I spent the last 48 hours at Reveille Peak Ranch with two friends and a whole lot of strangers at Camp Kammok. Kammok is an outdoor equipment company homegrown in Austin that hosted a weekend in the Hill Country to get people outside. Here are a few reasons you should check it out:
1. Kammok is known for their camping hammocks, and as an awesomely high-quality, sustainable brand now carried in REI, they have a strong following among dedicated outdoors women and men. So although Camp Kammok was the best kind of glamping, it still attracted seasoned "I'll devise a tent with this napkin and a paper clip" campers who just love getting outside. I loved that of the +250 people there, there was an incredible mix of people who have never owned a sleeping bag and people who probably have one for each season. Newbies need not be intimidated. Everyone's there to get disconnected from something and reconnected to fresh air.
2. When you go camping with a group of friends, you may get a dog or two. When you go camping with 250 people - you get around 50. All ecstatic to be outside with space to swim and be incredibly cute and pet-able and if you don't like dogs that sleep in hammocks adorably with their owners well I can't help you in one blog post.
3. Don't like hiking? You can go paddle boarding. Don't like paddle boarding? You can go rock climbing or rappelling. Don't like rock climbing? You can go swim in a quarry. Don't like physical activity of any kind? You can lay in a hammock in the sun or shade and nap to live music. Don't like live music? No problem there's a silent disco with three channels for whatever gets your booty shaking.
4. I only go camping when I know at least one campfire chef will be attending because it sure ain't me. I'm happy to help chop food, get the fire going, or wash dishes, but bulk cooking in one pot where there's little room to mess up is not my forte. At Camp Kammok, local Austin restaurants and caterers like Chilantro, La Pera, EPIC Bar, Wildway served us up every meal. My favorite "I'm feeling fancy" water, Topo Chico, was dethroned by Rambler and Neighbor Coffee Co was waiting for us at 7am like we deserved it.
5. The Kammok staff have hiked the PCT, gone through 90 days of survival training, and still made time to get MBAs at Stanford, among other amazing accolades. But you'd never know it unless you asked - they're just the people in camp-counselor style T-shirts, grilling you burgers, enjoying every second of sharing outdoor space with others.
6. Just moved to Austin and need something to do for the weekend to make friends? Been wanting to take your family on a camping trip but don't know the first thing about putting together a tent without a total meltdown? Needing a weekend out of the city with your college roommates and complimentary Eastciders Cider and Tito's (hopefully not in the same glass)? Single, married, dog-is-your-only-friend, too many kids - there's no excuse. They all made it out and they all walked away feeling better than they came.
Getting outside is a lot like working out - you can often come up with many reasons why you should or shouldn't, but you never regret it once it's done.