I just did an overnight campout with my brother and father, and our kids came along. It's a 3 mile paddle-in site alongside a reservoir - very basic sites, not "car kamping" - you need a tent and water and all that, no real "facilities" at all.

In the evening a strong wind storm with rain blew through, and I was laying in the tent at 2:37 AM with my kids, listening to branches snapping and falling and the rain coming down, I was thinking, "OK, I don't like this anymore."

In the morning, we got a weather report via text message (yes, yes, I know...phones on a campsite...) that there were heavy thunderstorms coming in the afternoon and into the next evening - so we decided to cut the trip short and head back to my house before the storms came.

But as I paddled back, I began to wonder if I'd really just lost interest in camping entirely. Things I used to like to do - like collect firewood and set up a campsite and cook over fire and digging a latrine and trying not to get bugs and soot in my food and all that - they were just tedious. It just seemed like endless chores, not "getting in touch with the outdoor lifestyle"

I think what I want these days is less "camping" and more "base camp in the outdoors" - I used to mock people who hauled chuck boxes and field kitchens out into the woods, but I think that perhaps they are on to something. Maybe it's that middle ground between "solo backpacker" and "base camp" that's no fun for me.

Anyone else arrive at this point?

Yes. Small children means a much larger support infrastructure is required for my family. My bad back makes it hard for me to sleep on the ground, even with a pad. We use an air mattress and either stay in electrified campsites or use an inverter with the car running to inflate and deflate it.

I do get a great deal of decompression value out of it though; my stress seems to just melt away.

I think you're out of practice.

All those "overhead" items cost you psychic energy which drags down the experience.

With practice, the overhead chores take less time and effort and thus impinge less on the positive parts of the experience.

At least that's been my experience.

On the other hand, sometimes the best choice is to bail out when conditions are going against you. Camping thru 3 solid days of rain may be a character-builder but it's not fun.

Personally, I'm at the other end of the spectrum. I've always done the car camping thing and have only recently started getting into the backcountry stuff. One of the big benefits of backpacking in my mind is the reduction of gear needed. Its so much nicer to have a backpack full of gear to deal with than a truck full of it.

Even for the father/child trips I've started taking, I've been scaling back what I bring; using a lot of my new backpacking gear instead of my car camping stuff to keep the volume of stuff down (my kids aren't yet as enthusiastic about the idea of backpacking as I am).

But when the whole family goes out together, we still bring our large complement of gear. For example, I have a trip scheduled later in the year to an area I've never been to and I know my full-size crossover will be full to the brim and the roof basket will be full too. So I'm not looking forward to the packing & unpacking/cleanup aspects, even though it will likely be a great trip overall. My wife too is put off with the amount of gear, but reducing it is a challenge and usually comes in the form of finding a more compact solution to supply a particular functional as opposed to reducing the amount of amenities overall.

All that said, we should be doing what makes us and our families happy; this is how we are choosing to spend our leisure time and it should be enjoyable. Heck, one of these days I'm likely going to break down and get a tent trailer to keep the family happy while still enjoying the outdoors. So my advice is to try different solutions and find out what helps you enjoy your time out there the best.

As long as that's what you're doing I don't see how anyone could say what you're doing is wrong. Unless, of course, you start bringing a generator, then I might have to hate on you a little bit

I am an avid car camper who has had zero interest in backpacking. But I love day hiking. So, yes, am all about a comfortable base camp -- hot showers, bathrooms, "chuck box," java press, bulky Thermarest "Basecamp" sleeping pad....

In August, my pup and I are going car camping at my favorite park - beautiful mountain lake for boating (no power boats allowed). I have a campsite on the lakeshore which I'm sharing with friends and several other friends have booked four cabins (replete with a/c, fully-stocked kitchens and bathrooms). There's a restaurant on the lake and a camp store (with wi-fi). We'll have five inflatable canoes which the pups love to ride in.

Forty miles of hiking trails. At the end of every hike is a hot shower and a great dinner (we take turns cooking).

Am just taking a tent for this trip, instead of taking my teardrop trailer.

Heaven is waking up before sunrise and walking 20 yards to my boat to paddle around the lake before breakfast.

There are many ways to camp.

perhaps you are depressed like me. I find it difficult to get back to the spirit of camping again.

Though I wouldn't say I'm no longer into camping, my own personal definition of what "camping" is has changed as I've gotten older.

In my teens, 20's & 30's I did lots of tent camping. Thin pads were the norm.

In my 40's, with young children my family moved to use of a popup camper, though with both my son and daughter there were plenty of nights tent camping with Scouts. I did notice that I was spending much more thought on picking sleeping pads - and spending more money on them.

Once I hit my 50's I found I was really not sleeping well on the ground. In the last two years I actually found myself dreading it when I'd go with the Scouts (my son is now 17 years old, so he REALLY doesn't need me there). With the family we moved up to a travel trailer - mostly for the wife, and sometimes actually rent cabins.

Recently we bought some property in northern Wisconsin (pre-retirement) and have moved the trailer to a seasonal site near by. We still pretty much camp in a simple way there - no rolling barbecue grills and large wood porches - pretty simple living actually. For me the travel trailer is a comfortable bed and a way to not have to do the walk to the latrine in the middle of the night :-)

I still like camping, but its the sleeping on the ground that I've moved away from.

BTW, I never was one to burn fires just for the fun of it. I don't know why - it was just never something I did. Because of all my years involved with Scouts I'm actually pretty darn good at it. I don't cook over fire - for the most part, and unless someone else wants to start one I probably won't.

I am at crossroads, so to speak. Most of my adult life has been pure wilderness hiking and camping where seldom, we would stay put for more then one night. Meaning, hiking all day, setup an expedient overnight camp, next morning pack up the camp then repeat for as many days as planned.

Now I find that although I enjoy hiking, the overnight hiking / overnight camping adventure is getting old, and not just for me but also for my SO. As well, some of our friends in the same age group (<<50 yrs old) feel the same. Perhaps it is not as much as the adventure getting old...rather it is us getting older.

What I am now finding to be more enjoyable is to setup a decent and better stocked camp with also a larger tent. This setup is then used as a jumping off point for a more broader mix of day hiking, fishing, canoeing etc where you can choose any given activity or all on the same day if we want to and still return to camp to sit around the fire later at night enjoying good company and conversation and not have to worry that we need to be up at 4:00 am, packed and on the trail an hour later.

By taking this approach and now with a much bigger vehicle, we can take all the various gear with us and not worry about if we go multi-day hiking, we cannot take the canoe etc due to the previous space constraints and also time constraints. Also in my area, the option to stay in place longer opens a lot more options in terms of suitable locations and distance as we fortunate to have virtually unlimited camping anywhere whether it be at a rudimentry .gov forest recreation site that only offers a pit toilet and a fire ring or just at the end of a forest service road turnaround/turnout 60-70 miles from the nearest civilization.

That all said, I still enjoy some multi-day hikes with overnight camping, albeit in smaller quantities. Next month i have a 6-7 day solo hike and perhaps a 4-5 day solo in late September but that will be it for this year which this is the least I have done in years. For next year, I have a 12-14 day solo tentatively planned of which, in all probability, will be my last big solo in terms of duration, but who knows what the future holds...

Martin, camping is always more fun in good weather. You had your children with you and more storms coming in. I'd say you made a good decision to get out. Try again when the weather is cool and clear.

I've seen it creeping up on me as I get older!