CAMPERS: A Towel Question - What Do You Use?

[Bertha Venation]

Hi, me again, first-time camper this August!

I'm reading about microfiber ultra compact fast-drying towels. I've also talked to some campers who just use regular bath towels.

What do you use when you go camping?

Thanks!

[Kali]

1. you are having fun with this, I can tell.

I hope you have an absolute blast!

I just bring a regular old towel, or if it isn't a huge deal getting really dry, a big old sarong type scarf/cover up thing can serve multiple tasks.

I would try the microfiber at home first to see if you like it. They are kind of weird.

[Bertha Venation]

3. Kali, I am having so much fun!

Asking these questions, reading everyone's answers, putting things into my Amazon fantasy shopping cart . . . .

I guess I'll just take regular towels. And a beach towel for the pond.

[petronius]

2. Depends on the kind of camping: for car-camping, I like my big beach towel (especially if there's

a line to dry things on). Backpacking, I carry a small light techno-towel...

[Bertha Venation]

4. Thanks, petronius!

[catnhatnh]

5. Old School...

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble‐sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand‐to‐hand‐combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindbogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might have accidentally "lost.". What the strag will think is that any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

[mackerel]

6. I always bring old towels. They can get pretty dirty.

[Skittles]

7. I would ask TexasTowelie

yes INDEED

[greendog]

8. Pro Tip: A large bath towel can be used to hunt snipe.

Just after dark, go out to where the snipe are ( experienced campers will be able to tell you, just ask). Kneel on the ground and hold the towel up in front of yourself so the snipe can't see you. Make the "snipe call". "Snipe snipe,..snipe snipe,...snipe snipe". It might take two or three hours but eventually you'll hear the snipe start to call back. It'll move toward you and it's call will get louder. When it's about a foot away on the other side of the towel drop the towel on top of it. Congratulations,you've caught your snipe! That's all there is to it.

In the old days, campers would cook and eat their snipe. Nowadays it's catch and release. ( be sure to take a photo to post on DU )

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. ^^^THIS IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT

Do NOT believe this nonsense.

EVERYONE knows the Snipe call is "snipe snipe...snipe SNIPE snipe...snipe, snipe"


People that misinform novice campers really make me trundle my porcupines

[underahedgerow]

10. You know, I happen to be the President of the Porcupine Trundling & Protection Association and

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. I voted against you in the last election.

I have it on good authority that your trundling skills leave much to be desired.

Not to mention paying off the vote counters with s'more's was really below the belt.

[underahedgerow]

13. That was you? Pffft, there's always one holdout.

You're just jealous because I've won the trundle grand slam for 19 years running. (so to speak, I was trundling, after all.)

And those damn judges ratted me out. No more s'mores for them. EVER.

I'm so mad I could stamp my foot right now.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Stamp away

I have long been an advocate of term limits on Grand Slamming

[greendog]

15. Oh, classic...

The dead giveaway for a bullshitter - they will always type the word 'bullshit' in CAPITAL LETTERS! You'll never, never, never, ever catch a snipe using HERETiCS snipe call. It's never worked. Not. Even. Once.

Why would anyone use a snipe call that has NEVER WORKED!

My snipe call will get quadruple the results, guaranteed. Folks, that's four times as many snipe. That other call will not get you a single snipe. Not even one! Mine will get you FOUR TIMES AS MANY!

Mark my word, A HERETIC I AM is a porcupine trundling bullshitter. Snipe RUN THE OTHER WAY whenever he goes camping.

[A HERETIC I AM]

22. Neophyte.

One of my many Snipe mounts;



I've had just about enough of your Snipe hunting misdirection. Bertha Venation would do well to ignore folks who spout Snipe nonsense.

It is, after all, her first camping trip.

Naughty person

[greendog]

26. I've seen that same exact "snipe mount" in the gift shop at "The Big Texan" in Amarillo, TX.

They buy them by the truckload. They sell them for $24.95 apiece. You can also buy them at Wall Drug. I've seen them at the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop just east of Cheyenne.

And you know what? They're not even the American Campground Snipe. It's a close Chinese relative. And you know what else? The poor bird is almost EXTINCT!!!!111!!11!! from being "MOUNTED" for sale to porcupine trundling bullshitters who troll internet threads about camping. You should be ASHAMED!

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. I can't take time away from stuffing this here Bald Eagle to fuck with you just now....

Suffice to say, you don't know a Chinese Snipe mount from a 57 Chevy bumper

[Tipperary]

17. Now see, I was taught to use a paper bag to drop over the snipe!

But that was long ago.

[greendog]

19. Yes, first it was paper bags, then it was those big plastic garbage bags...

The great thing about using a large towel is, when you hold it up, you are hidden from the snipe. No one ever caught a snipe with the bag method because when the snipe got within 10 or 12 feet of the snipe hunter, it could see a person holding a bag. In spite of what you may have heard, snipe get nervous around people holding bags.

Bath towels don't make snipe nervous. They're very clean animals. They have bath towels at home. Mark my word, bath towels are the way to go when hunting snipe.

[Tipperary]

20. Erm, that explains why I never caught one!

I followed ALL the instructions! I was so disappointed.

[greendog]

21. It is disappointing. And when you get back to camp...

...with your empty bag you find out the other campers have consumed all the marshmallows and sassafras tea.

[A HERETIC I AM]

24. Not going to be naughty. N/t

Last edited Tue Jun 9, 2015, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

[elleng]

18. HAHAHAHA!

An OLD PRO tip, SNIPE hunts!

[panader0]

29. I tried that once and ended up with one of these:

[malthaussen]

11. Grass

Legs of jeans will do, too.

-- Mal

[LNM]

14. We use old towels when car or walk-in camping

and the microfiber (or none) when we go ultralight canoe camping. Also, if you're car camping, bring a line to string between 2 trees for your own clothesline. Bring the clothespins too.

[Coventina]

16. Same as what others said: Don't go high-tech unless weight & space are an issue.

I just bought a high-tech towel for my Grand Canyon hike last month.

It's well worth the money if you have to carry everything yourself and you need stuff to dry quickly.

For regular camping, just use old regular towels.

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!!!

[Major Nikon]

25. Half the fun of camping is not taking a bath

[AlbertCat]

28. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy....

Chapter 3[edit]

A TOWEL … is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have

Any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble‐sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand‐to‐hand‐combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindbogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might have accidentally "lost.". What the strag will think is that any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

[bikebloke]

30. I use a regular threadbare towel.

They dry quicker than the plush new ones.