Need help planning camping trip.

[TUDF]

My friends and I are planning a 7.5 day, 7 night camping trip in northern Maine. 10 people are going and we need to plan how much food, water, supplies we will need for the entire week. Any ideas, tips and tricks are more than welcome. We will be going early summer time just to give a general idea. This will not be in a traditional campground, it will be a tenting trip in the middle of the woods near water. Any advice is appreciated! Thank you.

[noelectricplease]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

Lotsa bug stuff.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

Well I'm gonna assume the 10 of youse will have at least 2 cars to get to a starting point. That will be useful in bringing supplies up. I'd plan my meals out well in advance using a menu chart. cook stuff like rice and pasta in advance and freeze it in meal sized portions; heating it up uses less fuel than cooking onsite. I also like to cook certain proteins in advance like say meat spaghetti sauce. Pre marinating meats is also useful since you carry less seasoning w/you. choose your cooking fuel and stick to it..it can be wood, propane,charcoal or white gas. For charcoal I'd take 2 bags of good quality lump; it lasts longer than the cheaper stuff. Propane prolly one 5 lb container will do. . Off the top of my head I'd guesstimate you'll need at least four 48-54 qt. coolers for the time frame and people stated. As for water.......you'll need at least 2 qts of drinking water per person per day. Assuming you can use the nearby body of water for cleaning body and pots/pans, etc. altho you may need a filtration system.

More details will get you better responses.

[Mike]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

If one or two people take on the task of organizing the trip, usually, the other people will leave everything up to them and spend most of their energy complaining about the food or what the organizers failed to do. Organizing camping trips for big groups is a thankless job and a lot of work.

I suggest you make each camper be self-sufficient. They bring their own food, gear, etc. Give them a suggested packing list, if you like.

The one shared ittem would be a good first-aid kit. Everybody can have their own pocket sized pack of band-aids if they like, but for a group of ten, there should be one complete kit. You can spruce it up by adding anti-itch cream, antacid tablets, aloe vera (for sun-burn). These are common needs, but often left out of first-aid kits.

You can suggest a pot-luck to share some of the nights. If you are backpacking, then there is an efficiency in groups of four. Backpacking tents, stoves, and cooking pots are designed for groups of four. So, if you are going backpacking, you might think about going in groups of four and let those groups do their own thing. If you are car camping, then there is no need for group efficiency except maybe a giant tarp for all to share

Often, for adults and couples, the group share thing does not work well. People need their own tents and their own special foods and some finicky folks will only drink THEIR favorite brand of coffee made THEIR special way.

Good luck. Let us know how the trip turns out.

[James.]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

I am finding it hard to believe that this thread got by EVERYONE and didn't get a reply for a month. Obviously it was the OP's first post and had to be approved but is something going wrong where this stuff isn't being posted for this long? Mods?

[kcscout]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

I would suggest the meal plan as well and make sure you plan for 1-2 days extra worth of food. e.g. maybe some people eat more than you expect and you don't want to be part way through the camp out and out of food. Have options ... so you can pick/ choose options for meals. Maybe each couple should be responsible for 1 day of cooking / supplying food. Just a thought. Make sure you have plenty of storage for food and ways to keep it safe from animals and stored at a good temp. Also papertowels, aluminum foil, food containers, etc. Then of course all of the eating utensils / flatware. If you are driving distance from a convenience store, then maybe someone can run out for missed items too, but those are always more expensive when gotten that way.

[James.]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

If one or two people take on the task of organizing the trip, usually, the other people will leave everything up to them and spend most of their energy complaining about the food or what the organizers failed to do. Organizing camping trips for big groups is a thankless job and a lot of work.

I suggest you make each camper be self-sufficient. They bring their own food, gear, etc. Give them a suggested packing list, if you like.

The one shared ittem would be a good first-aid kit. Everybody can have their own pocket sized pack of band-aids if they like, but for a group of ten, there should be one complete kit. You can spruce it up by adding anti-itch cream, antacid tablets, aloe vera (for sun-burn). These are common needs, but often left out of first-aid kits.

You can suggest a pot-luck to share some of the nights. If you are backpacking, then there is an efficiency in groups of four. Backpacking tents, stoves, and cooking pots are designed for groups of four. So, if you are going backpacking, you might think about going in groups of four and let those groups do their own thing. If you are car camping, then there is no need for group efficiency except maybe a giant tarp for all to share

Often, for adults and couples, the group share thing does not work well. People need their own tents and their own special foods and some finicky folks will only drink THEIR favorite brand of coffee made THEIR special way.

Good luck. Let us know how the trip turns out.

Plus 10 are planning to go but only 6-7 will actually go.

[Mike]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

Plus 10 are planning to go but only 6-7 will actually go.

Ha ha. So true! Actually, if 60% showed up, that would be a phenomenal turnout. My experience is that ten say they will go. Two or three will actually show up

[James.]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

Ha ha. So true! Actually, if 60% showed up, that would be a phenomenal turnout. My experience is that ten say they will go. Two or three will actually show up

I was going to say 3 but I am an optimist

[MWcamper]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

I am finding it hard to believe that this thread got by EVERYONE and didn't get a reply for a month. Obviously it was the OP's first post and had to be approved but is something going wrong where this stuff isn't being posted for this long? Mods?

I doubt this will post any time soon, but I too joined up, have made attempts to respond to several posts, including my own, to no avail. It's becoming increasingly annoying to not be able to contribute in any way to this forum. It's been several days (maybe weeks) since my first 2 posts were put up and nothing since.

[Shortpants]

Re: Need help planning camping trip.

I planned a camping trip last summer for 20+ adults, plus kids. It was nuts. LOL! Luckily we had the spot, and one of our group offered to supply all the meat for the meals, so that made it easier to plan the meals around what meat we had. We made a meal plan, then assigned certain meals and ingredients to folks/couples in the group, so everyone was responsible for a meal or two. Everyone was also responsible for supplying their own drinks and snacks. It ended up working out pretty well.