Camping and hiking have been the most useful activities for me in honing my own awareness of preparedness and the ability to survive away from home sweet home. It's also where I "practice" using gear.

I was camping for recreation (because it was an affordable, dog-friendly vacation option) before I became mindful of the gear's applicability to preparedness or even a need for preparedness. Was about a year into camping as an adult when we were hit with a severe ice storm in the 1990s accompanied by a week of temps in the teens and rolling blackouts instituted because the entire northeast power grid was overloaded. The camping gear I already had -- especially sleeping bags, candle lanterns and campstove -- were priceless in that situation. I promptly escalated gear acquisition, with priorities shifted to also emphasize preparedness.

We've camped about 100 nights in just the past few years. Each camping trip is instructive about what is needed to maintain a desired level of comfort, what my vehicle can reasonably carry, what should be in it at all times, what can be jettisoned, what should be purchased.

Food storage and prep are a constant camping issue. Best coolers, best methods for storing food in a cooler, different ways of cooking (over the campfire, Dutch Ovens, charcoal grill, campstoves, "storm" kettles), dry food storage, meal planning.

Shelter -- tenting, sleeping in my SUV (Honda Element) and now a teardrop trailer. Different degrees of comfort (insulation) and levels of security in those arrangements (locking doors in Element and teardrop).

Camping has also caused me to experiment with different tarps and configurations of tarps for daytime shelter from rain.

Water portability and potability -- nothing like lugging water around to appreciate how heavy it is. And nothing like living off a finite supply to gauge how much you need and how to conserve (such as in washing dishes) or acquire a safe supply on the trail (purification tabs, filtering and/or boiling).

Lighting -- no street lights at camp so I have a bevy of flashlights and headlamps and have developed preferences based on their output measured in lumens, battery life and battery storage (love the e-PICO headlamp for the itty-bitty wafer batteries -- now keep one in my purse).

Clothing -- nothing like camping and hiking (or backpacking, which I don't do) to appreciate the value of layers and the extreme importance of a waterproof-windproof shell.

Hygiene -- the best thing about coming home from camping is the long, hot high-pressure shower. Campground facilities differ and so I have "bath wipes," different soaps, lots of quarters (5 minutes of hot shower for $1) and just this week a new Zodi hot water-on-demand device (30% off at Costco) which I'll be testing out soon at campground without shower facilities.

Camp tools -- axes, knives, shovels. These are much-used whenever we camp (the folding shovel is mostly used for fire-tending).

Routes out of town -- I live in the city and my commute to work has been less than a mile for the past twenty years. It's only because of camping that I have emblazoned on my brain all the routes to the mountains from where I live. It's only because of hiking that I have an extensive collection of topo maps for those areas.

Security -- my familiarity with bear spray came with hiking in bear country (see subsequent pics). I now have a few canisters and one is always within reach in my teardrop trailer as well as on the hip-belt of my backpack (and with an eye toward human predators more so than bears, with whom we've had no problems to-date).

Organization -- my camping gear is permanently-packed and ready at a moment's notice to be loaded into the car. Even a few days worth of clothes. All that would remain is to load the cooler. Dry food goods, plates and utensils are permanently packed in a "camp kitchen" container. I'm organized in this manner to make it less likely I'd forget to bring something on a camp trip. When we're getting ready to go camping, the only thing to pack is food and t-shirts (an array of jackets and clothing accessories are permanently packed in the teardrop trailer).

Ladies -- do you all do much camping or hiking?

Rebwa -- do you do camp trips on horseback? That would be a packing challenge, I should think.

I camp because its fun, relaxing and a respite from the summer heat and city congestion. Preparedness has been a side-benefit.