Gadgetory

I'm always writing about gadgets for campers and that's okay seems a little ironic to me I thought people on camping to get away from technology but now we have chargers you can put in the water to generate power just using the current there's solar panels that come as standalone gadgets and as things you can put on your backpack there's even a stove that will charge your phone using the fire you're already using to cook your food so in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service we have the birds want to take a look back and see how camping evolved with and for technology recreational camping begins in the Adirondacks and at that particular point camping is really the province of really wealthy individuals they'll be you know merchants from Boston and New York and these are individuals who basically are traveling to the Adirondacks and who are hiring local guides to fish and hunt and prep all their food for them so these people are not really doing much of the work they were being surrounded by this team and so I if you left these people in the woods by themselves they would be completely unprepared they would literally not survive in the early nineteen twenty is the Model T all these really inexpensive cars allow for tourism and travel to be much more democratic I think a lot of the interesting year that I found is really outfitting the car itself is great illustrations from the 1920s of hammocks that were specifically designed to be strung inside of the car so you're in a hammock in your car in a campground Sophie strange i'm not sure why you would want to do that people began taking their cars out for camping trips and with that came the rise of the RV but of course RV camping is totally different from tent camping many camps i started segregating them from tent campers due to noise but once these campsites were established in the 1930s they really didn't change much what campgrounds are about is assisting people in very subtle ways so when you check into a camp site that allows for you to have the illusion that you're in nature you can with nature but in fact there's this whole set of infrastructure that's there to support you but over time our lifestyles changed and with that the infrastructure at campgrounds had to change too we got why five bathrooms and showers but now what I think we really want are our devices and chargers with us at all times even if we unplug and leave our phone behind what about our camera or a kindle the phone is creating a demand for technology to support the phone people are connected into their stuff you know and so there's a need for power I think powers become a really really important consideration in gear so either portable battery packs and solar panels is really a big deal now and it's a whole new realm of equipment solar panels can be found on anything now from tents two backpacks people going out for a hike can always charge their phone or any other electronic while they're out on the trail well not for everyone these products can make camping more accessible safe and enjoyable modern camping is designed to be easier and to make us more comfortable outside without the need for local guides we're in nature but we're always within reach of our friends or emergency responders we're out in the wild but nothing scary can really get us on a campsite so how will camping change next maybe we'll all wear VR headsets and we'll go virtually camping or a our glasses will take us around on a hiking trail I'm sure there's always going to be people who want to rough it outside and leave their gadgets behind but inevitably as the world technologically advances our hobbies will too when you go around campgrounds in the evening you'll see little kind of glowing screens you know inside of tents and this is not unusual it's a kind of line or you're constantly walking between forgetting for a few minutes and being completely into the experience of being in a place and then suddenly you see a scream and you snap out of it uh why did I wear long sleeves