Matador Network's Blog, page 2280

21 colorful Texas wildflower photos

WE TEXANS TAKE OUR WILDFLOWERS SERIOUSLY, and not just because we’re treated to some particularly impressive blooms each spring. Much of the appreciation for wildflowers — and, more generally, native-plant ecology — we see nationwide today originated here in the state thanks to the work of Lady Bird Johnson.

Both during and after LBJ’s tenure in the White House, the First Lady promoted the study, distribution, and conservation of native plants in Texas and the rest of the country, helping found the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1995, both located in Austin.

Texans today — organizations and individuals — have taken up the mantle, and if you’re in the state during wildflower season (mid-March through mid-May), there are tons of forecasts, sighting reports, and identification guides online that’ll tell you what’s blooming where. Here’s a peek at what you can expect to see during Texas wildflower season.

1

Lost in a sea of bluebonnets
The bluebonnet is the Texas state flower, and if you visit during wildflower season, you'll likely see whole fields in bloom.

Photo: Donald Harper





2

Texas Indian paintbrush
Contrasting the violet-blue of the bluebonnets is the hot red of the Indian paintbrush, also known as prairie-fire.

Photo: QQ Li





3

Indian blanket
Another common Texas wildflower is the Indian blanket, or firewheel.

Photo: mlhradio




See more: 5 spots to enjoy spring blooms




4

Spiderwort
An up-close look at the spiderwort, which varies in color but most often manifests the blue hue seen above.

Photo: CameliaTWU





5

Bitterweed
Me and the dog on a walk in Pedernales Falls State Park. The bitterweed was out in force.

Photo: Author





6

Wildflower carpet
A great example of the mix of colors and species on display during Texas wildflower season. This shot was taken at Old Baylor Park, in Independence.

Photo: Dave 77459





7

Drummond's phlox
This species is native to Texas and is often sighted on roadsides.

Photo: Carol Von Canon





8

Goldenrod
This shot featuring a phaon crescent butterfly was taken near Grapevine Lake, in the DFW area.

Photo: Ken Slade





9

Willow City Loop
A little post-processing texture work turns this shot of the Willow City Loop (near Fredericksburg) into a work of art.

Photo: Vicki Gibson





Intermission





14 legendary natural wonders of South America





51 natural wonders so amazing it’s hard to believe they exist





The 54 best photos of 2012 [Matador edition]












10

Bluebonnet
Closeup of a bluebonnet off Highway 290 near Brenham.

Photo: Christine





11

Antelope horns milkweed
It's less the color of these blooms than the crazy fractalized geometry that's so striking.

Photo: QQ Li





12

Wildflowers in the city
You don't even have to travel out to the country to see Texas wildflowers. These were blooming in the middle of Austin.

Photo: Mark Stevens





13

Hill Country bluebonnets
An iconic Texas Hill Country scene: a field of bluebonnets, backed by the dipping limbs of a stand of live oak. This is one of those images that comes to the mind of a homesick Texas traveler.

Photo: Theodore Scott





14

Guadalupe County wildflowers
Taken near Seguin, TX.

Photo: Jack





15

Firewheels
A little macro detail of the firewheel, as seen above in photo #3.

Photo: Joel Olives





Intermission





25 natural wonders that will inspire you to explore





23 looks at New Zealand’s stunning geographic diversity





75 places so colorful it’s hard to believe they’re real [pics]












16

Bluebonnets
More bluebonnets standing tall in the Texas spring.

Photo: Hans Watson





17

Verbena field
Verbena blooms near Fredericksburg, TX.

Photo: Vicki Gibson





18

Bluebonnets in the fog
The morning fog makes the color of these bluebonnets pop even brighter.

Photo: Jason St Peter





19

Lupine
The name "bluebonnet" and the status of state flower of Texas actually encompasses multiple species of lupine.

Photo: faungg's photo





20

Sparse blooms
Not all years bring equally impressive wildflower conditions. The timing and concentration of blooms depend heavily on winter precipitation and the spring warmup. Fortunately, this year is looking solid so far.

Photo: Jonathan Phillips





21

Happy Texas wildflower season!
Come on down. We'll treat you right.

Photo: Jack

The post 21 insanely colorful photos of Texas wildflower season appeared first on Matador Network.

Animal photos magical, or creepy?

