Eric Karlyn Kamrie and Jack

Lake Nicaragua

Welcome to the Classy Trashy Outdoorsman! Thank you for visiting. My name is Eric, my wife Karlyn and our 2 kids Kamrie and Jack. We love nature, being in the woods, great food cooked on an open fire, and the cool breezes of the fall, winter, and spring.

Hiking at Prince William Forest

GR Thompson

I started this to share our adventures and the fine meals we have put together. I was scouring the internet for meal inspirations of a road less traveled.  While I was able to find a few, for the most part I was left disappointed.  While I do enjoy and am not above shortcuts and quick meals, I am a seeker of the finer meals in life.  Food taste so much more amazing while camping, and cooked on an open fire.  So when you bring top quality meals to the outdoors it is mostly unrivaled. So I combined my culinary degree from Johnson and Wales with my love of outdoors and I think we have put together some really nice meals together with many more to come.  I hope you find some inspiration here and give a few a try.

Most of our adventures are in Virginia with a few other destinations scattered in. I am a fulltime consultant in DC, so I try to get into the woods as much as I can, however I am limited to mostly weekends and holidays.  I am trying to check out every wildlife management area in Virginia.  I have found some real gems and write a little biography about them as I explore.

I do as much winter camping as I can. The majority of my trips are in this time of year. I like the natural refrigeration for the finer ingredients, not walking into spider webs every 5 min, no ticks or mosquitoes, less people. Mostly though, I just love the cold, I think in my heart I am Eskimo, lol.

I watch my pack weight, but I am pretty far from a gram weenie.  Although I am considering some trail hiking where I will need to worry more about weight.  I camp with a hammock vs a tent so I make up a lot of weight there for steaks, lobster, and shrimp; my pack never weighs more than 60 pounds. Which seems to be okay for destination hiking.  I believe the difference between a good camping trip and a great camping trip is the food.