The Beginner's Guide to Car Camping

I'm Dane Brugler. I cover the NFL draft for the athletic. Our draft guide picked up the name The Beast because of the crazy amount of information that's included. I'm looking at thousands of players, putting together hundreds of scouting reports.

I've been covering this year's draft since last year's draft. There is a lot in the beast that you simply can't find anywhere else. This is the kind of in-depth, unique journalism you get from The Athletic and the New York Times. You can subscribe at nytimes.com/slash. Yeah.

Yeah, I do some backpacking and carry minimal gear in some context, but I think car camping is all about comfort. There's no reason to rough it out there. You've got a car to do all the work to carry all your stuff. Go crazy. I'm Christine Zier Closset. I'm Kyra Blackwell, and you're listening to The Wire.

It's us again in the studio. We are approaching kind of a white whale of an episode for us today. It's been a very divisive topic, camping. I am a camper. Our producer Abigail is a camper. We are on team camp. You and Rosie are on Team Hotel. Blamping, you know, at minimum. But we have decided to enter into the world of camping on this episode and talk about it. Rosie was so afraid she didn't even want to come. No She just didn't want to be here.

We are reasonable people. We know that people love camping. It's a great hobby or thing to do in your free time. It's just, you know, the barrier to entry seems a little high. Yeah. It's true. I mean, there you do have to have like a certain amount of gear and a certain amount of knowledge to to do it. But I do think it's something that a lot of people Maybe they've never done it, maybe they want to bring their family, maybe they wanna experience going out into nature in that way.

Or maybe they used to do it and it's been a while and they're trying to remember how to do it. So we are gonna talk today about car camping, getting into car camping. For people who aren't really familiar with camping lingo. Me This is basically where you drive to a campsite. You are going to bring your car and carry all your gear in your cart. It is sort of the entry point to camping. Right. If you are a backpacker, a serious, serious outdoor nerd.

This might not be the episode for you. But we are definitely gonna cover some pretty cool product recommendations in this episode that can make car camping more comfortable, make it more fun for a group, whether that's your family, whether you're going with friends. And a lot of this stuff you can find secondhand too. So it doesn't have to be such a huge investment all at once.

And we have the perfect expert to talk to us about it today, too. His name is Trey French. He's a staff rider who covers outdoor gear, and he's basically reviewed everything from ski gear to hiking poles. And he estimates that he spent over 600 nights. It's total either camping from his truck or on backpacking trips. He's like a serious camper.

Yeah, this is why I love wire cutter. We have experts who are writing our guides who are really living living the life. You know? So he's really he lives in California. He is outside all the time. He's testing gear outside, and he has a ton of experience with camping. So after the break, we're gonna catch up with Trey French to talk about the essentials for fun car camping. We'll be right back. Hey! I'm Joel. And I'm Juliette from New York Times Games.

We're out here talking to people about games. You play New York Times games? Yes, every day. Do you have a favorite? Connections. Create four groups of four. Hmm. Pretty cool game. What's your favourite game? The crossword. The crossword? I do it with my brother. We get Thursday sometimes, but I don't know, I couldn't do Thursday on my. I feel like I'm learning. I feel like I'm accomplishing something. I like Doo doo doo doo doo when you finish it.

Ha ha ha ha My family does Wordle and we have a huge group chat like my grandma does Wordle like Grandma does word on. Every day. Do you have a wordle hot take? You should start with a word that's strategically bad to make it more fun. All of these games are so fun because it's like a little five to ten minute like break. I love these games. Yeah. New York Times games subscribers get full access to all our games and features. Subscribe now at nytimes.comslash games for a special offer.

Welcome back. With us now is Trey French. He's a staff writer covering outdoor gear for Wire Cutter and the longest he's hiked without sleeping under a roof is about a month. So needless to say, he knows a ton about camping and the gear that will make it more comfortable. Trey, welcome to the show. Happy to be here. Can we officially call you a mountain man if you sleep out in the woods for a month at a time and and don't go into civilization? Humbly accept. Okay, great. Ha ha ha.

