4. Drinking: drinking while camping is part of the fun, but drinking accumulates SO MUCH WASTE. I got really sick carrying garbage bags of empty, leaky beer cans to garbage posts and having my trunk carpet smell like warm beer for weeks. There are a few stand-by cocktails that have come to work well. Tequila Mules are delicious, refreshing, and pretty easy to transport. You just need a bottle of tequila, some ginger beers, and a few limes. You can even keep the tequila in the freezer so that it helps cool your cooler and you don’t need ice. For cooler nights around the campfire, spiced rum and cider makes a lovely boozy treat. Just pour two parts cider one part spiced rum into your tea/coffee kettle and set it on the fire until it’s reached your desired temperature. Drinking water is also obviously of great importance – this is where the frozen water bottles come into play. By the time you run out of your Nalgene water or whatever, these will have thawed into drinkable water and your food will no longer require refrigeration. It’s basically magical

5. Non-car camping: Now if you’re trek-in camping, meaning you’re parking somewhere and hiking miles and miles to a dispersed campsite. This will greatly change your gear situation as you can only bring in what you can carry (and feasibly get out). This eliminates the cooler altogether meaning lots more dry foods. It also severely limits the amount of water you can bring in. I usually try to bring a small water purifier and procure stream water. Not everybody (nor their bowels) are down with this plan, so maybe give it a try at a drive-in camping trip before depending entirely on it.

6. Bathrooms: Drive-in camping sites almost always have a public bathroom situation whether it be showers and flush toilets or a squat latrine with some walls around it. Do some research before heading out to know which you’ll have and plan accordingly. If the former, you won’t need to bring much besides your favorite shower products and a small towel. If the latter, I try to bring some things to eliminate the need to shower: a handkerchief to tie up my hair during the day, some face wipes that can also be used to bathe body parts of interest, and some baby powder to keep your hair and body fresh. If this is your camp style, I advise putting nothing besides sunscreen and bug spray (only if very necessary) on your skin because it just gives more for dirt and dust to stick to. And please, no make-up, it’s silly and you know it. It’s silly in your everyday life, but it’s especially silly out in the darn wilderness!