Your Life is a Trip...
Your Life is a Trip is a group blog created to inspire and improve your travels. Editors Judith Fein and Ellen Barone are travel writers and photographers who believe that life is travel and travel is life.
Your Life is a Trip is a group blog created to inspire and improve your travels. Editors Judith Fein and Ellen Barone are travel writers and photographers who believe that life is travel and travel is life.
Mention camping at a party and people bump into each other turning away with the sudden need to refresh their drink. Mention glamping, and eyebrows rise. Mention that it’s do-it-yourself, as opposed to the travel companies’ semi-permanent-dwelling-safari-type-the-circus-just-came-to-town-only-the-rich-can-afford-it version and you’ve got an audience.
Glamping is upscale camping in which a tent large enough to walk through replaces the pup tent, bedding takes the place of the sleeping bag, a nice rug covers the plastic ground floor, and campers use real barware instead of Dixie cups. In short, it’s more comfortable, civilized camping. Face it, we’re all getting older. Our fuse for tolerating the heat and bugs and lack of comfy slippers and a shower, is short(er).
I’ve been invited on 4 all guy hiking/fishing trips – three into the Wind River Mountain Range backcountry of Wyoming and once to Canada’s Quetico (just across the border from the Boundary Waters). The first invitation was acquired after I asked (both the men and their wives). The subsequent 3 invitations were extended because I carry my own weight. And I do it pleasantly, professionally, and without so much as a whimper or whine. The combination of a 50+ lb backpack and reaching the 11,000 foot summit well ahead of the men on the first trip sealed my reputation as a chick who can hack it.
Two years ago a couple invited my husband and I to camp with them for 12 days in the remote Medicine Bow area of Wyoming (trout fishing on the North Platte River). Arriving in camp two days behind them, I spotted their camping area from the top of the hill that descends to the river. “Two people need all THAT?!” Rolling my eyes, pride swelling at the sparseness of the equipment I’d packed, my husband declared “some of us like a bit of comfort for 12 days in the wilderness – don’t ask to use Judy’s shower stall.”
Crawling from the truck after a 12 hour drive, Judy greets me before I can slap a smile on my face. “How was the drive I caught several HHHuuuGGe trout today and Steve and I just poured a cocktail what do you think of our GLAMP?!” My stony face didn’t respond quickly enough and she went on, “YOU know, our GLAMOUR camp??”
Six days later, all pride swallowed (I’ve been told I must like crow – I eat a lot of it), I shower. I long for an internet connection to order a B.A.T. (big ass tent), a queen sized bed on a stand, mesh hanging bags for convenient storage, a chair by the tent door for putting on and taking off wading boots, one of those bag chairs with a drink holder, a lantern with remote control, and yes, even a small, hanging mirror.
$600, a B.A.T., and one year later, the transformation’s complete: I’m a glamper. And when I realized how people at parties gathered around when the subject was broached, I became a vocal one. The physically demanding hike into remote backcountry with the guys? It’s still on the agenda every year or two. But it’s the now-annual glamping trip I long for. Pride goeth before the fall.
In addition to the basic camping gear (see my previous series, Camping 101), here’s what you’ll need to alter your camp into a glamp.
Judy’s energy, enthusiasm, kindness to those with stony faces, and refined hostess abilities, are not required, but are a really nice add-on. Sadly, she’s not available online.
Here’s a list of Web sites that will put the glam on your camp:
Jennifer Johnson is a talented writer and photographer based in Seattle. Her blog is a colourful collection of jaunts around Seattle and trips further afield.