Lesson Four: Outdoor Recreation
Camping describes a range of activities. Survivalist campers set off with less than their boots, whereas recreational vehicle travelers arrive equipped with their own electricity, heat, and patio furniture. Camping is often enjoyed in conjunction with activities, such as: hiking, hill walking, climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, swimming, and fishing. Camping may be combined with hiking either as backpacking or as a series of day hikes from a central location.
Some people vacation in permanent camps with cabins and other facilities (such as hunting camps or children's summer camps), but a stay at such a camp is usually not considered 'camping'. The term camping (or camping out) may also be applied to those who live outdoors, out of necessity (as in the case of the homeless), or for people waiting overnight in (queues). It does not, however, apply to cultures whose technology does not include sophisticated dwellings. Camping may be referred to colloquially as roughing it.
Range of amenities
Campers span a broad range of age, ability and ruggedness, and campsites are designed in many ways as well. Many campgrounds have sites with facilities such as fire rings, barbecue grills, utilities, shared bathrooms and laundry, as well as close access to recreational facilities, but not all campsites have similar levels of development. Campsites can range from a patch of dirt, to a level, paved pad with sewer and electricity. For more information on facilities, see the campsite and RV park articles.
Today’s campers have a range of comforts available to them, whether their shelter is a tent or a recreational vehicle. Today, backcountry campers can pack-in comfortable mattresses, compact chairs, and solar powered satellite phones. Those choosing to camp closer to their car ("car camping") with a tent have access to portable hot water, tent interior lighting, and technological changes to camping gear. For those camping in recreational vehicles (RVs), options include air conditioning, bathrooms, kitchens, showers, and home theatre systems. In the United States, Canada and Europe, some campgrounds offer hookups where recreational vehicles are supplied with electricity, water, and sewer services.
Other vehicles used for camping include touring bicycles, boats, canoes, using pack animals, and even bush planes; although backpacking is a popular alternative.
Tent camping sites often cost less than campsites with full amenities, and most allow direct access by car. Some "walk-in" sites lie a short walk away from the nearest road, but do not require full backpacking equipment. Those who seek a rugged experience in the outdoors prefer to camp with only tents, or with no shelter at all ("under the stars").
Mobile camping
Backpacking is a mobile variety of tent camping. Backpackers use lightweight equipment that can be carried long distances on foot. They hike across the land, camp at remote locations, and often select campsites at will if resource protection rules allow. Backpacking equipment typically costs more than that for car camping, but still far less than a trailer or motorhome, and backpacking campsites are generally cheap.
Canoe camping is similar to backpacking, but uses canoes for transportation; much more weight and bulk can be carried in a canoe or kayak than in a backpack. Canoe camping is common in North America.
One form of bicycle touring combines camping with cycling. The bicycle is used to carry the gear and as the primary means of transportation, allowing greater distances to be covered than backpacking, despite less capacity for storage.
Motorcycle camping is more comparable to bicycle camping than car camping due to the limited storage capacity of the motorbike. Motorcycle camping riders, as well as bicycle touring riders, often use some of the same equipment as backpackers because of the lighter weights and compact dimensions associated with backpacking equipment.
Specialized camping
Survivalist campers learn the skills needed to survive in any out-door situation. This activity may require skills in obtaining food from the wild, emergency medical treatments, orienteering, and pioneering.
"Winter camping" refers to the experience of camping outside during the winter - often when there is snow on the ground. Campers and outdoorspeople have adapted their forms of camping and survival to suit extremely cold nights and limited mobility or evacuation. Methods of survival when winter camping includes: building snow shelters (quinzhees), dressing in "layers," staying dry, using low-temperature sleeping bags, and fueling the body with appropriate food.
Workcamping allows campers to trade their labor for a free campsite, and sometimes even for utilities and additional pay.
Adventure camping is a form of camping by people who race (possibly adventure racing or mountain biking) during the day, and camp in a minimalist way at night. They might use the basic items of camping equipment such as a micro-camping stove, sleeping bag, and Bivouac bag.
