you can steam food or deep fry – keep everyone happy….lol
May 14th, 2009 at 10:27 amMy worst camping experience is the one I didn’t have with all the great goodies you demonstrated on the show this morning. Man things sure have come a long way since back in the day. Thanks for the great contest.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:28 amCheers….
When I was much younger, in my 20s, my boyfriend, friends and I decided to have this big tenting trip in rural Newfoundland. It was a disaster. The first morning we woke up, we discovered that all our food, which we had neglected to put in rubbermaid containers, was stored in a cardboard box, was infested with ants. So all that survived was food in tins. No breads or meats …
Then the second night one of the girls had been drinking Tia Maria and Milk not realizing the milk was “Off” she got stomach sick, and after TOO many trips to the outhouse she was just going whereever she could find a spot outside the tent and her boyfriend stepped in it and brought it in the tent on his shoes.
Then on the last night my boyfriend was playing with the fire and got second degree burns to his hands and we had to leave and spend the night in a St. John’s Hospital stinking of smoke, dirt, and whatever else.
Oh and by the way, as is typical in Newfoundland it poured rain on the last day. ….
But it didn’t deter me, I continue to camp to this day, however I prefer trailers now……
Joanne Walsh
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amWhich bad camping experience to tell? Hmm. Well, there was the time when I was 8 months pregnant and my huband and my 5 year old drove to Bragg Creek in the poring rain to find out when we got to the campground the pool was closed and the washrooms were not working. But even before that in the preparation it was a little stressful. My husband was trying to wire the camper to the vehicle and it wasn’t working. He was getting more and more frustrated We had both worked all day and I ordered a pizza for all of us before we hit the road. He was just so frustrated trying to get the wiring to work for the camper he wouldn’t eat. I was so frustrated I took a piece of the pizza and threw it at him. It landed in the middle of his chest and it slid to the floor. I don’t usually throw things but I was so upset I couldn’t even talk. It worked. We both burst into laughter at how ridiculous the situation was. My daughter is quite a bit older and still talks about it!!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amMy worse camping trip would have to of been my grade 8 camping trip. My girlfriend and I were sharing a school tent. The class went out for a hike and of course (murpheys law) (murphey should be shot) it starts to rain. We get back to our camp site and yep you guessed it, everything in our tent was floating our sleeping bags were soaked it is a good thing the only thing we took to eat was in cans ( beans of course, the staple of camping food). That was the first night of our camping trip. So for the rest of the 3 nights we had to sleep in other peoples tents with no blankets. It may of been the worse trip ever, but I do have to say Faith and I were the only ones that did not complain the whole trip. It rained the whole weekend, and it was fun. Other then having no blankets or our own tent!!!!!!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amPlease pick me, I need to improve my camping experiences!!!!
My worst camping trip was when I was much younger.
May long weekend, of course, and all of us stayed up late, with many pops.
Last one in the tent did not close the zipper properly and a couple of people woke up with their heads covered in Snow!
Luckily I was further in, but it sure was a cold, wet start to the day.
Fiona
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amMy worst camping experience. Driving to Waterton National park on a long weekend from Calgary. We left “early” after work on Friday and was stuck in traffic in Calgary for 2 hours. Finally, on our way we made it to Nanton before we had a flat tire
We thought it was our bad luck for the weekend. The weather was beautiful for the whole drive until we made it to the gates of the park. It started drizzling a little which wasn’t bad but we were informed at the gate that there were no more spots available. By this time it was dark and no longer Drizzling but instead a downpour. We found a campground just out of the park (basically a Farmers yard) and set up camp in the pouring rain. Luckily we had a good tent. We woke up in the morning and it was raining so hard that we just packed everything up and drove all the way back home. The worst part of the story is that it was my first trip to Waterton and I didn’t even get to see it OR the mountains after spending 7 hours in the car 
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amMy worst camping trip EVER was in September 2007. I was almost five months pregnant and I was not looking forward to camping in a tent. On the way up to the campground, we got lost several times, and by the time we were headed in the right direction, it was dark out. Off in the distance we could see lightning. I was hoping and praying that it would not rain, but sure enough, as soon as we arrived at the campground, the rain began. And so did the wind, thunder and lightning. The boys began to set up the tent, which took much too long due to the rain and wind, and I was ready for bed. As soon as they were done, I crawled in and tried to sleep. Almost right away, the tent came down on top of me. Not only did it happen once that night, but shortly after it was set up again, it came down on me a second time. Luckily the rest of the trip wasn’t a huge failure, but that night made it the worst trip of my life.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:29 amWe went to B.C. in the bush to camp with friends and my dog Tanner.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 amAt 3 in the morning we woke up to a horrible smell and sparaying sound. My poor dog had diarrhea in the tent…………….he had been in the river and must have gotten sick.
The tent was full, as he is a 85 lb dog…………….probably only 80 lbs after that.
We had to sleep with friends and gragged the tent down to the river to hand wash it the next day.
HORRIBLE………………..but definatley memorable !
Thanks Mike for the chance at some new gear.