At first, I was just as enchanted as most of my friends who posted these photos, which were staged and shot by Russian photographer Katerina Plotnikova. Who wouldn’t be jealous of beautiful models who got to hug, and be caressed by, cuddly animals?

Some of them, like the portraits with the owl, and the foxes, are really quite beautiful. Looking through them again however, I realized that these are kind of creepy. The models look very young, and some of their expressions, and positions, are pretty sexual. I also had to consider the animals themselves — the shot could not have taken place without the help of on-site animal trainers, but were these animals drugged at all?

What is your opinion on Katerina Plotnikova’s photo set? Is this totally weird, or just another work of art?

The post Is this animal photo shoot magical, or creepy? appeared first on Matador Network.

The humble history of GoPro [vid]

THIS IS GoPro Founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman. He wanted a product that did something specific for him, so he got creative. He started small, and he failed several times. Now his product is ubiquitous, right across some of the biggest companies in the world, down to the little itty bitty private consumer.

I’m what one may consider late to the party. I just picked up a GoPro Hero 3 Black this week for an upcoming roadtrip to Utah. I’m gonna be rock climbing, rafting, canyoneering, biking, hiking, and god knows what else you can get up to there, and I want to capture it all. As I’ve been fiddling with it over the past couple of days — figuring out settings, how to control it with my smartphone, how the mounts work — I’ve been falling in love with it. I get it. It’s not really hard to, considering many of my (and probably your) favourite videos on YouTube are shot with GoPros. Now, let’s see what I can actually do with it.

The post The surprisingly humble history of the GoPro is an inspiration for us all appeared first on Matador Network.

The world's saddest art project

All images courtesy of Artarea TV, Tbilisi

MY WIFE AND I strolled quickly toward Misha Saakashvili’s presidential palace in Tbilisi, not knowing what to expect, but trying to look like we belonged. After BS’ing our way through security, we found the important, beautiful people and the local version of hipster youth milling around the palace grounds. We joined in, complaining about the poor quality of the wine, laughing slightly too loudly, and gazing at the art with as much ennui as we could muster in order to impress others with our cultural superiority. The Georgian media, as is its habit, swarmed, though the star had already left the building.

Misha (as he’s called) was not home.

The election in October 2013 ended Misha Saakashvili’s slow-motion fall from grace and power, though he hadn’t been in Georgia since well before then. The ‘Art Rules’ (or ხელოვნება მართავს) gallery opening was meant to repurpose “Misha’s house” for a night of contemporary Georgian art and culture. To say it was bad would be a compliment.

Granted, each installation did have a placard and the name of an actual, living artist, so in this sense it was art. My wife and I began our tour with the garden.

Exhibit A: The garden

1. Spray-painted “street art,” mostly faux-cursive tags and cartoonish aliens.

2. Two plywood skateboard ramps, two skateboards, no skateboarders, one placard.

3. Three fires burned low, pregnant with social critique, in three oil drums.

4. A meter-high ribbon of cloth wrapped around the palace’s neo-classical columns and printed with the words “MESSAGE EXPIRED OR NOT AVAILABLE.” Either the words actually meant something or they were just making English look very ugly.

Exhibit B: The palace foyer

1. Rusty spoons, aluminum foil, an empty instant coffee can, and other found objects tied to a plastic box with a tangle of rope and wires.

2. Twenty IV bags filled with nuts and berries, hanging symbolically near a staircase.

3. An installation generating ambient or industrial noises based on (maybe?) the motions of people in the room.

4. The strained, politically nervous dance of the crowd to this music. Maybe we weren’t ourselves art, but our struggle for purpose seemed to parallel the exhibit’s.

5. “Normal” paintings and photographs, mostly landscapes; possibly a critique on cultural invisibility or maybe just something Misha forgot to pack when he moved out.

Exhibit C: The second floor

1. A sculpture of a giant charred and toppled flower occupying most of one room and some of the walkway stretching over the foyer. A few people tripped over it and looked around confused, like they didn’t know if they were guilty or not. Maybe being tripped over was part of its deeper statement about the human condition. Or maybe not.

2. Three white couches, each with one very intentional line of dirt running along its cushions. My personal favorite, though of course I have no idea what it meant.

Exhibit D: The garden (again)

1. A drainpipe that was apparently more than merely a drainpipe. According to the piece’s label, it symbolized the breakdown of Misha’s stranglehold on information. I spoke directly to the placard with a rather funny Georgian expletive that through the magic of grammar makes part of the male anatomy into a state of being. It doesn’t translate well, but it’s a favorite among seventh-grade boys.

