Recreation: Bare Backers club stresses to visitors that their retreat is about nature, not sexuality

ROBIE CREEK - There was a nude attitude in the mountains north of Boise this past weekend.

For the first time in three years, the Bare Backers Nudist Club opened the gates of its 130-acre Bare Mountain Hideaway to visitors Saturday.

With a tall wooden fence that surrounds the site and its two password-protected gate entrances, the mountainous camp is normally a bastion of secrecy and security. But for one weekend, the club that is unembarrassed by its members shedding their clothes decided to open itself up to public exposure.

During the open house, club members gave visitors a tour of their rustic resort. There are 38 campsites, a rental cabin, swimming pool, hot tub and clubhouse. There is no potable water on the grounds, however.

"When you come up here it is a feeling of relief," said Patti Nelsen, who, now retired, visits the camp three to four days a week with her husband. "The stress goes away as you get closer to the camp it feels like you have had a weekend vacation in a couple of hours."

Secrecy, but no sexuality.

While some members like Nelsen openly talk of belonging to Bare Backers, the majority of members keep their involvement in the club a secret from friends and even family. For them, revealing this recreational pastime would create too much stress in their lives off the mountain.

"People think that we're perverts, or that everything is sexual, or that we're swingers," Betty Green said.

Green said that's a misunderstanding of the lifestyle and said nudism should not be equated with sexual activity. Like many on Bare Mountain, she believes nudism is a way to be completely free while experiencing nature in what she believes is the most natural way possible.

Though she is now retired, her husband said, "We had to keep our involvement pretty quiet in the beginning because Betty was working with the public and didn't want to jeopardize her job."

That story is common among Bare Backer members who declined to be interviewed for fear of their losing jobs or hurting family members.

Don Green said members come from across the political spectrum and include "politicians, preachers and truck drivers. At one time, we even had three ministers."

Although four 19-year-olds visited at the open house, the majority of members are over the age of 50.

"I think it is because people that age have a little more time on their hands, and so they are able to do something they always wanted to do," Nelsen said. "They are past the age where they care if other people know they are a nudist or worry about how they look."

Apparel loses appeal

"People join these groups because they want to get acquainted with other people who enjoy nude recreation," Betty Green said. "There is a real camaraderie amongst us because people in the club are very open and they accept you the way you are."

The Bare Backers Nudist Club, which bills itself as being family-oriented, is one of a number clubs catering to social nudity as the practice becomes more acceptable.

The American Association for Nude Recreation, to which the Bare Backers club belongs, has 50,000 members and 240 clubs and resorts. And the Roper Center, which tracks public opinion on political and social matters at the University of Connecticut, recently reported that 40 million Americans have skinny-dipped in mixed company.

Brecca Chabot-Olson, a 19-year-old theater major at Boise State University, was one of 10 visitors to fill out an application for membership in the club. As the age demographics of the club grow older, Bare Backers hopes that events like this will help attract younger members.

Chabot-Olson said the lifestyle held appeal for her.

"I just think it feels so much better to be naked," she said.

Chabot-Olson said it only took her "a second" to become comfortable upon removing her clothes on the mountain Saturday. But for other first-time visitors, making the adjustment from the fully clothed society on the other side of the fence to the naked reality on the inside takes time.

"You can tell the new ones because they tend to look at the trees when they talk to you," said Nelsen, who joined the club in 1998 and admitted to wearing a long T-shirt until she finally became comfortable enough to be completely nude.

Traveling club to resort

Don and Betty Green, co-founders of the Bare Backers club, moved to Idaho in the late 1970s from Iowa. On their Iowa farm they would often stroll naked around their property, but it was not until they visited a club in Topeka, Kan., in 1974 that they progressed from private to social nudity.

By the time the two relocated to Idaho, they were hooked on the concept of nude recreation. When they moved to Boise, however, they joined a local club only to have it end shortly thereafter. So in 1981 the Greens co-founded Bare Backers with fellow nudists Bud and Dorothy Gunstrom.

For the first 10 years, Bare Backers was a traveling club, meaning that members met at each other's houses for events. But when the club acquired 97 percent of Boise Ridge Mining and Milling Co.'s stock in March 1990, Bare Backers got the company's land in the mountains near Robie Creek.

Members soon went to work leveling the land, repairing roads, building campsites and planting trees, making Bare Mountain the nudist camp it is today.

Life in the buff

The club, which claims nearly 80 members, had 34 individuals visit for the first time last weekend. While most of these visitors had previous experiences with social nudity - like skinny-dipping or nude beaches - for about three-quarters, this was their first experience at a nudist club.

While some members and visitors took a dip in the swimming pool and hot tub, both of which require nudity even though Bare Mountain itself is officially clothing-optional, most laid in the sun or sat chatting with fellow nudists in the shade of giant pine trees.

"People always ask: What do you do at a nudist club? And I say we can do just about anything except cook bacon," Betty Green said.

"No, we can do that, too," Nelsen added. "We just have to stand back."

Potlucks, treasure hunts, nature hikes and body painting contests are regular summer events at Bare Mountain. In the winter, the club holds activities like Halloween and Super Bowl parties at members' homes.

A recent progressive dress-up dinner at the mountain had Bare Backers going from station to station putting various items of clothing on until finally they were all wearing a mismatched array of men's and women's thrift store apparel.

"The only bad thing about the camp is going home," Don Green said.

For more on the Bare Backers Nudist Club, call 322-6853.

Stephen Lowman is an Albertson College of Idaho intern with the Idaho Press-Tribune.