Glamping (“glamorous camping”) is out. Sleeping on 500-count Egyptian cotton sheets in a yurt while a chef roasts a whole pig can come off as a bit ostentatious, particularly in today’s “less is more” economy. But there is a lesson to be learned from those excessive days of glamping: there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable. Just because you’re in the middle of the woods, 30 miles from the nearest HoJo, doesn’t mean you have to live like an animal. You’re a backpacker, not a martyr. If you’re willing to carry a few extra pounds, your next backpacking trip can feel like a luxury retreat.
The easiest way to elevate your backpacking trip is to get inventive with dinner. “Pick a short hike, anything less than five miles, and you’d be surprised what you can carry into the campsite,” says Ron Shrieves, a long-time backpacker who organizes an annual gourmet backpacking trip for the Sierra Club’s Harvey Broome Group in Knoxville, Tenn. “On one week-long backpacking trip, I carried an oven and baked a cake every night. And that’s nothing. I’ve seen people cook Cornish game hen in the backcountry.”
Shrieves says to forget the freeze-dried, pre-packaged meals. Instead, think fresh ingredients, even seafood. “You’d be surprised how popular salmon is in the backcountry,” he says.
Try This: Pre-cut hardy vegetables like squash, green peppers, and onions and marinate them in olive oil, sea salt, and basil before the hike. Wrap them tightly in foil, then seal them in a freezer bag. Slide a frozen salmon filet into a double-wrapped freezer bag as well. The salmon will thaw on the hike into camp, but still be fresh for dinner. Cook both the fish and the vegetables in tightly wrapped foil over a small fire.
Shrieves also recommends bringing hors d’oeuvres to prime your appetite and give fellow campers something to munch on while dinner is cooking. Cheese and crackers works, but shrimp is better. Pack pre-cooked, frozen shrimp in a sealed bag and let it thaw on the hike into camp. Add a jar of cocktail sauce and you’ve got backcountry shrimp cocktail.
Lugging a bottle of wine for five miles can be more trouble than it’s worth. Clif Bar has solved this problem with their new bag-o-wine. The energy-bar maker has bought a Napa Valley winery and is producing easy-to-pack pouches of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. cliffamilywinery.com
A solid pad and warm sleeping bag are the foundation of a good night’s sleep. But you can take your comfort level to the next, well, level by adding a sleeping bag liner.
The Reactor Thermolite Mummy Liner from Sea to Summit adds 15 degrees of warmth to your bag and is a hell of a lot more comfy next to skin than the interior of your bag. Bonus: Sleeping bag liners will protect your bag from your grime, adding life to one of the most expensive pieces of gear in your quiver.
The camp pillow is typically the first item to be cut from the bag to save weight, as it should be. Here’s a handy alternative: Fill any hydration bladder with water, ditch the detachable tube, and you’ve got a comfy pillow that doesn’t add weight to your pack when you’re not sleeping. Drop it into an oversized stuff sack for extra comfort.
Savvy backpackers have been using hot rocks to keep them toasty on cold nights for decades, probably longer. Most heat a head-sized rock next to a fire until it’s warm (not red hot), then wrap the rock in a towel and stuff it in the foot of their sleeping bag. It’s toasty, but can be dangerous as many rocks have melted holes in synthetic bags. Try burying several heated rocks instead. Place the heated rocks in a shallow trench (about six inches deep). Cover with dirt, then set your tent over the hot trench. The heat won’t be as direct, but it will limit the possibility of melting your bag. Tip: Warm the rocks next to your fire, not in the fire, which will transfer too much heat
We take chairs for granted in our everyday life, but deep in the woods, a chair can make you feel like a king on his throne. Two options for sitting in style: the Therm-a-Rest Compack Chair is a 6-ounce sleeve that fits over your sleep pad, turning it into a chair. And the Crazy Creek HexaLite is a stand-alone piece that rolls up tight and only weighs 21 ounces.
There’s nothing more civilized than slipping on a pair of comfy shoes after a long day of hiking. Some backpackers carry Crocs into the backcountry, but more companies are making lightweight kicks that are easy to stow. Check out Teva’s new Mush Frio—ridiculously comfortable and only 5.4 ounces.