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Tent camping over shabbos
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 4:58 am
Hello mamas!

Have any of you adventurous Mama's out there camped in tents over shabbos? We badly want to go to the Adirondacks next week, but for many complicated reasons, the only way to make it happen would be if we camped over shabbos. I've looked into air BNB's in the area thinking that we'd camp during the week, move into an apartment for Shabbos, but they're so expensive. We love to camp and don't mind roughing it, but we've never done it over a shabbos.

I know we'd need to put up an eruv of some sort so that we'd have an area outside of our tents where we can eat and play. I'm not sure what we'd do for food. All advice, suggestions, recommendations welcome!!!
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 5:07 am
Yes. As a child, and as an adult without kids.

Some advice:
*Eruv is key. Assuming you're camping at an official site, be careful not to block any trails when you put it up! (Some well-intentioned hikers tore right through our eruv when I was a kid. Smile)
*Seperate tent for children and adults. I guess if your boys and girls are old enough, then divide between them too. Everyone should feel comfortable dressing in their own tent.
*Temperatures change rapidly at night in the mountains. Make sure you have sufficient sleeping gear to keep everyone safe and comfortable.
*First things first: know where you're going to relieve yourselves! Children don't usually do quarter-mile hikes to the designated campsite toilets.
*Go up to your campsite, latest, on Thursday. You need time to set yourself up and work out any camping issues. Don't let yourself get caught on Friday afternoon without any time to fix things.
*Shabbat day food should be able to be eaten cold. I'm sure there's something like a portable, self-lighting, hotplate by now, but I don't know of anything in particular, and you can't stir up the fire on Shabbat. You can bank it over a heavy cholent pot in a pit on erev Shabbat, and see what it's like when you dig it up on Shabbat day, but make sure you have backup food if the experiment goes wrong.
*Enjoy!!!!! It sounds like it's going to be a great adventure!


Last edited by Rappel on Fri, Jul 31 2020, 5:10 am; edited 1 time in total
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 5:09 am
Also - try not to camp when it's raining heavily. It can be a beautiful, crazy chavaya as adults, but if you have to take care of kids in the rain, things just get miserable.
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paperflowers




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 5:24 am
Rappel wrote:
You can bank it over a heavy cholent pot in a pit on erev Shabbat, and see what it's like when you dig it up on Shabbat day, but make sure you have backup food if the experiment goes wrong.


In many places you can’t leave food out overnight because of bears.
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amother
Oak


 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 5:51 am
We did it once and it was my favorite shabbos in my whole life. The serenity was incomparable to much else. My husband didn't love it, he would do it again for me but not over shabbos. (He didn't say so at that time, just like a year later when I asked for a repeat. I think he just missed the going to shul part.)
We were in an enclosed grounds that didn't need eruv. We borrowed two camp style chairs so we can sit outside together during the day. We had one blow up mattress with an extra thick blanket and extra sweaters and socks, but it was mid summer and we weren't too cold. All our food was packed in a cooler and kept in a main house overnight to keep animals away from the sleeping quarters. We had cold fried chicken that we made sandwiches with for Friday night, cold cut sandwiches by day, and smoked lox for shalush shudis. One thing we forgot about was melava malka as we're not very into it at home but because of our smaller meals we did want to eat something Saturday night, so we had some snacks and roasted marshmallows.
I was a bit scared to go to the outhouse during the night but that's just me.
We did it Friday thru Sunday.
Take along sun screen that you can use on Shabbos. If bug spray is important to you/in that neighborhood take that along as well.
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amother
Purple


 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:03 am
My sister n law goes camping basically every Shabbos in the summer, but she leaves her baby behind. They're a group of friends and she says it's an amazing experience.
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:06 am
paperflowers wrote:
In many places you can’t leave food out overnight because of bears.


Whoops! I forgot about bear-proofing! I'm a little shocked that I forgot, actually...I must have been in Israel a long time already. Here, you can just cover things with stones to keep off the dogs and jackals.
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:14 am
Rappel wrote:
Yes. As a child, and as an adult without kids.

