THE FUTURE OF CAMPING

Rex Burress

The word 'camp' has been a big joy in my life, as it denotes a connection with nature and a specific piece of ground quite often in a snug spot in a scenic setting.

Whether it's a designated campground in some park or National Forest provision, or a rock hunter pulling up and parking beside a mesquite tree in the desert for a camp-out, the space provides for a moment of outdoor intimacy where sunsets are vivid and the winds sing as they sift the sand over a dune. On the desert, you can do it in a tent, but you will appreciate the shelter of a metal camper vehicle barrier, but still it's camping when you're close to the wind-maker and the wildlife community.

My youth was spent on a farm where you were camping in a house surrounded by nature most of the time. You were right there in the great-out-doors so the slight hardship of camping out wasn't necessary. Nevertheless, my friend Donald and I did unfold a big umbrella tent and pitched it on the green lawn under the maple and our treehouse. Tent-camping has a certain smell to it, and the pup-tent when Jo and I were first married seemed insufficient as our feet stuck out and a mountain lion was squalling! With kids, we got a large Umbrella tent [with a center pole], and made a foray into Death Valley, but after a night of wind, we graduated to a van camper. My son Ben has retained that tent as he likes the openness. It got a little tougher for Jo and I in our senior years, so we reverted to motels.

We were involved with organized camps, like Oakland Feather River Camp, for several years though, Jo in the cooking management, and me in nature hikes and art teacher[25 years as camp naturalist] as long as we could. It is not the back-packing type of camping, since cabins and a 'Chow Palace' was involved! But nature is abundant right up to the edge of the camp activity, and it slips right into the campground, too! Bears and rattlesnakes are the most noticeable, and birds know no limits. In France, they call wooded camp sites “hotels de plein air!” and camping with luxurious cabins is “Glamping.” An American KOA might qualify.

Out in the woods and along Spanish Creek, you can stalk the wild leopard lily, or the white-headed woodpecker, and other natural wonders during the day. Shadowy meditating pools for weary minds, and hiking trails wandering up the ridge to 'Poop-out Hill' are part of camping that is meaningful to me.

The word 'camp,' however, is applied to a number of things far less spiritual and refreshing. A protest, “Close the Camps” march during the summer of 2019 was directed toward Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where 1400 migrant children were being held—the same 'camp' where 700 Japanese-Americans were detained during World War II, and where indigenous people of the Apache Nation were imprisoned during European colonization of the Western Frontier.

“Camp” has been applied to war concentration camps, too, and to holocaust camps—definitely not a pleasant thought. On another vein, “camp meetings” were a religious fervor in the Midwest revival times that has nothing to do with the conservation of Earth.

For camp lovers, it is dismal that the term “Camp Fire” was chosen for the Paradise fire. Campers especially, connect camping with sitting around a warm, cheerful, controlled wood fire in the evening, absorbing life-giving heat and entranced with the live, friendly sounds of a tiny fire to roast marshmellows and cook your foil packs. The flame can give or take, just as the sun can make plants grow or kill a rattlesnake!

The future of camping is good as long as some people can love the pure and beautiful in nature, and know it when they see it. The innovation of rooftop and tree-house-style camping in urban environments is an up-and-coming trend, helping to fulfill people's desire to connect with nature.

“To them who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language.”

--William Cullen Bryant