Dan Leung
My husband and I went camping for our wedding and it started raining and did not stop. We ended up with a river of water running through out tent. We woke up floating in our campsite. So we desided to pack up and go home. Thats when we ended up with a flat tire and got stranded. We have recovered
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 amHi Mike, I would love to win the cold to warm water converter, i’m tied of washing in the cold water, you know it’s cold when you get out and your lips are blue! We need the warm water please!!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 amThe worst camping trip I have ever had…
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 amI have never had a real bad trip, I guess the worst was last year, because we had so much stuff getting packed into the van we had to leave a few things, without asking me, my boyfriend took one of the air mattresses out, well, he took the big one out instead of the small one so in our nice big tent meant for me, him, my son, and the dog, we had a single air mattress to sleep on! It was not comfortable at all!
So a couple years ago we went out to Burnaby to go on a camping holiday. Well what a surprise we had upon arrival.
We booked a tent site, bit in reality we paid 25 dollars a night to be in a group camping area with all other tenter, you could reach over and touch your neigbours tent. Then there was one fire pit for all tenters to share.
Well we made the most of it and played a few games of cards and went to bed.
To our surprise, we wokr to the tent shaking because behind the trees ten yards away was CN rail. WOW, I jumped away thinking we werw on the track. All night listening to squealing breaks and horns. Then to top it off, there was a highway somewhere close that must have been a hill. Trucks going by with there jake brakes on.
It was a holiday to remember and laugh about later.
Dallas
May 14th, 2009 at 10:30 amHi Mike.
As to my worst camping experience it had to be when I decided to go winter camping near Bragg Creek a few years back. It was really really cold and often the stove was the best source of heat when cooking food. I enjoyed the heat of the stove too much though, and not realizing it I was too close to the stove and my jacket caught on fire! All the insulating lining in the jacket fell out and I was left with pretty much a windbreaker. Sweaters and layers didn’t seem to make a difference and I ended up getting sick and having to drive home ill about a day later.
I haven’t gone winter camping ever since.
Have a good one!
Neil
May 14th, 2009 at 10:31 amHi Mike,
My worst camping story, thats easy. About 9 years ago my boyfriend at the time, my 2 children and my self went out camping in Pipestone park near Grande Prairie. I decided I would chop some wood for the fire. Now here lies the problem. I have carple tunnel and my hands go numb when I hold a heavy object in my hands for to long. Well not thinking I am chopping away and everything goes great for the first 10 minutes. so after what felt like the 100th time i lifted the ax i had my hand on the log and brought the ax up and then nothing. I did not feel the ax and the next thing i know I look at my finger and it was white then it started bleeding. after that I do not remember anything for the rest of the weekend due to the fact i was in shock and my now ex, being the silly guy he is, did not want to leave and take me to the hospital, my children thought i was going to die. Not the most pleasant camping trip to say the least.
Hope you have a great day!!!!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:31 amWhen I was in grade 10 the whole grade was scheduled to go camping for a week. I choose not to go because I never had a good camping experience. My friends begged me for 2 weeks to come, and I gave in. When we arrived I discovered that I forgot my pillow and air mattress. As we were unpacking some people were throwing water around and funny enough it landed on my sleeping bag. So for a week I slept on the hard ground in a wet sleeping bag, oh yeah it rain almost everyday, so I never got a chance to dry my sleeping bag and got wet every night because I had to sleep at the edge of the tent and it leaked. Needless to say I have never gone camping again, and I was quite sick by the time we went home.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:32 amMike
My worst camping experiance turned out to be my best. My wife and I had not gone camping in about 10 years. We decided at the last minute to head out to the mountians for a long weekend, she was only about 6 months pregnant so we thought we had lots of time. At about 3 am she went into labor and we had to rush to the Canmore hospital were my son was born very pre mature. As we couldnt afford a hotel I stayed at the camp site for about a week while Karen and Tristan were at the Canmore hospital until they were released.
Regards
May 14th, 2009 at 10:32 amJim Rice
May 14
May 14th, 2009 at 10:32 amWe were going for a walk at the campsite when we came across 2 kids playing catch. The ball rolled past us and went under a bush. I walked over and retrieved the ball for the boys. While getting the ball, I was stung on the heel of my right leg by a hornet. I put ice and antiseptic on it, raised it and relaxed at the campsite. In the morning I awoke with a swollen, red ankle. My husband had to take me to emergency and the doctor informed me that I had a dirty stinger left in my heel and he would have to cut it out. I guess this means that I should never be helpful to other people – let them be the ones stung!!!
My worst camping trip was when it got dark and nature was calling.So i tucked behind some trees and could still see the fire so i backed up..a little more..with pants to knees.When all of a sudden i ended up in a freezing creek.Now we have a porta potty.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:32 amWorst camping trip. Dating a guy that was 6′6″ and we were camping in a tent looked more like a pup tent. When we went to go to bed noticed that his trunk had leaked and our blankets were a bit damp. Figured that since it was in the middle of august it wouldn’t be that bad so we slept in our coats and borrowed a sleeping bag. Woke up in the morning and could hardly move because we were so cold. I have never been cold like that since and a man that size doesn’t fit well in a pup tent.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amMy worst camping expereince was when I went camping with 4 children by myself. The kids ranged in age then from 12, 9. 3, and 2. We left Airdrie and drove up to Sylvan Lake. A trip that should have taken us 90 minutes took us 5 hours. We showed up at the campground just when it was turning dark. Here | am trying to set up a tent in the dark with kids runnning around. We were using flashlights with my 9 year old holding up the tent. Needless to say we just got the tent set up and the rest stayed in my van till the morning. I do have to agree the Coleman Coffee Maker is the best. Have one and cannot camp without it I need my timmy’s in the morning. Especially after this particular trip having coffee the next morning saved my trip
Leslie Pepper
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amps, I ended up cutting the end of my finger off. thankfully i did not lose the end of it
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amMy first camping trip without the family was at the age of 14. 8 of my friends and i lied to our parents about where we were staying the night and stole all the camping gear we could find and spent one lovely night in the rain in the middle of the bush. We all got caught and grounded for the of summer break and it was worth the whole thing!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amHi Mike!