Some advice:
*Eruv is key. Assuming you're camping at an official site, be careful not to block any trails when you put it up! (Some well-intentioned hikers tore right through our eruv when I was a kid. Smile)
*Seperate tent for children and adults. I guess if your boys and girls are old enough, then divide between them too. Everyone should feel comfortable dressing in their own tent.
*Temperatures change rapidly at night in the mountains. Make sure you have sufficient sleeping gear to keep everyone safe and comfortable.
*First things first: know where you're going to relieve yourselves! Children don't usually do quarter-mile hikes to the designated campsite toilets.
*Go up to your campsite, latest, on Thursday. You need time to set yourself up and work out any camping issues. Don't let yourself get caught on Friday afternoon without any time to fix things.
*Shabbat day food should be able to be eaten cold. I'm sure there's something like a portable, self-lighting, hotplate by now, but I don't know of anything in particular, and you can't stir up the fire on Shabbat. You can bank it over a heavy cholent pot in a pit on erev Shabbat, and see what it's like when you dig it up on Shabbat day, but make sure you have backup food if the experiment goes wrong.
*Enjoy!!!!! It sounds like it's going to be a great adventure!


Rappel, thanks!

Yes, we have separate tents for our boys (we're a boys-only family) and my husband and I. We camp a lot, and have all the gear: pads, mattresses, down bags, portable toilet for my tent (my boys are happy to pee in the woods in the middle of the night Wink). We'd be checking into our campsite on Tuesday, so plenty of time to prep and set up.

I'd love to hear more about how you set up your eruv.

Any suggestions regarding food? It's very much bear country, so no food out overnight or in our tents. We have a massive cooler with a lock that we can store our food in. Any suggestions for what we can do for shabbos food? I think my kids are really going to miss chulent, their favorite food!
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:16 am
amother [ Oak ] wrote:
We did it once and it was my favorite shabbos in my whole life. The serenity was incomparable to much else. My husband didn't love it, he would do it again for me but not over shabbos. (He didn't say so at that time, just like a year later when I asked for a repeat. I think he just missed the going to shul part.)
We were in an enclosed grounds that didn't need eruv. We borrowed two camp style chairs so we can sit outside together during the day. We had one blow up mattress with an extra thick blanket and extra sweaters and socks, but it was mid summer and we weren't too cold. All our food was packed in a cooler and kept in a main house overnight to keep animals away from the sleeping quarters. We had cold fried chicken that we made sandwiches with for Friday night, cold cut sandwiches by day, and smoked lox for shalush shudis. One thing we forgot about was melava malka as we're not very into it at home but because of our smaller meals we did want to eat something Saturday night, so we had some snacks and roasted marshmallows.
I was a bit scared to go to the outhouse during the night but that's just me.
We did it Friday thru Sunday.
Take along sun screen that you can use on Shabbos. If bug spray is important to you/in that neighborhood take that along as well.


Thanks for the food details!! So you did all cold foods for shabbos. I was trying to think of how we can have hot food. I could bring a crock pot and see if the campgrounds would be ok with us plugging it in in the main house.
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:17 am
paperflowers wrote:
In many places you can’t leave food out overnight because of bears.


Yes, it's definitely bear country!! No food outside or in tents overnight!
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:18 am
Rappel wrote:
Also - try not to camp when it's raining heavily. It can be a beautiful, crazy chavaya as adults, but if you have to take care of kids in the rain, things just get miserable.


I've camped in the rain as a teen and absolutely loved it, but yeh, I don't think I'd do it with my kids. Too much mud and soggy clothing!!!
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 6:23 am
You may want to find a Rabbi who knows about camping to ask some questions.

For example, can you carry a flashlight on Shabbos if you turn it on beforehand? If anyone is making nocturnal bathroom visits to the woods, having some light is probably important.
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Elfrida




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:11 am
We used to camp in France every summer. On Thursday we would ho to the nearest town and choose our fish for Shabbos. The man would bop it over the head for us and we took it back to the campsite and cleaned it.

