Remote Camping
The family on the shores of Timothy Lake.
I just got back from my families big annual campout. It’s quite the logistics challenge, organizing 20 family members, ages from 5 to 70, accompanied by 5 dogs of all shapes and sizes, all of the loading of the trucks, cars, boats and kayaks and, to top it off, going to a remote campsite. But with all of that this year’s trip again came off successfully. We like go to Cascade Lakes in Oregon or SW Washington and this year it was the beautiful Timothy Lake that got the nod. When I say remote, I am referring to what some camp areas call “dispersed camping”. They are either hike in or boat in. These spots won’t have toilets, running water, picnic tables etc. Everyone would agree those things are critical, so we have to pack in our own and pack all of it back out. This campout is organized by my sister’s family and “bro in law” Captain Dan has yet to find the “top” to “go over”. Years ago they had solved the problem of how to build a remote kitchen and pantry to feed everyone, but this year Captain Dan decided it might be nice to add a few luxury items. He purchased a super quiet camping generator and built a large string of outdoor “patio style” lights to light up the forest. Along with all of that, he brought a Keurig coffee maker so everyone could have their favorite caffeine beverage, just like a Seattle coffee shop. And to top it off,he even brought a diving board to aid in “cliff diving” at the site. My sister jumps from the "diving board" This is a long time tradition and it is great fun for all. This year it was very rewarding that my 6-year-old grandson really had the desire to catch some fish. He was vigilant about his Spiderman combo and tackle box making it into the truck and then the boat. Our first attempt at getting him some of the lakes many rainbows from my drift boat wasn’t meeting with his expectations of fishing and he promptly let me know it. Kids don’t really like to sit very still and be limited in what they can do. It was much better to him when we hit the shore line and cast out some Powerbait to the waiting fish. While he was waiting for a bite, he could climb around on the rocks and throw stuff in the water. He didn’t get much chance to do that though, as the fish kept him pretty busy. As you can see by the picture, he was very proud of his catach. This trip also gave me further opportunity to bond with my future son in law, Dustin. My fly fishing nephew, Jeff who had been on the lake a couple of days prior to our arrival, had mentioned that he had noticed some Hexagenias hatching on the previous evenings and suggested we give it a try on our first night together. So the three of us went out in drift boats a couple of hours prior to the expected hatch. We were getting a pretty good number of fish trolling sinking lines and seal buggers prior to the hatch. When the hatch started, I was impressed by the number of hatching may flies and also how many fish were in the area. It fished as good as I had experienced at Merrill lake in Washington just weeks earlier (see previous blog “Insomnia, Giant Yellow May Flies and Trout”). It was a great time had by all and, even with the size of our group, we didn’t affect any other campers experience, nor did anyone else affect ours. That is the beauty of remote camping. My wife Hope and I love to do river floats in our drift boat and camp just off the shores of our beautiful northwest rivers. In order to do so we need to make sure our gear fits with space we have in our Clackacraft 15’ Fly Fish drift boat. Here is a list of the things, either exactly the same, or similar to what we use that you can find at Fisherman’s Marine and Outdoor. Tent – Taron Basecamp 4 Air Matt – Coleman Durarest Queen Airbed Sleeping Bags- Slumberjack Forest 20 degree Sleeping Bag (2 for zipping together) Stove -Primus Firehole 100 dual burner stove Folding Table – Alps Mountaineering Camp Table Chairs – Alps Mountaineering Leisure Chair Cooler- Igloo 52 qt Contour Cooler Dry Bags for Clothing -Seattle Sports Hydralight Tote We always a shovel, axe and also take a galvanized metal oil change pan to contain our fire and ashes and the standard screw top lid and plastic bucket combination you can get at hardware stores for our groover toilet. It is very important that we leave no trace of our camping presence. All of these things, plus the food totes, extra clothing and fishing gear all fit perfectly in our drift boat. Obviously if you had a canoe, kayak or were backpacking in, you would need to scale down. At FMO we can help you with that as well. Enjoy your camping season and please be safe out there.
