Good camping can be as simple as tossing your gear in your car and driving

There’s a lot to like about camping — it’s the great outdoors getaway.

Especially in the spring and early summer, when it’s still cool at night, the fish are biting, flowers are blooming and the woods are greening up. But for campers who like swimming and recreational boating, nothing beats summer.

Your campsite is your home, but probably with a much better view — shimmering lakes, rocky cliffs, and inviting footpaths through shady forests.

That’s a big part of camping’s appeal. There’s a camping lifestyle to fit every taste for scenery and sense of adventure. Camping can be as primitive or as comfortable as you want it to be.

 Car camping is probably the most popular form of camping.

Put your gear in the car, truck, van or sport utility vehicle and

drive to your campsite. Maybe take along the boat, and camp

on a lakeshore (Photo Provided)

Car camping is probably the most popular form of camping. Put your gear in the car, truck, van or sport utility vehicle and drive to your campsite. Maybe take along the boat, and camp on a lakeshore.

You’ll be happy to discover that tent camping is easy on the pocketbook if you stick to the basics.

You can save enough money on your first couple of trips to pay for camping equipment — tent, sleeping bags, gas lantern, canopy, cooking stove and ice chest — gear that can be used for several seasons to come.

Even the most modern campgrounds, which have bathhouses with flush toilets and showers, are reasonably priced, compared to the cost of a few days stay in a cabin, lodge room, or houseboat rental.

Developed campsites for tent campers typically have a fire pit with grate, picnic table, tent pad, lantern pole and trash can.

Car camping is especially attractive to families, a good opportunity to get away from the distractions of modern life for a little quality time together. Take along your cell phone for emergencies, but turn it off!

Camping puts you out among lakes and forests, sitting around the campfire at night, a sky full of stars overhead, listening to frogs and crickets, awakening to a foggy sunrise. It’s a great escape back to nature that goes well with just about any outdoors activity.

Your camp is your base of operations for fishing, boating, day-hiking, photography, or nature viewing.

Camping beside rivers or lakes is especially appealing because water has a calming effect. During the summer months, it always seems cooler around water because there’s a breeze stirring.

When you go camping the food tastes better, the conversation seems livelier and once you get accustomed to the routine, you’ll find that sleep is more restful than what’s experienced in town.

Alarm clocks aren’t allowed on camping trips! You’ll wake up with the sun and retire earlier in the evening, getting into the natural rhythm of being outside.

Camping Basics

A few days before you go camping, make a list and start organizing your gear. A latch tote is a good option for storing and easily moving such items as canned foods, pots and pans, coffee pots, and miscellaneous kitchen utensils like metal spatulas. Some veteran campers make cook boxes out of plywood that can be used for years.

Choose a tent that has a floor and a zippered, insect-proof screen.

Sleeping bags are preferred, but not necessary. A bed sheet, blanket and pillow work fine for sleeping in a tent during warm weather. A foam pad will make your bed more comfortable.

Take a lawn chair for sitting around camp, and a flashlight with extra batteries. It can be chilly at night, in the late spring and early summer, so take along a light jacket and long pants.

Don’t forget personal items like a toothbrush and toothpaste, body wash, sunscreen, first aid kit, insect repellent and itch cream to soothe any bug bites or poison ivy rash.

Plan you meals down to the last detail and take along all the food and beverages you’ll need. Store perishables in an ice chest. Plastic storage bags are ideal for repackaging cheese, fruit, meat and other perishables.

Choose a portable camp stove, typically they burn white gas or bottled fuel, that is large enough to cook a full-course meal, and hot enough to boil water for coffee in just a few minutes.

If you want to cook on the campfire take along a cast-iron skillet, griddle or Dutch oven because they can be placed on a metal fire grate above the flames, or set among hot coals.

Some campgrounds don’t allow campers to bring their own firewood so check ahead. Many campers don’t transport firewood, even within the state. Firewood could include ash infected with the Emerald Ash Borer, an insect that is spreading rapidly throughout Kentucky and other states in the region, killing ash trees.

Never cut live trees for firewood, use only downed limbs and twigs. A small folding saw comes in handy for cutting up downed limbs.

Wooden kitchen matches work great for starting campfires and lighting camp stoves. Store matches in a waterproof container. An empty jar with a tight lid will do in a pinch.

Take along some bottled drinking water and a container to carry water back to your campsite from the campground’s spigot, for washing pots and pans and coffee cups.

Take along a length of cord and some clothespins for an impromptu clothesline to dry wet swimsuits and towels.

Top Camping Areas in Kentucky

Kentucky has lots of great campgrounds in our state park system, and Daniel Boone National Forest. Two favorites are:

* Lake Cumberland State Resort Park, near Jamestown, Ky., in southcentral Kentucky.

* Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, near Cadiz, Ky., in western Kentucky.

Both areas offer excellent fishing, beautiful forests, great hiking trails, and lots of opportunities for lakeshore camping.

Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for KyForward. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.