2. The nighttime panorama of Tbilisi, which was not part of this ‘Art Rules’ chaos, but certainly would take First Prize for beauty. Misha sculpted a great view for himself during his tenure as president, spreading a legacy of fountains, bright colors, and bizarre architecture below his clifftop abode. He built his walls high enough to block out the decaying, slummy neighborhood surrounding its other three sides, limiting his field of vision to the city below, the sky above, and Sameba Cathedral behind.

‘Art Rules’ was supposed to show that the emperor has no clothes, though it seems many of his more artsy subjects don’t either. My impression as we hurried to catch the metro home was that it was all a huge joke. The artists and event organizers thought they were giving Misha the finger by turning his house into an art gallery, not realizing that filling Misha’s house with their flaccid works of art was itself the finger.

It’s a sad joke: the site of years of political waste and official kitsch filled with artistic kitsch, the whole event merely a continuation of the former regime’s ennui and impotence. Even though the king has left his castle, his subjects are still pissing on his shadow. Kinda reminds me of another famous Georgian named Joseph.

The post Inside the world’s saddest art project: Georgia’s Presidential Palace, Tbilisi appeared first on Matador Network.

Illegal Norwegian street sign

I LOVE COLLECTING photos of interesting street signs while traveling abroad. Some are pretty self-explanatory, others are more cryptic, but very rarely have I found a sign as hilarious as this one in the Norwegian town of Ørje. Apparently, it violates the Norwegian Road Traffic Act, and I can see how it could interfere with pedestrian safety. But imagine how fun it must be to watch people using this crosswalk; when it rains and snows as much as it does in Norway, it’s nice to have things like this to inspire creativity.

The post This Norwegian street sign is illegal, but what it makes pedestrians do is hilarious appeared first on Matador Network.

Don't make these travel excuses

Photo: martinAK15

I’m sure you’ve heard them before: Utterly incomprehensible travel excuses that keep people stuck in the same boring place for decades at a time, never experiencing anything but the cozy comfort of familiar surroundings and predictable leisure activities.

Sigh.

I will say some excuses are decent; it takes prioritization and potential sacrifice to build up the savings to travel, for example. I’d say it’s worth doing, and far less of a sacrifice than it may have originally seemed. But most travel excuses are just plain stupid. What’s even worse is those who stay home are often the ones for whom travel would be the most eye-opening. Scared of other cultures? Think travel is scary? Have no idea what people are like all over the world? Then you need to go!

It’s time for a little tough love, boys and girls. If you find yourself making these excuses, you need to get the fuck out. Get yourself a one-way ticket to Bangladesh with nothing but a teeny backpack and no plans of any kind and go have yourself a spectacular fucking time.

“Is it safe?”

Damn. If you actually think living at home is safe, you need a reality check. Depending on where you are, you may very well be in a country other people avoid because of how dangerous it is. This is especially true of those who live in the “greatest country in the world,” aka, the USA.

Ever take a look at crime statistics in the United States? Nah, I didn’t think so. You can probably cite all sorts of scary things that happened to Americans abroad, though. There’s that one guy in this one country. That other guy somewhere else. That one thing that happened that one time. Yeah, that’s totally a good reason to run away from reality.

Take a brief look at a list of countries with the lowest homicide rate, and you might make an interesting discovery. The United States is #104. Let that sink in.

Here are some countries with a lower homicide rate than the United States:

Laos
Suriname
Albania
Cambodia
Iran
Tajikistan
Slovakia
Qatar
Bhutan

If you’re afraid for your life, you should leave home as quickly as possible. Oh, and read this if you think hostels are scary.

“They don’t like Americans.”

Take a second look at that sentence. Is it a preconceived notion based on information other than having been there and experiencing it for yourself? Nice job! You just committed an act of prejudice.

What’s unfortunate about this particular sort of prejudice is it’s self-perpetuating. Once someone gets it into his or her head that “the world doesn’t like us,” they stay at home and never find out how nonsensical it is. Never mind that millions of Americans go traveling all the time and have a spectacular experience. Never mind that some places in the US treat minority populations like presumed suspects (ahem, Arizona). Once people think dumb things and shelter themselves from evidence to the contrary, it’s hard to get facts into their heads.

