10 Things I Learned from Camping for 7 Weeks

1. A week camping trip is very different then living out of your tent for 7 weeks. 

2. Even though I made sure I zipped my tent all the way at night, I would still wake up afraid that there would be a big spider in my tent.

3. When camping and doing laundry in a bucket, I realize that I can wear my clothes over and over until they smelled awful. With the work we did, our clothes were always dirty and because it’s rainy season, it was almost impossible for my clothes to dry.

4.Why shower more than I have to? The water came from the river near us and so it was cold and there was usually a line for the showers. Some days the water wasn’t reliable. We had three showers, and sometimes all the showers didn’t work at the same time. Sometimes it came to taking bucket showers, but bucket showers were not appealing to me. Call me gross but the most I showered on the mountain was 2 times a week. The longest I went without showering was 8 days.

5. The bugs love me. I got so many bites from bugs, spiders and honestly, I got bit from bugs that I’ve never seen in my life.

6. I am usually a night owl. But on the mountain, it was quite the opposite. I would go to bed by 9pm which is rare for me. Once it got dark, cold, or was raining, many of us went to bed.

7. TMI. We had 1 bathroom and at night in the rain, for me to get out of my tent and walk down to the bathroom was something I knew I wasn’t going to do. So sometimes I would pee right outside my tent (inbetween my tent and my rain fly.)

8. My mattress pad got a hole in it the beginning of June. How it popped? My bet is the rocks that were under my tent that pocked through. But for a few weeks I would sleep and wake up half way through the night laying on the ground. Yes, it was super uncomfortable so I would grab clothes to put under me to sleep on and it was a little bit better than no padding at all.

9. Snacks were my friends. Almost everyday we would eat beans, rice and tortillas and eating that all the time got old. So a granola bar was a nice change to add to my meals. Also, sweets weren’t a thing at the mountain and so when I went to the grocery store, I would buy a pack of Oreos to eat here and there.

10. It was really nice to be “off the grid”. Not really knowing what is happening other than what’s happening on the mountain. It was refreshing.