With a bag so bright, there’s no forgetting this behind!

Bill Ostrom from Ostrom Outdoors has always been a bit of a tinkerer. Put a good problem in front of him and he will continuously work away at it until he feels he has the problem licked. He’s been synonymous with canoe packs for years and now, he’s resurrecting and old problem. “What’s the best way to set-up your camp kitchen?”.

Unfold the table, make sure you have the two coloured camlock cords and then you’re ready to assemble.

15 years ago Paul Mason and Bill came up with the idea of the Mason Camp Table and now they have taken a second go at it. When you first set it up, you’ll probably agree… it is an interestingly designed piece of gear. It’s lightweight (1.25kg/2.75lb) and comes disassembled and packed away in a vivid storage bag. I admit, when I first got it out of the bag, it looked a little daunting. I could picture it in my mind.. a multi level shelf, attached to a tree, but in reality, I highly recommend trying to set it up once in your back yard before taking it into the backcountry.

There is a sheet of instructions included and once you’ve given it a go, it’s actually pretty easy to set up the Mason Camp Table. Slip in a few pieces of doweling (alongside of the permanent pieces of dowel) to create a stable place to work, find a suitable tree to strap the table into place, and then begin anchoring it into a rigid fixture. Inherently in the design there are a lot of little adjustment points where (if you want to) you can really fine tune the table.

Once you have tightened the non-slip cable ties, the table is all set and very stable. It’s made from a 200 denier nylon coating over top of a core of foam and dowling. You can use it to even do minor cutting jobs without the fear of it swaying or buckling on you and it can handle up to 11.34kg/25 lbs of weight (the upper shelf is rated up to 5.44kg/12 lbs). The only thing you can’t do (for safety’s sake) is cook on the table.

The Mason Camp Table layout is well thought out. There is plenty of room on the main level (71 cm x 50 cm x 2 cm/28” x 19.5” x 0.75”) to place tools and plates, while having your ingredients stashed on the upper level 50 cm x 19 cm x 2 cm/19.5” x 7.5” x 0.75”).

Everything is at arm’s length when doing meal prep (bonus tip: set up your gravity filter on the same tree). You will also find your own organization flow, especially when accompanied by the small and large mesh pockets to customize it the way you want. You can let dishes air dry by putting them into the mesh pockets or even line one with a bag and make it your scraps storage.

It’s always smart to pack away your food ingredients after cooking, but I would be fine leaving the table up in a rainstorm.

Sometimes when you get to your campsite you come across a makeshift camp kitchen table that has been hastily jammed between two trees. In most cases, someone has shamefully cut down some small trees and in some cases they are an eyesore. If you’re like me and gripe at all of the dangerous nails poking out of trees on a campsite to hang things… this is the answer for you. It might be too large for a solo tripper but it’s perfect for families or groups who are cooking together. With it’s high visibility, there’s also a lesser chance you’ll run into it during a middle of the night bathroom break.

If you’re looking for a much better way of organizing your camp kitchen, rather than damaging or cluttering up the serenity of the campsite, or trying to balance on the top of a food barrel, check out the Mason Camp Table from Ostrom Outdoors.