Camping

Image by The U.S. National Archives via Flickr

Not Just For Sitting On

Camp stools fulfil all sorts of roles these days, not just for sitting on . . . in fact you couldn’t possibly sit on some of them! I’ve just had a flashback to my girl scout days . . . yes, my love of the great outdoors has spanned many months / years / decades (delete as appropriate – I did already!) . . . ha ha, anyway, if you were a girl scout (or a boy scout for that matter) you should know all about the ancient art of tying twigs into a tripod to make a wash stand (carefully making sure that your washing bowl fits in the top). I hope that scouts are still doing that sort of thing, you never know when it might come in handy, but these days a quick trip to the camping store will quickly show you that you can buy ready-made camp stool wash station and stool combinations . . . never actually tried sitting on my twig tripod for obvious reasons. That’s me in the white hat . . . .

Who wrote that? What language is it in and WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Robert Baden-Powell, written in the universal language of GIBBERISH.  You see, what he was trying to achieve was a song which was absolute nonsense in all languages but that everybody could sing . . . well, he certainly achieved that.  Kum bay ya my Lord, kum bay ya . . . enough camp fire songs. We’re supposed to be talking about camping stools!

Camping Stools Traditional & Modern

The traditional camping stools are made from wood, with a canvas top and the legs kind of fold together sidewards for easy storage . . . my scouting skills didn’t quite stretch that far, but I’m sure that there was a badge for it . . . anyway, you can still buy this type of camp stool to this day, although these days the wood is de-splintered and polished for an attractive finish.  They’re really easy to carry though not really suitable for backpacking, but if you want to wander a little away from the campfire for some juicy gossip about your camp neighbors then they can easily be slung over your shoulder and carried around quite effortlessly.

Wow that’s clever, not quite what I had in mind but I’m so impressed I included it anyway . . . well done but watch your fingers!

Modern camping stools are much lighter than the traditional wooden type of camping stool (typically 7 or 8 lbs against just a few ounces for the really ultralight backpacking stool models),  and fold down into itsy bitsy dimensions with their very own stuff sack . . . I remember stuffing Julia Mitchell into our tent stuff sack . . . everybody thought it was really funny except for Julia Mitchell – on reflection I should have definitely tied it up a bit tighter to teach her a lesson for telling the Scouters who untied their guy lines.  It wasn’t me, Scouts honor!

Camping stools are available to sit on, do the washing up, rest your feet on, and don’t store them away with the rest of your camping equipment in the back of the garage until next years vacation . . . they’re great not only for camping but also for hiking, sports events, fishing, concerts, parades, beach trips . . . in fact anywhere you might need to sit down and take the weight off for a minute or two!