Great gadgets you’ve shown today! It’s reminds me to one of our big camping trip with my ffriends from university. Each one of us was responsible of a meal and I had to take care of the saturday night desert… I’he decided to make a huge chocolate fondue so I used my “wonderful” very old and overused pan to melt the chocolate… So while the chocolate was melting in my pan, I’ve joined the rest of the group to chat and drink… 45 minutes later… I realised I forgot the chocolate who was quite calcined in the pan… Because of me, we’ve ended up eating fruit as desert that night!!!
Thank you for reading me (and sorry for the mistakes…i’m french!)
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amMy family and I used to go camping for 2 weeks every year in Algonquin park, Ontario. One year we arrived at our camp site late in the evening and had to set up in the dark. My dad backed in the small apache pop-up trailer in what looked like an ideal spot. That night we got a severe rainstorm. When we finally awoke, we realized we were barricaded in. We had apparently set up the trailer on a small incline, and the rain storm caused our trailer to slide a few feet down an embankment resting the door up against a tree. We quickly realized that our portable home didn’t come with an emergency exit.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amMy worst camping experience goes like this…
I am terrified of bears and one night while sitting around a campfire with a group of friends, I heard branches breaking just to my left in the trees. I instantly thought it was a bear and everyone told me they didn’t hear anything. I heard it again, and so did everyone else. When I looked with to see what it was, I saw this animal coming towards me. I was petrafied!!! I screamed! I stood up and I swear…while I ran to my trailer, my feet did not touch the ground. I dove into my trailer scraping both my shins on the metal steps. I locked the door beind me! (Just in case it tried o open the door!) haha) I was so scared but I left all my friends and my husband outside to be eaten by what I thought was a hungry grizzly. It was a friend of ours dressed in some hairy monkey costume trying to scare me! Well…he did! I was shaking for hours after that. I have since learned that bears do not typically walk up to a crowded campfire! Scared the daylights out of me!!!
Cathy Jo Swanson
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amMy worst camping trip was when we were being taken to Algonquin Park for a long weekend and left with no vehicle After setting up camp and when went for short walk. When we came back. All of our food was taken by Yogi Bear.
Our weekend consisted of alot of fishing and Peanut butter and jam.
Since coming to Alberta. My worst camping trip is…. I haven’t gotten there yet and been here almost a year.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:33 amWorst camping. We were in B.C. camping just arrived at our campsite and had the choice of a river edge one or inside treed. We choice the river to hear the sound. All of a sudden it started to rain and the wind came up very strong. We were in the process of putting the last pole in it and had one of our daughters standing inside (she was around 7 or 8 years old) holding it down. We were outside and a very strong wind gust came up and started to take the tent away (including our daughter) into the river. We caught it just in time before it hit the water. Never again did she stand inside as we were setting up the tent.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:34 amEvery year my kids and I look forward to our annual camping getaway. Tenting in the great outdoors is a great way to spend some quality time with my kids.
Only problem is that I can be a little ‘challenged’ when it comes to cooking in the great outdoors. Last year, by the time i had good cooking coals ready each night for cooking, it was often midnight when we ate, and I burnt myself more than once during these midnight cookouts….not to mention the fact that my two kids were either asleep or VERY cranky by that time.
Save my kids tummies this year and pick us! My kids will be eternally grateful….trust me
Kelly Siddon
May 14th, 2009 at 10:34 amThe worst ever was camping at Carseland in August last year. We have camped there alot and never had any problems. However our luck ended when we awoke to find someone had stolen our wobbly cooler – our food cooler – our barbeque and bikes. We had planned the whole week with friends so went back to Canadian tire and bought new coolers and chain and a lock, then to Safeway and got groceries, to the liquor store and back out we went again. Still need to replace the barbeque and bikes. Hope this year will have no mishaps – will always lock everything down from now on.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:34 amWorst camping experience! Year 1968 – Ontario
Sleeping in a station wagon with my sister while the rest of my family was in a tent; we woke up with ‘hundreds’ of giant size mosquitoes in the car.
Of course no one believed us until my Dad saw the next morning what we had experienced. The small crack in the window he had left open for ventilation had allowed ‘hundreds’ of mutated giant mosquitoes in to enjoy
buffet within. Needless to say I think they still feel bad for us; good story to share for years to come.
