Pinterest camping has turned into one of our favorite places to find outdoor-related inspiration and hacks (it's been the inspiration for my posts how to stay warm when camping in the cold and how to start a campfire, and I use it almost exclusively to find content to share on my Facebook and Twitter feeds). It offers a wealth of recipes, destination ideas, hiking/backpacking/camping tips and of course gorgeous "memes" that remind me why I started the Outdoor Book Club in the first place. (Have you followed me there yet?) Lots of people use Pinterest to plan weddings; why not use it to plan your big adventure?

Four stages of camp planning: Fantasize, Plan, Experience, Share
Any planned adventure starts with an idea. Maybe you heard a friend rave about her camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes and want to have a similar experience. Perhaps you read an article, saw a picture or even had a dream about backpacking. That's when you start fantasizing about what an awesome trip you would have if you were the one planning the experience.

Once you decide you're at least somewhat serious about making your epic adventure happen, that's when you start planning. You look at your calendar, you research campsites, starting taking inventory of your gear, look up recipes and think about who you'll invite along. For many of us, planning is our strong suit and can be one of the best parts of camping. Pinterest makes it even more fun and inspiring.

The third stage is that you actually go on the trip. You use all the tips and resources you found, and take lots of pictures. You lose yourself in the beauty of the great outdoors, hike to places you've never seen, enjoy the warmth of a campfire with some amazing food and friends. You bring back a Petoskey stone from the beach, lots of gorgeous pictures and, after months or maybe years of wanting, found a sense that you've rediscovered your inner heroine.

How to use Pinterest for camping planning
I'm assuming here that you have a basic understanding of how Pinterest works. So I'll only give you a simple warning (which you probably already know, but bears repeating): Pinterest can be extremely addictive. You can spend hours and hours there, falling down one rabbit hole after another, your brain tweaked up on projects and ideas that might sound amazing and mind-blowing, but will in all likelihood, never happen. Planning your camping trip is no exception. So either accept that's your fate, or put a time limit on your browsing. Let's get started!

Create your boards
Boards help you organize your pins into categories like recipes, activity ideas, gear, inspiration and more. Don't go overboard with pinning everything that you find inspiring or interesting, otherwise you'll have a hard time finding the information you really need to plan your camping trip. Often using the "favorite" option is a good alternative to pinning everything you like. Questions to ask as you begin to create boards:

• Where do you want to visit?
• What experiences do you want to have?
• What kind of gear will you need?
• What kind of food will you cook?

For example, if you're planning a backpacking trip to Isle Royale, you might want to create boards called (here are links to some of my boards):

• Isle Royale
• Gear
• Hiking
• Camping tips & tricks
• Camp chow
• Books to read while in the great outdoors

Follow other people's boards
In order to find the best and most useful information, you need to start following boards and people. There are probably at least a handful of people who have started similar projects as yours.

Now you might not love every single one of their pins, but that's the beauty of Pinterest. You add the pins you do love to your own board. Once you've followed a board (or person), his or her pins will start populating in your  home feed (similar to Facebook). Now each time you login to Pitnerest you'll have a fresh crop of camping, hiking and outdoorsy pins ready to peruse (and pin on your own boards).

Use the general search option to get started
This is as good a place as any to start your journey. Type in a keyword, like "hiking" or "camping" and you're off. Once you find a couple of good pins, you'll be well on your way to creating some truly inspiring boards. You can also start pining photos from some of your favorite outdooors sites. Found a helpful blog post on your destination that you want to revisit later? Pin it. Discover an inspiring travel photo? Pin it.

Make sure that you use the "related pins" option. Here's where you'll find some of your best stuff. (Remember what I said earlier about rabbit holes?) This really is the most awesome way to find the best pins. You'll move around the underworld of Pinterest, finding new and wonderful things on a variety of boards.

Got friends who camp? Follow them on Pinterest!
The best way to find the friends you already have through Facebook or Twitter is to click your name in the top right corner of the homepage, then use the Find Friends option in the drop-down menu. You can decide which friends you want to follow. To "tag" a person to a pin, simply use their Pinterest username with the "@" symbol.



Group boards are your friendHave you decided to bring along family members or a group of friends? Bring a little communal inspiration to a board, and invite them to add their own pins. This will keep everyone inspired and on the same page.

Pay it forward & create a post-trip boardPinterest is not only a great place for fantasizing & planning, but for organizing and sharing your adventures. After you come back from your camping trip, make sure you create another board where you can share photos and experiences of the trip (and help the next woman who comes along who's using Pinterest to plan her trip).

What are your favorite boards when it comes to the outdoors? Share in the comments below.

Here at the Outdoor Book Club we know that die-hard bibliophiles often have deep-seated anxiety about spending time in the woods (not to mention mountains, meadows, beaches and any other environment without a flushing toilet). Perhaps it's because most of us have spent our entire lives inside. (Who's read the book Room?) Even if we spent our childhoods riding bikes around the neighborhood, building forts in the  woods or attending summer camp, we haven't really become outdoorswomen. So as we grow into adults, we lose a critical connection to nature that's really hard to re-establish after so many years with a roof constantly over our heads.