But I won’t bother arguing against that belief. It’s useless. I’ll merely point out that if you think the world hates Americans (or French people, or Italians, or whatever you may be), then it’s all the more reason to get out there and not be an idiot so people can see.

If they think Americans suck, go prove them wrong. Go somewhere and don’t suck.

“I don’t like how they do things there.”

Ah, yes, culture shock. Everyone’s favorite reason to stick it out in your home country and never experience anything else, all the while thinking your own set ways are somehow objectively superior.

It’s not often I meet people who encapsulate the American Dream, as I generally don’t associate with people whose only aspiration is buying a bigger house and accumulating a dozen business suits, but I’m occasionally reminded that they do, in fact, exist. People who “need” to buy things. Who “need” a new $400 purse. Who “need” a BMW. Who “need” to go tanning. People who think wants and needs are totally the same thing. These people often complain about not having any money. What a wonderful culture! But I digress.

It’s not that I think all ideas are equally valid; let’s face it, some ideas are just plain stupid. But if you’re afraid of other cultures, then you need to experience other cultures. You might actually learn a thing or two. You might learn that the best education on the planet is in Finland. That the longest life expectancy is in Japan. That the happiest country in the world is Norway. That Romania has waterproof, wrinkle-proof, rip-proof money that you can go swimming with. Why the fuck don’t we?!?! Oh, and in most countries, receiving a phone call is free. Only the caller has to pay.

Feeling jealous yet? If you think your culture is oh-so-great, I bet you haven’t seen much else. And that’s exactly why you should go.

“Don’t they have weird food?”

Yes, they do, and it’s fucking fantastic.

So yeah, this is a bit of a minor point, but still, people are extraordinarily terrified of what it’s like to eat in other countries. They have this weird picture of mangy rats on barbecue skewers drenched in the blood of slaughtered newborn children and garnished with wombat toenail clippings.

Ironically, the ones afraid of the food are probably devouring “food” that is cartoonishly unhealthy for them. One look at a week’s worth of food around the world should be enough to show just how much healthier food is supposed to be, and in other countries, usually is.

But I won’t try to convince anyone with the health aspect, because traveling for cuisine is absolutely spectacular. And this is coming from one of the world’s pickiest eaters, especially as a kid, who now gets super excited seeing all the wonderful concoctions the world has to offer. Oh, and street food is quite often the best food.

“I don’t think I can do it.”

Well then that’s why you should go!!!

Seriously, if you’re scared of how tough it’s going to be to travel around the world on your own, well, then your fears are getting the best of you. 18-year-olds with zero travel experience do it all the time, and they have an extraordinary time. Are you really going to let them be cooler than you are?

So if you’re scared of dealing with:

A weird language
Funny-looking currency
Crazy cultural oddities
Not knowing where things are
Only bringing a few pairs of shoes
Being alone

…then you need to go. If you can’t handle these (mild) life challenges, life is going to smack you in the face when real problems occur down the road. Like when your wifi goes out.

And it won’t even be as tough as you think. It’s probably going to be fun.

Now get out of here!

This article was originally published at Snarky Nomad and is reprinted here with permission.

The post If you make these excuses, you need to get out and travel appeared first on Matador Network.

18 ways to piss off couchsurfers

Photo:

Bungee jumper's worst nightmare-VID

THIS VIDEO taken in Zambia on Dec 31, 2011 doesn’t need any words from me. It speaks for itself.

In a recent post from The Guardian’s Experience section, Erin Langworthy recounts what happened:

I later found out I’d fallen for four seconds after the rope snapped: a distance of up to 40m. If I had been over land, I’d have been dead. Luckily, it had rained the day before, so the river was turbulent and full. That morning, I had seen crocodiles in the water, but I couldn’t think about that. I was struggling in the fast-flowing rapids, because my ankles were still tied together. The bungee cord had snapped near the top, so I still had about 30m attached to me, which kept getting caught. I was pulled downriver and underwater into whirlpools. At one point, the cord snagged below me and I was trapped below the surface. As I was running out of air and my vision started to fade, I managed to dive back down, grab the rope and pull it free. Eventually I managed to wedge my arm between two slimy rocks near the side of the river. All I thought about was clinging on.

