The Guide

• 1: Overview
• 2: Getting Started
• 2.1: Example Page
• 3: Concepts
• 4: Tasks
• 4.1: Timeline
• 4.1.1: One Year to Six Months
• 4.2: Finance
• 4.3: Food
• 4.4: Outreach
• 4.5: Travel
• 5: Attending
• 5.1: Camping
• 5.2: Packlist

1 - Overview

The Overview is where your users find out about your project. Depending on the size of your docset, you can have a separate overview page (like this one) or put your overview contents in the Documentation landing page (like in the Docsy User Guide).

Try answering these questions for your user in this page:

What is it?

Introduce your project, including what it does or lets you do, why you would use it, and its primary goal (and how it achieves it). This should be similar to your README description, though you can go into a little more detail here if you want.

Why do I want it?

Help your user know if your project will help them. Useful information can include:

• What is it good for?: What types of problems does your project solve? What are the benefits of using it?

• What is it not good for?: For example, point out situations that might intuitively seem suited for your project, but aren’t for some reason. Also mention known limitations, scaling issues, or anything else that might let your users know if the project is not for them.

• What is it not yet good for?: Highlight any useful features that are coming soon.

Where should I go next?

Give your users next steps from the Overview. For example:

• Getting Started: Get started with $project
• Examples: Check out some example code!

2 - Getting Started

Information in this section helps your user try your project themselves.

• What do your users need to do to start using your project? This could include downloading/installation instructions, including any prerequisites or system requirements.

• Introductory “Hello World” example, if appropriate. More complex tutorials should live in the Tutorials section.

Consider using the headings below for your getting started page. You can delete any that are not applicable to your project.

Prerequisites

Are there any system requirements for using your project? What languages are supported (if any)? Do users need to already have any software or tools installed?

Installation

Where can your user find your project code? How can they install it (binaries, installable package, build from source)? Are there multiple options/versions they can install and how should they choose the right one for them?

Setup

Is there any initial setup users need to do after installation to try your project?

Try it out!

Can your users test their installation, for example by running a command or deploying a Hello World example?

2.1 - Example Page

Text can be bold, italic, or strikethrough. Links should be blue with no underlines (unless hovered over).

There should be whitespace between paragraphs. Vape migas chillwave sriracha poutine try-hard distillery. Tattooed shabby chic small batch, pabst art party heirloom letterpress air plant pop-up. Sustainable chia skateboard art party banjo cardigan normcore affogato vexillologist quinoa meggings man bun master cleanse shoreditch readymade. Yuccie prism four dollar toast tbh cardigan iPhone, tumblr listicle live-edge VHS. Pug lyft normcore hot chicken biodiesel, actually keffiyeh thundercats photo booth pour-over twee fam food truck microdosing banh mi. Vice activated charcoal raclette unicorn live-edge post-ironic. Heirloom vexillologist coloring book, beard deep v letterpress echo park humblebrag tilde.

90’s four loko seitan photo booth gochujang freegan tumeric listicle fam ugh humblebrag. Bespoke leggings gastropub, biodiesel brunch pug fashion axe meh swag art party neutra deep v chia. Enamel pin fanny pack knausgaard tofu, artisan cronut hammock meditation occupy master cleanse chartreuse lumbersexual. Kombucha kogi viral truffaut synth distillery single-origin coffee ugh slow-carb marfa selfies. Pitchfork schlitz semiotics fanny pack, ugh artisan vegan vaporware hexagon. Polaroid fixie post-ironic venmo wolf ramps kale chips.

There should be no margin above this first sentence.

Blockquotes should be a lighter gray with a border along the left side in the secondary color.

There should be no margin below this final sentence.

