I picked winter because I live in CA, and it’s never truly too cold, except for some of the higher elevations. Off-season means less crowded campgrounds. But really I’m in for year-round camping.
@kuoh Wabbit season should be mostly the spring, while duck season should be in the fall during migration. (Or course, in much of the US, rabbits are considered vermin, and there’s not a season, a limit, or any requirement for a license.)
Fall is elk camp season which means lots of story telling and eating and drinking - you know - all the stuff your wife yells at you for doing. Hunting seems to just be a break to have more adventures to exaggerate back at camp. Like: “today I hiked up that big hill, yeah, the big one. Got a monster bull in my sights but he must’ve got spooked - probably by a bear or cougar - and he bolted before I had a clear shot. What’s that you say? Same exact thing happened to you? Well I’ll be. Maybe tomorrow. You done with that bottle?”
If we’re tenting, it needs to be between 50-70º overnight.
If we’re in the camper and we have heat and/or A/C, it’s all good.
P.S. I live in Michigan, so this “seasons” you speak of is a foreign concept. We have them all, but Michigan does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Many times in the same day.! enter image description here
@katbyter naw… from what I have heard… you have an extended cooler to colder months with a LOT of White stuff. Then short periods of warmer weather. It is reverse in the Southern US. By Noon you have had another “bath”
@chienfou I did, in 1981. To Houston, chosen for its cool, dry climate, lack of murderous traffic at rush hour, terrain that’s not dead flat and soggy everywhere, and friendly and helpful bilingual natives. By comparison to Miami, all of that is accurate. (Except in August, our hottest month.)
@chienfou I remain firmly convinced that Miami is the finest place in North America to be from. VERY FAR from. (People in other segments of So Fla are welcome to nominate challengers, of course.) (I first typoed those last two words as “or curse”, and almost left it that way…)
Seriously are you kidding? I find mid June murderous sleeping in my minivan in the parking garage at MDA. May was fine. ALL summer months there suck bricks temperature wise. When I am back this Dec I am presuming I might even need a light blanket or sleeping bag. Canoeing across north FL sucked bricks too temperature wise in the summer - not to mention the daily thunderstorms - not the best thing to have in an aluminum canoe on a river with swampy sides so no good place to get off the water in places. In mid winter sometimes the canoe paddles froze to the bottom of the canoes and your wet shoes froze if you didn’t sleep on them.
Actually though camping in any season from 40 to 60 below at night in NW Ontario to hotter than hell and humid in the south in the summer all have some plusses (and minuses).
Summer, I live in a hot climate area but I’m only a three to four hour drive from coast where it is typically 35 to 40 degrees cooler in the summer. So it makes for a nice break.
FALL!! When the leaves meander down and settle on the forest floor and dry out they then become nice and crispy which is a wonderful thing since they can then alert me when I hear the CRUNCH of the leaves a split-second before a MASSIVE BEAR devours me for a midnight snack!! (Whew! I’m outta breath from a long-winded sentence!!)
@IndifferentDude@Lynnerizer@mycya4me If the bear is feasting on your buddy, and you stick around to watch while he finishes up, then prolly you owe it to the rest of the gene pool to just go ahead and be that toothpick…
@IndifferentDude@Lynnerizer@mycya4me@shahnm There’s an old joke about backpackers being told to hang small bells on their gear so that the jingling would scare the bears away. When evaluating a potential campsite, if the bear scat nearby contains small bells, there are brown bears in the area, and it’s best not to camp there.
Fall is the best time, because the kids are back in school and in CA generally it’s still warm until later November. Except this past year, this has been a cold ass year.
Perhaps my attitude would change if I had one of those “Motels-On-Wheels” RVs, but I just like my creature comforts too much…shower & bathroom primarily…to get much into camping. Of course, our weather up here does play into it as well…We go from brutal Winter cold/snow to HOT AF Summers within a couple weeks, then regress back towards the lovely Winter way too soon as well…
@tohar1 My ex decided it was getting too expensive to stay in a hotel when we went to Montreal for the Formula One race, so we camped one year. He told me we were luxury camping because there was an air mattress. Hah! My idea of camping is some sort of trailer or RV. Having to steal the next campsite’s electricity and blow-dry my hair standing under a tree was bad enough, but the raccoons ate our bagels because someone didn’t put them away right and you had to pay for hot water in the plug-less bathhouse. The next year, I stayed home; I’m an indoor cat.
