My story of backcountry camping starts in the spring of 2014 with a guided trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I was hooked. I have dedicated my life since to spending as many days under the stars and out of my bedroom as possible. And admittedly have been extremely lucky in that I have never knock on wood had a serious accident in the mountains. But somewhere along the way I realized that time in the outdoors is also where I get my best thinking done. Away from the dings of cell phones, the horns of cars and familiar, albeit distracting, voices of friends. The place I go when I need to find myself. That and a series if really flaky camping buddies - and here I am. An avid solo female backcountry camper (the female part I do have no control over). And I know it can be intimidating - a thin sheet of nylon your only protection when you are at your most vulnerable. So I jotted down everything I think would help if you are just getting into backcountry camping. I hope it helps!

When heading out into the backcountry, with the mandatory requirement of carrying everything you need on your back, saving weight is the name of the game. And one of the easiest ways to cut weight out offer pack is not carrying extra water in the form of food. Although MRE (meal’s ready-to eat) have a long standing reputation of being bland flavourless pouches of barely edible food… in the past several years that has changed a lot.

Over the past year I have had a lot of time to explore California and HipCamp is one of my go-to websites for finding really unique off the backcountry camping, car camping and Glamping experiences that are not listed anywhere else. As we kick off summer I wanted to share five unique camping and clamping trips I have take in California and everything that I packed with me to make them the most amazing experiences.