Camping Philosophy

I've been Jonesing to get out and do a trip, spring fever I guess, and I got to thinking about my evolution of camping over the years.

Most people seem to be all about carrying as little as they can, going as far and as fast and they can and spending as little time as possible with the actual "living" of tripping. I guess some people seem to go the other way and bring everything but the kitchen sink.

My philosophy for the past few years has been to carry as little as possible, but focus on bringing food I enjoy and spending a good deal of time cooking and processing wood. I'm not UL by any means, and I still use some dehydrated foods, but I do most all my cooking over a fire and eat stuff I want to eat.

I found that I spend a lot of time processing wood and cooking, and thus less time actually going somewhere, but I've found the entire experience entirely more enjoyable. I love cooking with wood and taking an hour or two to prepare a meal. It always tastes amazing. It also keeps me busy around camp. In my younger years I used to eat simple and always cook with a stove. Now I carry a very simple one, but rarely use it but to boil some water for tea while I'm getting a fire going. Anyway, I know of people who don't even cook on trips because they don't want to spend the time doing "living" chores and spend more time moving... What I found is that when I used to go like that, I never enjoyed everything as much. I always felt like I was eager to get to the next stage. Something as simple as planning extra time for cooking and eating made me slow down and enjoy my surroundings more.