Hey, Fire Fans!

Did you know today is Campfire Day! I could go on like I have in the past with fire safety tips like finding a suitable location and sitting at a safe distance (read more when you click here) or go over the different methods of starting a fire like I did in this previous post that you can find right here. But campfires are all about hanging out and relaxing, so let’s just take it easy for this Blog post and talk about why campfires are so cool!

The Snacking
Fires lend themselves to good food. Whether you’re just passing a bag of chips or candy or you’re using the flames to roast your treat like marshmallows and S'MORES, campfires usually indicate there’s some fun junk food going around. 

The Storytelling
Something about the darkness of night and the frolicking flames, the atmosphere tends to eliminate our inhibitions and incite our instinctive nature to tell a good story. No matter if it’s a funny story, a true story, a scary story, some sort of combination of those, or you just got some good jokes or something, fires are the perfect venue to try them out!

The Mesmerizing
While a campfire tends to get people in a talkative manner, it’s always good to keep quiet for a while and let the fire do the talking. The crackles and pops of dry wood are warming and cozy with a spectacular display that’s mesmerizing to say the least.

Enjoy the camaraderie that comes along with those who you sit down with to share a fire—they’re likely some of the closest people in your life. And the magic of sitting around a campfire together is that you will likely walk away feeling even closer. Fires feed friendship! Happy Campfire Day. Enjoy it today by enjoying your own fire this evening. As always, thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

The recommended camp outfitter for nearly three hundred summer camps, we here at Everything Summer Camp are proud to work with every single one of them! And we love singing the praises of the many camps with whom we’ve developed a working relationship too. That’s why today I’m shining our camp spotlight on the pristine land in the northeast corner of Florida where we find Camp Crystal Lake.

Sitting between Starke and Keystone Heights, the 140 acres that make up Camp Crystal Lake contain flourishing ecosystems as well as three surrounding freshwater lakes that really create an amazing atmosphere and cut out a little piece of heaven on earth.    

For the last 70 years or so, Camp Crystal Lake has been inviting boys and girls for summer fun. They offer great activities like Archery, Basketball, Fishing, Four Square, Mountain Biking, Ropes Course, Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, and plenty more. There’s also fun splashing around with activities like Wakeboarding, Water Polo and other water sports, Waterskiing, Skin Diving, Snorkeling, as well as Canoeing, Kayaking, and Sailing.

And you can flex your creativity with awesome things like Arts & Crafts, Pottery, Dance, Fingerpainting, Music, Puppet Show, Yoga, and more!

With modern and updated facilities, the Crystal Lake campground is complete with excellent construction of buildings and other facilities that are complimentary to the natural surroundings. Four of the original Camp Crystal Lake buildings are still standing and used today, keeping camp history current!

With five modern cabins for girls and five modern cabins for boys, campers have a great space to set up home base for their camp stay and make themselves comfortable. The cabins all hold about 20 people each and they all have indoor bathrooms with showers as well as nice decks that offer lakefront views.  

Check into Camp Crystal Lake for your next summer adventure. You can visit their website by clicking right here. And, as always thanks for reading, Camp Fans! Fun, Family, and Fellowship.

- John

Hey, Mountain Men and Women!

Conquering a mountain is no easy feat. Breathing gets harder at higher altitudes and each step is work to lift yourself that much higher. But the feeling of accomplishment paired with a view that can’t be beat urges folks onward and upward to do what many others might say is impossible. Celebrated all over the world but on differing dates, today is Mountain Climbing Day in the USA.

You’ll want to have conditioned your body to be the best climber you can be.

There are a few different ways you can start your training. There’s no better practice than actually climbing—that’s for sure—but even before practicing, there are great exercises you can do at the gym or maybe even right at home. Here’s how I broke it down:

Upper Body Strength
Climbing, of course, takes a world of Upper Body Strength to hoist yourself into higher and higher positions. Any kind of muscle-building exercises will work—push-ups, pull-ups (if you have a bar available), or weightlifting (if you have the proper weights) are great ways to build strength in your arms and shoulders. Even more intricate of an exercise are Hand Grips. These will help develop the muscles in your fingers to build dexterity for those difficult-to-hold-onto-rocks.