Love camping in general. Did a good bit in years past, esp. when the kids were younger. Haven’t gone in several years due to parental responsibilities (taking care of elderly parents!) Now that we are transitioning Mom to my sister’s maybe we can do some more of it. Especially now that I have a “new” hip! Really like fall camping esp at some of the beach parks once school starts back up. Also had some great backpacking trips on parts of the Appalachian Trail with SWMBO in the fall when we were about the only ones out.
When we family camped growing up Dad always tried to get his vacation time in the fall; summers out west were just too hot to really enjoy. We actually drove home from a tent camp at midnight once because it was still over 100 degrees (and the car had a/c so we were already hiding in it rather than the tent).
Plus fall is the most beautiful time to camp in most places we could get to.
Now I lean towards winter mainly because its less crowded. And its a lot easier to stay warm in the too-cold than get comfortable when its too hot
I grew up with a pop-up camper trailer, in which family lore says my brother was in fact conceived.
The thing was so beat-up that by our middle-school years the hydraulics were out, and setting it up involved my mom wedging a two-by-four into the structure next to the door so it wouldn’t fall on us. Fun times indeed.
(I’m a car [tent] camper now. And I picked fall. No brainer.)
@kostia dad actually went out camping with his parents in a popup. Then when we were kids he bought a new from the factory jayco pop up. I think we only went all the way out west with it a few times though. At least once was in a “convoy” with the grandparents and their much older one. CBs and everything. Giant sleaves of cassette tapes. “Wood grain” V8 station wagon that could haul it through the Rockies if you stopped to cool the brakes and have a snow ball fight in summer.
Than we were grown up and sat for 20-25 years in a garage. Than a driveway when mom was getting ready to sell cause dad was gone. She gave it to the youth pastor because they actually have kids and actually used theirs and theirs was a mess.
You know if none of my siblings wanted it. I wish my life had gone a little differently cause especially with work from home… but no kids/no wife. I don’t want it to die a slow death in my driveway. Just. Popups are cool. I remember setting it up at every campground
I think it was actually as far as he could get mom toward going out west lol. Some later trips we just went and tent camped without her.
I want to haul a canoe through the boundary waters.
Granted this plan was back when we were in our twenties, I was in shape to carry a pack and possibly portage a canoe on my own. And had a partner. And some friends who might be interested.
Been a decade. And stuff. But definitely planning for a mosquito free fall 2 week or month run.
When there’s no other option, like your house was swallowed up by a sink hole, washed away by a flood, blown away by a wind storm, burnt to a crisp by a wildfire… that sort of thing. And only if there are no hotel rooms for many miles.
@ircon96@Kidsandliz@werehatrack
I’ve been in a handful of motels/hotels where I would rather have been in a tent, truthfully. What happens when you travel with someone who’s reluctant to make arrangements beforehand and you get into a town late (by car.)
@Kyeh
Sometimes I can’t tell whether the joke flew over their head or they’re so hell bent on making a comment that they say the first stupid thing that comes to their mind
What happens when you travel with someone who’s reluctant to make arrangements beforehand and you get into a town late (by car.)
I rarely plan ahead when driving to see family. I was once driving around 1100 miles to see family (pre kid) and it was hot as hell so I decided not to sleep in my car like I usually did. Stopped at one cheap hotel (after a handful were full and/or no one answered the bell so I guess asleep at the job) and was given a room that someone was apparently using although not home at 1 in the morning as the bed was pulled back, pubic hair on the sheets, towel on the floor, clothes in the dresser… Went back to the office, demanded a refund and kept driving until I found a Pilot/Love’s type 24 hour gas station to spend the night in. Decided that was better than my other choices of way too expensive or hotels that likely were also rented by the hour (well at least the “roommates” rented by the hour from the primary hotel room occupant).
@ircon96@Kyeh@werehatrack My standards of where I am willing to check in are probably a lot lower than yours too though. I go by price - the lower the better. That can have a tendency to kick me towards 1 star motels that would be negative stars if that was an option.
@ircon96@Kidsandliz@werehatrack
Well, I’m thinking of 3 places - one in Grand Junction CO, two in French villages - where we just settled for the only place available. And they were pretty awful - one was right above the big brightly-lit sign without adequate curtains, another had a bed that sloped steeply downwards at the foot end, etc.
