Monthly Archives: June 2026

Setting up a tent in 10 minutes is genuinely doable. Most people take 40 because they've never done it before their first campsite arrival, or the last time they tried was in the dark, hungry, with the instructions somewhere at the bottom of the bag.

That's not a gear problem. It's a practice problem. And it's the most fixable thing on this entire list.

Whether you just picked up your first tent from the tent range at Basin Sports or you've been camping for years and the setup still takes longer than it should, this guide walks through the full picture: choosing your spot, raising the tent, staking it down, tensioning the fly, and the stuff nobody else covers like setting up solo, setting up in the rain, and what to do when the ground isn't cooperating. 

Why Most People Take 40 Minutes (And How to Fix That)

The reason is almost never the tent. It's that the first attempt happens at the campsite. You've just driven for four hours. The sun

Forget your sleeping bag on a camping trip and you’re in for a cold, long, miserable night with zero pity from anyone around the fire.

And yet, the sleeping bag rarely gets forgotten. You know what does? The can opener. The toilet paper. The headlamp batteries. The dry kindling when it’s been raining for three days. The small stuff. Always the small stuff.

We’ve spent years watching people come into Basin Sports mid-trip for things they swore they packed. There’s a pattern to it. And this piece is our attempt to break that pattern for good, not with another 300-item mega list that makes your eyes glaze over, but with the kind of real talk you’d get from a friend who camps a lot and has made every mistake worth making.

Before You Even Touch Your Gear Bag

Most people open a bag and start throwing things in. That’s how you end up at a campsite with four pairs of shoes and no matches.

The single most useful question you can ask yourself

Most camping trips are not ruined by huge problems.

Usually, it’s small stuff.

Wet socks. Cold hands. Shoes that hurt after one short walk.

That’s what catches beginners off guard.

A lot of people spend hours researching tents and gear. Then they throw random clothes into a backpack the night before leaving.

And honestly, clothing mistakes can make camping feel miserable fast.

If you’re wondering what to wear camping, keep it simple. Wear clothes that stay comfortable when temperatures change. Because they usually do.

We learned this during a summer camping trip near a lake.

The afternoon felt hot. Everyone packed light clothes. One friend brought only shorts and thin shirts.

By midnight, he was wrapped in blankets beside the fire saying:
“I didn’t think summer camping got this cold.”

Most beginners do this once.

If you are building your first camping setup, practical apparel for women and apparel for men from Basin Sports make outdoor

A lot of people think camping is complicated. Honestly, most of the time it’s just the gear that makes it feel that way.

Beginners either pack half the house or buy the cheapest setup they can find online. Sometimes both happen at once. Then the trip turns into a long lesson about cold nights, sore backs, and gear that looked much better in product photos.

The strange thing is that camping itself is pretty simple. You need a dry place to sleep, something warm for the night, food, water, and a few basics that make life easier outdoors. That’s really it.

But once people start imagining worst-case scenarios, things get out of control fast. Suddenly there are survival gadgets, giant cookware sets, five flashlights, and enough supplies to survive a week in the wilderness for a one-night campground trip.

We did exactly that once.

On one of our earlier camping trips, we packed a folding table that felt heavier every step away from the