Another camping experience was again in the sixties with my family. This time the kids were in the old canvas tent and the center pole collapsed in the middle of the night. My Dad got up in the middle of the night, emerged from his tent, and noticed that the kids were in this tent, totally collapsed, still sleeping peacefully.
I’ve gone on to camp with my own kids – many stories we share and will continue to share of all the crazy experiences had while roughing out in the woods.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:35 amHi Mike, here is my worst camping story. It was July 1987 and we headed to Shuswap from Calgary as we always did to go camping. Why we had to drive so far for a weekend is beyond me but we did. We were supposed to meet up with a friend but he couldn’t get there because of the weather. We stopped at the first campground we found and set up our pup tent (remember those????) before the rain started. We thought maybe it wasn’t going to be too bad and then it started to rain and we headed in the tent, not a whole lot of room for the two of us. Well, this was the worst weather I have ever seen there and we were caught in it. It was so cold and rainy and windy and did I mention FREEZING! The rain came down hard and pretty soon the tent was very wet inside. We waited a bit longer until we saw the mud coming in! We looked outside and saw the dirt wall that was on one side of us giving way and coming down right into our tent! We headed into our small car and that is where we spent the night. We started our car to get warm and heard on the radio that a huge tornado had touched down in Edmonton!! We were grateful at that point that we weren’t dealing with something like that and we could handle this. The next day we packed up and stayed at a local motel. We have never forgotten that camping trip.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:36 amKathy Garth
we took our 10 children camping in a tent trailer and it took us 6 hrs to set up camp.we finally got done and realized we forgot some of our food so we had to run back into calgary.when we got baCK OUT OUR CAMPSITE WAS ALL FLATENAD.there was a big wind and rainstorm and pulled down our tarps and everything was soaked not good .we had to start repairing and try to get supper too
May 14th, 2009 at 10:37 amMy worst camping story has to be way back in the 80s… went into Kananaskis with some friends one weekend in June. Started out as a beautiful day! We set up our tents, and got ready for a great time. Had a nice fire that night, and sat around and talked and laughed into the night. Hit the sleeping bags at a fairly reasonable hour.
Then the poo hit the propeller… in the early morning hours, we got snow. That really heavy, wet stuff, weighing down the sides of the tents – in fact one of them collapsed completely! Tried my best to stay warm and dry, but the tent was getting closer and closer. When we finally got up the next morning, we were all covered with about 3 inches of wet snow, soaking our tents – ergo the sleeping bags! I went to get some dry clothes out of my backpack and discovered that I had nothing dry left! The snow had permeated my pack. Everything was wet!!
It was then that I began to develop hypothermia. I didn’t realize what was happening to me, but a friend noticed that I was looking not at all like myself. I was shivering and not very alert. Then the shivering stopped, and my friend noticed that I wasn’t really making any sense. Well, my friends managed to scrape together enough dry clothing from everyone to get me warm and dry, and then gave me lots of hot tea. I recovered fairly quickly, as we headed back to Calgary putting paid to the rest of the weekend.
Yup, that was one crappy camping trip!!
Didn’t put me off at all, though. I still LOVE camping! I just make sure to go a little more prepared now!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:37 amWorst camping experience:
While camping out in Bragg Creek one year my wife and I woke up to snow on the ground and as we were tenting it was quite chilly. A friend who was with us the night before put some rocks around the camp fire then wrapped them in newspaper and put them in her sleeping bag.The next morning she told us that she was toasty warm. Needless to say we did it the that night and went to bed, a few minutes later we could smell something burning and tore open the sleeping bags and threw the rocks out to discover that the newpaper started smoldering. So much for camp fire “water bottles”.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:37 amworst camping experience:about 5 years ago when our youngest was just about 1,,my husband and I went camping to our cousins lake lot at Lac La Nonne.In our infinite wisdom,we thought it would be fun to tent, so we bought a tent for our trip.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:37 amWe were very excited and off to the lake we went.
The closer to the lake we got..the harder the rain fell,and by the time we got there it was pouring.
About an hour later it cleared for a bit and we erected our tent.Well the rain came again and off to bed we went, the baby had fallen asleep in my arms by the fire, and I thought our trip was going great.
Well a few hours later I awoke to lightening and my baby scared to death.I spent the rest of the night driving up and down the road trying to gehim back to sleep!
I guess in the end, it wasnt too bad..we bought the lot next door and live there now..of course it has a house(no more tent for me)..and thats why I need the outdoor shower..we are on a septic tank and it fills very quickly, so an outdoor shower would rock!
About 50 years ago we went camping with a little girl between 1 and 2 years. It rained every day so she could not go outside and there were no neat gadgets in those days.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:38 amGood morning Mike,
haha
i waa watching this morning and thought WOW that BBQ or deepfryer or even coffee maker or shower sure could make camping alot easier with my clueless husband!
