from rscottjones

This is Dennis.

I don’t actually know his last name. We’re just casual pub friends, a fellow regular I randomly met at the local bar I’d wheel my dad over to in his final years. Unlike many of the other regulars there, whose daily routine just about every day is to drink crappy beer and talk sports and politics, Dennis is quite the outlier.

First, he’s there much less frequently, and doesn’t drink a ton of beer, and he doesn’t endlessly debate the sports story of the day. Also, he often orders a salad—a salad!—which seems rare at a place that’s literally named Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers. That’s probably because, unlike the others, he has a big goal he’s been working towards.

When we run into each other at the bar every week or three, we tend to chat about two things: marathons and travel.

You see, Dennis is about to complete his own personal quest to run a marathon in each of the 50 states. Prior to starting this, the only running he had done were some 5- and 10Ks. Oh, and he started this goal at the age of 53. So I think we can all agree that this is an impressive quest to adopt, let alone complete.

Well, Dennis is approaching the finish line. He’ll run in his last state—Connecticut—in May, a mere 153 months after starting.

Congrats Dennis! That next beer is on me.

The annual REI member sale has begun and I’m hoping some of my camping-curious friends get the itch to pick up some gear in preparation for the summer. If you live in Phoenix in particular, there are few better ways to escape the summer heat than heading north on the weekend and setting up a tent amid the cool pines. It’s also a great way to escape the perils of your phone and the ubiquitous political news cycle.

So in that vein, here’s a short list of recommendations to get you started. Note that while these happen to be REI-specific, but there are countless other companies and competing products you can buy (including some much cheaper options). This is just the stuff that I personally own and love enough to recommend. It’s also geared towards in-season car camping use, not backpacking or travel camping, or even dealing with tough weather conditions.

I don’t stay up on the latest gear offerings (and you don’t have to either), but let me know if I can be helpful. Also, there are no affiliate links here.

Sleeping pad

This might be the most important thing to get right—at least it has been for me—so I don’t skimp on comfort. As a result, my wife and I are big fans of the Exped Megamat 10, and that’s what I recommend to others. It’s expensive and bulky, but when you have it dialed in, it’s as comfy as your mattress at home and makes camping so much better. For me, that’s worth the price. Grab a cheap usb-rechargable Flextail pump for convenience.

Sleeping bag

We’re talking car camping here, so that means we don’t need ultra-warm or ultra-light. Instead, we want to optimize for comfort during in-season use. My go-to weekend bag is the REI Hunkerdown 20. It’s a roomy rectangular bag that allows me to stretch out and not feel as confined as in a traditional mummy bag. And the 20º rating is perfect for the camping we tend to do, remaining perfectly snug when a cold morning might bottom out at 40º, but still not so warm that it’s uncomfortably hot in the low 60s. When it’s warmer out, you can unzip the bag from the bottom to stick a leg out or allow some cooler air into the bottom of the bag, or unzip it entirely to use as a blanket.

The oversized, semi-rectangular hood means you can bring an oversized camping pillow or even your own normal pillow from home, and it easily folds away if you don’t want to use it all. The accompanying draft tube for your neck comes in handy when it’s cold, and is especially useful for blocking out the early morning sun when it’s not. This new updated version doesn’t have the short off-side zipper that allows you to unzip enough to fold down the top and stick out both arms, but apparently the synthetic version still does.

The biggest downside of this bag is that it only comes in a left zipper orientation. That’s frustrating because it means that if you and your tent partner both have this bag, you can’t zip them together to make one large one, and you’ll both be “facing” in the same direction, so it’s harder for one person to get in and out, especially in a smaller tent.

Camp pillow

If you’re car camping and don’t have a tight sleeping bag hood, just bring your own pillow from home. Easy peasy and already just what you like. If you want a smaller, dedicated camp pillow, test out as many as you can. The ones we use—Klymit Drift in the large size—aren’t carried at REI anymore, unfortunately, but are still available elsewhere.

Tent

There are probably too many considerations here to give you a “hey, just get this one” recommendation. So go talk to someone at the store about your own needs, or shoot me an email and I’ll help. If you’re camping here in Arizona in reasonable weather, you’ll have plenty of options. If you might face a lot more wind, rain, or even snow, then you’ll want to be more careful in what you select.

My primary advice here is to get something with multiple doors, no matter what style you’re looking at. And also, bigger does not automatically mean better, especially if you want more optionality on exactly where to place the tent once you get to your campsite. Grab some upgraded tent stakes while you’re at it.

Headlamp

You can get by with a standard flashlight, but whew boy are things going to be easier with a headlamp. My personal favorite is a Black Diamond Spot R 400 (here’s my review). We literally own four of these, they’re great! If you want a simpler and dimmer and cheaper version, go with the Astro R 300 instead. Whatever you choose, just make sure you get the “R” version which is rechargeable via micro USB, and always get one that has a lock feature so it doesn’t get accidentally turned on. Cheap headlamps that use AAA or AA batteries suck and they’re a pain to deal with, so just don’t.

Stove + Kitchen

If you’re car camping, you have a ton of flexibility here. The most common solution here is a “green and green:” a Coleman two burner stove that uses the ubiquitous 1-lb propane bottle. Be warned, these things last forever. I haphazardly bought one in college and it’s still running just fine more than two decades later; had I known I’d have this for so long, I probably would have bought a slightly fancier model.

There are also plenty of single burner stoves that sit on top of those same propane canisters, or attach via a small metal hose. Any of these options is just fine—there are countless brands and variations that could work. I’d recommend avoiding the backpacking stoves unless you’re actually backpacking—they are more expensive to buy and operate, and are far less convenient to use, too.

As far as cookware and such goes, unless you have an important need for size and/or portability, you can just use some cheap pots and pans from Ikea or Walmart or wherever instead. Don’t worry about fancy set-ups; keep things cheap and easy to start, or bring what you already have. Do pick up some plastic plates and bowls. About half of our dedicated camp kitchen stuff was acquired at the dollar store.

Oh, and if you don’t want to cook while camping, you don’t have to! Camping does not inherently require preparing an elaborate hot meal, you can just snack or get meals out. That’s fine too. We nearly always default to cooking simple meals, often even preparing something in advance at home that we just reheat at camp.

Cooler

You probably already have a cooler, and it’s probably just fine to use for this too. You don’t need a fancy Yeti, especially when you’re just starting out. After all, how you use your cooler is more important than which cooler you own.

Hiking boots/shoes

If you’re in the market for new shoes to use in the outdoors, REI is a great option due to their tremendously generous return policy (for members, at least, but if you buy anything over $100 you might as well join). If you try out some shoes, even for several outings, you can still return them if they aren’t working out for you. It’s a great way to ensure that you find a pair that works for you, worth paying a few extra bucks for.