But that place you refused to stay is a whole other level of nastiness.
@ircon96@Kidsandliz@Kyeh Price alone is not always a reliable barometer, but a really super-low price in an area with other choices is generally a warning flag. There was a place called Executive Inn in Texarkana that was $29 for the longest time, and while the rooms didn’t have bedbugs, and didn’t stink horribly, you got no more than you paid for. (I generally would push on before I’d crash there.)
@ircon96@Kyeh@werehatrack All I am willing to pay for is a bed, shower, and A/C or heat. Beyond that I’d just as soon not pay for more if it is just one night while traveling through.
Summer!
WTF, Meh?? You’re now including the obvious alternative answer as one of the official choices??? What exactly am I supposed to post, now???
@shahnm in between…
@shahnm It appears that @hchavers disagrees with you.
@hchavers @lisagd Let me explain something to you, @lisagd: @hchavers is wrong.
Where’s the “All times of year” option?
@hchavers
/giphy madness
Spring - fall because cold sucks
I picked winter because I live in CA, and it’s never truly too cold, except for some of the higher elevations. Off-season means less crowded campgrounds. But really I’m in for year-round camping.
Which one is wabbit season and which one is duck season? More importantly, which seasoning pairs best with each?
KuoK
@kuoh I think it is Squirrel season!
@kuoh
So… is this an official name change?
@chienfou While I do identify as a kook at times, in this case it was just a late night defiant thumb and bleary eye induced transient alias.
KuoH
@kuoh .
Well said. But then again, an alias does lend a certain air of mystery…
@kuoh Wabbit season should be mostly the spring, while duck season should be in the fall during migration. (Or course, in much of the US, rabbits are considered vermin, and there’s not a season, a limit, or any requirement for a license.)
Fall is elk camp season which means lots of story telling and eating and drinking - you know - all the stuff your wife yells at you for doing. Hunting seems to just be a break to have more adventures to exaggerate back at camp. Like: “today I hiked up that big hill, yeah, the big one. Got a monster bull in my sights but he must’ve got spooked - probably by a bear or cougar - and he bolted before I had a clear shot. What’s that you say? Same exact thing happened to you? Well I’ll be. Maybe tomorrow. You done with that bottle?”
If we’re tenting, it needs to be between 50-70º overnight.
If we’re in the camper and we have heat and/or A/C, it’s all good.
P.S. I live in Michigan, so this “seasons” you speak of is a foreign concept. We have them all, but Michigan does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Many times in the same day.!
enter image description here
@katbyter
@katbyter naw… from what I have heard… you have an extended cooler to colder months with a LOT of White stuff. Then short periods of warmer weather. It is reverse in the Southern US. By Noon you have had another “bath”
@katbyter @mycya4me By comparison, Miami has two seasons; Incomprehensibly Miserable, and the occasional week in January that is relatively nice.
@werehatrack
Time to move!
@chienfou I did, in 1981. To Houston, chosen for its cool, dry climate, lack of murderous traffic at rush hour, terrain that’s not dead flat and soggy everywhere, and friendly and helpful bilingual natives. By comparison to Miami, all of that is accurate. (Except in August, our hottest month.)
@katbyter Look at this guy, surrounds himself with lakes and then is surprised when the waterslide freezes halfway down it
@werehatrack
Wow! Over 40 yrs out and you STILL hate the Miami weather… That truly says something.
@chienfou I remain firmly convinced that Miami is the finest place in North America to be from. VERY FAR from. (People in other segments of So Fla are welcome to nominate challengers, of course.) (I first typoed those last two words as “or curse”, and almost left it that way…)
@chienfou @werehatrack
Seriously are you kidding? I find mid June murderous sleeping in my minivan in the parking garage at MDA. May was fine. ALL summer months there suck bricks temperature wise. When I am back this Dec I am presuming I might even need a light blanket or sleeping bag. Canoeing across north FL sucked bricks too temperature wise in the summer - not to mention the daily thunderstorms - not the best thing to have in an aluminum canoe on a river with swampy sides so no good place to get off the water in places. In mid winter sometimes the canoe paddles froze to the bottom of the canoes and your wet shoes froze if you didn’t sleep on them.
