"I just bought a 2013 Rustic Trail that is actually titled as a Leonard, because that was the trailer frame it was built on. The couple I bought it from, bought it new from 'some guy up in Pilot Mountain, that said he was starting a teardrop company.'" This quotation comes from the Facebook group Rustic Trail Teardrops and Friends, and it's the perfect introduction to this article.
Jonathan wrote, "Might have even been the first [RTTC] Grizzly!"
In 2012, Jonathan Sechrist of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, decided to build himself a tiny trailer camper in his garage. It turned out so well he had a neighbor ask him to build another. Word got around, promises were made, and suddenly Jonathan and his family found themselves busy owners of a travel trailer company, Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers. I owned one of Jonathan's trailers--the Green Goddess, namesake of this blog. It was my wife and my introduction into camping with little travel trailers, and a fun and exciting introduction it was!
The Green Goddess at Red Rock Lake, Iowa
Jonathan headed the young company, Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers, from 2012 to 2020. The Green Goddess, a Polar Bear model, was trailer 285, or somewhere in that range. Then Jonathan sold the company in 2020, and then it sold again in 2022. RTTC is currently moving from Pilot Mountain to the Raleigh area, and Jonathan Sechrist and his family are taking the opportunity and their experience to start a new Pilot Mountain tiny travel trailer company, the Blue Mountain Camper Co.
Western North Carolina flooding victims
Before getting into more specifics about the company, first let's talk a bit about the heart-value of this North Carolina company. Recently, North Carolina experienced horrific flooding from Hurricane Helene. Blue Mountain shifted their efforts from promoting their company to gathering donations and building camper pods for families swept from their homes by the flooding. This post on Blue Mountain's Facebook group page said: "This is how some people are currently living in Western NC. Being an NC-based company, we want to help some of these victims by providing campers before really cold weather hits. For about $3,000, we can build a very basic camper and provide them with shelter from the weather. As a small startup company, we cannot afford to do this alone. We will donate the first one; would you be willing to help with more?" This campaign, although it is no longer continuing, is representative of the company's sense of community.
The Blue Mountain team
The Sechrist family and crew have the expertise that comes from having constructed more than four hundred tiny travel trailers. As the Blue Mountain Camper Co. says on their website, "Having an experienced team build your trailer is critical to reviving a quality, long-lasting tiny-camper. Blue Mountain Campers may be a new company, but the crew is far from it! Comprised of four skilled and dedicated build team members, our crew has been in the business for over 12+ years and has constructed over 400+ teardrop style campers." They go on to say that their company has "no big fancy buildings, large marketing budgets, or distant, hands-off owners. Blue Mountain Campers is a true small family-owned and operated business. When you buy from Blue Mountain, you support our families and allow us to do what we love—creating unique, long-lasting mini-campers."
Part of the Blue Mountain expertise is their goal of building tiny campers that last, "lightweight, easy-to-tow, no-fuss" campers, "simple to maintain campers that will last and last. Thanks to our all-composite rot-free body (floor, walls, roof, inside ceiling), the Appalachian is a teardrop camper alternative that is designed from the ground up to get you on the road to adventure with ease."
On a recent Blue Mountain Camper Co. group Facebook post, Jonathan Sechrist said: "We are the original founders and builders of The Rustic Trail Teardrop Campers. We sold the company in 2020 right when Covid hit. We have started this new company because we still believe that people deserve a good product at a reasonable price! There are a lot more builders on the block now but many are very expensive. Our hopes are to see quality and affordable pricing prevail in the coming days and months ahead. We are doing everything we can to see customers satisfied and keep our campers affordable."
Jonathan is also about to release a new model tiny trailer called the "Acorn," which will come in four-feet and five-feet tall versions, with the starting weight being less than one thousand pounds. and starting at less than $10,000. The article that follows this one will focus more on what tiny trailer models Blue Mountain is offering, details and specifics. If you can't wait, though, follow the Blue Mountain Camper Co. link and do some browsing on your own! I'm still browsing and researching myself, and will post more soon.
First of all, there are a lot of tiny trailers that don't require any winterizing because the trailers don't have water systems--not water lines to blow out or needing the pink RV anti-freeze. Many trailers do need protection for the water systems, though, and when those rigs are winterized--guess what? Then you have a larger version of many tiny trailers, a "hard-sided tent" with, hopefully, a heating system.
Early camping with the Green Goddess
Front shelf space, electric "one at a time" appliances
Our first travel trailer, the Green Goddess, an RTTC Polar Bear, was a standy version of a hard-sided tent. There was no water system in the trailer, therefore, no winterizing was necessary. The trailer did have a 110V electrical hook-up with 12v lights, and because of the 110 capacity, we brought a portable oil heater when we camped during the fall. (With no battery, there was no electrical winterization neede.) It worked well, even though we had to "juggle" electricity by turning off the heater before turning on the induction cooktop burner or Instant Pot. The rule was one electrical activity at a time. We also had a portable toilet system that we could use if we didn't want to hike to the campground's pit-vault toilets, awkward in a tiny, one-room space. It was really an emergency system. Later we bought a little tent to use outside for the toilet. Almost all of our cooking was outside, using either our old Coleman propane stove or an induction burner.