But all is not lost. Research shows that nature is an eternal spring of healing for all sorts of physical, mental and spiritual ills. For example:

• Contact with the natural world can significantly reduce symptoms of attention deficit disorder in children as young as five years old. (Kuo and Taylor, 2004)
• People who relocated to settings with a higher exposure to nature were found to be overall happier during the three years that their mental health was recorded. (White 2014)
• Exposure to nature has been used as therapy for short-term recovery from stress or mental fatigue, faster physical recovery from illness, and long-term overall improvement on people’s health and well being. (Velardea,Fry, Tveitb 2007).

You're not as big a wimp as you think you are. 
You're actually very capable of being the heroine in the book that you've always admired. Nature is perhaps the single best way to reconnect with your inner heroine, with those around you and to the wider world. We simply won't survive long without connection.

But what about all those bugs? And what if I have to pee?

Bugs and peeing in the woods aside, the best advice I can give you about loving the outdoors is to simply decide to take the risk (I can guarantee you it's all mental). Don't argue with yourself, don't try and make excuses, don't worry about if you're doing it right. Just move forward a little bit each time, and it will get easier.

But if you still need some tactics to help you learn to love the outdoors, here are some tips to help make it easier:

Start small.
You don't need to travel far if you're just starting to learn how to enjoy the outdoors. Walking around the neighborhood is as good a place as any to begin. Or if you're feeling like you need to be the valedictorian of the outdoors (an urge I'm familiar with), find a local hiking trail near your house. Then move up to spending more time outdoors: longer hikes, a camp out in the backyard, and then find a local full-service campground. Each action, each moment you spend outside becomes a stepping stone towards being the wild woman and heroine of your own story that you've always wanted to be.

Bring a friend (and maybe that friend has four legs) 
Even if you really enjoy your alone time, there might be times when you need someone else's company (as well as the extra motivation). Bringing your kid(s) along is a great way for the family to connect and create memories, and a there really isn't a better date idea than a long walk along a flowing river.

Read up on the ecosystem where you live.
This will help you better appreciate the natural environment around you. Find out what kind of trees are native to your geographic area and try to find them. Bring along a bird book and some binoculars (you can borrow them from your grandmother). Find out how your local waterways connect together - then toss a stick or flower into the stream, and imagine how it could conceivably end up in the ocean (a great opportunity to reflect on the connectiveness of the Universe).

Bring treats (chocolate works — just don't keep it in your pocket)
So does an artisinal sandwich with all your favorite condiments that no one else likes. Maybe even one of those little bottles of wine, if you want to go down that road (do I have to tell you not to get drunk while hiking/kayaking/bicycling? No? Good.).

Bring a book
Yes. Bring your life preserver, and after you put in a good 30-60 minutes exploring, pick a quiet place and start reading. Soon you'll associate being outside with a healthier sense of well-being, alone time and getting to read your book uninterrupted (now how often does that happen on the couch at home?).

Buy awesome hiking boots
Nothing like a special pair of shoes to get you motivated. I'm particularly fond of Keens for all types of activities. Make sure you find out how to buy hiking boots that make sense for you, depending on what kind of hiking you're planning on doing.

Ride a bike
The thing I love about riding a bike over walking or running is that you cover so much more ground. Plus it's about as close to flying as you'll get without actually leaving the earth or paying money for a plane ticket.

Meditate
Meditating while outside is like super-charging your meditation practice. You can either meditate while hiking, or find a quiet spot away from any foot traffic, sit down in the leaves or sand, and disconnect from the chaos that is your every day life.

Finally: get over yourself
So you hate being outside. Time to take a serious look at why that is, when so much research shows that as human beings we're wired to be outside, and that according to the New York Times, trying new things is one of the best ways to keep your brain healthy.

“Novelty-seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age,” says C. Robert Cloninger, the psychiatrist who developed personality tests for measuring this trait.

Decide that all the stories you've told yourself about how much you hate bugs and sunburn and physical activities are just your ego trying to keep you from doing something awesome.

What are other ways you've found to get yourself or others outside? Share in the comments below.

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The campfire: it is the center of the outdoorswoman's universe; people have stared into flames under a starry sky for a millennia. The campfire represents all that is good and awesome about camping — not to mention the best food is cooked over the flames fueled by logs and twigs collected from the woods. But these days it's a bit of a lost art. So here's your ultimate guide on creating the spiritual center to your camping experience.