First Header 2

This is a normal paragraph following a header. Knausgaard kale chips snackwave microdosing cronut copper mug swag synth bitters letterpress glossier craft beer. Mumblecore bushwick authentic gochujang vegan chambray meditation jean shorts irony. Viral farm-to-table kale chips, pork belly palo santo distillery activated charcoal aesthetic jianbing air plant woke lomo VHS organic. Tattooed locavore succulents heirloom, small batch sriracha echo park DIY af. Shaman you probably haven’t heard of them copper mug, crucifix green juice vape single-origin coffee brunch actually. Mustache etsy vexillologist raclette authentic fam. Tousled beard humblebrag asymmetrical. I love turkey, I love my job, I love my friends, I love Chardonnay!

Deae legum paulatimque terra, non vos mutata tacet: dic. Vocant docuique me plumas fila quin afuerunt copia haec o neque.

On big screens, paragraphs and headings should not take up the full container width, but we want tables, code blocks and similar to take the full width.

Scenester tumeric pickled, authentic crucifix post-ironic fam freegan VHS pork belly 8-bit yuccie PBR&B. I love this life we live in.

Second Header 2

This is a blockquote following a header. Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet t-bone doner shank drumstick, pork belly porchetta chuck sausage brisket ham hock rump pig. Chuck kielbasa leberkas, pork bresaola ham hock filet mignon cow shoulder short ribs biltong.

Header 3

This is a code block following a header.

Next level leggings before they sold out, PBR&B church-key shaman echo park. Kale chips occupy godard whatever pop-up freegan pork belly selfies. Gastropub Belinda subway tile woke post-ironic seitan. Shabby chic man bun semiotics vape, chia messenger bag plaid cardigan.

Header 4

• This is an unordered list following a header.
• This is an unordered list following a header.
• This is an unordered list following a header.

Header 5

1. This is an ordered list following a header.
2. This is an ordered list following a header.
3. This is an ordered list following a header.

Header 6

There’s a horizontal rule above and below this.

Here is an unordered list:

• Liverpool F.C.
• Chelsea F.C.
• Manchester United F.C.

And an ordered list:

1. Michael Brecker
2. Seamus Blake
3. Branford Marsalis

And an unordered task list:

• Create a Hugo theme
• Add task lists to it
• Take a vacation

And a “mixed” task list:

• Pack bags
• ?
• Travel!

And a nested list:

• Jackson 5
  • Michael
  • Tito
  • Jackie
  • Marlon
  • Jermaine
• TMNT
  • Leonardo
  • Michelangelo
  • Donatello
  • Raphael

Definition lists can be used with Markdown syntax. Definition headers are bold.

Name

Godzilla

Born

1952

Birthplace

Japan

Color

Green

Tables should have bold headings and alternating shaded rows.

If a table is too wide, it should scroll horizontally.

Code snippets like var foo = "bar"; can be shown inline.

Also, this should vertically align with this and this.

Code can also be shown in a block element.

foo := "bar";
bar := "foo";

Code can also use syntax highlighting.

func main() {
  input := `var foo = "bar";`

  lexer := lexers.Get("javascript")
  iterator, _ := lexer.Tokenise(nil, input)
  style := styles.Get("github")
  formatter := html.New(html.WithLineNumbers())

  var buff bytes.Buffer
  formatter.Format(&buff, style, iterator)

  fmt.Println(buff.String())
}

Long, single-line code blocks should not wrap. They should horizontally scroll if they are too long. This line should be long enough to demonstrate this.

Inline code inside table cells should still be distinguishable.

Small images should be shown at their actual size.

Large images should always scale down and fit in the content container.

The photo above of the Spruce Picea abies shoot with foliage buds: Bjørn Erik Pedersen, CC-BY-SA.

Components

Alerts

Another Heading

Add some sections here to see how the ToC looks like. Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet t-bone doner shank drumstick, pork belly porchetta chuck sausage brisket ham hock rump pig. Chuck kielbasa leberkas, pork bresaola ham hock filet mignon cow shoulder short ribs biltong.

This Document

Inguina genus: Anaphen post: lingua violente voce suae meus aetate diversi. Orbis unam nec flammaeque status deam Silenum erat et a ferrea. Excitus rigidum ait: vestro et Herculis convicia: nitidae deseruit coniuge Proteaque adiciam eripitur? Sitim noceat signa probat quidem. Sua longis fugatis quidem genae.

