A Camping Fanatic From California And The Author Of The Book, "UNDER THE STARS", That Demonstrates His Deep Passion For The Outdoors
Dan White, is so enthralled with the great outdoors that he once camped out without food, camping supplies or clothes- because he was paying tribute to a notorious camper named Joseph Knowles, who allegedly camped out naked for two months in the wilds of Maine in 1913.
“A lot of it is just escape, pure and simple. I think people like camping because of the ritualistic aspects, the act of preparing camp, putting up and striking a tent and the act of removal,” he said. “You’re changing your circumstances and playing at survivalism, but only for a short while. That’s why it is a vacation, not a lifestyle.”
White, a camping fanatic from Santa Cruz, CA is the author of the new book, UNDER THE STARS: How America Fell in Love with Camping. Within the pages, he demonstrates his deep passion for the outdoors and pays tribute to “America’s Best Idea” by visiting many of those protected places and introducing the players who helped them achieve that status, including John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wallace Carothers, whose invention of nylon allowed adventurers to push even further into the backcountry and catalyzed the commercialization of the camping industry. All the while, White works to unpack the fact that indigenous peoples once thrived year-round on the lands that are now frequented by predominantly white male tourists.
“According to the online statistics portal called Statista, more than 45 million Americans camp each year,” he said. “Statistics also show that most of those campers are, overwhelmingly, car campers. Right now, the demographics are pretty lopsided. Camping is roughly 80 percent Caucasian. However, I believe this is could change because of the outreach efforts of groups such as Outdoor Afro and Latino Outdoors, as well as the Sierra Club and other environmental groups.”
White is also the author of The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind—and Almost Found Myself—on the Pacific Crest Trail and is a contributing editor at Catamaran Literary Reader. He has taught composition at San Jose State, and Columbia University, where he received his MFA.
Additionally, White has experienced every kind of camping with his wife and daughter.
“We've backpacked in the Hoh Rainforest up in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, traveled across Arizona in a 27-foot motorhome, and car camped all over California,” White said. “My relationship with camping is complicated. I have always had this love-hate dynamic with camping. I enjoy removing myself from my normal circumstances and surroundings and forcing myself to take a vacation from the 24-hour news cycle. I prefer places that have no cell phone service, although they are getting harder to find these days.”
White said that since the National Park program began 100 years ago, in terms of camping equipment and practice, one of the biggest changes was in 1910, which was the year when the first motorized campers started rolling through the streets of America.
“I find it remarkable that John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt were still alive when RVing was just starting to take off in America,” he said. “Certainly the Scouting movement left its mark on camping, starting in 1910 when the Boy Scouts Of America was founded - and the Girl Scouts soon afterwards, in Savannah, Georgia, in 1912. Scouting instilled a love of the land as well as a sense of kinship and discipline in American youth.”
Another huge change happened after World War II, when the camping industry began to embrace synthetics such as nylon. Lightweight backpacks became all the rage in the '60s and '70s, when outdoor gear became a major industry.
In his book, White says that the fact that camping experiences can improve in retrospect and there's no such thing as a truly 'bad' camping experience unless something horrible happens.
“Almost any camping trip can be redeemed through the act of retrospection and storytelling,” he said. “Camping trips, even bad ones, instill you with a sense of humor because whining doesn’t help at all. As my writing teacher once told me, "Bad for life, good for story." I give a lot of readings from ‘Under The Stars,’ and I find that the audiences seem to crave the camping disaster stories way more than they crave stories about blissful camp-outs. They get bored by moments of rapture, but they never tire of hearing stories about animals marauding through my camp, marmots eating my car, or the tent flipping upside down in a rainstorm.”
Candice Reed
A graduate of Kelsey-Jenny College in Communications as well as a certified grant writer, Candice has written for The Los Angeles Times & The New York Times. She loves entertaining and all things French.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Santa Cruz Harbor, offers RV parking with full hook-up spaces, as well as miles of scenic walking trails with interpretive sites and historical markers about the Monterey Bay.