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Electronic handheld games and iPods are primarily the choice for entertainment among young people these days. Though when backpacking, those things simply add extra weight to the packs. It is an unheard of idea in these times of technology that the imagination should be pulled out of hiding for actual brain use for entertainment, but the following suggestions can help you come up with some really fun backpacking games.
Other than a few natural items that will be necessary, you will only use your imagination and creativity. Several good games require nothing but some dirt or sand with a stick or two. Like tic-tac-toe, for example. All that is necessary is sticks for two players and the grid drawn into the sand. Draw the grid which looks like the number sign; two lines horizontal and two crossing ones going vertically. Each player takes turns making either an X or O in the squares until someone gets three in a row or a ‘tic-tac-toe’.
Another good camping game is one where you try to get five in a row. You will need to draw a ten by ten grid and each player takes turns writing his initial in one square per turn. The point is to maneuver your initial into five spaces in a row, while your opponent tries to do the same. Diagonals do not count in this game, so the first person to get five initials in a row will be the winner.
Mental games require absolutely no gathering of elements and can be played while hiking or sitting around the campfire. Some of these games can be guessing games like the bumble bee game. The phrase goes ‘bumble bee, bumble bee, I see something you don’t see, and it is blue’ or green or red; whatever color that describes what they want you to guess. The one that guesses correctly gets to be ‘it’ next.
