Comfortable Beach Camping; The Magic of Baby Powder

Photo credit Johnson & Johnson

If you have never camped on a beach before, it seems like a novel idea. It sounds romantic, relaxing, peaceful, playful and fun. If you have ever camped on the beach, you may use less glamorous adjectives like gritty, dirty, sweaty, crunchy and others. Sand and salt are what make the beach beautiful and miserable, unless you come armed with baby powder.
Baby Powder?! What's so magical about baby powder? It makes sand and salt quite literally fall off of your skin. The worst part about beach camping is crawling into your sleeping bag and spending all night with gritty skin. The sand is stuck to your skin, and then once you slide into your sleeping back, the sand gets embedded into that too. Here's the solution;
Set up your tent as you normally would. When preparing for bed, open the tent door and sit down in the floor, facing out with your legs and feet sticking out. Be careful not to sit on your sleeping bag. Take your baby powder and drench your legs and feet with it and then use your hands to spread it around. Make sure to get between your toes where sand loves to hide. With the sandiest part of your body now clean, crawl into your tent, undress and literally cover your body in baby powder. The baby powder will rid you of crunchy sand, crusty salt and sweat, and cool your skin. You'll feel clean and refreshed as you glide into your sleeping bag. Oh, and don't be stingy about it! It won't hurt anything so use as much as needed or more! My friend and fellow kayaking guide Ben would pride himself on turning the floors of burgundy tents white from his baby powder baths!
Now, many people I have taken out on trips bring either gold bond or baby powder. This is a big no-no. If you are a man, bring both. You need the gold bond to ease rashes in not so pleasant areas, but you definitely don't want to bathe in that stuff do you? This is why you need both. Girls, you just need to bring baby powder. I'll go over other must-haves to stay comfortable when sea kayaking for both men and women in another post.
There is really no difference in brands, I typically buy whatever is cheapest. I have found that the corn starch based baby powder works better when its especially muggy outside. When you use this much baby powder in a confined space, you end up inhaling some of the cloud that forms, which is another big reason to go with the corn starch formula.