Sleeping bag on the ground, or down comforter with high thread-count sheets?
When you’re at deer camp, are you in a 5 star hotel, a hollowed out log in the middle of the woods, or somewhere in between? For most of us, deer camp is a place we go to rest, sleep, eat and try to maintain a respectful level of personal hygiene. I’ve seen a wide range of deer camps over my decades of hunting on different property.
Nightfall at camp
I remember going with my dad when I was a pretty young kid to a hunting lodge that was much bigger than our house. It was tucked away in so many cedars, I wondered, “How did they build this thing all the way back here?” They even had street signs to direct you from the front gate through the meandering dirt roads to the lodge. Another time, I was a guest at a lease that had so many bunk beds, it looked like the cabins at youth summer camp. If you’re lucky you’ll be a guest in some one’s home, either on the property or just a short drive down the road. Here, you have all the comforts of home, no doubt with heaping helpings of hospitality. I’ve stayed in hotels and motels “in town”. Most of these are used to hunters, and often welcome our business. The air conditioning and (mostly) bug free atmosphere provide a welcome respite from the harsh conditions during the day, especially in the early bow season. Way over on the other side of camp life, a tent has been “home base” for me. Sure, it has it’s share of “roughing it” qualities, but there’s a healthy list of good reasons to tent camp. Here’s two: Tents discourage “sleeping in” and tents help us keep a respect for nature that we could easily become numb to in completely controlled environments. A good part of my hunting “home life” was spent in a pop up camper. It truly was home away from home. Dad and I could have that thing set up in no time, and when it was time to go, it would be cleaned up and road ready with almost no effort. We had such a routine down that it was like being on auto pilot. We each had our own jobs to do. This well oiled machine-like setup and take down process was the result of years of weekend trips to the property during deer season.
All these aforementioned means of overnight accommodations have their strengths which give the hunter choices when deciding how and where to set up camp. However, I have a favorite. None of these have the character or personal touch as the cabins or lodges that have been built by the hunters that live on or lease the property. Wow! These are the buildings that range from scraps of building material that has been collected from old, worn down abandoned structures, to stuff brought from the personal stash at home, to fresh hardware purchased specifically for camp to build for the hunters. It seems that all of these have been tailored to fit the group of hunters.
Checking the spice racks...
Some hunters are the engineers who designed the structure, some are the worker bees who took orders and nailed it “here” and cut it “there”, some keep it clean, some keep it well stocked with kitchen supplies, and some, like me, have the privilege of decorating the outer walls with our own version of camo!
A few cans of dump paint can give your cabin cool looking weatherproofness.
What ever kind of camp you use when you go hunting, I hope you consider yourself fortunate, lucky and blessed. If you find yourself at any type of camp, that means you’re on a hunting trip! You aren’t stuck in traffic. You aren’t in the hospital. You aren’t folding laundry. You aren’t pulling weeds out of the flowerbed.
Have a good time at camp! Before you know it, you’ll find yourself back in civilization, cleaning the lint from the filter of the clothes dryer.
