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What To Do For Food at Campfield Long Beach

While almost everything you need is on site at the Long Beach Campfield, food is one detail that you’re left to take care of for yourself. Snow Peak’s bread and butter is camp cooking—the brand’s catalog features hundreds of pages of products ranging from cutlery and cutting boards, to modular camp tables and wash stations—so guests are encouraged to bring their own food and take the time to cook their own meals. We cooked the entire weekend, and you’ll want to be prepared to do the same when you visit. Although the Campstire has snacks, drinks, treats, and some ingredients like butter and milk, it’s not enough for a whole meal.

If you don’t want to cook every night, the coastal town of Long Beach is a 5-minute drive away. Eateries include Dylan’s Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen, 42nd Street Cafe and Bistro, The Depot Restaurant, Lost Roo, Surfer Sands, and Current Surf Coffee and Cocktails. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but that’s part of the charm. (If you’re keen to stray even farther from camp, Astoria, across the great Columbia River on the Oregon side, is a historic town with a number of impressive breweries, riverside restaurants, and classic dive bars.)

At camp, even if you’re not preparing a feast, preparing and cooking food together can reinforce the immersion in nature with others. On our first night, I learned new things about mushroom foraging from a fellow camper while we sliced shiitake caps and morels, and picked thyme and rosemary leaves off the stem.

At dinnertime on our second night, as we scooped heaps of rice, chicken, and veggies prepared by friends of Field Mag Camp Yoshi, light mist turned into a heavier rain in proper Pacific Northwest fashion. But the weather only enhanced the communal dinner by ushering a big group of us under one Snow Peak shelter. Gathered around the campfire for takibi time, comfortably sat in canvas camp chairs, we feasted, traded stories, and played games. And after the rain stoped, we stayed put because we enjoyed one other’s company.

It was sad to leave these new friends and this beautiful place on Sunday. There’s nothing like driving 55 mph on a winding two-lane highway to snap you back to reality. But I’ll return again soon in early summer with my husband, my dog, Kona, and a few friends to recreate the magic of Campfield’s opening weekend. And then hopefully again soon thereafter.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/snow-peak-campfield-long-beach-review