I just got back from my families big annual campout. It’s quite the logistics challenge, organizing 20 family members, ages from 5 to 70, accompanied by 5 dogs of all shapes and sizes, all of the loading of the trucks, cars, boats and kayaks and, to top it off, going to a remote campsite. But with all of that this year’s trip again came off successfully. We like go to Cascade Lakes in Oregon or SW Washington and this year it was the beautiful Timothy Lake that got the nod. When I say remote, I am referring to what some camp areas call “dispersed camping”. They are either hike in or boat in. These spots won’t have toilets, running water, picnic tables etc. Everyone would agree those things are critical, so we have to pack in our own and pack all of it back out. This campout is organized by my sister’s family and “bro in law” Captain Dan has yet to find the “top” to “go over”. Years ago they had solved the problem of how to build a remote kitchen and pantry to feed everyone, but this year Captain Dan decided it might be nice to add a few luxury items. He purchased a super quiet camping generator and built a large string of outdoor “patio style” lights to light up the forest. Along with all of that, he brought a Keurig coffee maker so everyone could have their favorite caffeine beverage, just like a Seattle coffee shop. And to top it off,he even brought a diving board to aid in “cliff diving” at the site. My sister jumps from the "diving board" This is a long time tradition and it is great fun for all. This year it was very rewarding that my 6-year-old grandson really had the desire to catch some fish. He was vigilant about his Spiderman combo and tackle box making it into the truck and then the boat. Our first attempt at getting him some of the lakes many rainbows from my drift boat wasn’t meeting with his expectations of fishing and he promptly let me know it. Kids don’t really like to sit very still and be limited in what they can do. It was much better to him when we hit the shore line and cast out some Powerbait to the waiting fish. While he was waiting for a bite, he could climb around on the rocks and throw stuff in the water. He didn’t get much chance to do that though, as the fish kept him pretty busy. As you can see by the picture, he was very proud of his catach. This trip also gave me further opportunity to bond with my future son in law, Dustin. My fly fishing nephew, Jeff who had been on the lake a couple of days prior to our arrival, had mentioned that he had noticed some Hexagenias hatching on the previous evenings and suggested we give it a try on our first night together. So the three of us went out in drift boats a couple of hours prior to the expected hatch. We were getting a pretty good number of fish trolling sinking lines and seal buggers prior to the hatch. When the hatch started, I was impressed by the number of hatching may flies and also how many fish were in the area. It fished as good as I had experienced at Merrill lake in Washington just weeks earlier (see previous blog “Insomnia, Giant Yellow May Flies and Trout”). It was a great time had by all and, even with the size of our group, we didn’t affect any other campers experience, nor did anyone else affect ours. That is the beauty of remote camping. My wife Hope and I love to do river floats in our drift boat and camp just off the shores of our beautiful northwest rivers. In order to do so we need to make sure our gear fits with space we have in our Clackacraft 15’ Fly Fish drift boat. Here is a list of the things, either exactly the same, or similar to what we use that you can find at Fisherman’s Marine and Outdoor. Tent – Taron Basecamp 4 Air Matt – Coleman Durarest Queen Airbed Sleeping Bags- Slumberjack Forest 20 degree Sleeping Bag (2 for zipping together) Stove -Primus Firehole 100 dual burner stove Folding Table – Alps Mountaineering Camp Table Chairs – Alps Mountaineering Leisure Chair Cooler- Igloo 52 qt Contour Cooler Dry Bags for Clothing -Seattle Sports Hydralight Tote We always a shovel, axe and also take a galvanized metal oil change pan to contain our fire and ashes and the standard screw top lid and plastic bucket combination you can get at hardware stores for our groover toilet. It is very important that we leave no trace of our camping presence. All of these things, plus the food totes, extra clothing and fishing gear all fit perfectly in our drift boat. Obviously if you had a canoe, kayak or were backpacking in, you would need to scale down. At FMO we can help you with that as well. Enjoy your camping season and please be safe out there.