Are first camping trip together was back in the late 90’s with our 1yr old son at the time. We lived in Abbydale N.E. and we went camping at the Konritch camp ground (just east of Calgary) 5 min. from our house. My husbands idea. We left at 6pm and after a night of rain and frezzzzzzing we were home by 9am. He has gotten a little better since then but let me tell you any one of thoses gifts would make a HUGE differnts in our camping life!! lol
My children would be greatfull too i am sure
Sincerely,
May 14th, 2009 at 10:38 amCrystal
Several years ago my then boyfriend and I were planning a May long weekend camping trip with a big group of friends. On Friday morning I woke up with a bad case of the flu. I LOVE camping, but couldn’t quite get my head arounds being sick in the woods. My boyfriend decided to go on the trip with our friends without me, which I wasn’t exactly thrilled about, but I got over it, and spent the weekend feeling sick and rather sorry for myself.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:38 amA week or two later, I arrived at my boyfriends apartment before he did. His roommate was watching a video of the May long weekend camping trip. I hadn’t heard anything about a video…so I settled in to watch it while I waited. His roomate and I laughed at the usual camping trip gong-show drunken campfire songs…pranks on the people who fell asleep early etc etc….and THEN…the ‘videographer’ walked into MY tent…where my boyfriend was all snuggled up with another girl!
Safe to say we didn’t camp together EVER AGAIN. Come to think of it….I never did get my camping gear back from him!
When me and my familey when camping 4 year ago, we had a really bad time. When where caming at “Old McDonald Farm” it was poring rain. Then that night there was a funalcloud. Everyone was freaking out and trying to get out if the camp. So we drove down the high way, there was a littel farm house with 2 twenty year old boys, they let us come in there house. we where there for 3 hours and we had a really bad time. For the next to days it rained really hard, on to of it all a squarl came in our tent. It was the worst trip ever.
Aniela
May 14th, 2009 at 10:38 amOn our honeymoon,we didn’t have a lot of money so we borrowed my parents little boler and went to the back country. As we were backing the trailer up a branch went through the window above the bed but we just put a bag over it, after all we were young and in love. Then that night as my husband “jumped” into bed the entire trailer flipped up. I thought we were being attacked by a bear, but in reality he had forgotten to put the jacks under the back.it continued to rain for 3 days as we were stuck in the boler with our 2 large dogs. On our way home we blew a tire out of the boler. Although this was our worse camping trip it was our most memorible.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:38 amHey there Mike
My husband almost burned down the Red Woods. Not really but, while camping in the Red Woods of California our tiny back pack one burner stove fell over, and started to burn our table. My husband is jumping around not knowing what to do. So I grabed my drink and put out the fire.
We now have two small kids and would love to be put into your draw for the portable grill.
Thanks Mike
May 14th, 2009 at 10:39 ammy family ,family pets 2 dogs and 3 cats and i had been stopped between the manitoba and saskatchewan border for an overnight campout as we were heading to our new home in ontario.we had decidied that there was a roadside campsite and decided to hunker down for the night. we were all exhausted as it was a scorcher of a day.we had settled in for the night in our trailer when we were awakened to the sound of heavy rain and thunderstorms and high winds.only to have the trailer being lifted somewhat.scrambling to get to a lower spot and keep the kids and animals safe.the rain had poured so hard that you couldn’t see outside and the hail constantly beating down. those pour souls that had been in tents you could here the screams and cries of childeren and people panicing to get out and leave.the terrifying oredeal had only lasted a few minutes but was enough to scare anyone.after the storm had past my husband out braving it with only a flashlight to check on others in the site.all was good no injuries and damage to trees and vehicles were what remained in the morning.we had spoken to a local farmer in town when we went for a paper only to find out that there was hail the size of golf balls and a tornado had gone over top of where we had stayed.thank goodness that we had some protection as we were in a gully campsite.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:39 amHi my worst camping experience was in grade 9 we had to hike and hike and sleep in leantoos.I wore my uncles work boots the ones with the steel toes. ( I am tall and had size 9 feet). I didn’t have anything else so and we had to have a hiking boot. They felt good when I first wore them but we had to hike for 3 days straight in rain and snow! I had blisters the size of TEXAS by the 2nd day. To top it off we had to build our own leantoos(not sure how to spell that) and it poured rain and was so cold – by morning we were soaking wet and frozen… to this day I am not sure how we survived this “true outdoor camping trip”. Don’t ever show me another leantoo I much prefer RV’s!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:40 amMy daughter and I have camped at Gull lake many times and this one beautiful morning while sitting outside drinking my ‘campfire coffee’ (grinds and all), we heard a loud racket comming from the tree line. I looked up and out of the trees flew the largest Owl that I have ever seen. He was being chased by some black birds. He flew right over our camp so close that I could have stood up and touched his underside. As he flew by, he turned his head to look at us like he was saying, “Get these noisy birds off my tail!” Then flew off into the trees. It was the most amazing site that I have ever seen.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:40 amHi there –
You are looking for horrible camping experiences? Well I got one for you. It just so happened to be May long weekend about 3 years ago. Our graduation class went camping in BC and got nothing but rain the entire weekend. We had a lot of first time campers and were not very successful at building a fire. So along with the rain, we had no fire. To top that off we only had 1 tarp, so in a panic to keep our tents and ourselves some what dry, we made a quick trip into town to get a 70 foot tarp. As we struggled to get this tarp up as fast as we could, climbing trees, tugging ropes and standing in puddles we finally got what we thought to be as a “Dry Sanctuary”.