I now know I was in the water for 40 minutes. The first guy to reach me was from the bungee company. He grabbed my harness and got me straight out of the water, giving me his shirt because I was shivering. I was worried that he didn’t have first aid training, so I got into the recovery position. Then I started throwing up water from my lungs. My body was purple with bruises from the impact. I started coughing up blood and began to worry about internal injuries. I felt exhausted and struggled to process what had happened.

I jumped at 5.30pm and didn’t get to hospital in Victoria Falls until 11pm. The paramedics got lost, and because I’d ended up on the Zimbabwean side of the river without a passport, I was essentially an illegal immigrant. I was put on a ventilator, and needed an ultrasound and to see a lung specialist. They gave me a large dose of antibiotics – the doctors were worried about how much dirty water I had ingested. X-rays showed no broken bones, but my lungs had partially collapsed. The guys from the bungee company visited me in hospital. They were very apologetic and astounded I’d survived. Facilities were basic, so I had to be flown to South Africa. Friends I’d met travelling got me my belongings and passport, so I could travel. Two weeks later, I went home.

Like any extreme activity, there are inherent risks involved. Hell, crossing the street is risky. So this is definitely not meant to scare anyone off doing this kind of activity. But sheesh! Hard to erase that imagery from your mind. Happy and safe adventuring everyone.

The post Bungee jumper’s worst nightmare come true (Video) appeared first on Matador Network.

Notes from the night train

Photo: Jun Takeuchi

My grandmother called me the night before I left.

“Please don’t take the night train,” she said. I told her I might.

Later, she sent me an email: “My love, I know we spoke about the night train. If you do, and I know you will — because you crave adventure, maybe even more than I do — take my advice: Lock your backpack to the overhead, keep your passport in your pants, and, Carly, don’t forget to look out the window.”

Vienna à Rome

I spent the first four hours of the train to Rome alone in my couchette, gazing out the window at the sun setting over the Austrian Alps. I caught up on the last week of my trip, scribbling in a brown leather notebook I had bought from a vendor outside the Naschmarkt. My lock was abandoned somewhere in the hostel off Ringstrasse, so I slept on top of my backpack, with my passport tucked against the cool of my stomach.

Before midnight, I walked with sore, shaky legs to the dining car. Rows of cracked leather booths were all empty, so I ate a cold cheese platter with salted cashews, dried apricots, and a glass of tart red wine in silence.

When I returned to the cabin, a lanky boy in a soccer jersey, with stringy, almond hair, was perched on the cot across from mine, reading. I saw the cover — Kerouac, of course, in Italian.

“Ciao,” I said, with a self-effacing grin. “Io studiato in Fierenze. Inoltre, mi piace Jack Kerouac.” I reddened.

He humored me for a while, ignoring my clumsy grammatical errors and unending vocabulary requests. “Come si dice…?”

Eventually, my limited Italian had run dry, and the wine courage had faded. I feigned tiredness, closed my eyes softly, and lolled my head towards the train wall, let the boy from Bologna return to his book.

I awoke with a lurch to a stopped train, to his calloused hand resting on mine. He was crouched down, so close I could feel his breath on the tip of my nose.

“Ciao, bella,” he smirked, and with that, he left.

Split à Budapest

My shoulders were burnt, my cheeks freckled from weeks in the crisp Croatian sun. I had island hopped from the party of Hvar to quaint Vis, from a music festival on Zrce Beach to windsurfing the ultramarine waters of Bol. My back and midsection, hugged by my 62 L backpack, were soaked with salt from the mile walk to the station. Unstrapping and untangling the various bags and wet swimsuits hanging on my pack, I sat against the cool of the cement wall, waiting for the train to arrive.

I ate a spinach and cheese börek quickly, wiping grease from the filo pastry onto a small travel towel that had proved to be my most valued companion. The train to Budapest finally came, mostly on time. Semi-barefoot and knotted, I quickly found an empty cabin to recline in the cool of the air conditioning. There would be hours to read the books I’d put off, the writing I hadn’t done, so I closed my eyes for a moment as the remaining passengers filed on the train.

Suddenly, the glass door to my compartment flung open to the screams of girls in cutoff shorts and various neon-styled crop tops.

“CARLY!” they squealed in their lilting English accents.

It was obvious I was the only young American girl in the station, nervously set to board the night train.

I had previously met the girls at a hostel in Hvar, where we turned our small dorm room into a den of girl talk and makeup application, rolling on the floor with drunken stories of nights spent out at Carpe Diem, the infamous beach club a five-minute water taxi off the island. I borrowed their hair straightener, and they laughed at tales of the eclectic men I’d met traveling alone across Eastern Europe.

