Learn the ropes of camping at SC park

Camping is a tradition as old as mankind.

For some, it’s a rite of passage. For others, it’s something they’ve managed to avoid their entire lives. And for those of you who fall into the latter but long to be a part of the former, Sesquicentennial State Park has just the 24-hour challenge for you.

For eight years now, Sesqui has offered a first-time campers program, similar to the National Wildlife Confederation’s program The Great American Backyard Campout.

“It was a nationwide program encouraging people to try camping just for one night – even if it was in your backyard – and that’s what started the idea,” said Stacey Jensen, Sesqui State Park interpreter. “We felt like Sesqui is Columbia’s backyard and was a great location to do a program because there are a lot of folks in our community that haven’t been camping before or may not realize that Sesqui has a campground.”

The program’s goal is to create new campers and new visitors to state parks – and, as Jensen put it, to get people outdoors and away from their electronics. And to get families to spend time outside together and learn a new hobby in the process.

Sesqui’s program accommodates 25 families with up to six members. Jensen said they staff heavily for the event because, as you can assume, teaching 25 new families how to camp in one day is a huge undertaking. It takes more than six months to plan, along with the help of local businesses and organizations like Get Your Gear On, Palmetto State Hangers (a hammock camping club), the Midlands Astronomy Club and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

“This year, we have a local author and storyteller coming out and telling ghost stories around the campfire,” said Jensen. “It takes an army of people to pull off this event.”

In the afternoon, workshops teach participants how to build a campfire and explain geocashing, and a two-hour clinic hones fishing skills. Cooking demonstrations are conducted throughout the day to show people how to cook meals over a campfire.

“One of the coolest things we do is we cook two or three whole turkeys over a campfire and everyone gets to sample it at dinnertime,” said Jensen. “It cooks all day, and we show them how to do it. And at the end, we email all the participants all the recipes that we use so that they have them.”

Participants also are free to try out any of the park’s activities – like hiking, mountain biking or paddling – during the camping class.

“Get Your Gear On brings out kayaks, canoes and paddleboards, and that’s where everybody goes,” Jensen laughed.

The program, as it sounds, is pretty foolproof for first-time campers. Many families who have participated in the program shared with Jensen how great the experience was.

“The feedback we get is absolutely overwhelming,” Jensen said, “saying how we impacted their lives and how much they enjoyed camping with us over the weekend and spending time with their families. We hear that a lot. Just knowing we’re having that impact on people is really amazing and that’s why we do it.”

Dwaun Sellers, dsellers@thestate.com

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Learn the ropes of camping at SC park."