But you spend a lot of time testing gear for wire cutter out in the mountains in California, all over the place. You write a lot of our outdoor gear guides. So you have a lot of experience, not just in your personal life. but also in terms of reviewing products for people to buy. Absolutely. Hiking, skiing, cycling. Yeah, I'm I spend a lot of time outdoors.

Living the dream. Living the dream. Okay, so we are going to pepper you with all sorts of questions around camping, but I hear that you brought a quiz to us today to test Kyra and me on our Camping knowledge. I think I'm gonna do really well on this, Kyra. This is a setup. This is totally a setup. Uh okay, Trey, so you've got a quiz for us, right?

I have a few questions for you. All right. Great. So according to Smokey the Bear, who's managed by the US Forest Service, what are the four steps of extinguishing a campfire? Oh the four steps. Uh you're not gonna give me an A, B, and C here? I would come up with it. That long form. Okay. Stomp it out. out maybe like um separate the fire like so that if there's like burning logs still kind of separate them okay um Water over. Or uh Okay, tell us. You you gotta just reveal.

Yeah, so you're on you're totally on the right track. It's drown with water. Stir with a stick. Drown again and feel. Ooh. And then you do this as many times as you need to until there's no heat and no smoke coming from the campfire. Okay. So drown, stir, drown, fur. And then the repeat is necessary. Repeat wash and wear. Okay. That's uh that's good. I'm gonna remember that one and I'm gonna take it to my next camping trip. All right.

So according to the National Park Visitation Report for twenty twenty five, what was the most visited national park in the United States? Yosemite. That's what I thought, but it's the great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. It's in eastern Tennessee. Apparently it's within a day's drive of more than half of the US population. Wow. Okay. Pretty cool. All right, last question. Can you define what cowboy camping is? Uh when you bring cool boots. Ha ha ha ha.

When you cook beans over the fire in some kind of like cowboy esque cast iron skillet or something like that. And you're starting it with a stick. Yeah. These are much better answers. Uh but it's sleeping without a shelter out in the open. Oh so duh. Yeah. Yeah. It's an acquired taste. Ha ha ha ha. Huh. Do you like to cowboy camp? Absolutely. If I don't think it's gonna rain I typically will not put up a shelter.

When we started talking about this episode in car camping, I was like, Oh, cool. Like you sleep in your car. You get to have a locked door, that's cool. But that's not actually what car camping is, right, Trey? Like what is it and why do a lot of people start there? Sure. Well, sipping in your car could be car camping technically, but it can be quite difficult for most of us to

make our car work for us to sleep in comfortably. And so I think for most of us, sleeping in the tent is the way to go. Compared to like backpacking and other forms of camping, it just requires the fewest expenses. It doesn't require any technical gear. or really any technical skills to get started. There's also facilities like bathrooms and showers available so you don't have to rough it uh in that way.

I think having other people around and having these uh facilities that are a little bit closer to sitting at home make it just less scary. And if it is scary, you can just leave. Your car's right there. Ha ha ha. I think it is also the most conducive camping method for glamping. So where you can kind of make it a little fancier and more comfortable and bring some of the creature comforts from home. So you can bring like your favorite pillow, pack it in the car. Yes.

Absolutely. Like Trey, you would probably be horrified by my camping setup. It's so Yeah. I think you would be surprised. Yeah, I do some backpacking and carry minimal gear in some context, but I think car camping is all about comfort. There's no reason to rough it out there. You've got a car to do all the work to carry all your stuff. Go crazy.

We're gonna do the wire cutter part of this now, which is really get into the gear. There are so many things you could buy to go camping, but you probably if you're just getting into camping or you're just getting back into camping, you're not gonna go out and spend all of that money, right? So Trey, if there were just a limited number of the types of things you should invest in to have a pleasant camping trip, what are those areas that you would recommend focusing on?

Yeah, there could potentially be lots of gear, but there really doesn't need to be. And I think a way to start is to consider sleep. That's a big one. Staying dry, your tent, maybe some rain gear. And making sure you bring some good, tasty food. This shouldn't be MREs and uh catmills. Bring some good stuff. M R E's is like army food, you know, like like imperishable. Am on. Easy. Yeah. This is for me I think why I like car camping is you can you can go kinda big on the food. Yeah.

