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NATURE WITH TRIMMINGS

August 18, 2007 12:35 am

For The Free Lance-Star

TOM HANKS, Kate Moss and Sean Penn have done it; Paris Hilton says she's going to. It's time to try "glamping," short for glamorous camping. The same young urbanites who used to favor boutique hotels and posh B&Bs are instead choosing to spend a pampered weekend under the stars in cushed-up campsites. According to the trend-watching agency The Future Laboratory, as well as the 83,400 citations on Google, glamping is the thing to do this year.

No more leaky tents, smelly latrines or musty sleeping bags. No more pebbles under your back or cold showers in the morning. Tours and resort companies from Durango to Timbuktu are offering luxury tenting experiences on fjords, at festivals, even in the middle of cattle drives. Even British designer Ted Baker has ramped up camping accessories with his own line of chic blow-up mattresses, sleeping bags and tents, complete with cuckoo clock and Chesterfield sofa.

Luckily, I didn't have to travel halfway around the world for a glamping experience. Mark and Tracy Mitchell started their own luxury tenting business in Southwest Virginia in 2003 before it became trendy. The Mitchells enjoyed safari-style camping while living in Zimbabwe; after they came home, they put up six luxury tent/lodges in the forest and started Backcountry at Damascus not far off Interstate 81.

Fortunately, I didn't have to pay celebrity prices. While many resorts charge upward of $1,000 per person per night for walk-in tents with crisp linens, down duvets and meals served on bone china, Backcountry sets you back only $125 per tented cottage. You'll have to bring your own china, though.

The pleasures of a night in the woods are the same. We went to bed inhaling the scent of wood sage from the nearby meadow and awoke to the hoot of an owl. Toward morning, a herd of deer drifted through camp, communicating their presence with a whistling snort. We could hear the echoing trill of a veery and the howl of a dog--maybe a coyote--far away.

In short, we enjoyed all the sensory experiences of being in the middle of the forest while ensconced in a soft, warm bed enclosed in a mosquito-proof tent. A heated bathroom was attached to our tent. Tucking into one of Backcountry's tented shelters isn't luxury by The Greenbrier's standards, but it gave my husband and me the coziness our pack-toting backs craved while allowing us to remain at one with nature.

After a 9-mile loop along Iron Mountain Trail, we found the duvet-covered, log-and-twig-design, queen-size bed sumptuous. And to top it off, the white tent that surrounded it was equipped with electric lighting, soft rugs and a full bathroom with hot running water and a walk-in shower.

The scent of oak and retired tobacco-curing sticks burning in the campfire added to the allure. We cooked over the campfire, but if we had been lazy, the nearby country store was ready to deliver pizza or subs to our tent.

Backcountry luxury tents are a great place to chill out or as a base from which to fish, bike, ride horses or explore the adjacent Jefferson National Forest on foot. Backcountry provides paddocks for guest horses. Horse-friendly Wright Hollow Trail leads out from the property to more than 400 miles of trails.

The Washington County Fair (Sept. 10-15) and the Whitetop Mountain Molasses Festival (Oct. 14) add entertainment to the mix of local offerings.