Pixel Count

Tilde photo booth wayfarers cliche lomo intelligentsia man braid kombucha vaporware farm-to-table mixtape portland. PBR&B pickled cornhole ugh try-hard ethical subway tile. Fixie paleo intelligentsia pabst. Ennui waistcoat vinyl gochujang. Poutine salvia authentic affogato, chambray lumbersexual shabby chic.

Contact Info

Plaid hell of cred microdosing, succulents tilde pour-over. Offal shabby chic 3 wolf moon blue bottle raw denim normcore poutine pork belly.

External Links

Stumptown PBR&B keytar plaid street art, forage XOXO pitchfork selvage affogato green juice listicle pickled everyday carry hashtag. Organic sustainable letterpress sartorial scenester intelligentsia swag bushwick. Put a bird on it stumptown neutra locavore. IPhone typewriter messenger bag narwhal. Ennui cold-pressed seitan flannel keytar, single-origin coffee adaptogen occupy yuccie williamsburg chillwave shoreditch forage waistcoat.

This is the final element on the page and there should be no margin below this.

3 - Concepts

For many projects, users may not need much information beyond the information in the Overview, so this section is optional. However if there are areas where your users will need a more detailed understanding of a given term or feature in order to do anything useful with your project (or to not make mistakes when using it) put that information in this section. For example, you may want to add some conceptual pages if you have a large project with many components and a complex architecture.

Remember to focus on what the user needs to know, not just what you think is interesting about your project! If they don’t need to understand your original design decisions to use or contribute to the project, don’t put them in, or include your design docs in your repo and link to them. Similarly, most users will probably need to know more about how features work when in use rather than how they are implemented. Consider a separate architecture page for more detailed implementation and system design information that potential project contributors can consult.

4 - Tasks

Stuff about planning before during and after.

4.1 - Timeline

An image of like a gant chart.

4.1.1 - One Year to Six Months

• Gather a starting crew

4.2 - Finance

4.3 - Food

4.4 - Outreach

4.5 - Travel

5 - Attending

5.1 - Camping

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace is a set of principles meant to conserve nature being visited upon by humans. Often summarized as “Leave only footprints; take only memories” There’s 7 of them:

1. Plan ahead and prepare
   • Look up the park. What are the rules? Can you drink, smoke, swim, or start a fire? If you’re driving, what are the rules around cars? How many people per site?
   • How far away is emergency medical care?
   • Know what kind of weather to expect.
   • What kind of wildlife are in the area? Have there been animal warnings lately (e.g. bears wandering through camp. The camp website will usually have this kind of info somewhere)?
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces
   • “Good campsites are found not made”: pitch at existing sites, walk on existing paths.
   • Camp at least 200 ft away from bodies of water
3. Dispose of waste properly
   • Don’t litter. Bring a trash bag.
   • Do not piss or shit in the lake/river (minimum 200ft away)
     • Use the bathroom if one is provided.
     • Alternatively, for peeing, just keep it away from the water. For poop, dig a narrow hole at least 8 inches deep, go in there, bury it completely, then disguise it so it looks no different than the dirt around it.
   • Do not pour dishwater in the lake/river (minimum 200ft away)
4. Leave what you find
   • Don’t take rocks, plants, animals, historical objects, etc.
   • Do not break bits off of plants like leaves, branches, or flowers.
5. Minimize campfire impacts
   • See Campfires
6. Respect wildlife
   • Don’t approach and definitely don’t follow wildlife.
   • Don’t let them get at your food. Store it in a car or hang it up high. Many animals can and will shred your tent to get at the tasty treats inside.
   • Treat your food waste the same and store it securely. Do not teach the animals that humans are safe providers of food.
   • Do not for any reason approach a baby animal. It doesn’t matter how cute it is. You will be shocked (likely, only briefly) by how fast their parent will go from 0 to 100, and deer hit hard.
7. Be considerate of other visitors
   • Do not fuck with trail markers or create your own with paint or cairns.
   • You probably don’t need to yell.
   • Don’t graffiti the site. No one is taking political advice from a campsite bathroom, so your manifesto on the toilet paper dispenser is just another thing someone has to clean before they can go home.

