The furthest back I can remember going camping is when I was seven and my family went to Montana to visit relatives and see Yellowstone Park. I don’t remember a lot, but I do remember a few things from that trip.
We didn’t go on many camping trips as a family when I was growing up as it was tough to get away from the farm. However, I did get to do a lot with my friends and the Boy Scouts. I had one friend whose family owned a camper, and we would get and go to a local county park; there would be three to five of us and we would camp out for a weekend.
In the Scouts there were the week and weekend camps for this and that, but the one I remember best was a 12 day trip in the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. We would hike 10 to 12 miles to a different spot in the mountains each day to set up camp. Some days we would get a couple mules to help haul some of the supplies (mmm, dehydrated food). On one of the mornings we got up early and climbed Baldy Mountain to watch the sun rise at an elevation of 12,3445 feet. As the sun came up and you looked down on the valleys, some would be filled with fog and you could see and hear elk in the meadows below.
After high school two friends, my brother, nephew, and I went up to the Canadian boundary waters called the Quetico-Superior Country. There we canoed in about 30 miles to our campsite and spent four nights exploring and fishing. Our meals were fish that we caught with potatoes, pancakes, and other boxed foods that we hauled in. For the pancakes we picked fresh blueberries to add in. The only big wildlife we saw there was a moose that came through the camp site early one morning.
After getting married, my wife and I bought a tent and all the supplies that I didn’t have already. We went on many trips with friends and family. This continued for many years until the two additions to the family were getting too big and we were getting sick of packing everything up and sleeping on the ground. So, 12 years ago we got ourselves a pop-up camper, which we could keep 80% of the camping supplies in. It has been very nice to have the room and to sleep up off the ground. Now that we camp this way the meals have gotten a lot better and we like to try new recipes in the two Dutch ovens that we use over the fire. The best meals so far have been roasts with potatoes, carrots, and onions for dinner and for breakfast we like to make a cinnamon streusel cake.
The photos are what I send to family members to rub it in and ask them 
what they get to eat. As the kids are now off to college and one soon to graduate and get a job, it will be harder to find time when they can make the trips. We look forward to still getting them to camp with us and also to just the two of us going again. This is something that we will be doing with family and friends until we are too old to do it anymore. Mainly we camp the state parks; Minnesota has a passport system that you stamp for each park you visit. When we got the camper we got passports for the kids and us. Our goal is to get to every state park.
– Larry Knott, JETPUBS Inc.