Back to nature.

Plastic-free camping isn't that hard. It's camping after all, the whole point is to get back to nature, it's an activity that has plastic-free written all over it!

I was up in the Los Padres Forest outside of LA this weekend and it was cold at night! My polyester sleeping bag was so polyestery and scratchy. (It made me realize I don’t appreciated my organic cotton sheets enough.) I remember as a kid everyone in my family had matching brown cotton sleeping bags. They had a pattern of flying ducks on the inside, cold metal zippers, and the cotton stuffing bunched up around the seams as they got older and worn. They smelled mildewy the last time I thought of using one in college and I think they met their demise soon after that. So there is no going back to the sleeping bag of my youth. I wonder how hard it would be to find a cotton or all-natural sleeping bag these days and would it be warm enough? This is the best option I could find on a quick search just now: http://www.allergybuyersclubshopping.com/cf-be-dreambag-sleepsack.html It doesn't look that warm. It was in the 30's last night in the foothills. Some how I don't think this one would keep me warm enough (the bag I actually had wasn’t warm enough either so I guess I shouldn't be too picky). I'll keep looking for something...better...hopefully...

On another note I did make my own marshmallows for roasting so as to avoid buying marshmallows bought in plastic. My homemade ones roasted up lovely! Homemade marshmallows are surprisingly easy to make and always a hit. There was a time (a long long time ago when I had more time) when I actually made my own graham crackers too! This weekend I let someone else take care of getting the graham crackers and I didn't partake...all I care about it the roasted marshmallow anyway. Do you remember when graham crackers came wrapped in brown wax paper not clear plastic...when did that change?

All in all camping is very compatible with a plastic-less lifestyle and I highly recommend it :)