Prepper camp had been something I had heard about a few times since I got started with prepping in NC. But it was after NC Scout of Brushbeater Training and Consulting offered to pay for my ticket this year that I finally went. After a 6 hour long drive with Wynn of the Dope Farm Podcast, I had arrived. We showed up a day early to get our spot fully set up. It is definitely best done while glamping. I had initially thought that I would “rough it” and live out of my get home bag. Thank God that Wynn talked me out of it, and that he brought an extra cot. Also thank you for all the bear and venison you fed everyone. What prepper camp sells it self as is a weekend of classes and vendors. But what isn’t as talked about is the fellowship.
The people I met were definitely the highlight of the whole weekend. Such a broad range of people. From old snake-eaters, to guard vets, to ems personnel, to regular people. Of course I spent a good amount of my time hanging out with NC Scout and Jesse James from American Partisan. They did pay for my ticket after all. Phil and Andrew from MOF Podcast are amazing and I’m sad that I missed out on them recording the Prepper Camp episode. There was a Sasquatch roaming around, the one who runs the Tactical Buffaloes podcast. The conversations ranged from prepping to non prepping related topics and were all lively. Especially once we decided to start pouring drinks each day.
The old snake-eaters that camped near us were probably the highlight of that whole weekend. Just listening to the stories was more than enough, but I also met Paul Avallone among all the other amazing men at that camp site. He spent quite a while as a Green beret, but also has a great gift as a writer. He wrote for Soldier of Fortune, several newsprint agencies, and also wrote his own book. Tattoo Zoo is not only a full frontal look at the War in Afghanistan, it is a realistic look at an Infantry platoon. If you have spent any time at all in one, you’ll recognize several of the characters. Every platoon seems to be made up of the same types of characters and the Zoo is no different. He has managed to skip all of the “military war book cliches” while also nailing every aspect of life in an infantry platoon. I will be doing a full review of Tattoo Zoo because it deserves a post all it’s own. Safe to say, after reading it on kindle, I will be purchasing a physical copy of the book to put on my shelf.
The area we camped at had water, power hookups, and was right next to the bathrooms (with showers) so it definitely made the trip classify as glamping. But as Wynn said, “I aint rucking” so it definitely makes sense to take advantage of the facilities available. Showering every day was such a nice thing. The longest I’ve spent without showers and real bathrooms was two weeks, and I never want to miss the opportunity for a shower again. The power and running water made cooking and clean up a breeze. For clean up I would recommend the three tub method pulled straight from the Boy Scout manual. One tub of hot soapy water with a sponge to scrub off food bits, one tub of water to rinse all the soap off, and one tub of bleach water (we generally just used one cap full of bleach for the whole tub) to sanitize. But just a tub of hot soapy water to scrub everything off and a hose to rinse the soap off should work just fine.
All in all it was a GREAT weekend with some amazing people that I can not wait to see again next year. If you can make the trip next year I would highly recommend it. Even if you don’t make it out a single class, the people you meet will be more than worth the cost of a ticket. I’ve already started work on my own packing list for next year, and now the wife wants to go too! Hopefully I’ll see some of you out there, and if you’ve been to Prepper Camp before or if this year was your first year comment on this post about it. Or just write your own blog post about it and link it in the comments.