After having two REI Adventures camping trips under my belt, I wanted to share the love of the outdoors and camping with my family. Family camping trip, here we come. My stepdad was super excited for the trip; my mom, not so much. If there is one person that I have in mind when envisioning Glamp GVL, it is my mother. She enjoys hiking, kayaking, and delights in the outdoors, but when it comes to sleeping overnight in the woods, she opts out. Our family trip to Panthertown, NC was my attempt (as well as my stepdads) to help my mom understand why we love camping so much and hope that she would fall in love with it too. My two friends who ventured with me to Yosemite and New Hampshire came along on this family camping trip as well as some coworkers/friends of my stepdads from REI. We had a ton of people with camping experience, some may even say 'experts' from REI, haha. How could mom NOT love camping after this trip??
When planning this family adventure, we knew that mom would not sleep on the ground. So, we packed up the blow up bed, nice sheets, pillows, and an 8 person tent. So lush, so fancy. We knew we couldn't give her a luxurious bathroom in the back country so we wanted to make the tent as comfy as possible. We probably should have started this 'falling in love with camping' venture doing car camping instead of backpacking and sleeping in the back country, but hindsight is 20/20.
We loaded up the 'family truckster' with me, my mom, my two friends, my stepsister, my stepdad and our family dog, Maggie. The other cars and people caravanned behind us. Once we made it to Panthertown, we went for a hike to scout the land for a place to camp. I was soon dreading bringing the large tent and bedding since the campsite we settled on was at least 1/2 mile from the car with a decently large incline to the parking lot. It took about three (maybe 4, felt like 10 to me) trips back / forth to the car in order to get all our stuff to the campsite. But I knew it would be worth it because this would be just the start of family camping trips in the future or so I hoped.
Setting up camp was a fun experience. Almost everyone was in a two person tent except for my mom and stepdad. We all set up our sites first which took like...10 minutes. Then we all pitched in and helped with the glamping site for my mom. Eight person tent went up first. Then the blow up bed. Have you ever heard a air pump going in the middle of the woods? Well if you were there, you would have heard it for miles. I'm sure neighboring campsites were wondering what the noise was. After a few hours (I'm embellishing here) my mom's camping hotel was set up.
Note pictures below: To the left, mom/stepdad's tent (we only got a background photo shot, no photos of just the tent in all its glory). To the right, my tent.
Other than the tent, the rest of the experience was full on back country camping. Some of us sat on the ground, food had to be suspended from trees so bears could not get to it, we washed our bodies in the river, we did our 'business' in self dug holes in the ground, brushed our teeth with bottled water, and we ate glorious campsite food. Our dinner that evening was boiled hotdogs with chili. Oh boy, making my mouth water just thinking about it. Breakfast looked like bagels (I don't remember this but the picture shed some light on our morning food consumption...as well as which individual licked the spatula, you know who you are cloud man). I don't remember a campfire, but I think it was because we could not find any wood. Good thing we brought a camp stove. Also, there were stories of a bear in our campsite during the night (Maggie growled at some sound) but I never heard it so it never happened.
We hiked, we laughed, and had a great time. Panthertown, NC is super beautiful. The waterfalls were amazing as well as the company we had on this trip. Is the suspense killing you as to whether my mom fell in love with camping? Well, unfortunately, she did NOT. But I was super proud of her for trying. I feel like we gave it our best effort. I'm just hope that once Glamp GVL opens, my mom will try camping one more time. Glamp GVL's main customer will be individuals like my mom who enjoy the outdoors but do not like sleeping overnight outside. I hope that my mom as well as others like her will fall in love with camping after a stay at Glamp GVL.
What did I learn on this trip?
Family and friends are awesome. Sharing your passions with them is even better. Though some might not like the same things you do, spending time with the people you love is priceless.
Sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone and try new things. We do not learn and grow without facing our fears and taking on risks.
Not everyone is going to love camping as much as I do.
Things I will bring to Glamp GVL:
Bathrooms. We will have running water, hot water, and real toilets.
Hiking adventures. We will have so many activities at Glamp GVL and one being hiking. There are several waterfalls in the area and many hiking trails.
Comfy beds, soft linens, squishy pillows, and spacious tents. At Glamp GVL we want the experience sleeping in the woods to be a spectacular one. We will have many amenities throughout the glampsite to make an individual's stay a magnificent one and one in which they want to come back to time and time again.
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