That night on the train, we reclined our seats flat until they joined, creating a massive bed for us to sprawl out on, legs intertwined. We read Cosmo UK magazines, ate chips with odd flavors like shrimp cocktail and curry — apparently very popular in Britain — gorged on Haribo candies and Cadbury chocolates. Passengers walking by peeked past the sandy pink sheet we hung up at the door to our cabin to find an old-fashioned sleepover party underway.

Months later, back at home in New York, I received a package from the girls loaded with odd chips and chocolates: “For your next party on the night train! Xx, your British girls.”

Delhi à Amritsar

The train from Delhi to Amritsar was different; it was the one my grandmother had warned me about. Sticky masses shuffled back and forth on the narrow platform, a chicken frantically crossed the train tracks. I stood in line for my ticket next to a bull lethargically waiting for his owner, and sat inside the station on the floor, next to a young family eating samosas. I received curious glares from mingling groups of Indian men — it was obvious I was the only young American girl in the station, nervously set to board the night train.

I smiled at the mother of the family sitting near me, and she beckoned me towards her. I slid my bags over, said hello. She wobbled her head, smiled. There was no mutual language to be spoken, except her offer of a potato and green pea samosa, still warm. I accepted readily. With no warning, the horns began to sound, with muffled announcements. Chaos as the masses of waiting passengers herded outside towards the arriving train. I spotted the young backpacking Austrian man I’d seen in the ticketing line and filed in behind, following him to the first cabin on the right.

We sat and smiled at each other, slightly relieved to find familiarity in one another. Soon after, the door to the cabin slid open, and three Sikh men in turbans slipped in quietly. As the train left the station, they began to converse with one another, casually, curiously glancing at the two of us on the other end of the cabin. We ate our dinner of daal and chapatti, and the Austrian quickly fell asleep. One of the three men reached into his bag, as I looked for something in mine to keep occupied. From the depths of his side pocket, he gingerly pulled out a fresh deck of cards, and the Indian men began to play.

Looking up, I smiled broadly, and hesitantly asked (unsure if they spoke English, unsure if they wanted to speak with me), “Do you all know how to play gin?”

“Of course!” they laughed at my clear trepidation.

We spent the next several hours playing cards, on that night train to Amritsar. I learned they were Punjab government officials, and that they were better at cards than I was. They spoke to me about the sacred Golden Temple and their families in Delhi. Each was curious about what I was doing backpacking alone in India, asked me questions with skeptical delight. The train ride passed quickly, and soon we were disembarking in the subdued light of the Amritsar station.

The next morning, at sunrise, I visited the Golden Temple. I watched the sun come over the building, reflected in the water below. I listened to the Sikh chants and felt grateful — for my grandfather teaching me gin, for girl talk, for samosas, for love without language, for cool concrete walls and reclining bulls, for the opportunity to see the world and learn its variety, and most of all — for the night train.

The post Notes from the night train appeared first on Matador Network.

31 crazy camping tricks

We’ve entered the age where ‘glamping’ is a thing. Glamor camping, for those who mercifully had not heard about it till now, is a type of outing where one sleeps less under a tent and more in a fully appointed home that just happens to be under a canvas roof.

Though the glamping trend feels a bit too much like the One Percent’s approach to the outdoors, glampers do have a point: This is the 21st century, and there’s no reason we need to treat camping like we’re still cavemen. Here are some camping hacks to make your trip less chaotic and, hopefully, more enjoyable.

1. Protect your toilet paper.

(via)

A super easy hack that can keep your toilet paper from being crushed and keep it from getting wet if you accidentally drop stuff in the water or if it starts to rain. Just take a coffee can (my father’s been using cylindrical Quaker oatmeal tins for years, and they work just as well), pop the TP in, and cut a slit in the side to run the paper out of.

2. Create a makeshift lantern.

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You’d be surprised how much light it provides. They actually use old soda bottles as solar light bulbs in some parts of the world.

3. Make a makeshift glowstick.

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Keep the bottle ¼ of the way full with Mountain Dew, sprinkle in a little bit of baking soda and three capfuls of peroxide. You’ve just made a glowstick.

