Archive for January 11th, 2011

State Parks: Winter Tent Camping

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

This is Passport to Texas

There’s a chill in the air, and our State Park Guide, Bryan Frazier, says that means it’s a great time for tent camping.

If you have an older tent it’s not a bad idea to set it up in your backyard before your trip—be sure there are no rips or tears. Or, if you’re purchasing a tent, today’s fabrics are lightweight and very durable, so you’re not going to have a problem packing them. Just make sure you get one big enough to accommodate you, the other people who are going to be with you, and in the winter time you’re going to have extra stuff: extra blanket, extra clothes, jackets, whatever. So you want to take that into account when you get a tent. There’s not reason you can’t have a tent for several years with just basic maintenance and care. Make sure you have plenty of stakes to stake that thing out. And once its set up, keep it zipped up the whole time to keep the critters and other things our maybe while you’re out on your day hike.

And as far as the size of the tent that you’d get, how much space do you need per person generally?

They’re sized per person—a one man, a two man, a four man. So, you can count on a two-person tent as a very basic one. If you go any smaller than that—unless it’s just you in a very remote area—most of our audience will want to go to a two-person tent just to make sure everyone is comfortable and that you can bring some of the items from home to really make that camping experience great. But those are some basic tips this time of year; that modest amount of advance planning will really pay off.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.