Making the Outdoors Your Backyard

Watching the sunset or sunrise over the mountain peaks is often a highlight of a camping trip. But often, people have to head home before they can catch the golden hour. Cass Kramer of Sasquatch Campers realized that often, it was because people didn't have the right equipment to stay overnight and decided to do something about it. Sasquatch Campers is a different take on your more traditional trailer camper, and it's all made locally in Silverton. You're watching the Local News Network brought to you by Kroegers Ace Hardware and Happy Pappy's Pizza and Wings. I'm Wendy Graham Settle.

And we thought that everybody was missing out on the full backcountry experience. Cooking, seeing the sunset, seeing the stars, and cooking breakfast to a sunrise. And we felt that we want to design a product that will allow people to set up base camp in the backcountry, but still have some of the amenities of an RV.

The Sasquatch Camper is set apart from its peers, in part due to a specialty suspension system, enabling the camper to better handle roads in the backcountry. The entire camper is made out of lightweight but durable aluminum, meaning you don't need a heavy-duty truck to make your way to your next camping spot. Each camper is made to specification, no mass production.

This one here is the Highland 60 and it has sleeping quarters with a propane heating system. Queen size mattress, interior, CNC cut cabinet system, and overhead storage, reading lights, all the amenities of an RV. It's got a full kitchen in the back with a three-burner cooktop, on-demand hot water with a sink, a 36-gallon water tank, and plenty of storage for all of your gear. It also has storage for recovery gear, RotopaX, extra water containers. You can put a rooftop tent on the top as well if you want additional people to go with you, awning, you name it, you can pull to do it.

Perhaps one of the most unique features of Sasquatch Campers is not that they're making a new category of campers, but that they're based locally out of Silverton and from start to finish, everything comes together in their shop, a converted miner's barracks.

We've really been trying to focus on local products, supply chain, and then even a local workforce. As you've seen, our employees are here in Silverton and we really want to create a space that people can learn and develop and grow professionally and use their skills in a way that's exciting, but it can also give them a life that they can live. So really kind of tapping into those areas and finding ways that we can uniquely come to those creation together and figuring out where we can support each other.

Each camper takes about two months to make, start to finish, from welding the frame together to wiring the camper for solar and generator-powered electricity. Each member of the small team has something different to contribute to the campers and pride themselves on turning out high-quality products.

We have really high-quality standards, for sure, a lot higher than most camper companies on the market right now, and we really focus on that and are concerned about how good our product is.

While still a relatively new company, Sasquatch Campers have plans to show off their products and their unique new approach, visiting camping and outdoor expos next year, and continuing to improve their products to ensure everyone who wants to has access to the backcountry. Follow their adventures on Facebook and Instagram with the handle @sasquatchcampers. For more information on their products visit the website online at sasquatch-campers.com. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I'm Wendy Graham Settle.

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