For the modern camper, s'mores, CNN, and a DVD

Summer's here and folks all over America are already sitting around campfires telling stories of roughing it in the wild.

"Yeah, I had to move my 32-footer over three spaces 'cause my Sat-dish couldn't get diddly squat for a signal under those trees over there," says Rudy Meraz, sipping a cold one beneath a 3 o'clock sun at Carpinteria State Park.

"Our dishwasher broke and we had to do everything by hand," says Mildred Smith, a housewife from Solvang, Calif., resting her aching feet on an iron fire ring, nearby. "We almost missed the season finale of 'Friends.' "

"My wall-plate signal amplifier just blew," says a man named Sandy, sweeping the artificial turf rug outside his trailer. "No CNN tonight."

As many Americans head out for their first camping foray of the summer over Memorial Day weekend, they'll be taking along the usual tents, sleeping bags, and Coleman lanterns. They'll also be carting along DVD libraries, instant-messaging systems, portable hot showers, butane ovens that make gourmet brownies, and enough amenities to make Martha Stewart feel comfortable among the wood ticks.

Sociologists might say that American's once stout pioneer-wilderness heritage has gone soft. But they ignore a deeper truth: It's a good mile-and-a-half brisk walk to the nearest Starbucks from here.

It's easy to say Lewis and Clark would sob into the sleeves of their buckskins if they could see it: thousands (millions?) of perfectly normal immigrant descendants so reliant on their modern conveniences that none can leave them behind. On the other hand, if the country's two most famous pioneers had a hand-held GPS personal navigator - now on sale at an adventure store near you - they could have found the Pacific Ocean, achieved manifest destiny, and made it back to Washington D.C. before the ink was dry on the Louisiana Purchase (1803, instead of 1806).

So, yes outdoor equipment is getting easier, fancier, lighter, smaller, and more versatile. Camping is also more popular again after two decades of ho-hum growth - thanks to 9/11, airline troubles, and the rise of reality TV shows such as "Survivor."

"Certainly camping is growing because there is so much technology available to make it more convenient, safer, and more appealing to more age groups than ever," says Peg Smith, executive director of the American Camping Association.

Because of all this, this season's trailer- and tent- toters are expected to see a lot more faces and families scrummed around Old Faithful, queued up to vista points, and even traipsing remote backcountry.

"Camping merchandisers have gone all out in recent years to better educate customers about how to prepare for the wilderness so they can be safer and have more fun," says Sally Anderson, a marketer of high-end camping for Adventure16 Outdoor and Travel. "One of the consequences is that you are going to see a lot more people in the deeper reaches of wilderness than before."

However far America's campers go, they will run into the latest incarnation of the camper's hierarchy. RV owners make fun of tent campers, and vice versa. Backpackers - who carry smaller tents - make fun of auto campers, those who stick to paved lots and numbered sites. And super trekkers (a.k.a. ultralight campers or "gram counters") - those who walk the big distances of 2,000 miles and more - make fun of mere backpackers.

Page: 1 | 2