The Manual: Couples Camping 101

Ramen, wow you haven't seen what I can do with Ramen. It might be one of the 2012 best pics for food if I send in my different styles of it...lol

I took my wife (then my girlfriend) backpacking / climbing Saddleback Mt. in Rangeley, Maine back in 1976. This was her first wilderness experience.
She loved the hiking, and the camping, BUT, she did not enjoy the climbing! My suggestion for a first timer is to backpack a level, easy to moderate trail, and not put a first timer on any steep mountain climb. We have since enjoyed many hikes, backpacks, and camping trips together. My wife thinks climbing is just too much effort. So I now climb with our 25 year old son.. JMO
Shawn D. Medford, Ma.

Over 40 years ago, I took my new wife on her first camping trip. We only hiked about 1/4 mile into some heavy brush next to a not-so-romantic irrigation storage lake/canal. But we had a grate time even though it was impossible to sleep both of us in my one-man jungle hammock. We also had a thick blanket that we used to sleep the rest of the night on the ground. In the last 42 years, we have camped all over Mexico , the USA and part of Canada and we are still happily married!!!

Consider base camping in a Natl Forest campground where there are bath facilities and day hiking. Some campgrounds are actually very remote, some backed up right next to wilderness. Or pack in only a mile or two, then same thing, day hike.

Consider caching a rose-in-vase, small italian style table and chairs, some cookery if needed, tablecloth, and maybe even a screenhouse (that's severe, but doable) in buggy areas.

It's amazing what bears will leave lying about in the wilderness....

I find that if we are going on short overnight hikes that a pack of colgate whisp's can really freshen the breath in the morning and the are super light weight.