{"id":25833,"date":"2026-07-29T19:57:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T23:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=25833"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:28:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:28:50","slug":"car-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/car-camping\/","title":{"rendered":"Car Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 48\u00b054’09.4″N 121\u00b054’43.0″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>Car camping is distinct among other styles of camping. Backpacking, rightly, has shifted from a 1970s question of how much weight can I carry, to, how much money can I afford to spend on ultralightweight gear? Car camping is a question of how much stuff can you stuff into the available stowage area of your vehicle? The joy of car camping is you don\u2019t have to think about the weight as much as you do about what luxuries you are willing to forgo if said luxury won\u2019t fit in, or on top of, your car? For example, with the right attachments an Aeropress<\/a> will make a decent shot of espresso. Frothing the milk for your latte is another equipment challenge that might not make the cut, however. The good news is that luxuries are getting smaller as housing costs increase. Besides, on Aleta we are used to living large in a tiny space.<\/p>\n

Morning Mud<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>Among the many considerations of car camping is, what is the shortest time to coffee<\/a> in the morning? Alongside tent capacity (always half of what it tells you on the box), elevation\u2019s effects on temperature, and how many times your spare battery will charge your phone, the speed at which you can boil water for coffee in the morning remains an essential element of any camping trip.<\/p>\n

Cowboys, at least those in Hollywood, sleep on the ground next to an open fire. A few prods and pokes in the ashes and the flames burst back to life, heating an enamel kettle full of murky river water. The perfect recipe for morning mud. Fast forward 150 years and the world has invented a thousand ways to make the perfect cup of coffee. Entire careers of influencers<\/a> rise, and fall, based on their learned opinions of how to operate coffee making devices better suited to a chemistry lab than a campsite.<\/p>\n

Jet Set<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>We keep it simple. Eschewing the chemical for the mechanical. An MSR Windburner<\/a> stove has only one function, to boil water quickly. Clever design directs a large isobutane-fueled heated surface directly into the vessel. With a cap on top, a litre of water boils in about three minutes. Depending on how you use your Aeropress, the actual making of the coffee takes about two to three minutes. But from the time the water has boiled, you are in coffee mode and however long it takes to put your lips on the cup and you take you first sip is discounted in the name of progress.<\/p>\n

There is no, to my knowledge, international standard<\/a> for the minimal or perfect TTC, Time To Coffee, but five minutes on a cool, misty morning seems reasonable. Some folks have coffee makers with timers that will wake you like an alarm clock. They might claim a TTC of almost zero. (Still, one can\u2019t ignore pour and prep time in the final equation.) Fair enough. But I would argue the privation of boiling water and pressing grinds in the chilly backwoods builds character in ways automation never will. So there.<\/p>\n

Adventure<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once coffee is made the entire camp can take a breath and drink in the surroundings. Breakfast may arrive in fits and starts, and the day may take a moment to organize, but once coffee is on board life is once again worth living.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that any car camper would sling a Marzocco Strada S 2.0 2<\/a> into their trunk and have the plumbing and power to make it work correctly. Besides, one of those babes costs almost as much as a new Rivian R2<\/a>. A truck that you really might power a commercial espresso machine with. That would be an adventure worth blogging!<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Position: 48\u00b054’09.4″N 121\u00b054’43.0″W Car camping is distinct among other styles of camping. Backpacking, rightly, has shifted from a 1970s question of how much weight can I carry, to, how much money can I afford to spend on ultralightweight gear? Car …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[1876,823,8,26,15,779,16],"class_list":["post-25833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-underway","tag-aeropress","tag-alaska","tag-aleta","tag-aleta-life","tag-carol","tag-coffee","tag-mike"],"yoast_head":"\nCar Camping - The Adventures of Aleta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The joy of car camping is you don\u2019t have to think about the weight as much as you do about what luxuries you are willing to forgo if said luxury won\u2019t fit in, or on top of, your car?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2026\/07\/29\/car-camping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Car Camping - 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