Actually though camping in any season from 40 to 60 below at night in NW Ontario to hotter than hell and humid in the south in the summer all have some plusses (and minuses).
Summer, I live in a hot climate area but I’m only a three to four hour drive from coast where it is typically 35 to 40 degrees cooler in the summer. So it makes for a nice break.
FALL!! When the leaves
meander down and settle on the forest floor and dry out they then become nice and crispy which is a wonderful thing since they can then alert me when I hear the CRUNCH of the leaves a split-second before a MASSIVE BEAR 
devours me for a midnight snack!! 
(Whew! I’m outta breath from a long-winded sentence!!) 
/giphy hungry bear
@IndifferentDude That’s because bears are building up their fat stores before hibernating for the winter. Good luck out there.
@IndifferentDude that’s the reason you should keep yourself skinny so the Bear will “throw you back “
@IndifferentDude @mycya4me
Keep yourself skinny so the bear will “throw you back”…
Or use you for a toothpick after feasting on your buddy!
@IndifferentDude @Lynnerizer @mycya4me If the bear is feasting on your buddy, and you stick around to watch while he finishes up, then prolly you owe it to the rest of the gene pool to just go ahead and be that toothpick…
@IndifferentDude @Lynnerizer @mycya4me @shahnm There’s an old joke about backpackers being told to hang small bells on their gear so that the jingling would scare the bears away. When evaluating a potential campsite, if the bear scat nearby contains small bells, there are brown bears in the area, and it’s best not to camp there.
@werehatrack
You forgot an important part of the warning… carry pepper spray.
@IndifferentDude I think that’s your best sentence ever.
@IndifferentDude Are you ChatGPT?
@chienfou @werehatrack Huh I always heard those little bells are actually dinner bells for the bears.
@Rakaim Not that I’m aware of!
Fall is the best time, because the kids are back in school and in CA generally it’s still warm until later November. Except this past year, this has been a cold ass year.
@Fuzzalini My ex and I used to take our vacation in September for that reason, too. A lot of places are cheaper, too.
Perhaps my attitude would change if I had one of those “Motels-On-Wheels” RVs, but I just like my creature comforts too much…shower & bathroom primarily…to get much into camping. Of course, our weather up here does play into it as well…We go from brutal Winter cold/snow to HOT AF Summers within a couple weeks, then regress back towards the lovely Winter way too soon as well…
@tohar1 My ex decided it was getting too expensive to stay in a hotel when we went to Montreal for the Formula One race, so we camped one year. He told me we were luxury camping because there was an air mattress. Hah! My idea of camping is some sort of trailer or RV. Having to steal the next campsite’s electricity and blow-dry my hair standing under a tree was bad enough, but the raccoons ate our bagels because someone didn’t put them away right and you had to pay for hot water in the plug-less bathhouse. The next year, I stayed home; I’m an indoor cat.
I pee too much. Really not conducive to camping.
@lisaviolet Maybe you can camp in drought areas and help out a little?
KuoH
@kuoh Yeah, that’s an idea.
@lisaviolet Where would you be most effective, California, Hawaii, Canada or the Australian Outback?
KuoH
Winter. Every other season here is summer.
Love camping in general. Did a good bit in years past, esp. when the kids were younger. Haven’t gone in several years due to parental responsibilities (taking care of elderly parents!) Now that we are transitioning Mom to my sister’s maybe we can do some more of it. Especially now that I have a “new” hip! Really like fall camping esp at some of the beach parks once school starts back up. Also had some great backpacking trips on parts of the Appalachian Trail with SWMBO in the fall when we were about the only ones out.
I have done no real camping since 1977. I find that I do not miss it.
When we family camped growing up Dad always tried to get his vacation time in the fall; summers out west were just too hot to really enjoy. We actually drove home from a tent camp at midnight once because it was still over 100 degrees (and the car had a/c so we were already hiding in it rather than the tent).
Plus fall is the most beautiful time to camp in most places we could get to.
Now I lean towards winter mainly because its less crowded. And its a lot easier to stay warm in the too-cold than get comfortable when its too hot
I grew up with a pop-up camper trailer, in which family lore says my brother was in fact conceived.
The thing was so beat-up that by our middle-school years the hydraulics were out, and setting it up involved my mom wedging a two-by-four into the structure next to the door so it wouldn’t fall on us. Fun times indeed.