The campsite had barbeques available for anyone who wanted to borrow one - real barbeques, with charcoal to cook over. On Friday we would wrap the fish in a few layers of foil and barbeque it, along with some potatoes. My father was in charge, and he normally managed to time it so that it was at the glowing embers stage just before Shabbos. We made a foil blech over the barbeque, and put the food there to stay warm for Friday night. By the time we were ready to go to bed it had burnt out and we could safely leave it.

Shabbos day we ate the same fish cold.

I don't normally like fish very much, but that fresh barbequed fish on Friday night always tasted good.
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:17 am
Elfrida wrote:
We used to camp in France every summer. On Thursday we would ho to the nearest town and choose our fish for Shabbos. The man would bop it over the head for us and we took it back to the campsite and cleaned it.

The campsite had barbeques available for anyone who wanted to borrow one - real barbeques, with charcoal to cook over. On Friday we would wrap the fish in a few layers of foil and barbeque it, along with some potatoes. My father was in charge, and he normally managed to time it so that it was at the glowing embers stage just before Shabbos. We made a foil blech over the barbeque, and put the food there to stay warm for Friday night. By the time we were ready to go to bed it had burnt out and we could safely leave it.

Shabbos day we ate the same fish cold.

I don't normally like fish very much, but that fresh barbequed fish on Friday night always tasted good.


That sounds divine!!!
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mommyhood




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:20 am
DVOM wrote:
Thanks for the food details!! So you did all cold foods for shabbos. I was trying to think of how we can have hot food. I could bring a crock pot and see if the campgrounds would be ok with us plugging it in in the main house.

It would have to be pareve chulent if it’s not a locked crockpot.
Also you’d need to find out if your boys are allowed to use the woods as a bathroom on Shabbos.
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:30 am
mommyhood wrote:
It would have to be pareve chulent if it’s not a locked crockpot.
Also you’d need to find out if your boys are allowed to use the woods as a bathroom on Shabbos.


Both good points I hadn't thought of, thank you!

We'd have to remind the boys that Friday night and Shabbos we need to use our little portable potty (it has its own little tent that we put up in our campsite). On Shabbos day it's not such an issue to walk to the bathhouse. We'd need to stock it with tissues though.

A parve chulent would work fine for my boys. They don't love meat. Potatoes, onions, beans and barley would do it for them just fine.
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tweek




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:32 am
This is so far removed from anything me or my family would ever do, but I am following this thread out of fascination! It sounds awesome, but for someone else lol!

Hope you can make it work, and then please get back to us and let us know how it went.
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Elfrida




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:46 am
DVOM wrote:
That sounds divine!!!


Of course it was divine - it was Shabbos!

Incidentally, while Shabbos was a lot simpler than at home, it was also a lot fancier that standard campsite life. We wore better clothes than normal, and lit candles, then sat around a long meal (which had been carefully prepared) with wine and singing.

One year the people camping across from us and with whom we had become mildly friendly, came over Shabbos morning and asked if we had enjoyed our party the previous evening! My mother didn't know what she meant at first, then realized what our Friday night meal must have looked like to anyone who didn't know what Shabbos was!

She decided it wasn't worth explaining, and just agreed that it had been a very nice evening, but we never forgot our Shabbos party.
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DVOM




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 7:52 am
Rutabaga wrote:
You may want to find a Rabbi who knows about camping to ask some questions.

For example, can you carry a flashlight on Shabbos if you turn it on beforehand? If anyone is making nocturnal bathroom visits to the woods, having some light is probably important.


This is a really good point. It's making me rethink where we choose our campsite. We generally like to take the most isolated one we can, but in the interest of being in a more lighted area, maybe we'd choose something more centrally located. We have flashlights and lanterns, we'd need to ask if we can leave them on and move them as needed.
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amother
Brunette


 

Post Fri, Jul 31 2020, 8:03 am
Are you having your car parked in your spot? I wonder if you turn off your lights (disconnect the battery) before Shabbos if it would be allowed to open and close the car door/trunk on Shabbos? If yes, you can store food there. Wrap up warmed up chulent in a towel right before Shabbos possibly with hot packs surrounding it (ask a LOR if you can do that); it should stay warmish or at least room temperature till Shabbos morning.
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