Just as we got settled into a smoking “fire”, a class mate thought it would be a great idea to get the fire going by pouring some gasoline on it. Without anyone else informed of his plans, we tossed a large cup of gas right on the fire, making a huge flame rise 8 feet off the ground. Right through our brand new tarp. To say the lease, we thought it couldn’t get worst. Were we wrong. After a day of 4×4ing we decided to make our trip back to the campsite, only to be shunned by the long weekend gods. No sooner had we packed back into the truck, we got stuck, and I mean stuck. We could not move. Being as nice as could be, fellow 4×4ers stopped to help us out. No such luck. As day turned into night, and mud turned into swamp we just wanted to go home.
Finally some luck. The biggest truck I have ever seen drove out of what seemed like a glowing light. It seemed to easy as he pulled our truck to dry land. My Hero! I thanked him by offering him my first born and we made our way back to the site.
What a day. Couldn’t have been more happy to be home.
Hope you enjoy that doozie.
Cheers,
May 14th, 2009 at 10:41 amKendall
Over the years I’ve had some terrible camping trips, we’ve been rained out, cooler raided, scarred by bears & all that usual stuff. But the worst camping trip memory for me happened 3 years ago when my middle daughter was 4. For whatever reason she had decided to develope an out house phobia ( this hadn’t been a problem previous to this trip ). On the third night I put my very tired girls to bed & soon joined them myself. Around 2 AM by 4 yr old wakes me up & hands me something!! It was warm & soft & I’m only half awake & its pitch black in the tent so I can’t see it so I smell it ( in my great half awake wisdom ) & it smells really really bad!! So I finally get a light on & yes my daughter has handed me a big pile of poo!! She was obviously “backed – up ” but tired right out from her big days,she only woke up enough to catch it herself &then pass it off to mommy & went right back to sleep. She never even remember it but this is one memory mommy will never forget!!!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:43 amMy worst camping story ever is, when I first started dating my husband he convinced me a great way to get to know his parents is to go camping with them. I have camped when I was younger so I thought how bad could it be and my son was 8 so what a great thing for him, but I now realize why my parents went to an actual camp site. When we got there the first thing that had to be done is you had to get rid of the piles and piles of cow poop, the place they like to camp was in the middle of a open range for the neighboring cows. I just about fell over when they wanted me to find something that could be used to pick up poop so we could sleep in that spot, they had a trailer so I am sure they were laughing inside at my complete horror ! As we were setting up our tent it started to snow, so we had to spend the afternoon in the little trailer with my 8 year old son, my future husband and his parents ( which I am sure you can imagine is a whole other story in itself) . When the storm passed over we ventured back outside and guess what another huge pile of poop right in the middle of the campsite, that was now wet and cold so how great it was to move more poop and try to wash in the freezing water. The weekend went on like this for the next two days you would never see the cows close to the campsite but every once in a while they would leave a present for us, the running joke was it must be me because they had never done that so often before . That was the last time I agreed to go camping in that spot, we did go again the next year to another middle of nowhere spot and it snowed again but at least they was no poop.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:45 amWorst camping experience had to be the first summer after highschool (1983). All my buddies and I headed out to a lake west of Edmonton to do some shore fishing and camping for the weekend. Over the day we had a “few” brewed beverages, maybe a few too many for some (Randy). Well to make a long story short, after an eventful day of drunk shore fishing, drunk walking for some 3 miles back to the campsite (with fishing rods, tackle & the catches of the day), then at the campsite gutting the fish in the dark (where of course I seriously cut my finger, gee I wonder why that happened?) and then kicked it by a big bonfire.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:46 amWhile sitting around the fire a strange noise came from my tent, grabbing a flashlight myself and my friends headed over to my tent and what do we find? My buddy Randy getting sick all over my tent (along with both sleeping bags and all clothing in the tent. As Randy got sick he would try to scoop it up and toss it out the tent, big problem, when he crawled drunkenly into the tent he zipped up the mosquito netting, thus all that he was tossing out was just hitting the mesh.
I stood there pointing the flashlight on all the areas that he had tossed his cookies I would say to my other friends “Look at that he got sick on my sleeping bag”, “Look he got sick on my cloths”, etc, with each statement I made Randy would drunkenly answer “Did I?”, “Did I?”.
Well I spent the night in a car trying to sleep (no sleep). The next morning we just rolled up the tent, strapped it to the trunk of the car, and took it home to HOSE IT DOWN. Randy we poured into the car and got him home just in time for him to also “decorate” his parents front lawn.
That had to be my WORSE camping experience, but now it is a funny memory.
Worst Camping Trip – August – Mount Kidd in Kananaskis – it snowed. We layered the boys in clothes and put the three oldest boys ( 7,6 and 4 years ) in one double sleeping bag to stay warm in the tent, and cradled the two year old between us. Never slept a wink. Thought the baby would die of hypo-thermia. Up at 5:30 AM, for campfire heat and coffee. The two year old, who hated his car seat was in the car, in the seat chanting…”Home, home!”
We decided to go to Penticton to get some warmth. Travelling just outside Kelowna, the oldest boy started to throw up. We stopped the car on the highway and quickly got him out. MISTAKE! The lesson? When one starts throwing up, get the others out! The “starter” was finished, the others we’re just begining. Have you ever tried cleaning up a car in the middle of nowhere with just towels, no water? The boys called that car the barf mobile after that holiday.
