Owner/builders Lane McClelland and Laurie Roberts

Since the beginning of our coupleship, our lifestyle choices have included lots of animals, more nature than neighbors, a place to create and direct access to trails from our home.  

Our first property was in Descanso which had a picturesque stone building and barn.  After the first year, a failed business forced us to get creative with ways to pay the mortgage so we rented out the houses and moved into a tipi.  This canvas tipi I sewed in my living room, based on a pattern left over from my commune days. 

Within a year, we fixed the barn up enough to live in and learned how to build with strawbales.  Soon we had built a beautiful, quirky, little hut we called the Haylapa House, which we started renting.  It became very popular and was featured in newspapers, magazines and the book " The Strawbale House". 

In 2013 we sold that property - wanting to be even farther from town - and we are now blessed to live at the base of Mount Palomar in a 1940's adobe home, sharing a property line with Cleveland National Forest.  Here we created a glamping site called Camp Ribbonwood, gambling that people would be interested in staying in a safari tent.  This was before "glamping" became popular, and has been a surprising success.  After 7 years, we still find it very heartwarming to read our guest's comments about how relaxing and revitalizing it was for them to spend "unwalled" time in nature.
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Fast forward to 2018, we had been looking for another property to create a small, private nature retreat venue for individuals and groups.  We are happy to have found the perfect location in Chihuahua Valley (Warner Springs), and we feel great blessings in being able to share this special place with others.

Camp Hosts Mike and Jackie Slot

Mike and Jackie Slot are originally from Michigan. However, both have adventurous spirits and thoroughly enjoy traveling. As a result they finally decided to sell their permanent home in Grand Rapids in July 2020. They moved into their RV and have been moving around the country since, spending a few months at a time in various places like Colorado, Texas, and North Carolina along with great road trips in between. They discovered Birdsong Backcountry Retreat in November 2021 and made it home in January 2022. Access to great hiking trails, wonderful mountain views, delicious local wineries and a welcoming community have caused them to fall in love with Birdsong and the surrounding area. 
"Traveling  has given us the incredible opportunity to meet inspiring people all over the country. We're excited to continue meeting and engaging with our wonderful guests here as we host at Birdsong Backcountry Retreat."


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