Well, let's take each of these one by one then. And of course I wanna start with sleep because that's my beat and it's my bread and butter. Tell us how people can get better sleep when they're outside in a tent.

I think number one is a good sleeping pad. Invest in what separates you from the ground. A lot of people they go camping once and then they don't go back because they sleep so poorly. And when you sleep poorly and it's something new and you're outside and you don't have all the conveniences, it kinda suck. It just it just does. And uh I think if you can really focus on getting a good night's sleep, the experience is just so much better.

When looking at sleeping pads in the market, I like to look for at least three inches tall, whether that's an inflatable pad or a foam pad. Um, and at least 25 inches wide. A lot of camping pads out there, you could just slide right off of them because they're too narrow, just not great.

You'll see inflatable, foam, and hybrid. Hybrid just being combination of foam and inflatable. Hybrid is probably a good middle ground because it balances packability and comfort. So you don't have a huge foam mattress taking up half of your car. We recommend the Thermorest Luxury Map Sleeping P. It's about 200 bucks, so not cheap. It's a hybrid style self-inflating. So when you unroll it, it kind of a

pulls a bit of air in to do most of the work for you. So all you have to do is open the valve and blow just a little bit of air in there to kind of fine tune it to your liking of softness and firmness. And for couples, we recommend the XBit Mega Mat Duo. I have only lay on this one in an REI in their slipping pad test area, and it's pretty comfortable.

I have four of them. You have four? I have four of them. How much do these cost you? They are very expensive. Uh but I'm not made of money. So I waited until an REI sale. I bought them Uh, I think they were like twenty to thirty percent off during an REI sale. And I will say they have really been the difference between us camping and not camping. I think like

I don't think you have to get these ones to make the difference, but they are so comfortable. If you're really wanting to go big, that's that's where I would put the money. I mean sleep seems like it's the most important thing in life, so might be worth it. I will also say in this category for people who just go every once in a while, like it's just a once in a while thing.

I think of plenty of people use inflatable mattresses and they're totally fine to get by for a a night or two here and there. But I do think overall in my experience they are just Far, far less comfortable than designated sleeping mats that have a little foam in them. What do you think are some other options that people might want to consider in this category?

Definitely don't roll out using a cot to supplement your sleeping pad. I think even if it's just for psychological reasons, not sleeping on the ground, it can be great to be elevated. Just know that it's out there and it can really improve uh your sleep experience. Another thing to consider is your sleeping bag. Uh you gotta have something to keep you warm.

I like to sleep when it's warm outside and it's not frigid, for it to be above freezing. But regardless, if it's below sixty degrees or so, you're gonna need some sort of uh bag to keep you warm. And I think one thing people try to do is get a huge sleeping bag, which may not necessarily be a good thing. It's great to have more room, but you've got to think that the way these bags work

is they're not producing heat, you are. And whatever the insulation in the bag is, it's retaining the heat. So the more space that you have, the more that you have to heat up. So Be reasonable uh when you're selecting a size. I find that using the manufacturer's sizing guide is usually pretty spot on. They're going to incorporate a little bit of space so that you can toss and turn at night, but not being so big that it becomes thermally inefficient.

I personally think this is an area where you can get by if you already have sleeping bags and you're not sleeping in a super cold environment. But I don't go camping like in freezing temperatures, which I don't think most beginner campers would anyways. But Trey, if somebody is going to go out, they don't have sleeping bags or they want to get better ones, how much do you need to spend on this? What do you think?

I agree that this is not something that you necessarily need to spend a bunch of money on right away, especially if you're camping in warm temperatures. It might be so warm that you don't even need a sleeping bag. Like a couple of blankets could get you by, but I think for a sort of an insurance policy of there being a potential cold snap, having a sleeping bag ready is definitely a good idea. But I think 150 to 200 bucks for a summer trip is going to take care of you, potentially even less.

We recommend the REI Co op Siesta hooded twenty. It's got a like a smaller hood. I don't think you n need to necessarily use the hood. It's s more square than uh mommy, so it's a a little less claustrophobic for some people and maybe feels a little bit more like you're betting at home. This is the only other thing to pay attention to is uh the comfort rating. A lot of bags will say that they're twenty, but they're actually comfort rated for thirty. What does that mean exactly?