(I’m a car [tent] camper now. And I picked fall. No brainer.)
@kostia dad actually went out camping with his parents in a popup. Then when we were kids he bought a new from the factory jayco pop up. I think we only went all the way out west with it a few times though. At least once was in a “convoy” with the grandparents and their much older one. CBs and everything. Giant sleaves of cassette tapes. “Wood grain” V8 station wagon that could haul it through the Rockies if you stopped to cool the brakes and have a snow ball fight in summer.
Than we were grown up and sat for 20-25 years in a garage. Than a driveway when mom was getting ready to sell cause dad was gone. She gave it to the youth pastor because they actually have kids and actually used theirs and theirs was a mess.
You know if none of my siblings wanted it. I wish my life had gone a little differently cause especially with work from home… but no kids/no wife. I don’t want it to die a slow death in my driveway. Just. Popups are cool. I remember setting it up at every campground
I think it was actually as far as he could get mom toward going out west lol. Some later trips we just went and tent camped without her.
As kids our family camped. As a younger adult I took people camping for a living. Now I only camp for recreation/fun. All seasons.
winter, because whiskey makes a good heater and the wives won’t come
I want to haul a canoe through the boundary waters.
Granted this plan was back when we were in our twenties, I was in shape to carry a pack and possibly portage a canoe on my own. And had a partner. And some friends who might be interested.
Been a decade. And stuff. But definitely planning for a mosquito free fall 2 week or month run.
When there’s no other option, like your house was swallowed up by a sink hole, washed away by a flood, blown away by a wind storm, burnt to a crisp by a wildfire… that sort of thing. And only if there are no hotel rooms for many miles.
@ircon96 So you are like my sister who says she is roughing it in a Holiday Inn Express?
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz I think I stayed in that Holiday Inn Express once.
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @werehatrack
I’ve been in a handful of motels/hotels where I would rather have been in a tent, truthfully. What happens when you travel with someone who’s reluctant to make arrangements beforehand and you get into a town late (by car.)
@Kyeh
Sometimes I can’t tell whether the joke flew over their head or they’re so hell bent on making a comment that they say the first stupid thing that comes to their mind
@ircon96 @Kyeh @werehatrack
I rarely plan ahead when driving to see family. I was once driving around 1100 miles to see family (pre kid) and it was hot as hell so I decided not to sleep in my car like I usually did. Stopped at one cheap hotel (after a handful were full and/or no one answered the bell so I guess asleep at the job) and was given a room that someone was apparently using although not home at 1 in the morning as the bed was pulled back, pubic hair on the sheets, towel on the floor, clothes in the dresser… Went back to the office, demanded a refund and kept driving until I found a Pilot/Love’s type 24 hour gas station to spend the night in. Decided that was better than my other choices of way too expensive or hotels that likely were also rented by the hour (well at least the “roommates” rented by the hour from the primary hotel room occupant).
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @werehatrack
Wow, that’s a lot worse than the ones I was thinking of.
@ircon96 @Kyeh @werehatrack My standards of where I am willing to check in are probably a lot lower than yours too though. I go by price - the lower the better. That can have a tendency to kick me towards 1 star motels that would be negative stars if that was an option.
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @werehatrack
Well, I’m thinking of 3 places - one in Grand Junction CO, two in French villages - where we just settled for the only place available. And they were pretty awful - one was right above the big brightly-lit sign without adequate curtains, another had a bed that sloped steeply downwards at the foot end, etc.
But that place you refused to stay is a whole other level of nastiness.
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh Price alone is not always a reliable barometer, but a really super-low price in an area with other choices is generally a warning flag. There was a place called Executive Inn in Texarkana that was $29 for the longest time, and while the rooms didn’t have bedbugs, and didn’t stink horribly, you got no more than you paid for. (I generally would push on before I’d crash there.)
@ircon96 @Kyeh @werehatrack All I am willing to pay for is a bed, shower, and A/C or heat. Beyond that I’d just as soon not pay for more if it is just one night while traveling through.
@ircon96 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @werehatrack I agree, but it has to be clean and not give me the creeps as a single female traveling alone.
@ircon96 @Kyeh @lisagd @werehatrack Well yes I agree on clean and not creepy. I also, as a single female, travel alone a lot.
On an entirely different note, given the lack of connectivity implied in camping, troll season would seem an ideal choice.