Everything We Need Travels With Us

Oct 9

NOMAD came from a simple idea.

For six days on the Main Salmon, we live nomadically.

Every morning, we take our home apart.

Tents come down. Sleeping gear gets packed. The kitchen disappears into dry boxes. Tables and chairs are folded. Food, coolers, duffels and gear all find their places back on the boats.

By the time we push away from shore, there is nothing left to show that, just a few hours earlier, this stretch of riverbank was home.

That's intentional. Part of living on the river is taking care of the places that become home for a night. We follow Leave No Trace principles, packing out what we bring in and leaving each camp as we found it.

Then we head downstream and do it all again.

Somewhere along the river, we pull into another camp. The boats are unloaded. The kitchen takes shape. Tables and chairs come out. Tents go up. Bags find their owners.

And for one night, this is home.

Tomorrow morning, we'll pack it all up again.

Everything we need travels with us.

That's NOMAD.

There's something wonderfully simple about living this way. Where you're going matters, of course, but so does where you are right now. For a few days, life gets smaller.

The river. The canyon. The people you're with.

Breakfast. A day on the water. Lunch somewhere along the way. A new beach at the end of the afternoon. Dinner. Maybe a fire. A sky with considerably more stars than most of us are used to seeing.

And then you wake up and do it again somewhere new.

Of course, making life feel that simple takes some work.

Someone has to know where everything goes. Food has to stay cold. Gear has to stay dry. Boats have to be loaded correctly. Meals have to be planned. Camps have to work for the group. And dozens of little things have to happen at the right time so that tomorrow unfolds the way it should.

That's our part of nomadic living.

Yours is different.

For six days, you don't have to decide where you're sleeping tonight. You don't need a dinner reservation. You don't have to plan tomorrow's itinerary, figure out how you're getting there or wonder whether you packed everything the group might need.

We take care of those things.

Your decisions can be considerably smaller.

Do I want to paddle or ride?

Swim or stay in the boat?

Sit by the fire or head to bed?

One more cup of coffee?

For most of us, that's very different from everyday life. Even vacations can require an awful lot of planning—where to go, where to eat, what to do next and whether everyone is having a good time.

On the river, much of that simply falls away.

For six days, our home moves with us. So does the kitchen. So does everything we need to take care of the people traveling with us.

You just come along.

We'll take care of the details. Your job is to be here.

FROM THE RIVER
Where does all that stuff go?
By evening, a NOMAD camp can look pretty settled: kitchen, tables, chairs, tents, coolers, dry boxes, duffels and everything else we need for the night.
By morning, it all has to fit back onto the boats.
There's an order to it, and every piece of gear has a place. Loading a boat isn't simply about making everything fit. Weight has to be distributed properly, things we'll need during the day have to remain accessible, and everything needs to stay secure as we move downstream.
By afternoon, we'll unpack it all and build home again.