Edit: I sometimes keep forgetting the meme communities on Lemmy are incapable of taking things as the joke they are. Y'all worry too much about taking shit seriously. Chill out lol
This entire post reads "I don't know how to camp/go backpacking.
Get yourself a travel air mattress or sleeping pad, probably a better sleeping bag. Solves the lack of sleep and sore back.
Get a proper tent that's water proof and learn how to set it up properly so water doesn't pool under it. Make sure the vents have good mosquito netting to keep bugs our, and never have the entry unzipped a second longer than it takes to get in and out of.
For the mice, don't have food in unsealed containers and if you're in bear country you should be hanging a bear bag at least 100 feet (30m~ ) from you campsite, make sure cook wear and utensils are all properly cleaned too. Some newer tents even have a pouch built in near the door to seal a bag into, minimizing the chance of something deciding to make it a new home.
So many fragile campers in the comments. It's ok if people don't like your hobby. They might not find it worth the time, money, and effort to "get good". You don't have to defend the things you like from people who aren't into it.
I wouldn't want to camp either if I was the kind of person who doesn't plan ahead and also crumbles at the slightest inconveinience, I don't want people like that camping with me either so go ahead and stay home please and thank you.
Use a candle and a spray. You also shouldn't get bites inside your tent.
Fucking how? Also, if your backpack has food, it should either be in your car, suspended in the air between trees or in a locker provided by the campground.
See 1.
Tarps exist for several reasons, putting them above your tent and your eating area is one of them.
When I was like 7-9 I went on a "camping" trip with my football/soccer team.
Really, we were just putting up tents on the field we usually practiced at after some very tame river rafting.
It was the first time I was away from my parents. And I was inconsolable. I cried most of the night. To the point the supervisors offered to call my parents so I could talk to them. (And mobile phoning someone back then was not cheap),
In the end I just cried myself empty.
Because I was asleep so late, I slept into the morning and my "tent mates" pulled down the tent around me while I was sleeping.
So I woke up in drizzling rain, lying in my sleeping bag on a thin plastic sheet with no tent around me. While all my "friends" were in the club house having breakfast.
I did not stay in the soccer club long after that.
I detest camping. I've camped in a number of places and it has never been good. I don't care if it's the rolling Mongolian steppe greeting me in the morning, it's still horrible.
I hated camping as a child because I had no say in where, when, or for how long. As an adult I'm not camping alone as a woman. My husband would just die in the wilderness, it's not kind to a guy with cerebral palsy.
You wouldn't have made it though the paleolithic era bro. You don't have the survival instincts ᵃⁿᵈ ᵃˡˢᵒ ᶦᵗ ˡᵃˢᵗᵉᵈ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ³ ᵐᶦˡˡᶦᵒⁿ ʸᵉᵃʳˢ ᵒʳ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰᶦⁿᵍ ᵃⁿᵈ ⁿᵒᵇᵒᵈʸ ʰᵃˢ ᵉᵛᵉʳ ˡᶦᵛᵉᵈ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ˡᵒⁿᵍ ˢᵒ ᶠᵃʳ