Best Camping trip according to my wife – We packed up the car with our four boys and all the camping gear(midsize Ford) and went to party with our friends and their four boys near Regina. When we got there we decided there was no way we’d ever get all the stuff back in the trunk after we used it …so we left it all in there and had a hotel holiday in Regina.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:47 amWorst camping trip EVVVVEEERRR.
Following my uncle and his two young boys into the North Ghost campground and he blows a tire on his tent trailer. No big deal, we change it. We drive around the campground finding a spot , and have to loop around again to get back to it. He blows another tire on his tent trailer. We limp the trailer into the spot and go for a drive to call his wife to bring out a another spare.
As we are setting up, his youngest son becomes very ill. We don’t why. It is dark by now and our tent and his trailer are not set up. My husband rushes to start a fire to get the boy warm and cuts his hand with the axe chooping wood and goes into shock.
Next day: Every one has recovered from previous night ,after a trip into the city for medical attention.only to have my uncle get stung by a bee and have an allergic reaction for the first time in his life. That night my husband is breaking up a dog fight and gets biten.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:47 amAnd to add to all this fun , it is raining. Our tent is flooded and my moms tent collapses in the middle of the night..
Our theme song for the weekend became Homer Simpsons ” Born under a Bad sign “
I know this is supposed tobe about a bad experience but this one has a happy ending.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:48 amBack in 2001 my wife and I were on our way out to BC for some camping and visiting with some family. We had our tent and all our gear packed into my wife’s little focus wagon, as well as a secret my wife was not aware of.
We arrived in Revelstoke and found a campground but decided it was too much like a parking lot so we decided to move on. The bad thing was, it was starting to rain and we had to move quickly. So we continued on til we found another campground.
What my wife didn’t know was that I had an engagment ring hidden away and had all these plans to ask her to marry me. I had planned to stop at a nice rst stop I know of with a great view and do the whole one knee thing but the rain killed that for me.
Eventually we pulled into a spot on Rogers pass and started to setup in the rain. It was really comin down and I was tryin to figure out how I was going to ask her to marry me the most romantic way I could in the rain. The wife got the best camping food we could muster in the rain(beans) going and I got the beer out. We stood there in the rain eating and drinking beer.
After we were done eating, I got down on one knee in the mud and asked her to marry me. Of course she said yes and we decided to call it an early night in the rain. We woke up at about 5am totally soaked in our tent and quickly packed up and left for Kelowna.
It wasn’t what I had planned but it turned out the way I had hoped for, she said yes and we now have 3 beautiful girls and still enjoy camping in our tent trailer! Besides, the hurricane we were in on our honeymoon takes the cake for our best story!!!
Hi Mike,
May 14th, 2009 at 10:48 amOur nightmare of a camping trip happened 10 years ago. It was our last night camping, we put all the kids to bed with anticipations of pancakes for breakfast. We awoke to find all of our food gone. Someone had come into our campsite during the night and had stolen everything we had! We spent the last morning of our trip going to each and every camp site until we found the camping crashers. Unfortunately, someone else who was also a victim of these culprits found them first and beat them within an inch of their life. May this be a lesson to anyone who’s listening……….Don’t steal other people’s food!!
Worst Camping Trip: Every year my bf and I (as well as many friends) go camping at MacLean Creek as our anniversary/my bf’s bday getaway. This has been our tradition since we met 4 yrs ago on July 19th, and since his bday is July 21st we make a trip out of the occasion. Last summer my brother and his wife came with us as well as some friends met us at our destination. We arrived early Saturday morning and had a blast setting up, going out wood hunting and making some bevies. Later in the day, around 8pm a parks officer pulls up to our site. We weren’t worried bc each yr they usually come chat and tell us to be tidy and keep our fire confined, but little did we know this yr there was a new reason the officers were patrolling. The officer told us we had to leave our site and in a timely manner or we’d be fined well over a few hundred dollars. We were speechless for we had been coming to this very spot for 3 yrs and it was very memorable to us. After some attempts at persuasion to extend our evacuation until the next morning, the officer would not budge and said he’d be back in one hr and if we weren’t gone we would get the fine. Upset we started packing up everything from tents to bbq. We knew we still wanted to camp for it was our anniversary/ bf’s bday weekend. The officer gave us a map where we could camp so the guys scouted out all the areas with our truck and came back to say that the cars would not make it
Finally well after 10pm we made our way to our last resort, a designated campground just 10 min South of MacLean (I think it was called Gooseberry Campgrounds). We rolled up and were greeted by a very angry campground owner who asked us to pay 40$ per tent! We did and unpacked. Each hour the owner drove by our site and had some nasty remark to make from where our tents were pitched, to where our vehicles were parked, to what firewood we used to how big our fire could be to how loud we could be. Now we are not teens and are very respectful of our surroundings as well as pretty mellow/quiet so were getting tired of the constant warnings from the owner. Our special camping trip was turning into a disaster trip and this looked pretty bad since it was my brother’s first time camping with us. Nevertheless we stuck out the weekend and on the day we were planning to leave the campground attendant came and yelled at us that it was illegal to throw our wood into the bushes!!! OMG I had enough, we burned all our wood for the last 2 nights and had no idea what he was talking about. So frustrated we left and I felt very tense from the weekend, as well my bf’s bday was not what he planned either. This yr I hope things can be better 
Thnks for reading my lengthy disaster story haha.