Is that the temperature that they're rated for? Yeah, so a sitting bag may be advertised to be good down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually what that means is you would survive at 20 degrees. So great. We're not talking about having fun. We're talking about not dying. So don't plan to go camping at twenty degrees if you have a twenty degree back because you're gonna have a bad time. Yeah.

Also, these temperature ratings are usually assuming that you're wearing a set of base layers. So a top, bottom, and a pair of socks. Wear socks, can't think. I don't care if you sleep without socks at home. Can't this is a taboo top. I have to sleep with socks every night or I can't go to sleep, even in the summer. I get claustrophobic even thinking about it. Yeah.

I like merino wool socks for camping. You can just wear your regular cotton clothes camping, not a big deal. But when it comes to socks, bring some good socks. All right, let's get to the shelter part. Staying dry. Uh, you know, I've been on a lot of rainy camping trips. What should people be focused on in in this category of staying dry?

Yeah, well you're gonna be spending a lot of time overall on the trip inside your tent at night hanging out. If it does rain or if it is really windy, it's really awesome to have a good tent. You'll see often in product reviews that the tent flies which is kind of a rain cover for your tent. It'll have vestibules on each side for like gear storage outside of the tent. And oftentimes these are angled, the fabric is angled too far horizontally, too far out and not down enough.

And so what happens is if it's a windy and rainy night, wind can blow that rain in. This is usually called out in product reviews. But so you want a rain fly that's big enough. Having a couple of doors at least in the tent is nice so you're not crawling over your tent mates.

If you just have one entry and exit, anyone that has to get up to go to the bathroom in the little night is gonna wake everyone else up because there's no way around sort of crawling over your buddies. I think the biggest one maybe is Buy a tent size for at least one additional person, then we'll be sleeping in it. So if you have three people sleeping in a tent or expected to buy a four person.

They give these ratings to give you an idea of what you could technically stuff into a tent, um, but you're all gonna be shoulder to shoulder and there's not gonna be any room for movement or your gear size up here. How much would you expect to spend on a really nice tent? Two fifty to three fifty, maybe four is what you're gonna see for a tent that you can count on.

And that'll last a long time, right, Trey? I mean, I've had my tent for over a decade and it's great in great shape. Yeah. What about a rain jacket? Do you need to have like a really good rain jacket to go camping, or can you get by with something less expensive?

Yeah, don't go crazy here. If you go on an outdoor website like REI, you're gonna see a lot of really expensive techie rain jackets and they're great. But a lot of the expense from a quote, good rain jacket comes from the breathability and waterproofing.

You really don't need the breathability for car camping unless you're going on really intensive hikes or something like that. But probably just use whatever you have and bring an umbrella and you're probably gonna be okay. If you don't have any rain jacket, you can even get by with a poncho.

If you're trying to cook with them and do a lot of tasks, they're not the best. But if you just need to stay dry as you're walking to and from your tent, they're gonna absolutely do the job. So don't go crazy with a rain jacket. Yeah, camping sounds fun when it's really perfect weather and you have a nice gear and stuff, but when you're setting up in the rain and you're slogging through it

Well, maybe that's a good that's a good point. Like Trey, what is the cutoff? When when should you just call it quits call it quits and go home? Yeah, if I'm looking at the forecast and it's a twenty percent chance to rain, I'm going. But if it looks like it's gonna be dumping every day

Just call the trip off. I love bailing on trips if the weather is not up to my liking. No shame. Yeah, I don't mean to paint the picture of that it's gonna be a lot of suffering because most likely it's gonna be great. Yeah. I'm just trying to prepare you just in case something happens to have a couple of pieces of gear and things to consider. But yeah, I ninety percent of the trips that I've been on have been exceptional weather and a lot of fun.

So let me just recap what I've learned so far. If you're thinking about becoming a camping person, car camping is probably the right start for you. It's accessible, it's pretty affordable, and I would say I've learned that you also need to focus more on your sleeping mat and your tent and not worry so much about the sleeping bag.

Because if you have a nice mat and a nice tent, then you will be comfortable when you're asleep and if it does rain for a little bit your tent will keep you nice and warm and dry. Exactly. Kyra, you're learning. You're all almost there. Oh theoretical. Okay, so we're gonna take a quick break and then Trey, we're coming back to talk about one of my favorite things, which is what to eat on your camping trip. And we're also gonna get some staff recs on the best camping upgrades to invest in.

