TSC had a clearance on Sawyer’s brand insect repellent a couple of years ago. I still use those two cans, and they still work better for mosquitoes than anything else I tried.

Hint: Leave the wallet, cell phone, other electronics and valuables, except car keys, stashed in the trunk. Small stuff is easy to lose unless you are used to keeping track in camp. Astonishingly easy to lose. Plus there are occasionally sticky-fingered tourists mixed in with the other wild life.

Take a box of gallon zip-loc bags, they are surprisingly handy. Maybe an extra couple garbage bags. Plus the regular bear-cache thing of hanging food from a tree limb, so the bears to attack the tent or the car.

You might do a dry run camp in the living room or back yard, to lay out supplies, practice walking through planned activities. In Boot Camp the Navy told us to ‘Take notes if you can’t keep up.’ Then sold us pens and notebooks and checked our notes. But take notes anyway. Having a packing list and checking as you load up serves several purposes. First it lets you check that you have acquired everything you plan to take. Next it helps check that everything planned for is loaded. It gives a starting point on the way home to double check for left items at camp. And keep the list with notes - it can simplify planning the next trip.

Plan on pictures, how you will handle them, store them. Be sure to get releases for all those candid snapshots of nekkid folk. Don’t tease the border guards into Canada. Hiking in the woods, have maps and stick to marked trails, or follow a guide. When lost, ‘Hug a tree’. Wait to be found, don’t try to stumble onto a way out. Keep water, space blanket anytime you wander from camp. Think safety, leave plans with timetable with friends.

And please don’t try to pet the cute bear cubs or those little black kitty looking things with white stripes on their backs.

Enjoy!

For serious.