Soon after my wife and I met we started backpacking together. This is not as backpackers in the European sense of cheap travel, but more of a trekking approach: We carried everything we needed for multiple days of survival on our backs.

Even before we met, I had done a decent amount of backpacking in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Colorado. As a younger man, I felt that having that 50-pound pack on my back made the experience somewhat hardier, but as the years and miles passed, I gravitated towards lighter-weight gear.

Most of my trips after 2000 were with lighter-weight gear. Shave an ounce here or there and soon enough, they add up to pounds. Some of this venturing into lightweight gear was because of a part-time job at a (now closed) Eastern Mountain Sports. The camaraderie of the other workers (some of whom are still friends to this day) certainly helped inspire my decisions, but the employee discount didn’t hurt!

So, with our lighter packs, my wife and I ventured near and far: Collegiate Peaks, Maroon Bells, even multiple trips to the Wind River Range. After a few years though, other friends started to drop away as backpacking compatriots because of life: Work, family, other obligations pulled them from the trails and our desire to visit the closer locations, while we loved them, was fading. Combine that with the recession of the late 2000’s and we started to think about other options for adventure.

Enter our season of car camping.

Mind you, this season was not “sleeping on the ground”. I happened into REI at one point when they had one of their giant tents set up with cots, a table, and all the comforts of home. This is the style of “glamping” that we embraced. With this kit, we started our road trip phase. Two-week long trips that took us as far north as Jasper, Alberta and as far west as the coast of Oregon and California. We would end up spending months in that tent over the course of 5 or so years.

The downside was it was still a tent. Nights could be cold. Days could be hot. Rain was miserable. Snow was even worse. And we experienced all of these. All the while when we were in this setup, we would see small trailers around the campgrounds of our travels and thing “one day…”. Then, at the end of 2016, we made the leap to a travel trailer.

We never thought we would want anything overly large, but wanted something that my 6’4” frame could stand up in but small enough to tuck into remote campsites that longer trailers could never fit. We settled on a gently used Forest River R-Pod 152, and immediately took upon making it our own.

Gone was one of the bunks in favor of a small seating area and a luggage shelf. We bolted on a second battery (with a larger battery box) and, while we were at it, a second propane tank. We removed an unneeded shelf that allowed us to use a custom-made add-on cushion to expand the bed by 8” of width. Banished were the regular incandescent lights in favor of LED lamps throughout. We recessed the stove. We removed the microwave. Jettisoned the television. Added a window to the door.

We have towed our trusty trailer as far north as Montana, south into New Mexico, and west to the far corner of Arizona and Utah. Along the way we have cooked hundreds of meals in and around the camper, set up our hammocks under the trees, and explored new areas in comfort. We have learned a lot from these trips and are efficient now at finding campsites that fit (which isn’t hard with a 18’ trailer) and getting everything set up.

But the call of the solitude and beauty that the deep wilderness continued to call our names. We would, of course, still do multiple hiking trips while we were camping both in the tent and in the trailer, but there is something special about the freedom and isolation that can be found in a wilderness backpacking environment.

So, during the pandemic, we re-constituted our gear with a few modifications to further reduce our base weight because, let’s face facts: We’re not getting any younger! Soon followed trips to Yellowstone, the Beartooth mountains and a long-awaited return to the Wind River Range.

Now, because we have the option of using our trailer as a base camp, we will sometimes leave or home away from home parked at a campground and venture into the woods again with our packs on our backs, secure with the knowledge that wen we return, we can continue the adventure with some of the comforts of home. Going from a backpack to a travel trailer and back again has opened up other possibilities in adventure.