Welcome back. We're here with Trey French, one of Wirecutter's outdoor writers, talking about what to invest in if you want to get into car camping. So before we get into the camp cooking aspect, we actually have some voice memos from other wire cutter staffers who camp who have some of their favorite tips to make camping really fun. Do you wanna hear? Let's do it. Hi, this is Kaylee Thompson. I'm a senior editor at Wirecutter covering Baby and Kid.

And one item that I loved to bring on camping trips with my kids is a little bug catcher called the Carson Bug View. It's just a little green plastic device. It costs about twelve dollars. and it'll lets you slide a little platform underneath the bug. Use a magnifying glass to get a closer look. And this is a really fun thing for just exploring nature, but also for removing daddy long legs, spider legs. Yeah.

Beetles, all kinds of cool little critters that you might find inside your tent. That's it. Thanks. Hey, I'm Claire Wilcox. I cover outdoors and travel here at Wirecutter. And one of my favorite items that has really transformed my own camping experience is a camping quilt.

Instead of a sleeping bag, I use a camping quilt, which looks a lot like a sleeping bag, but it just doesn't have a hood, it doesn't have zippers, and it doesn't wrap around your whole body. It's more like A duvet with a footbox. As a stomach sleeper I always struggled a little bit to get a good night's sleep in a sleeping bag. And when I started camping a lot with my partner, we wanted like a cozy and comfortable option for sleeping together that wasn't

A double bag. So we ended up getting a double quilt and it was kind of a mini revelation. It feels just like sleeping under a duvet. And you can move around a lot more and, you know, stick a leg out or, you know, adjust for temperature as needed. And it also just makes cozy up with somebody else a lot easier.

Hi, this is Abigail Keel. I'm the producer of the Wire Cutter Show. Normally I'm behind the scenes, but I had to call in with my favorite camping tip for this episode. I love camping because you get to sleep outside, see the stars, feel the breeze. But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate. And that's why your tent has a rain fly to keep you protected from all of those elements.

But when you have the fly on you don't get the stars and you don't get the breeze and all of that. So what I like to do to kind of mitigate the risk. is I secure my rainfly on the outside of my tent, but only on two corners. And then I roll the rainfly up and leave it just sitting there next to the tent overnight. That way I get to see the stars, enjoy the breeze. Whatever. But if in the middle of the night the wind picks up or rain starts to fall, then I just dart out of my tent

take that fly, whip it over the whole top of the tent and secure the other two corners and dive back in the tent. And that way you kind of get the best of both worlds. A little protection if you need it, but enjoying the great outdoors if you don't. I'm Kyle Fitzgerald, a writer on the outdoors and travel team, and one very simple and easy to get item that I always bring car camping is a tablecloth.

I personally have a thick cotton tablecloth. I prefer those over the vinyl ones just because I like the feel of a softer fabric and I can toss it in the washer when I get home. And the tablecloth for me does two basic things. Covers up all the gross crusties on the picnic table, you know, makes you forget that a million people have been there before you.

And two, it just really classes up the joint. So when I get my kitchen stuff out, that's like the first thing I do is throw a tablecloth on the picnic table and it starts to make the whole place. feel a little bit homier. Hi, this is Rachel Hearn. I'm on the baby and kid team at Wirecutter. And I feel that there's nothing worse than not being able to light your campfire. So I always bring lightning nugget fire starters, which I get at REI.

And you can use twigs and pine needles, but depending on where you're camping, you won't always have access to those. They might be wet. You may not want to spend the time finding them. then. So yeah, each of these little semicircles burn for fifteen minutes. Which gives you enough time to slowly add smaller pieces of wood and then larger pieces of wood. And apparently they work in the rain, but I can't attest to that. If I ever see rain on the radar, usually I just cancel my trip.

Hello, I'm Anne-Marie Conti. I'm Deputy Editor at Wirecutter, and my best camping tip. for new and experienced campers alike, is to find a gearhead and befriend them and borrow their stuff. It's a really great way to try out stuff that is new to you. Get something that you may only use once or twice a year. You don't have to buy something and keep it in storage. You can just Borrow it from your friend. I used to be a light gear backpacking minimalist, and I am now a car camping maximalist.