Lower Body Strength
Sometimes when climbing, you’ll need your legs to make impossible strides upward and to push the rest of your body to the next point of pausing. Jogging is always a great way to build up those leg muscles. You’ll also want to incorporate some of the exercises we recommended for horse riding like Front Squats and Forward Lunges. Exercises like these are sure to sculpt your leg muscles for the job.

Flexibility
Stretches alone are a great means of training your body to be able to make far reaches and gliding steps. Sitting with your legs outstretched and touching your toes is one great way to extend the span of your stretching. For those with a chin-up bar available, you can practice what is called a ‘Deadhang’ in which you hold yourself up by your fingers. If you have a Finger-Board, that would be most convenient.

Rock climbing is fun, but extremely strenuous work. Make sure you’re ready for it when you head off to your mountainous adventures. Happy Mountain Climbing Day and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

It’s the end of July and the camp season is winding down. Most campers are likely either returned or still away for their stay. For some of you the rush of the camp season is already over. Others just need to pick up their kid on closing day. Time to unpack and take a year-long break from all the planning and prepping and thinking about summer camp. Right?

That’s an option, sure. However, if you push yourself to go the extra mile in putting away your gear now, the work for next season could already be done for you. Do it now while it’s fresh in your kid’s mind!

Listen to your kid’s stories and answers to your questions. You may learn that the raincoat didn’t fit or that the sandals hurt their feet. Ask them if their Duffel Bag was spacious enough for them to conveniently live out of or was it cramped and limiting—things like that.

As you go through your child’s gear to put everything away, ask your camper what worked well and didn’t. Should you discover a giant tear in their laundry bag, don’t just put it away and leave the problem for yourself to deal with next season. Instead, set it aside to throw away or cut up for dust cloths. Make a note to replace the laundry bag and do the same for any cracked water bottles or fans.

A more in-depth guide can be found right here on a previous post.

And, of course, listen to your child and ask them about the non-material aspects of summer camp. Was it lots of fun? Were they comfortable enough being away from home? How did they do at making friends?

Solutions to any problems your kid may have encountered at summer camp can be found by scrolling through our advice posts here on the Blog or in the invaluable guidebook, ‘The Summer Camp Handbook‘ from camp experts Dr. Christopher Thurber and Dr. Jon Malinowski. Check out this great book when you click here and browse our site for any other camping gear or summer camp supplies would have made things easier this year.

We sincerely hope you all had the best camp stay possible this summer. Enjoy the rest of the summer season and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

Give me a ‘U’ for Utility, a ‘C’ for Comfort, and an ‘O’ for Originality and what have you got? UCO Gear! They’ve made a great addition to our camping gear selection here at Everything Summer Camp where you can find pretty much everything you need for camp under the summer sun! To help expand and fulfill our gear selection for outdoor eating accessories, alongside brand names like GSI Outdoors and Fozzils. Have a look at the products available from these brands as well!

UCO Gear was founded in Redmond, Washington a full 50 years ago in 1971. Bringing nearly 50 years of innovation and manufacturing expertise to the outdoor gear industry, UCO constructs each one of their products with functionality which is designed to increase your safety and comfort throughout your camp trips and other outdoor excursions.

With products like the Hundred 2 Headlamp that offers amazing hands-free lighting or the 5 Piece Bamboo Elements Mess Kit that will store your food for easy packing, secure transportation, and convenient serving dish from which you can eat! Check out both of these convenient camping products by clicking right here.

We find litter in the most remote, natural spaces. This is where one of UCO’s ambassador’s accidental littering moment was so haunting that it spawned the #TrashTag project. “Instead of taking self-fulfilling summit selfies,” says Steven Reinhold of UCO Gear, “We should be ‘Trash Tagging’ ourselves in pictures where we are cleaning up our wild places!” What a fun way to do good!

A leading brand in lighting gear and other outdoor preparedness needs as well as pioneers in clever trends that are helpful to cleaning up the great outdoors, shop UCO gear! Enjoy posting shots of your own before and after site clean-ups and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John