while waiting for my furnace running 30 minutes to reach 650K, I can write some camping&hiking tips for you , Nanjie:) of course those are far from a professional point of view, but hopefully they are practical, and easy to remember:P
actually you can search the web for more detailed instruction. for begginer's guides, I like the information here:
http://www.msu.edu/user/buchmanj/rd/packing.htm
and here are some fun tips, you can try if you want to save some budget:
http://members.aol.com/frugally4u/campingtips.html
now my "experience"....
****camping*********
- choose a flat, wide and clean ground to set your tent. remove all the small stones beneath before putting cloth. if it's not a reserved campsite, make sure there are no dangerous wild animals around. also, keep away from dirty water and too many trees&grass, where might be warmbed of lots of insects.
- bring all the tent, rain fly (if it's warm and dry, then remove it you can see sky full of stars in your dream:) ), support poles. also, don't forget to bring a piece of plastic cloth if your tent doesn't have a linen bottom.
- warm sleeping bag and sleeping pad . if you want to bring your air bed, make sure it's not electric blowed! otherwise I can hardly imagine how Mape tries hard to blow it up with his lungs, haha
- if you want to sleep out of the tent, don't forget to bring a warm hat. otherwise you may not be able to find your ears in the morning.
****hiking packs ******
- a good pack is so essential in a streneous hiking trip, especially to women who don't have bfs/husbands to take the load in difficult moment. each three of us got a nice 2-lit hydration pack before going to Grand Canyon. you should go to the store and try on them, like trying clothes, to find the one fitting your shoulders and waist perfectly. really, believe in me, there shouldn't even be 0.1 inch mismatch.... "camelpack" is a good brand, which is what fuling and hsin-ying are using. mine is "Rei". you can go to online store of REI to look through first, then go to their local stores to try the ones you like. www.REI.com
also, pick a nice color if you care for photographing, haha!
****water ********
- 2-lit should be enough for a day hike, if you don't plan to do GrandCanyon or Halfdome, in which cases, you need to bring two extra 600ml bottles if there's no refill on the trail.
- my experience is that it always does no harm to bring an extra bottle. like last time in Grand Canyon, my bottle supplied a poor exhausted guy's last 1.5 miles. and this time, we met a girl with unbelievable beauty on the trail who was running out of water. fuling and I gave ours to her right away :P
- if there's water refill on the trail, then you should figure out the refilling place first and calculate your need of water, which will be a great relief. there was a guy in our Yosemite trip, who only had a small bottle of water and made it to the top of half dome in 8.5 hours. he took water from all the creeks and waterfalls on the way, and it turned out he didn't die or get stomachache in the end. but I guess for normal people it's better only refill from the fountains of drinking water.
- those water purifying pills really suck... you can try them if you don't mind drinking yellow and smelly water @_@
- in hot weather, bring an empty bottle so that you can wet yourself with cold water when you see any creeks, rivers, etc.
**** food ******
- make the lunch during the dayhike simple and easy to carry. a sandwich and an apple is good enough. bring some energy bars and light snacks for energy refill on the way.
- in camping site, you need a panathol stove. (not ethanol! it might be dangerous to work outside, though I'm not sure). if Mape is strong enough, you can also bring grills and carbon.
- in case of no shower, strongly recommend that you don't do BBQ, though it's fun! also, BBQ is always more fun to do with large group of people.
- pasta and chicken is better than burger:P
also, I think noodle with tomato and eggs should make a great outdoor meal!! I miss Zha4 Cai4 and hot soup so much during the camping....
the packed meat is probably good for lunch sandwich, but it really makes one sick eating continuously.
- for breakfast, hot chocolate is good... they brought packed coffee this time, which you dump into water and make a cup of coffee.... it tastes ok, but I don't think it's a big trouble to bring a few filtering paper and ground coffee, if there are only you two!
*** during the hike*******
the tips from fuling:
- make sure to take a rest of 5 minutes in every 1 hour's hiking
- in rest, put down all your loads and try to sit with your feet higher than your heart position
- even you are not thirsty, drink a little bit water and eat some sweet regularly (just very small amount!)
**************
hmmm... time for work again! fuling and Hsin-ying can go on to finish it!