4. Create a makeshift music speaker.

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You don’t need to bring big speakers or even a separate speaker plugin for your phone: A phone or an iPod in a ceramic mug will work just fine.

5. Sage is a natural mosquito repellent.

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Throw some on the fire every now and then, and it should help keep them away.

6. Spice that shit up.

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There’s no excuse for bland food, even in the middle of the woods. Use Tic Tac containers.

7. Pack a cooler like a boss.

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The more space you conserve, the more room there is for beer and hot dogs.

8. Pack a backpack like a boss.

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If you’re gonna be moving, pack efficiently.

More like this: 1 trick that will change the way you pack forever


9. Keep your clothes warm.

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Especially if you’re camping in the winter, you can keep your clothes warm by putting the next day’s clothes in your sleeping bag while you sleep.

10. Use Doritos as tinder.

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While it probably doesn’t say anything great about the nutritional content of Doritos, they actually work pretty well as kindling if, say, it just rained and you’re having trouble getting a fire lit. You can also use the lint from your laundry dryer’s filter.

11. Make coffee easy to make.

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Just put some coffee in a coffee filter, tie it up with dental floss, and then use it as a teabag in hot water.

12. Conserve (and don’t lose) soap.

(Via)

It sucks if you drop your one bar of soap in the lake and have to root around the bottom to find it. So, instead, get a bar of soap, peel it up with a vegetable peeler, and use a single slice per bath.

13. Make your zippers more zippable.

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Just put a keyring on them. This is especially useful if you’re camping in cold weather and are wearing gloves or mittens.

14. Bring quick and dirty firestarters.

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If you don’t want to burn through a billion matches, do this: coat a cotton ball in Vaseline and then wrap it in a square of aluminum foil. When it’s time to use it, cut an X in the foil, pull a bit of the cotton out, twist it into a wick, and light it. It should last about 10 minutes.

15. Pack more firestarters.

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It’s just circular cotton pads dipped in wax.

16. Bring Altoids tiki torches.

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Take an empty Altoids tin, fill it with folded cardboard, and then sprinkle wax on top.

17. Carry a portable charcoal grill.

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Charcoal in a cardboard egg carton. Light the carton. Fire started.

18. Protect your matches.

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Wooden matchboxes can get wet or crushed. Pack your matches in a plastic container — make sure they’re ‘strike anywhere’ matches — and then glue some sandpaper to the top of the container. If you’re camping in the cold, bring a metal tin, as the plastic might break.

19. If you’re body-odor averse, bring a portable washing machine.

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Basically, just get a five gallon bucket, cut a small hole in the top of it, and then put some water and detergent in it, stick a regular bathroom plunger through the hole, toss the clothes in, and use elbow grease. More detailed instructions here.

20. If you’re squat-in-the-woods averse, bring a portable toilet.

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A milk crate, a bucket, a toilet seat. Boom.

21. Hide your valuables in soap.

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Especially if you’re at a fairly crowded campground and want to go for a hike, valuables can be hidden in soap. This is an old Boy Scout trick.

22. Make calzones.

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Mini calzones in cupcake tins. Can be cooked directly over the fire.

23. Make campfire cones.

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Fruit and chocolate, grilled in aluminum. What’s not to love?

24. Smoke it with rosemary.

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A nice alternative to a marinade — just put it directly on the charcoal and underneath the meat.

25. Roast Starbursts.

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You heard me.

26. Seriously, guys, you can cook virtually anything in foil.

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Three cheese potatoes. Burgers. Sausage. Lumberjack breakfast. Pineapple upside-down cake. Nachos. All in foil.

27. Pre-make your pancakes.

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You won’t have to worry about spoiled milk or eggs if you pre-make your pancake batter, put it in plastic bags, and then freeze them. They’ll double as ice packs, and you can thaw them and then cook them up.

28. Cook all your hot dogs at once.

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If you don’t have a grill and want to cook all your hot dogs at once, all you need is a rake.

29. Never lose your keys in the water again.

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Attach your keys to a cork. Practically essential if you’re boating.

30. Get comfy with padding.

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It’s way easier on the back to camp with padding between you and the ground. If you don’t want to buy these tiles, a yoga mat will work in a pinch.

31. Know your knots!

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As any Boy Scout knows, knots aren’t a one-type-fits-all deal. Learn a few, and it’ll make your camping (and your life) easier.

The post 31 crazy camping tricks that will make your life easier appeared first on Matador Network.