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Our Story

We like to camp. That's how we spend vacation time. Most of that time spent backpacking. Our son’s first backpacking trip was to Paradise Valley in Kings Canyon NP when he was 8 and our daughter’s to the South Rim in Big Bend NP when she was 11. My first tent was Army surplus ponchos snapped together.  When there was two of us, we bought a great 2 person North Face  backpacking tent that we still use.  Later we bought a 4 person North Face for car camping with our son and daughter in places like Takaka Falls in Yoho NP, British Columbia and Redwoods State Park, California.

But we also like to camp with more comfort than can be carried in a pack.

 

The inspiration for the Cumberland came out of the sky one afternoon after we had set up our family tent in Lassen Volcanic NP. We were washed out of our campsite by rain heavy enough to float the tent.  Everyone else in the campground was off the ground in a camper or RV. 

We wanted a tent that was storm tolerant, had more comfort than a ground tent, and was big inside for camping when not out backpacking.

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A prototype in the Chisos Basin, Big Bend NP

Awnings no longer have to tether to the ground

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Cooking in a Wyoming State Park_edited_e

Cooking out in a Colorado state park

There are also electrical and propane connections inside

Most RVs tread too heavily on the highway, at the gas station, in the campsite, sitting in the driveway, and on the pocketbook. Nor do we see ourselves sleeping ‘inside’ when camping.  There is something more joyful and outdoors about tent camping that is preserved in the Cumberland Camper.  We wanted some of the comfort of an RV but with the outdoor feel and lifestyle of a tent.  It was to be small on the road and parked at home and large when camping. So we built it ourselves. The Cumberland is entirely our own design driven by a love of outdoor life. It is not a product of market research.  It is a roomy, weather resistant tent with a high level of comfort and mobility that will go where most other campers can't.

​It is a camper you can take wherever you can tow it - boondocking at a clearing in the woods, a river’s edge, under a dark sky in the desert, or an RV pad in a national park. You will use it as a base camp for hiking, a mobile fishing lodge, or on a wandering camping trip.

We have used the Cumberland for all these things in about every kind of weather and enjoyed it immensely. 

Cumberland Camper patents The Cumberland has been granted a design patent. A number of the mechanical details are patented.

Coulter Bay Campground, Grand Tetons NP

Wherever you set up the Cumberland, in forest, field, or the desert, the Cumberland looks like it belongs there.

 

We like how it has turned out. 

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We know of no other camper like it

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