Anett Meszaros
May 14th, 2009 at 10:49 amPh# 403-473-1060
fifth of June and theres no full moon and my tent is pitched on a rock.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:55 amClouds poured in and the skys opened up. I had to use the picknick table as a dock.
Was the middle of the night and the fire wouldnt light and our crys for help were heard
When Johnny showed up with an axe and some rope. Time to get to work was his word
Dry and warm is now the norm and we never cry for pity. Cumpfy cozy and the outlook is rosie
we camp in what is now known as the Blue Tarp City.
Bears like toothpaste. Grade 6 camping trip our tent was shredded because someone ignored the warnings not to leave food of any kind in your tent. Love camping hate bears.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:56 amHey Mike,
Here is my worst camping story…..
Fresh back from a trip in Mexico with my boyfriend…we decided to join some of his friends and their girlfriends for the May long weekend camping trip. Unfortunately I was still experiencing the after effects of Mexico…but was determined to meet his friends and be a good sport on this camp trip. I woke up the first night not feeling so well…and needed to visit the outhouse…however it was SO dark outiside I didn’t want to go alone (fear of bears!!!) so I asked my boyfriend to come with me. It seemed like a good idea at the time…the night was cool and quiet…too quiet and the outhouse just seemed to amplify E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I was mortified…he thought it was hilarious. The next day it was rainy and my boyfriend went off with the boys so I decided to hang out with the girls and get to know them. However all they wanted to do was read their books….and were annoyed at any attempt at conversation. SO for the rest of the day I tried to sleep and just hang out. It was a really L-O-N-G day. And in true Alberta May-long weekend style it snowed the morning we were leaving so all of our gear was drenched. Needless to say it was a few years before I attempted camping again. Now my husband and I have a great laugh about the disaster camping trip of 1997!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:57 amI was in Malaysia with my then girlfriend (now wife, can you believe it?!). We set off for a three day backpacking trip through Taman Negero National Park, one of the oldest rainforests in the world. It started off with leeches on the first day. Not the kind that live in water, but they live on land. They stand on their butts and wiggle around until the touch something (like your hiking boot) then crawl like mad until they find something to suck (like you ankle). The problem is that you can see them easily and can’t feel them bite easily. We would stop for a break, pull off our boots and socks, and then pull leeches off our ankles. By the lunch break, my socks were turning from grey to near blood red from all the bites.
That night we relaxed over a delicious meal of cold canned cream corn, cold canned beans and bread. The shop were we picked up our supplies the day before (this is Malaysia?) carried cream corn, beans, jam, bread and such. It was terrible. The cream corn was the kind that coats your throat like a bad cold. My girlfriend nearly barfed. She couldn’t eat. I got some of it down and was left with a bad belly ache.
The next day was less eventful, unless you consider your girlfriend deciding that this was a stupid hiking trip and wanting nothing more of it and leaving you in the middle of a rainforest to be something. Well, I was left truly at one of life’s forks in the road. Down the trail to the left was my girlfriend heading back to the nearest town for a hot supper, hot shower and bed. Down the trail to the right was the jungle and no hiking partner, no hot shower, no bed.
That night I found an abandon hut that had a door, but no lock. As the sun went down, memories of my childhood came flooding in. Namely, Friday the 13th and Jason crashing through my unlocked door. No one within miles to hear my gurgling cries of help. To calm my mind, I built a fire which had the side benefit of allowing me to heat my remaining can of cream corn. Mmmmm.
As I was endulging in corn, a water monitor lizard, about the same size as me, came within the light of my fire. I nearly shat myself, seeing this lizard flicking his tongue at me mere feet away. I jumped back and allowed the monster to eat my loaf of bread hoping it would take it as a peace offering and not have me for dessert. It worked.
Surviving the night I had a full days hike to get back to town. Passed bushmen hunting birds in the jungle, howler monkeys scretching at my presence, tucans, and giant deciduous trees forming a thick canopy partially protecting me from the torrential downpoar of rain. By supper, I found my girlfriend and we went out for some amazing curry, and no cream corn.
Wait, was this blog supposed to be a bad camping experience? This was one of the best!
May 14th, 2009 at 10:59 amThe worst camping trip I had was during a torrential down pour with no dry wood to start a fire, a tent that leaked and a small tarp to try and keep our sacks dry!
May 14th, 2009 at 11:02 amWent on a week long camping trip with friends (total of 5 kids between us) and one evening we heard a domestic dispute at the campsite next door. Suddenly a blood-curdling scream, we go over to find out what’s going on. Seems their young (20 something) son stabbed the father with a wiener roasting stick and grabbed a cooler full of beer and ran off. My brother and his friend were coming out of the wash room when he threw the cooler at them and took off running. After the ambulance came and took the dad away, and the police found the son and dragged him away. We spent the rest of the night helping the distraught wife and mother fold up her pop up and gave her directions to the hospital and police station as they were from Ontario. Interesting evening to say the least.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:17 am