So, the above is all good advice, but it is worth noting that you will not “Leave No Trace”. You are not separate from nature, and these sites see routine human usage. Your gear and travel also have environmental impacts. Keep these things in mind and instead of buying a pile of new gear, ask around for used gear and learn how to maintain and repair existing gear.

Pitching a tent

If possible, it’s a very good idea to do a trial pitch at home before you get out into the wilderness and have to figure it out in the dark while it’s raining.

Your best bet is to read the directions that came with the tent, but the general process looks like this:

1. Clear large debris like rocks and branches.
2. Spread the footprint out flat. It’s a tarp that your tent sits on top of. Not every tent comes with one, but they’re easy to DIY (look it up). They protect your tent from wear and make for a comfier sleep. Some footprints have an “up” side and “down” side; it will be labeled if so.
3. (Optional) Pre-stake the corners of your tent. If the wind keeps trying to take your tent, staking the corners first can hold them in place while you set up the poles. You will want to restake them to be taught afterwards.
4. Set up the poles. This step will vary wildly by tent, but it’s usually pretty intuitive. Be gentle. It’s tragically easy to bend or break a pole while you’re putting it together.
5. Attach your tent to the poles. Again, this varies pretty wildly, but it’ll generally be a bunch of clips and loops.
6. (Re-)Stake down the corners. Drive the stakes straight down, and leave just enough aboveground to tie the cord to.
7. (Optional) Attach the rainfly to the corners of the tent. Your rainfly may have loops on the bottom. Stake these taught away from your tent to create a little “patio” area (called a “vestibule”. Leave your shoes under the fly, but outside the tent when you enter). Check the rainfly for vents. Keep them closed in cold and/or rain; open them if it’s hot with clear skies to allow airflow.
8. (Optional) Guyout. Your tent is already staked, so it can handle some wind. If it’s going to get real bad though, guying out will provide more stability. About halfway up the fly, along the poles are a set of loops called guyout loops. Using cord, tie a strong knot to the guyout loops, then loop the other end around a stake that’s farther away from the one holding the corner. Tighten the tensioner on the cord. In an ideal world, put a pole or stick about halfway along the cord and set the cord on top of it. You’re trying to bend the guyline so it comes off the rainfly at a 90° angle.

Tent tips

• Tents and sleeping bags are rated for certain temperatures. Make sure yours is appropriate for where you’re going (e.g. “three season gear”, so called because it works in spring, summer, and fall, will not protect you from cold).
• Tents are sized like fucking coffins. You can technically fit 3 people in a 3-person tent, if you all press in and have no gear. Go 1 size up if possible.
• If there is definitely no chance of rain, leaving the rainfly off gets you a wonderful breeze and a beautiful starscape to sleep under.

Campfires

Fire is great.

Parks generally have their own very specific set of rules that you should be aware of and follow. These rules are catered to their specific environment, and should be followed over anything said here. Failure to do so is a frequent cause of forest wildfires. Specifically, check for a “burn ban”. These can be total bans (i.e. no fire of any kind), or partial (e.g. “propane fires only”). You’ll also want to check fuel requirements. Bringing in wood from outside of the area can bring invasive non-local species that might be hiding in the wood, but most parks do not allow collecting wood on-site. If you are allowed to collect wood, look for wood that’s been dead long enough that you can break it up with your hands.

A wood fire has 4 components: wood, kindling, fire starter, and air. You’ll want to break the wood up and strip off the bark; the inner part is what burns well. Prop the wood up to allow air to flow underneath. You can do this by making a little tipi or stacking them like jenga blocks without the middle ones. Keep it small. You can always add more later, but you can’t take away once it’s burning. Kindling is stuff like twigs and dry brush. It burns faster than the wood, but slower than the fire starter. Fire starter is anything that catches easily, like shredded paper (or just more kindling). Mix the kindling and fire starter together and stuff it in the space between the wood. Then light some of the fire starter and wait. If the wood doesn’t catch, most likely the you either don’t have enough air flow or the wood is too wet.

