Camping.. Really Roughing It.
 

Have you ever gone camping for real?
My definition of camping is going into the middle of knowere in the woods past the point where you have to get out and walk cause there are no roads.
Go out and come back in a week. Carry enough food to survive.
Enjoy the freash air and enjoy nature's beauty.

You pack a backpack with:
-tent
-sleeping bag
-water jug
-hatchet or machete
-Ax
-Knife
-Matches or zippo
-aluminum pot with compact grill (grate type piece of metal.
-Soup, coffee, beef jerky
-Novels

I know I left out a bunch of stuff. The objective is to go camping sans the fucking laptop, battery operated TV, BBQ, DVD player, 12v fridge, blowup mattress, rented camp site located almost in town.

I mean a camping trip with some chest hair compaired to the electronic comfort camping nowadays.

I didn't have a house for three years. Does this count?

Usually, it's 2 pairs of socks and undies, a hammock, a sleeping bag, a tarp, flint and matches, a camel pack for water, a knife and some granola.

Well I'm going camping alone in early September but it will be on a designated site. On a working farm in fact. And there will be about 600 other people there since it's a pagan camp. We're having a Wicker man and a fire labyrinth! :D

I've bought a teepee ( modern sort obviously ) but I need a huge hikers rucksack to carry all my stuff in.

Although since Kontan has just done the Appalachian trail, I reckon he'll probably know more about the sort of camping you're on about.

I was brought up camping and nearly died at the age of 6 months rolling through the forest and into a small creek.

Here we call camping with a tarp *going hutche* but it still can sure be fun.

Then again, I have an affinity towards the type of camping where the only electronic device you take is a small portable radio when you go camping with a few good friends and take along a few bottles of Whiskey/Vodka.

But yeah, I definitely like the outdoors, going camping/trekking and separating yourself from the constant change of the modern world when all you can take in is what your eyes drink in and what your hands touch.

My family used to camp a lot when I was younger. We didn't 'rough' it up, but we certainly went to the forest with virtually no commodities save the tent and food. We did go and buy firewood from the designated camps sites, though.
I remember once my best friend, my sister, and I got lost in the forest quite deep, but we managed to get back to the family by learning how to use the compass and reasoning we had to keep going downhill. And a time before that, a bear outside the tent ate all our food while my sister and I slept like a log.

I want to camp like that one day, but my parents won't let me. It's hard enough to persuade them to let me go to Portland and walk around.

Yes, I've gone camping for real.

Try a knife, flint and steel, some string/cord, and a one gallon plastic jug. Now that's roughing it.

Oh good! Then everyone knows what I am talking about!

Ugh.
I hate camping.
My family is going camping and I'm really hoping they'll let me stay home.
For true reasons as well, I have a bunny that needs taking care of as well as cats.
But yeah, camping, I hate it. -_-

Oh that's okay, camping isn't for everybody.
I think of it as a hobby.

I like it as long as there's no humidity/heat, no bugs, and I have a nice comfy bed and a hot shower to come home to afterwards.

I have gone camping like that my family did it every other summer or so (as in my extended family so there were quite a few people), we didn't really bring much to eat, we brought fishing rods instead, but we did bring bug spray and citronella candles cuz my brother had an uncanny ability to attract swarms of bugs and a composting toilet as there were so many of us it would have gotten a bit nasty without one. I've also gone out like that with a small group of friends but only for a long weekend as we all have to work/go to classes and winter break is just too cold.

Well, I think of it like this: you come back from camping all dirty and sweaty, perhaps sore from sleeping on the ground, to your comfy home and notice how cushy it is. When I was homeless to the tune of a week, I was sleeping on the ground and starving. When I did get food in my belly (first meal was a bowl of corn flakes) and between clean sheets, I noticed how soft and lovely everything was after I was depraved of it for a while. Sorry that sounded stupid, that's just me.

How about just go in forest totally naked and without any tools. You can find rocks and stick to make tools/weapons out of, hunt for foods, make your own clothes from whatever you find, and sleep wherever you can find?

I'd be worried that I would fall and get a stick up my butt

That's not camping, that's um I don't know what to call it. The first thing I thought of was a cave man bashing another's head in with a rock.

Good for you! Did you enjoy it Underwater Ophelia?

Sorry to hear that (simpathy). I think it is called being (sob) homeless.

I've done the camp site thing with family a few times.

Also did gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition and two practices for it in Wales. Pictures if anyones interested.
Pic
And another

Only allowed to pick up water on those trips, nothing else.
Also you probably don't need to bring an axe or machete.

Like you'd need a axe or machete when you have a six inches talons on your feet.

Who needs anything that can cut if you have talons!

I've done a lot of camping like that, particularly when climbing mountains. The hardest time was on a school trip climbing Gunung Tahan in Malaysia. 11 hours of uphill trekking through extremely muddy, leech-ridden jungles for 3 days (downhill for another 3) carrying backpacks that weighed nearly half our own body weight. Amazingly it's one of the happiest memories from my childhood. Must have been the endorphins from all that damn exercise...

I really want to go camping again, I'm starting to miss the peace. My dream is to disappear into the jungle for a few months sometime. Just take a few 'essentials' then survive for as long as I can without civilisation.

As I've said before, after you spend two or three nights in the wild - or at least in a non-urban setting without cultural commodities - you begin to see an increase in the depth and vividness of your dreams.
I have actually wanted to go camping for a couple of months already, so as to not get burnt out by school.