So you don't have to have all your own gear. Trey, what do you think about our fellow wire cutters tip? Well I work among so many pros. I really like the the tablecloth recommendation. So cute. I always forget a tablecloth when I go camping and I always see people with a tablecloth and I know they really have it together. I feel like if you wanna just signal that you have it together, get a tablecloth. been here before.

I do have one that I wanted to share. Every year I try to get something kind of fun and the thing I got last year. was some LED string lights. They are battery operated. So I hang them inside my tent. It's lovely and it provides kind of like these fairy lights that are that are sort of magical. And then plus I also send them to overnight camp with my kids so they can put some flare inside of their dorm where there's like The cool door. Yeah, they have the cool dorm.

Let's get into this last category, food. This is where I focus on when I'm camping. It's kind of entertainment when you're when you're camping. It's the event for a lot of people when they're car camping. You do strike me as a minimalist based on the fact that you have done so much backpacking and that you have done a lot of camping in your truck. Uh, but maybe I'm wrong. What do you how do you, how do you approach cooking on camping trips? Uh the minimalist is a fair assessment in

some regard. But when it comes to food and car camping, I think it's great to go big, especially if you're willing to put in the time and effort. Good food can really help everyone reset if someone's just not feeling well or didn't sleep well or isn't having the best time, I think that everyone loves good food. For me, I only get the stove out for dinner. I think it's easy to eat well and keep breakfast and lunch pretty simple.

This is a category when we're talking about what you're gonna buy. I feel like there's a lot of things that you don't need to buy. You could probably take a lot of things from home. What are the things though that you do think are worth investing in specifically for camping? I think you'll need a camp stove. Uh this is something that most of us won't have in advance. This is a good thing to borrow, but if you do need to buy one, there is the classic Holman stove. This has been the standard for

a long time. I saw that it has crept over a hundred dollars, unfortunately, recently. I think when I bought my last one about five years ago, it was around fifty. Uh so it will function like a grill that you might have. at home, just in a smaller version. So in addition to the camp stove, you will need some source of propane fuel.

Okay, so get a decent camp stove. To your point, these have gotten really expensive over the last few years. I've noticed this as well, but you don't need to go super fancy on this. Like you could get the basic, classic Coleman stove and you'd be okay. Absolutely. I think the biggest thing you get when you spend more is a little bit more control of the flame, but uh something like the classic Coleman is totally sufficient for for camp cooking.

Are there any other things that you think you need to specifically buy for camping? And then what are the things that you could just bring from home?

Maybe some just non-breakable plates and bowls. Uh, you don't have to go crazy here. I use enameled steel. I would not. spend on the fancy kitchen cook sets. There are tons of those out there and they're so expensive and it's great that they're light and they nest well and they save space. But I would put this at the bottom of your list as a priority um for camping. Because you can just bring stuff from your kitchen.

Right? Absolutely. This is the uh probably the best place to repurpose things that you already own for camping. Um, I usually will bring a cass iron pan and a larger pot uh for boiling water. How do you like to make coffee? I use the Aero Press. Uh it's small and uh I think it produces a pretty good tasting coffee.

Um, but sometimes if I'm camping um in anticipation of an early morning hike, I might go for instant just to save some time. And there are some great instant coffees out there these days. I've got Instant coffee right now from a company called Tree Line Coffee. Um it's really good, but there are um a lot of other amazing ones available.

My god, that does remind me. I just actually tasted a bunch of instant coffees with our colleagues over on the YouTube series Wirecutter Taste Test. So y'all have to go check it out when it drops tomorrow. I feel like a good number of those instant coffees would actually be kind of perfect for a camping trip. Plus, we have a great review of instant coffee and we will add that to the show notes.

So Trey, I assume that there is a water fountain at the campsite, but is there like a larger water fountain for people filling their coffee pots and stuff? So there usually is a spigot and it might be next to a dishwashing station, but that does bring up a great point that you need a way to store some water and We recommend the Reliance four gallon aquainer. It's about 20 bucks.