Once the fire is burning, do not leave it unattended for any reason.

You’ll want the fire to burn down as much as possible before putting it out (you did keep it small, right?). Ideally, you want to be extinguishing a pile of powdery ash; unlit coals will retain enough heat to reignite for hours. Regardless, if it’s bed time or the wind starts to pick up, your best choice is water. Absolutely soak the thing. Once you’re done, use a poker to spread the ashes and any remaining coals as wide as possible within the pit. If you don’t have water to spare, start by spreading the coals as far from each other as possible, put on a layer of sand or dirt, then mix it up. Repeat until the fire goes out. Then do it 2 more times.

General advice

• Drink water. So much water. You should be peeing like every hour.
• Use sunblock and reapply as directed.
• Use bug spray. I’m not going to wade into the arguments about DEET vs whatever.
• Avoid bringing your shoes into your tent. Best tactic is to put the top half of your body into the tent, turn so you’re on your back, sit up, take off your shoes, then bring your legs in and leave the shoes outside.
• Drink water. I promise you aren’t drinking enough. Like, do it right now while you’re reading this.
• Merino wool or polyester will keep you cool and dry. Cotton will absorb liquid and be a bad time.
• If you brought a car, keep the doors locked. Many animals that hang around campsites have not only figured out that cars often contain snacks, but also how to open the doors.
• When you spit out toothpaste, spray it like a spit take. It’ll keep the globs from messing with wildlife.

Park rangers aka twigpigs

Park rangers are in a rough spot. On the one hand, they’re the enforcement hand of the state out in the parks. On the other, they’re tasked with keeping dumbasses from destroying the area. Some rangers take different parts of the job more seriously than others, and some are specifically hired to do one part more than the other. If someone from the forest service comes up to you, assume good will. A lot of them are just there to do site maintenance and probably know and do more conservation work than you. If they tell you to do something, it’s a good idea to comply because more than likely they’re just trying to keep you from killing a refoliation patch. However, it is still worth remembering that at the end of the day, some of them are literally cops, and can still do cop shit. Just, be aware, and don’t pop off right away when someone tells you to move your tent.

5.2 - Packlist

• Camping
  • Tent
  • Rain cover (your tent may include one)
  • Sleeping bag
  • Bug spray
  • Sunblock
  • Flashlight / headlamp and batteries
  • First aid kit
  • Camping pad*
  • Pillow*
  • Knife or multitool*
  • Camp stove and fuel*
• Clothing
  • Boots
  • Jacket
  • An appropriate number of outfits** + 1 just in case
  • Socks and underwear for each day + 1
  • Swim suit* (check site rules)
  • Headcovering* (hats, bandanas, keffiyahs are all great ways to keep the sun off. Soak in water for extra cooling)
• Toiletries
  • Toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Deodorant
  • Toilet paper
  • Medications
  • Tampons / pads / cup (a ziplock bag with baking soda in it is a great way to store used items until they can be properly disposed)
  • Wet wipes*
  • Face wipes*
  • Hairbrush*
• Food
  • Mess kit
  • Snacks
  • Portable meals like meal bars or rations (a days worth, just in case)
  • Water bottle
  • Water purification (sites generally have technically-drinkable water, but it may be brown and weird)
• Gathering-related
  • Notebook (preferably something small you can stuff in a pocket)
  • 2 pens
  • Hard writing surface*
• Random
  • Physical map of the area
  • Earplugs*
  • Battery charger*
  • Condoms / dams*

* Less of a “need to have”, more of a “nice to have”

** Gatherings are short, so I like having one for each day, but you may need to conserve space or just prefer to carry less stuff.

Q: “What about a hammock?” A: Hammock camping is great! It’s also a little more advanced and this checklist assumes if you know what kind of gear you prefer, you probably have your own list.