Camping is a key part of the program of many youth organizations around the world, such as Scouting. It is used to teach self-reliance and team work.
Boutique Camping is found at music festivals in the UK. Also called glamping, posh camping or comfy camping. It allows people to escape the hassles of finding camp space, carrying their tents, and erecting and taking down nylon tents. Companies deliver accommodation units to the festival, as well as build and breakdown the units for their guests. Various companies with various products exist. These products include: tents, bell tents, podpads, yurts, and tipis.
Traditional fishing is a term used to describe small scale commercial or subsistence fishing practices, using traditional techniques such as rod and tackle, arrows and harpoons, throw nets and drag nets, etc.
Recreational fishing
Recreational and sport fishing describe fishing for pleasure or competition. Recreational fishing has conventions, rules, licensing restrictions and laws that limit the way in which fish may be caught; typically, these prohibit the use of nets and the catching of fish with hooks not in the mouth. The most common form of recreational fishing is done with a rod, reel, line, hooks and any one of a wide range of baits or artificial lures such as spinners or 'dry flies'. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is generally known as angling. In angling, it is sometimes expected or required that fish be returned to the water (catch and release). Recreational or sport fishermen may log their catches or participate in fishing competitions.
Big-game fishing describes fishing from boats to catch large open-water species such as tuna, sharks and marlin. Sport fishing (sometimes game fishing) describes recreational fishing where the primary reward is the challenge of finding and catching the fish rather than the culinary or financial value of the fish's flesh. Fish sought after include marlin, tuna, tarpon, sailfish, shark and mackerel although the list is endless.
Techniques
There are many fishing techniques or methods for catching fish. The term can also be applied to methods for catching other aquatic animals such as molluscs (shellfish, squid, octopus) and edible marine invertebrates.
Fishing techniques include hand gathering, spearfishing, netting, angling and trapping. Recreational, commercial and artisanal fishers use different techniques, and also, sometimes, the same techniques. Recreational fishers fish for pleasure or sport, while commercial fishers fish for profit. Artisanal fishers use traditional, low-tech methods, for survival in third-world countries, and as a cultural heritage in other countries. Mostly, recreational fishers use angling methods and commercial fishers use netting methods.
There is an intricate link between various fishing techniques and knowledge about the fish and their behaviour including migration, foraging and habitat. The effective use of fishing techniques often depends on this additional knowledge.
Fishing tackle is a general term that refers to the equipment used by fishermen when fishing.
Almost any equipment or gear used for fishing can be called fishing tackle. Some examples are hooks, lines, sinkers, floats, rods, reels, baits, lures, spears, nets, gaffs, traps, waders and tackle boxes.
Tackle that is attached to the end of a fishing line is called terminal tackle. This includes hooks, sinkers, floats, leaders, swivels, split rings and wire, snaps, beads, spoons, blades, spinners and clevises to attach spinner blades to fishing lures.
Fishing tackle can be contrasted with fishing techniques. Fishing tackle refers to the physical equipment that is used when fishing, whereas fishing techniques refers to the ways the tackle is used when fishing.
Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals (usually wildlife) for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law. The species which are hunted are referred to as game and are usually large or small mammals or migratory or non-migratory gamebirds.
Hunting can also involve the elimination of vermin, as a means of pest control, if not the species can over populate causing disease. Hunting advocates claim that hunting can be a necessary component of modern wildlife management, for example to help maintain a population of healthy animals within an environment's ecological carrying capacity when natural checks such as predators are absent. However, a 2006 study by Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics indicated that reducing the game animal population in small areas may lead to higher tick densities, resulting in more tick-borne infections in rodents leading to a high prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis and creating a tick hot-spot. In the United States, wildlife managers are frequently part of hunting regulatory and licensing bodies, where they help to set rules on the number, manner and conditions in which game may be hunted.
The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing, which is not commonly categorized as a form of hunting. Trapping is also usually considered a separate activity. Neither is it considered hunting to pursue animals without intent to kill them, as in wildlife photography or birdwatching. The practice of hunting for plants or mushrooms is a colloquial term for gathering.