History
The Early Steps:
Our adventure begins in the early 90’s. My wife and I love camping, and very much enjoyed our off grid experiences in the good old national forests in the area (Mt Hood and Gifford Pinchot). Though we camped in all kinds of places including state, county, and private parks, our favorite thing to do at the time was to navigate up a random logging road, and find a place to camp. Near absolute privacy and seclusion was wonderful, and even at the time (in our early 20’s) I found a spiritual connection to spending a few days embracing the “difficulty” of the basics of life. In some ways, “doing it the hard way” was half the point.
One of the things I most enjoyed at that time was to take on the challenge of creating things using basic tools and natural materials to upgrade comfort. I loved projects like building complex firepit for more advanced cooking, innovative outdoor shower solutions, and the like. Setting mind and body to these types of physical tasks to achieve a small life improvement was very gratifying. There was something about it that I found compelling, and was drawn toward.
We would often stay for longer periods of time (i.e. several days or a week at a time) to make more complex endeavors relatively worth it. However, I was always faced with the process of abandoning all that hard work at the end of the trip. Though very enjoyable, I began to long for a place where I could return and continue to develop as a long term project.
The Search
By the late 90’s this began a search. Our business was doing fairly well, and we started to have some money to pursue some of our dreams. We decided to search for a bare piece of land to turn into our own place to camp. The original criteria was:
· At least 5 acres (preferably 10-20).
· On some kind of water (lake, stream, or river).
· Not completely clear cut (i.e. a good amount of trees and forest).
· A decent amount of level useable land.
· Far from nearby homes and neighbors.
· Within a 2 hour drive of our home in Happy Valley, OR.
· Within a set budget we had set at the time.
We spent nearly 2 years in that search, and came close to purchasing a number of properties. We came very close to pulling the trigger a few times, but nothing really “spoke to us” until 2001.
The Find
In this same time frame we had a toddler, and this started to change our camping habits. Though we did occasionally engage in the more raw camping experience, we had also started to camp a little more frequently in state and county parks. In particular we fell in love with Metzler Park in Clackamas county. An organization we belong to had an annual campout there and during one of our annual events we found a for sale sign on the property located directly next door. Though the asking price was nearly 5 times what we had budgeted, it was 40 acres, very close to town, and checked all of our boxes in every way. We made contact with the broker that weekend, toured the property, and literally made the decision to buy it at their asking price on the spot.
At the time it was virtually bare land. The previous owner had built a couple small decks that overlooked the waterfalls, and there was an old school bus and a storage shed. That’s it. Other than that, it was 40 acres of trails, trees, and creeks.
My family and close friends have been enjoying camping and activities here ever since. For a period in the 2000’s we camped almost every weekend, and often a week or two at a stretch. There were years we spent more nights camping here (June to October) than we did in our home. A small group of families (our closest friends) began to camp together. We enjoyed numerous activities including hiking, primitive building projects, dirt bike and quad riding, archery, target shooting, firepit technology, etc… It was not uncommon to have groups of 30-40 people including a dozen or two kids ranging in age from infant to teenager. We were involved in the boy scouts, a couple private schools, and twelve step recovery programs that all had events and activities here as well.
By the late 2000’s many of the kids had grown, some of the families drifted apart, and though we still were camping a lot, the groups became a little smaller. It turns out “20 somethings” don’t want to hang out every weekend with their parents, and older fogies don’t always like sleeping on the ground… (go figure).
By 2016 we had had it with the city and decided to make the property our primary residence. Though our long term plan is to build a larger home to live out our golden years, we initially moved into a rental house we built here in 2005. We have done tons of planning, but have not yet pulled the trigger on the construction of our dream home (hopefully we will sometime soon).
Though our family and friends certainly don’t camp as much as they used to, there has been a recent resurgence. Apparently those “20 somethings” become “30 somethings” and end up with kids of their own. There is a new generation that is beginning their experiences on this land, and we hope it will become an important part of their childhood memories too.
The Projects
In addition to some of the primitive projects of building small conveniences by hand, we did also add more traditional improvements. We drilled two wells, built a pole barn to house tools and toys, and designed and built a 24 X 24 covered area with a firepit in the middle (i.e. pyramid style with a chimney in the middle so that the firepit is under cover). In the mid 2000’s we built a small home up at the entrance to the property and initially turned it into a rental so that there would be an onsite caretaker for security. I have developed another section of the property for firewood processing, maintenance, and storage. However until 2022, the bottom camping area was simply a large camping area used by our friends and family.
The Plans
For years we had discussed (in the abstract) developing a section of the property into a small, private campground: Approx. 12 acres of wooded and relatively level land at the bottom, near the creeks and waterfalls. At some point this became a large part of our retirement plan, with a vision of retiring from the day to day operation of our family businesses, and devoting most of our time to this land. Though I still work full time, and have no plans of retirement for at least another 5-10 years, now that we live here, I am able to find much more time to work on these long term projects.
In mid-2020, one of my sons discovered Hipcamp.com and told me about it. By January of 2021, though I had not yet finished any official campsites, I decided to give myself a little push. I went ahead and listed 3 sites (yet to be built) on Hipcamp and made them available as of 5/1/22. That turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.
Spring of 22 was one of the wettest springs EVER! The ground was sopping wet, and I could not get to the road work, clearing, or parking areas for the new sites. Surprisingly a handful of people had already booked sites, one of which was already a confirmed booking for early May. Though I had subsequently blocked out the remainder of May and June to give myself time to complete the sites, I was unwilling to cancel on this group. We did the work by hand, and got the first site ready for them in time. Though it was technically completed before their arrival date, it was still very wet, and not quite as nice as I wanted it to be. So when they arrived I offered them the option of keeping the site they booked, or the alternative of using my family camping area (a giant area with a 24 X 24 covered area, dc power and lights, under cover fire pit, etc..). They were ecstatic to take me up on the offer, and since it turned out to pour the entire weekend it was an excellent solution.
As our first official campers, they were spectacular, and had a great weekend. I found this quite inspiring and dug in to finishing the rest of the sites before July 1st (when our now growing list of bookings began). We were able to finish all 3 sites in time, and were literally booked solid (all 3 sites, all weekends, and many weekdays too) throughout the remainder of 2022 up to early November.
This first year was absolutely awesome. Some of our initial concerns about offering this space to the public were eradicated. The Hipcamp community is excellent, and the vast majority of our campers were just the kind of people we want to share this with. Though our long term plans are to be more community-based, we plan to maintain our association with Hipcamp for many years to come!
After our last campers in November, we decided to shut down booking for the winter, to give us time to get a few more campsites online before the 2023 season, and to continue with many more of the infrastructure improvements we have planned. So far in 2023 (last updated July 2023) we have added 2 new standard sites, and we are in the process of adding our a deluxe site, and the group area. We hope to have these two sites finished and available for booking by mid to late summer of 2023. We also have plans to convert the 24 X 48 pole barn into a meeting/activity space for retreats, events, possibly weddings, etc..