Special Family Vacations : Destination: Southern California : Tent Commandments : The half-gallon ice cream-carton potty . . . and other tips for hassle-free camping with kids

Our first family camping trip, to Sequoia National Park on a rainy Memorial Day weekend, was nearly our last.

We spent the night shivering and squirming on a cold, hard, wet tent floor. Daytime was a nightmare too. Four-year-old Michael was willing to endure the rigors of outdoor survival. But hiking, as opposed to “carry me,” was a tough concept for 2-year-old Katy. She rebelled within the first 200 yards of the shortest and easiest hike the forest had to offer--dropping to the ground and screaming, “I want to go to the mall!” She was still on full volume when the rain turned to snow. We bailed before the second sunset.

Since then, our camping experiences have improved tremendously.

It took that one miserable outing to convince us that we, the parents, needed a comfortable, elevated sleeping arrangement (preferably an air mattress or a cot), and the kids needed room to roam, not forced marches through the woods.

Neither my husband nor I was drawing on much prior camping experience. He was a complete neophyte. I had taken a few outings with college friends and owned a Swiss Army knife.

We decided to become the Camping Family Robinsons because we could never find a baby-sitter on Saturday nights, a campsite was less expensive than two movie tickets, and camping was something the family could do together.

We also felt a bit deprived, living in the San Fernando Valley. But once we ventured past the city limits, we found all the spectacular areas that attract millions of people to the region: mountains, forests, deserts and beaches.

Six years have passed, and we have tried campgrounds all over Southern California. We have camped on holidays and off season--had Easter egg hunts at the beach, Thanksgiving among the pine trees and a winter weekend in the Mojave. We’ve gone by ourselves, taken friends and wrangled a dozen first-grade Brownies on their first camping trip.

Each outing was pure pleasure because kids love camping. They like the adventure of living in the open surrounded by the perils and pleasures of nature. It changes their personalities, for the better--I’ve witnessed my children fighting over who got to wash the dishes, since even the mundane chores are more fun outside.

To make a camping vacation with kids hassle-free, you’ll need to take some basic precautions. Among those I’ve learned by trial and error as well as from Scout leaders and park rangers:

Pick a campground close to home. Kids hate long car rides. And since Los Angeles is surrounded by many campgrounds within an hour’s drive, there’s no need to travel farther. The Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA) has a map of area campgrounds with complete listings of services, amenities and costs. (See accompanying story for our picks on nearby, kid-worthy campgrounds.) Another recommended resource is Tom Stienstra’s “California Camping: The Complete Guide” (Foghorn Press, $18.95).

Don’t worry about whether the kids are old enough. I didn’t take my children camping until the youngest was out of diapers and able to walk (or so I thought), but I’ve camped with families that brought babies and it didn’t pose any special problems.

Little ones like playing in tents and under picnic tables. Taking adventurous preschoolers may seem daunting, but without the distractions of telephones and such, you’ll find you have more time to spend with your child. It’s the 9- and 10-year-olds who have never been camping who seem to experience the most trouble, especially with the sounds of the night. Too many evenings spent watching Nickelodeon’s “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” perhaps? An overnight in the back yard may help to acclimate them.

Go for one night: Start camp-training your children in small doses. Two days and a night is a long time for a child to be away from home. And you’re more likely to find the time to get away if you keep your trips short.

We wedge a few toys in the car each time we go camping. Frisbees, kites, baseballs and bats are always used, as are buckets and shovels when we go to the beach. Most toys are abandoned, though, in favor of climbing trees, hiking and poking at ground squirrel holes.

All that outdoor activity makes camp-out bedtime easier than at home. For one, you can get them into bed earlier than normal, because any time after nightfall seems like bedtime to them. And the sleeping arrangements are just the way they like them--snuggled between their parents.

Even squished shoulder-to-shoulder inside a tent will not keep everyone warm unless each person has a good sleeping bag. This precludes all the bags with characters on them because they are meant for indoor use.

Now that my children are older and larger they have their own tent and my husband and I have one to ourselves. We like the arrangement better, but the children are still grumbling.

Look for campgrounds with modern bathroom facilities: Many area campgrounds have clean bathrooms with running water and toilets that flush. Others are more primitive, a word also used to mean open-pit toilets. Pit toilets don’t flush, and I’ve seen small children forget all memories of potty training when confronted with one. Pass on the pits until your children are more sophisticated in the ways of the world and the concepts of sewage disposal.

If you have a child who wakes up at night for bathroom runs, a portable, disposable toilet can be fashioned out of a cardboard half-gallon ice cream container lined with an easy-to-dispose-of plastic garbage bag or wastebasket liner. The circumference of the container and the rolled edge approximate the feel of a potty seat. Many parents have found this contraption more convenient than repeated trips to the bathroom.

Most beach campgrounds are equipped with showers (solar-heated hot water costs a couple of quarters.) I’ve rarely seen showers in mountain and desert campgrounds . . . another reason to keep the trips short. For those times when running water is a hike away, I pack a big box of baby wipes with the camping gear.

Drink plenty of water: Everyone should have a water bottle or canteen when they go camping. Take water containers with you even if you only plan a short hike around the campground. My children have led me on hikes that took hours because they wanted to go “just over that next hill.” Packing a gallon of water per person for a two-day stay is advisable.

Don’t let fears get the best of you: Most camping terrors lurk in the minds of the parents, thanks to stories they have read or heard about children lost in the woods, wild animals and that escaped convict with the hook for a hand that was found on the car door. Anyway, there are thousands of incident-free camping trips for every mishap.

As a parent who has heard all the stories, I equip my kids like commandos every time we go camping. I insist they carry a water bottle, wear a whistle and pack a silver Hefty Steel-Sak in their pockets.

The metal whistle is used to call for help. It is louder than a human voice and you can blow a whistle a lot longer than you can yell. The silver-sided garbage bag can be used as an emergency poncho in case of rain and can also function as a thermal blanket. And because of its color it can be seen easily, especially at night.

Both the whistle and the bag are safety devices. My children know why they are carrying them and how to use them if they have to. Fortunately, they’ve never had to.

They also know that if they ever get lost they are to stop immediately, hug a tree (this is a ranger-recommended safety tip, because it keeps them for wandering even farther) and blow on that whistle for all they are worth. When this lecture was first presented, it was accompanied by the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” It didn’t seem to impress them, but they have never been lost, nor have they ever faked it.

As for wild animals, I’ve only encountered benign creatures, such as skunks, raccoons, deer and scads of scampering things such as ground squirrels. I’ve seen one rattlesnake in all our outings. I assuage snake fears with information from a Girl Scout trainer: “Almost all rattlesnake bites, and there are very few each year, are bestowed on boys ages 7 to 15 and are inflicted on their hands or their feet.”

“Don’t tease the rattlesnakes” is a constant admonishment.

Don’t forget the marshmallows: Fires are the television of camping. I always worried about my kids falling into the fire--now I let them have fire-poking sticks that keep the kids at least four feet away from the flames.

Children like to cook their own food over a campfire and don’t seem to mind eating a completely charred hot dog if they do the charring. They like food they can eat while standing around the fire, so I pack sausage sticks, string cheese, apples and bananas. Also convenient are packages of oatmeal and hot chocolate, since all they require is hot water. S’mores are the one campfire-specific food. I fondly remembered them from my days as a Girl Scout and couldn’t wait to share the gooey delicacy with my children.

Kids love them, as they seem to like all things about camping. And, barring s’mores, there is nothing I like better either.