More Glamping Greats

I'm posting this from my mobile device, but I thought you'd like to check out this incredibly beautiful cabin on wheels, the ESCAPE cabin (it's really an RV) from SALA. Go, tiny house movement! You are changing domestic lives into real adventures! I'm all for it.

S-Clips

S-clips. You need 'em in camp.

This is what turns your vestibule into a closet, your privy into a bathroom, your cook station into a kitchen. S-clips let you hang your lamps and light your tent from above. S-clips civilize your trek. They're just the right size and weight when carabiners are too big and bulky.

The next improvement will be an S-clip with a key lock like the gate on a Petzl carabiner, instead of a notch that catches on hang loops and jackets.

Gearline Organizer by Nite-Ize

In the meantime, Nite-Ize makes a great assortment, including this s-clipped daisy chain. It's great for sitting out storms when you didn't bring a gear loft for your solo tent.

I use S-clips at home in the laundry room, too. Good value.

Best Clothes Line

Next stop: Spain.

Laundry the old fashioned way

My Napoleonic drama is up for best unproduced screenplay at the Madrid International Film festival. Pretty cool.

So what’s tucked away in my carry-on roller this time? 

The Lite Line Clothesline by Sea to Summit.

This thing changed my life in camp. No more ants in my pants from underwear left to dry on a stump. No more disappearing dish towels, socks, bandanas. No more putting on soaking wet, freezing cold sports bras at six in the morning. No more dew-soaked sleeping bags meant to be airing out while I’m striking camp. 

Now try it the hi-tech way

Face it. The para-cord clothesline has its limits. Wind blows stuff off it. The same wind you need for drying your clothes.

For no extra weight, try this. It’s a 1.3 ounce valet’s assistant with sliding beads that grip your drying items. It sets up easy and sturdy in 30 seconds between any two objects anywhere from 12-20 feet apart. It tightens itself. And it disappears in your luggage or your pack.

Sea to Summit, you’ve done it again. Clever, beautiful gear that works every time.



I have a Lite Line for every traveler in the household.

Lite Line Clothesline by Sea to Summit

So get out there and don’t worry about getting wet. It’ll dry.

Good little speakers

Here's what I travel with when I want to listen to music off the grid. It's got perfectly good sound given its ultralight weight and extreme packability. It's the size of a golf ball. I can almost always find a place for it on the moto, in my pack or in my luggage. The pop-up design feature delivers "vacuum bass." And it's energy-efficient. There are several brands to choose from, and I haven't tested them all.

Jawbone's Big Jambox

It's not strong enough for parties, though. For really good sound that's bluetooth compatible with our smartphones, laptops and iPad, we love the Big Jambox by Jawbone. Looks like prices are all over the map for this, so caveat emptor. This hi fi system totally likes living near an electrical outlet.

Most Liveable Tent

I used to be the only mum I knew who’d spend a month living out of a tent. Times’ a changin’.

More of my friends are shipping out to foreign ports (domestic ones too) to recharge and restore themselves in retreat. And more of them are being asked to bring a tent.

So which one works?

The Kingdom 4 by REI. 

I’ve logged 50 nights or so in this one, and it has been the most liveable tent I’ve ever owned.

They make a larger version that “sleeps six.” That’s code for a tad more room for you and your companion. It sounded appealing until I realized that the four-person footprint maxes out the space for most NPS tent platforms.

 What makes this one so liveable, above and beyond all the others?

• Medium-sized people can stand up and walk around inside this tent 
• Bright and spacious with great air circulation 
• Bedroom and sitting room are divided by a curtain 
• Nice décor and ample, well designed storage 
• Numerous “ceiling hooks” for hanging lanterns or clothes 
• Roll-up panels on the rainfly reveal floor-to-ceiling mesh windows and front door; roll them down for privacy and warmth 
• Two big doors, front and back, each accessible from left or right, with covered storage outside the back door 
• Cook and eat on rainy days inside the front door, in the foyer-size vestibule 

Very civilized setup.

Even though it isn’t cut or made to the bomber specs of alpine tents, the Kingdom 4 holds up well in heavy gusts. Battens down dry in rainstorms. The fabric quality is good, if not great; the mosquito netting is even better. With two huge windows, one in each room, you definitely feel the cold. But on hot buggy days you couldn’t wish for a breezier hideout.

And it even has that luxury feature every base camp needs: 3M reflectors on the fly, so you can find it when you’re returning home at night with your headlamp on.

Fully deployed at a summer campsite

To get all this functionality, you need to pay attention to details. Buy the vestibule. Buy the footprint. Stake it out at every point, and add guy-lines. It sets up easily, even for one person. Turning it into a home will take the better part of a morning or afternoon on arrival in camp. I block out two hours to strike this camp, too.

If you long for a flush toilet and running water on your getaway, and if your approach allows for driving, you’ll prefer glamping.

The whole scene has come so far in the US over the past few years that we’re nearly European. Check out these four-star trailer interiors on Pinterest.

A railway sleeper car converted into a house. A schoolbus converted into a mobile home. Teak paneled Airstream travel trailers with cozy twin bedrooms handsomer than a ship’s cabin. Tonke campers for flatbed trucks. Eggs, teardrops and Serro-Scottys with beds, galleys and built-in storage. It’s endless. Talk about liveability.

But I can see why people need to spend a month chanting in an Ashram after paying these glamping bills.

Oh, James, behave!

Next you’ll be towing your travel trailer with your Porsche two-seater, the way they do in the Tyrol near Ehrwald, at the foot of the Zugspitze.

And you’ll be catching my eye, of course. But that’s another story.

Naps

Naps. I never go anywhere without them.

Never needed a scientific study to tell me that naps work for whatever ails you.

Need a creative solution? Take a nap.

They can’t be beat for sheer strategic reboot value. They civilize all travel, not just adventure travel. 

What’s glamping without napping? 

When you wake up from a nap in the backcountry, something magical happens to the landscape. It looks different, it feels different, it smells different. Naps shift your perspective. 

Which is what makes them critical portable equipment.  

But as with love and epics, you have to equip yourself with the skill to nap well.

Develop your eye for a first class napping opportunity

I think I first aspired to world class achievement on the Appalachian Trail. My traveling companion was a Flat-Coated retriever. After seven months on the trail, sleeping together in my tent every night, I had become more like a dog while Ben had become more like a person. I taught him not to slurp his soup. He taught me to nap. What a pro.

The number of people who tell me, “I can’t take naps,” only proves that napping, like most things, takes diligence and practice. I’m still working towards my 10,000 hours.

Everyone has a different nap rhythm. Time of day, duration of nap, depth of sleep, ideal or even necessary environmental conditions. You’ll have to find your own sweet spot. 

Thru-hiker nap

In my twenties I learned from my best friend, a former cavalry officer, the time-honored rule taught at Sandhurst: “Sleep is a Phase of War.” Adventure napping is the peacenik version, where you exercise control over your mind and body to demand rest, healing and a change of tempo when you know you need it most. 

So get out there and keep improving your skills and honing your technique. You’ll soon find that, like most Epicurean delights, naps get even better when you do them with another person.

Well deserved nap