Selling the Green Goddess and entering the Airstream travel trailer world, even though we bought Airstream's smallest trailers, first a sixteen-foot Basecamp and then this year a sixteen-foot Bambi, was certainly a step up in convenience and luxury. However, once the rigs are winterized, the similarity between our original "hard-sided tent" camper and the fully equipped Airstreams narrow considerably. We lose the shower/toilet and sink; however, we keep the heater, the cook stove, and the tiny room that houses the shower/toilet. Right now I'm camping in my winterized Bambi, so let me share a few photos to illustrate what it's like to camp in cold weather in a winterized little trailer.
Bambi cooking area
Here is our cooking area. We always bring our own drinking water, and the cook stove and refrigerator are not impacted by the winterizing process. I've been using the Instant Pot quite a lot this trip. I combine my ingredients for a one-pot stew at the counter, cook in the camper, but take the pot outside to release the steam to keep condensation to a minimum. Often I'll wipe utensils with a paper towel before going outside to wash dishes. Sometimes I set up our aluminum table outside, but it's been windy the last couple of days. I like cooking on the stove, but have been lazy this trip. Having prepped most of my ingredients at home, making my "eternal stew" in the Instant Pot is so easy and "stick-to-the-ribs" flavorful in the colder weather that I just go with what's easy. What's for lunch? Stew!
Toilet materials: bags, cedar chips, kitty litter, and gel
We're lucky to have the small bathroom (or "shoilet") in our Bambi. After winterizing, we've converted it to the dry, "bag system" for our toilet, although we also use the campground's pit-vault toilet as much as possible, a not-so-terrible option now that it's cold enough that the insects and smells are gone. The bag system in our camper works well, even if it is definitely more primitive than the water toilet. However, it is nice to have the option in the middle of the night or whenever we don't feel like taking a hundred-yard hike in the early morning when the temperature is maybe a couple of degrees above freezing. Trying to be as environmentally- and health-conscious as possible, we use compostable bags and decomposable materials.
Diswashing set-up, water bucket hidden on bench opposite
Finally, we use campground water for all our needs except for drinking water. We have a small plastic tub for heated water to use for sponge baths, and we also fill a bucket of water to use for dishwashing at the campground table outside. Sometimes I use our induction burner on a table outside to heat water for dishwashing if there are a lot of dishes and pots and pans. Since we are camping locally, we usually just head home for a shower, drinking water refill, and clothing change when we need to.
The heater in the Bambi is a propane heater which works well. It is an adjustment from our Basecamp, which had a Truma heating system that allowed for either propane or electric heating. We almost always used the electrical option to save propane consumption. With our Bambi, my wife and I have gone back to our Green Goddess heating system and brought in a portable electric heater. We do, however, sometimes turn on the propane heater in the morning to warm up the camper before getting out of bed. With the electric heater, not only do we save propane, but the system is quieter and provides a steadier heat. In the photo above are two electric heaters, a radiant heater and an oil heater. We especially bought the small oil heater for its compactness and steady, quiet heat, but the 700-watt radiator heater just didn't produce enough heat when it got colder unless we cranked it up on high all the time. We brought a Walmart Pelonis quartz radiant heater from home, which heats more efficiently. We are still careful when using several appliances to not over-burden the electrical system, even though the Airstream is wired for 30 amps. We also turn off and unplug the heater whenever we leave the camper for a walk or an errand.
Camping in the winter means paying attention to moisture in the air inside the camper. Our bodies exude moisture naturally, a propane stove can create moisture in the air, and certainly our electric hot water pot produces moisture. Luckily, even though our Bambi is little, it's not as tiny as some, which reduces condensation problems a bit. I researched and wrote an article about condensation in tiny campers a few years back, so I'll just link to that article for anyone with further questions. Link: "Minimizing Condensation in a Teardrop or Tiny Trailer."
All in all, the best aspect of camping in cold weather with a winterized trailer is that a warm, dry, cozy environment is available for shelter when there is too much wind, temperatures drop too much, or it rains or snows. Excessive cold can be draining, even dangerous, and having a safe environment to shelter from inclement weather is a definite plus. Often I'll go out for an hour or two hike and then return to my trailer. I built a fire this morning and read for a while outside beside the fire, drinking my tea. I washed dishes outside this morning with cold water--a couple of spoons and a mug. Right now, though, I'm inside our Bambi, typing this article. Across the dinette table is my wife, getting ready for a conference call for her consulting business. Our Starlink connection works well even here at Lake Darling State Park, which is pretty much a black hole of internet connectivity. I believe there is one other camper in the park, up the hill and hidden. "Shoulder season" camping is great--no bugs or humidity, few campers, and great fall colors. Camping after winterization is an adjustment and sometimes a little funky, but I'm looking out my window right now at the lake and the autumn leaves, my wife and I sharing our little camper home-away-from-home, and honestly, I'm just as happy as a bug in a rug.
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