So nothing crazy here. But if you're not ready to spend on our water jug, you can definitely get by with just a couple of one gallon jugs that you might find at a gas station on the way because you forgot your water. And you can then refill them at the water station at the campground. But I think four to five gallons is a good capacity. It's not so much that it's cumbersome and heavy to carry from your car to the camp table, but it will last you, you know.

most of a day without having to make too many trips to the spigot to refill. Are there any other little tips or tricks that you have for setting up your camp kitchen to make it really functional? Using a tablecloth like uh Kyle mentioned, um, these are great just to create a good clean foundation. And I use a couple of one dollar spring clamps just to secure it from the wind.

Just have a a bin full of all your, you know, spatulas and serving wear and things and just get organized right away as soon as you're setting up your camp. And I would say one thing that people don't think about is The clothes that they're wearing when they're cooking. If you're cooking with something greasy and there's a little bit of wind, uh you can end up with some grease on your clothing.

So I think an apron is a good idea to have on hand or just have a dedicated old jacket or shirt that you're gonna wear. On a recent camping trip, my partner just gotten a new down jacket and uh just wasn't thinking about it and ended up with a lot of uh grease speckles Bummer. Yeah. Well, before we wrap, Trey, we ask all of our guests one final question. What's the last thing you bought that you really loved? I'm a skier and there is a joke about how many skis is too many skis.

I added another pair this year and I think they were so worth it. We have not had the best year of snow where I live. There hasn't been a lot. And so what that means is the snow has been firm and icy. And in my mind I didn't have the right skis for firm and I see and I bought'em and I love'em and I have no regrets. What are they? They are made by Blizzard. They're called the Blizzard Anomaly eighty eight.

Uh so a little bit narrower and a little bit more stiff than the other skis that I have and this makes them a little bit more appropriate. Oh how many pairs of skis do you have now? I've got four. Okay, I don't think that's too bad. Crazy. Well thank you so much, Stray, for being here with us today. I had so much fun. Thanks for having me. Okay, Kyra, uh are you going to go camping this year? Are you gonna try it? Probably not.

Actually, I think I could be convinced Christine if you bring everything. I just have to I will think on it. I'm already like preparing camping for my children, which is enough for me. You have a third child with you. And I'll be there. Well, as a non camper, what did you take away from this episode? I definitely learned what car camping is first and foremost, and that it's

pretty much the simplest, easiest, most affordable way to really connect with nature, which seems really cool. I like that aspect of, you know, you're not on your phone, you're cooking and you're just like hanging out with your friends and family. That seems really lovely. And you don't need a lot of stuff. You can just bring stuff from home'cause you're packing it in your car.

I will tell you that I have a bunch of really great camping gear and I got most of it off of Craigslist. And most of it came from one person who really wanted to start camping with their family. And they went out to REI and bought a whole bunch of stuff. And they went camping twice and the spouse didn't love it and they ended up needing to sell it. So

There are two takeaways here from that, which is you could get some of this stuff used if you want to. And second of all, maybe don't go hard. Right. Just just try to borrow some stuff. You know. Like, yeah. Just like if you're really curious about getting into it or

You haven't done it for a while and you wanna get back into it. I would say Go once. Like beg, borrow, don't steal. Big borrow some gear, try it out, and then decide what you want to invest in. From there. Focus on a tent, a pad, a sleeping pad. Yes, I would say the pad is the most important thing for people. Yeah. And then like something to cook on. Yeah. And get that tablecloth'cause you don't want to look like, you know never been there before.

Right. You want to look like an expert. So it's like signaling to the rest of the people. Well if you Are you curious about anything we talked about in this episode? Definitely check out our show notes. We've got links to all of the gear we recommend in this episode, a lot of links to guides that we have to different camping gear. Don't be afraid, just just get in there and check it out. We will be back next week. Thanks for listening.

The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddie Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Rowan Nimisto, Katherine Anderson, and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wirecutter's Deputy Publisher and General Manager. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Christine Sear Clissette. I'm Kyra Blackwell Thanks for listening.

Every once in a while if the wind is blowing the right way. You've really sold this for Chiron. I said a lot. Don't want to hear right now. I hold it. Yeah.