Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Growing up in Canada, camping in the outdoors has always been a significant part of my life. Camping can bring us closer to nature and allow us to appreciate the simple conveniences of modern life. Before now, I had always relied on a car to go camping. Whether pulling the car up to the campsite, or parking the car and heading to the campsite by canoe or kayak, I have always been reliant on a car. This weekend a friend and I decided to do a short one-night, car-free camping trip in the city with our two dogs. I packed my newly purchased Dutch cargo bike with our camping gear and my dog and we set forth on our journey at 7PM Sunday evening.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

The bike ride was just a short 3km jaunt, and we arrived at the dock where my kayak is stored year round. I unloaded the camping gear from my bike and loaded up the kayak with the camping gear and the dog and locked up the bike for the night.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

After a relaxing 30 minute paddle we arrived at our destination where we scouted for good spots to set up our camp.

We found a spot that has arguably the best view of the city, and it also came equipped with a picnic table and a fire pit.

It was from this spot that we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over downtown Toronto Sunday evening.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

At night we sat by the fire, ate food and chatted before setting up our tents for the night and resigning to the sleep gods.

We woke up at about 6:00AM, packed our tents and spent the morning hiking with the dogs after eating breakfast at the local cafe.

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country

At 11:30AM we headed home and I arrived home at 12:15PM just in time to spend the remainder of the day with the family.

Given the generally remote locations, camping normally requires a significant time investment to get to the destination by car.

Not only does urban camping not require a car, it also requires very little preparation, and you can get to and from the campsite very quickly which makes it easy to do short one-night camping trips.

One thing to keep in mind with urban camping is that it may be difficult to find approved overnight camping locations, so there is a risk that you may be caught by authorities if you sleep somewhere where overnight camping is prohibited.

No matter, we are profoundly looking forward to our next urban camping trip, whatever destination we choose next time around.

James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

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