Free Sample
The Purple Guide to Learning Camping in 10 Days
A no-nonsense 10-day starter plan to go from never-camped to sleeping under the stars with confidence
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: First Day
Welcome. Let's get one thing out of the way before we start: this is not a book about becoming a backcountry survival expert in a week and a half. That would be a lie. What this is, is a plan — a real, hourly, day-by-day plan to take you from "I've never slept outside" to "I just camped overnight, cooked my own dinner, and woke up feeling proud." Ten days is a perfect amount of time to figure out whether camping is something you want in your life. It's not enough time to master it, but it's exactly enough time to try it honestly and make a smart decision.
So what does day one actually look like? It's not a full overnight trip. It's not even building a fire or pitching a tent. Day one is the foundation for everything else, and the foundation is this: you need to spend one hour outside — deliberately, with a purpose — and see what that feels like. Not scrolling on your phone on a patio. Not walking from your car to a store. Sitting, or standing, or slowly wandering in an outdoor space, paying attention to what your body and mind actually do.
Here's the concrete plan. Pick a patch of ground. This can be a public park, a grassy backyard, a state park picnic area, a trailhead with a bench — anywhere that's safe, legal to be on, and has some dirt or grass you can sit