Camping | Earl Rowe Provincial Park

Nature’s out to get us.

For the Love of Camping, Part One—An Intergenerational Tale of Transformation—Our Coleman Tent, circa 2011
Our Coleman Phoenix tent set up in Earl Rowe Provincial Park for a few days with Sarah’s family.

It’s questionable as to whether reconnecting with nature is actually good for us. There are some things that I know to be true about nature without question:

  1. Nature can kick your ass without hesitation
  2. Since nature can obliterate us in a blink, we should respect it at all times
  3. Many of us have distanced ourselves from nature so much that we try to re-establish our links from the hunter-gatherer days by going camping and staying in cottages, even though we’ve retained next to none of our ancestral skills
  4. Thus, we trod all over—and disrespect—something that can kick our asses without hesitation, and with our paltry skills we hope to survive whatever nature decides to throw at us: wildlife, harsh conditions, natural disasters…

So if trying to get in touch with nature has a very real potential to be the death of us, why do we even bother? What drives us to invest and gear and drive hours away from the homes we’ve worked on customizing and developing all to “get away from it all”?

Why Go Camping? No seriously—why?

In short, it’s one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get a short reprieve from your busy, busy life. Whereas a cottage has chores and travelling abroad is saddled with the expectation of snapping a plethora of photos and seeing every sight that your vacation destination has to offer—the only thing you actually need to do while camping is survive.

Of course, even that isn’t a simple affair anymore—to get me to agree to go camping regularly in the first place, Sarah had to kick it up a notch to “glamping”—glamorous living + camping. With a double-high queen-sized air mattress and a 19′ x 12′ tent that can allegedly fit 10 (see attached), I think we’ll be okay for the weekend. So the next time big city living is grating on your nerves and you’re going a mile a minute with no steam to keep you going—the most illogical pastime out there may be just the thing you need!

The second logo for Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad

189/365

By Casey E. Palmer

Husband. Father. Storyteller. Calling the Great White North his home, Casey Palmer the Canadian Dad spend his free time in pursuit of the greatest content possible. Thousand-word blog posts? Snapshots from life? Sketches and podcasts and more—he's more than just a dad blogger; he's working to change what's expected of the parenting creators of the world. It's about so much more than just our kids. When Casey's not creating, he's busy parenting, adventuring, trying to be a good husband and making the most of his life! Casey lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d