Tales From the Road: Back to Wild, Back to Each Other – Our First Owner Camp

August 17, 2026

Rebecca Casey

From Pine Magazine

This article was originally published in Pine Magazine. Pine is a Yama publication featuring people, places and products that will ignite your inner adventurer.

We'd planned for awkward silences.

Icebreaker questions, printed and tucked into the glovebox, just in case, for a first night around the fire with a group of people who'd mostly never met.

Any new event comes with its own healthy dose of worry: will this actually land? We had that too.

We didn't need either.

By the time the fire was going good on Thursday night, just a few hours after everyone pulled in, the seats around it had turned into something like a game of musical chairs. People just kept getting up, moving a seat over, starting a new conversation with someone they hadn't talked to yet. Nobody was running it, it just kept happening.

That's the part we didn't plan for and it's the part that made the whole trip. If you weren't there, here's what you missed:

Four days at Davis Creek, on Kootenay Lake in BC's West Kootenays, tucked right between the Purcell and the Selkirk ranges. Ten vans rolling in from all directions, twenty-one people who'd never actually met, but who'd all made the same call at some point, for probably a lot of the same reasons. We had a hunch that was enough common ground to build something on. Turns out, it was.

The idea was straightforward: back to simpler times. Slow down, unplug, enjoy the ride. We planned just enough to spark connection – on the trail, on the water, around a picnic table, at the fire, moseying around camp, and left the rest alone on purpose. Activities, meals, a rough shape to the day, with as much open space as we could stand to leave. Not because we ran out of ideas, but because we’ve learned the best moments are usually the ones nobody planned.

Friday morning, bright and early, the espresso machines were plugged in and purring, ready for the first of many rounds of Owner Camp Cafe. We were opened for business, slinging specialty coffees, and doing our best to convert the drip crowd to the Aeropress way of life. Results were mixed. Then the skies opened up, our only real weather incident of the whole trip, and it picked breakfast to crash. Nothing a little Gore-Tex and a deployed awning couldn't handle. The people still needed their caffeine (and we mean needed).

Owner Camp Cafe was the morning bookend to each day. The itinerary was simple: coffee, then a group activity to anchor things: hiking, biking, paddling, the same stuff most of our clients bought their Yama Vans to go do in the first place. Convoys of vans rolled out to the trailheads. Some big climbs, and later, some sore legs. A bear that kept a polite distance, thankfully. An unexpected warming hut along one route, which we used for the exact opposite of its name, ducking in to cool off. And after it was all over, tailgating nobody planned, with cold beers, loud tunes, and nobody in a hurry to leave.

The short stroll to the lake was our refuge from the heat. Tip: don't plan a trip to a hot spring in the middle of July in Interior BC. Good thing this group knows how to pivot, and good thing we had a lake right there to pivot to, although the lake's conditions kept us guessing all weekend. Some days it was a mirror for the mountains. Other days, it could have passed as the Pacific, whitecaps and all. The bravest souls didn't let that stop them, kayaks and SUPs out, balance tested. Some fell off (all fine, all laughing) which made for great entertainment for the rest of us on shore.

Afternoons were unplanned and slow, exactly how we wanted them. Some of us camped out at a picnic table, puzzle pieces and card games scattered about. Some found a hammock by the river, book in hand. Some got the guitars out for a little afternoon entertainment. Mostly, we just enjoyed each other's company.

Then the après-bike affogatos got people buzzing, and suddenly everyone was giving tours of their own vans, swapping tips and handing out some serious camp gear envy (HGTV, have we got a pitch for you). This is where the real magic happened, in the gaps we didn't plan for. Case in point: the impromptu Canadian cooler, beers cooling in the river because we were done fighting with ice. Genius, and free. Add in the laughter carrying across camp and the dogs chasing each other between vans, and yeah, that's what made it all worth it.

Nights started around the dinner tables, then drifted toward the tire. Our little camp kitchen ran like a real one, with the Yama team pulling double duty as chefs, servers, and bartenders. Turns out there's no faster way to turn strangers into friends than putting good food in front of them. One night, we broke out a 120" screen and a projector for a movie under the stars, Jurassic Park, Jiffy Pop, the works. Because we like to camp, but we still like a little comfort while we're at it. Did a few of us jump when the trees started rustling behind us? We'll neither confirm nor deny.

We had a feeling this group would click. We didn't expect it to go this far. Take away the noise, even for a few days, and you get people who are actually with each other, present in a way that's hard to come by anymore. None of the best moments were on the schedule. The group made them happen.

On the last night, one guest stood up and thanked the whole Yama team. More than a few eyes went glassy around the fire, and stayed that way through the round of goodbye hugs after. One person put it better than we ever could: "I didn't expect to have that much fun or feel that connected to the people and the surroundings."

As the fire burned down, someone turned on their van's exterior lights. Then another. Then all ten, glowing along the treeline, for no reason at all except that it felt right. Four days earlier, these were twenty-one strangers with a van in common. By the end, they were the Yama Fam, and we don't use that phrase lightly. That's the thing about the van: it's not really about where you sleep (although let's be honest, that part's pretty great too). It's about who ends up around your fire.

This was our first Owner Camp, and it won't be the last. If reading this made you wish you'd been there, you can be, next time. Ready to join the Yama Fam?

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