Create your own firestarters
Although purists would demand that you start your campfire with nothing but two sticks and some kindling, we at the OBC are a little more practical. Here are some of my favorites (gleaned from Pinterest):

• Cardboard egg cartons with dryer lint
• Toilet paper tubes
• Stick shavings using a pencil sharpener (not so much a homemade firestarter as an awesome camping hack)

Burn, baby, burn
Now that you've got your firestarters, it's time for the good stuff. First, you need head out and gather as much firewood as you can. Got it.

Great. Now go out and gather three times more. Seriously. Unless you've been building fires for awhile, you will never have enough wood. The info graphic to the right helps you figure how much of what kind of wood you need. Basically, you need three types - all of which should be dry. (Hint: Sometimes finding dead branches attached to a tree, rather than looking on the ground, are your best bet):

• Tinder: It should be about the size of a pencil, and about 6 inches long. You'll need enough to fill the circle of your hands.
• Kindling: Make sure it's no thicker than your thumb, and about as long as the tips of your fingers to your elbow. You'll need enough to fill your arms. I'm not going to lie - you need a whole lot more than you think.
• Fuel: This is what will keep your fire going long into the night. It should be as thick as your wrist and as long as your lower leg. Stack it about as high as your knee.

Second, decide how you want to structure the wood for maximum air flow. I like both the teepee and the log cabin methods (sometimes a hybrid of the two works best):

Teepee campfire  
The trick is to push a few sticks in the ground to act as a support for the the remaining kindling.

1. Put your bundle of tinder either on a small piece of bark or the ground.
2. Push 3-4 twigs of kindling in the earth, forming a "teepee" around the tinder.
3. Stack the rest of your kindling twigs against the tinder (downwind side).
4. On the upwind side, leave an opening all the way through to the center tinder. This is where you'll light your fire.
5. Keep leaning twigs around the circumference of the teepee.
6. Begin to add thicker, pencil-sized sticks. Leave plenty of breathing room between sticks.
7. Poke three or four pencil-sized sticks into the ground forming a larger teepee structure.
8. Finally, place smaller fuelwood pieces against the structure.

Don't forget to have backup fuelwood (small) and kindling ready in case you need to quickly feed the fire.

Log cabin campfire 
Use the same kinds of fuel, except now you want to place two large sticks parallel to each other on the ground, then turn 90 degrees and lay two more on top (like a log cabin).  Add another layer in each direction, but use smaller sticks, moving them closer to the middle. Add your tinder in the middle, kindling on top (you can add a large piece of bark over the top of everything to make it burn even better). Light the tinder/kindling in several different places. As it burns, make sure you don't add any large logs until there's a strong flame and a few coals.

Whatever method you choose, don't make the mistake of smothering the tinder with too much kindling, which prevents air from getting to your flabes, and usually results in too much smoke. Always leave airflow gaps in the kindling, light the fire at its lowest point, and blow gently if needed. Once it starts to take, sit back, relax and enjoy one of the oldest pastimes of human beings (I once heard a contestant on Survivor call it "Survivor TV").

And don't forget to have some way to put out the fire should it somehow get out of control - most people use a bucket of water, but heavy dirt or sand will work as well. Make sure you spread the coals around before you put the fire out for the night - a tedious job if you're tired and cold, but it's the most responsible thing to do. (And we're all about being responsible when out in the natural world.)

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Over the years several myths have developed surrounding women traveling alone. Whether it's "traveling alone is dangerous" or "it's prohibitively expensive to travel by yourself," somehow these myths and untruths have developed into full-blown warnings. But the truth is that traveling by yourself as a woman is one of the most rewarding activities you can participate in. After all, it takes some moxie to decide that you're going to step out into the unknown with just your instincts to guide you.

Top 5 myths of women traveling alone
It's only for spinsters or losers. 
Only if you're an AWESOME spinster or loser. When you join a tour or pre-planned trip with strangers, chances are that others on the trip share a common interest with you - whether it's the book or the destination. This gives everyone in the group an immediate bond.

You'll get hurt, murdered or kidnapped. 
At Outdoor Book Club, we provide the right gear and expertise to our clients, so you don’t need to worry about traveling somewhere unfamiliar without a safety net. We've got your covered.

It's hugely stressful. 
Traveling by yourself is actually very relaxing and freeing. No email, no Facebook, no kids and no men equals a very zen like experience. Also, since all you bring is your personal gear, there’s very little prep before the trip (as opposed to if you had planned the whole trip yourself) and clean up after the trip is over!

You won't know what to do with yourself. 
Novelty and adventure keep us smart and young. When you try new things in a supportive environment, and the trip has a good mix between planned activities and personal/free time, you'll wonder where the time went. With our trips, you'll also go to places and have experiences the big tour groups cannot.

It's expensive. 
We've negotiated discounts and repeat booking bonuses give us access to first-class packages at economy prices. And our prices are a great deal, when you consider everything, including your food, drink and fees, are included in the price.

Traveling alone in an all-female entourage is actually one of the most empowering things you can do as a woman. It's fun, it's educational and it's empowering — in fact, we're not sure why more women don't do it more often!