Most Luxurious Backcountry Camp

[ppine]

Every once in a while it all comes together. For me it has been mostly mule packing trips, or rafting trips that allowed for the most luxuries in remote country. In your experience, what campsite really had it all? I like to hear the details of a really great experience.

[Grandpa]

When I think of "luxery" trips, a couple of "end of the road" basecamps come to mind more than float or pack trips. One such trip that jumps out was on Camas Creek, about 14 miles before it empties into the Middle Fork of the Salmon. There actually was 3 or 4 groups camped in the area. First person I saw was an old trapshooting friend out of Utah. And just around the bend in the river was a couple of owlhoots from here. One of them is still my bowling partner but these meetings were all unplanned. None of us had any idea the others would be there.

Anyway, me and my hunting partner/buddy had brought a 2 Ton truck loaded with horses and good stuff. Once the tent and tarps were up and the bags aired out I went to work. There was a big old Doug Fir windblown down nearby and I had my big chain saw so I fashioned us a table and chairs. The chairs were a 40 inch section of that big fir. I made 4 cuts about 16 inches deep like a tictactoe board, then used the tip of the saw to cut the centers out leaving the 4 corner squares as the legs. Then Cut a cross section about 4 inches from all the way through, then rip a cut down to meet that and I had a nice seat and back and most of the weight gone so it was easy to move. Dutch ovens, a sack of spuds, plenty of steaks and a couple ice chests of frosty beverages and we were in heaven for a week. Camas Creek was running about 50 feet from the tent with trout aplenty and then someone got the idea of a central bonfire each night so we all gathered around and told war stories. We didn't get our elk that trip.

[ppine]

The Absaroka Mtns of Wyoming in the summer are every bit as spectacular as the Bighorns and the Wind Rivers, but less wel known. We were celebrating graduation from the U of WY with my new wife and another married couple. We were riding 4 horses and packing 5, as a friend didn't show up at the trailhead. We went back to town for sacks of potatoes, corn on the cob, carrots, and several cases of beer for the extra horse. On the way out of the mountains, we stopped in a large mountain basin with tall grass, and a meadow, rimmed by a lodgepole pine forest, and mountains with snow in all directions. We set up a 20 x 26 foot tarp high enough to see out from under. The horses were grazing nearby in all that splendor. We had afternoon shade and morning sun. I went down by the river to take a nap, and heard rustling while I was sleeping. A badger walked across the foot of my sleeping bag as our eyes met at five feet. We had seen a moose and her calf a few days earlier in the same area. We were in grizzly country, and saw lots of tracks but no bears.

After another great meal, we sat up late savoring the trip around the campfire with a full moon. We had traveled 25 miles that day and my heeler cross Snuffy ate lying down. The only people we saw in over a week were two commercial pack strings led by people we knew. We joked at the time that we were in the world's most perfect campsite. After thinking about it for 25 years, I know we were.

[ppine]

Does this mean out of all the forum members only two of us have had really great campsites? What better way to spend a winter day than recounting the good stuff.

[ghostdog]

I'd guess that 95% of our camps are backcountry and remote. I strive to make all of them special, luxurious and comfortable. This keeps my companion ready to go at spur of the moment.

In the immortal words of Nessmuk, “We don't go to the woods to rough it, we go to the woods to smooth it.” The same goes for us in the desert lands we love.

We like a Spartan camp with comfortable places to sit out of the elements whether that be intense sun or precipitation. If there is wind I find a spot that takes care of that too. The tent goes close by in a spot that makes sense. A good, cheery tarp shelter to lounge under and a couple of light weight chairs do away with roughing it.



The tarp shelter is just behind the tent to the left in this image of the same place;



We like remote, picturesque places where we will see nobody else, a place we can walk off for the day from our luxury camp, explore all day and come back to our comforts.

Same trip; a comforting hot drink always makes most any day seem brighter.



It is the little things that make a luxury camp for us. For example we like to bring books for any down time. Some trips I read a lot and some trips I don’t read any but I always have a good book in the pack.

[briansnat]

It's a luxury campsite every time I paddle camp. Our canoe can carry a lot of luxuries, table, dining fly, camp chairs, hammocks, cooler filled with beer, chicken and steaks, a portable propane grill.

It's all a matter of finding the right spot and we usually pick a good one.

[firedancer]

Yep, river trips or horse trips have been the most luxurious for me.

We did a 4 day horseback trip in the Canadian Rockies that was phenomenal. It was still "roughin' it" but the food was really good (isn't food always better when you're outdoors?)

My 4 day trip down the Colorado this past September was pretty luxurious, too, right down to the Cessna that picked us up at the end!
One of 3 amazing dinners:

One of 3 luxurious campsites: