A Wilderness Dining Experience Miles Past the Pavement
The coordinates come first. No address, no parking lot, no front desk. Just a set of numbers that lead you down a dirt road, past the pavement, and into a clearing where someone has already built the fire. By the time most guests arrive, something is already cooking.
That is how Trail Feast begins and how it stays. Four locations across the Western United States. Remote basecamps accessible only by 4x4. Small groups. A 10-course open-fire dinner on Saturday night. And at the center of it all, Chef Chad White, who has spent the better part of three decades learning exactly how to feed people in places most kitchens would never dare to go.
Meet Chef Chad White
For Chef Chad White, cooking has always been tied to movement, environment, and the experience surrounding the meal itself.
After beginning his culinary career while serving in the United States Navy, Chad spent years working across kitchens in San Diego and Mexico, developing an approach to cooking shaped by fire, travel, and bold, ingredient-driven food. Today, he’s best known as the chef behind Spokane’s Zona Blanca and as a 10-time “Best Chef” winner and 2-time James Beard semifinalist.
Trail Feast brings those worlds together. It strips cooking back to its essentials: fire, landscape, good tools, and the people gathered around the table. Rather than feeling staged or overproduced, the experience reflects the way Chad naturally approaches food outdoors: intentional, relaxed, and deeply connected to place.
Trail Feast: Where the Table Meets the Wild
Trail Feast is a fully curated, multi-day backcountry gathering built for people who feel most at home a little farther off the map. Across four remote locations in the Western United States, guests make their way into 4x4-only basecamps where the weekend unfolds around open fire, good food, shared experiences, and time spent outdoors.
The pace out here is different. Mornings start with cast-iron breakfasts over the coals, strong coffee, cold air, and slow wake-ups around camp. Days leave room for hiking, off-roading, guided yoga, or simply settling into camp while smoke rolls through the kitchen and conversations stretch a little longer than expected.
Food is woven into the entire weekend. Whole-animal feasts, open-fire cooking, communal happy hours, and long dinners under the stars turn camp into something that feels less like an event and more like a gathering people naturally settle into.
At the center of it all is Chef Chad White’s 10-course open-fire dinner, shaped by the landscape, the season, and the ingredients each region provides. But Trail Feast was never meant to be just dinner in the woods. It is about getting there, slowing down, and spending meaningful time outdoors with people who made the effort to do the same.
The fire stays going late. Stories get longer. Strangers become familiar. And somewhere between the first breakfast and the final night, the whole thing starts to feel less like an event and more like something you were glad you didn’t miss.
Getting There Is Part of It
Before guests ever make their way into camp, the experience has already started. Each attendee receives a Benchmade Bugout® engraved with the coordinates of the gathering they will attend, a first signal of what is ahead, and a tool that will earn its place throughout the weekend.
From there, the drive in does the rest. Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, four basecamps across the Western United States, each only accessible by 4x4. No address, no shortcut, no alternative route. The coordinates lead the way.
Each event follows the same core structure, but no two are identical. The land shapes the menu, the season shapes the ingredients, and the people around the table shape everything else. Four gatherings, four chances to find your way in:
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Oregon — July 17–19
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Idaho — August 7–9
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Montana — September 11–13
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Washington — October 2–4
Very limited seats are available for each gathering. Once they’re filled, they’re gone.
Why Benchmade Belongs Here
Benchmade has always belonged in the wild, in the hands of people who go to places worth going and do things worth remembering. Trail Feast is built around exactly that. Remote locations, open fire, shared meals, and the kind of moments that stay with you long after the weekend ends. The knives are there because they fit, tools designed for the environments where the best experiences unfold, carried by people who understand that what you bring matters as much as where you go.
More Than a Weekend Away
Trail Feast begins with food and the outdoors, but what people take home tends to go beyond either one on its own.
The centerpiece is a 10-course open-fire dinner, shaped by the land, the season, and the people around the table. But somewhere along the way, the experience becomes less about attending an event and more about being fully present in it.
It is the feeling of finding your way into a place most people would never reach by accident. The conversations that last longer than expected around the fire. The pace of a weekend shaped by landscape and company rather than schedules and noise.
That is ultimately what Trail Feast is built around: meaningful time outdoors, shared with people who chose to make the effort to get there.
COOKED OVER FIRE. SHAPED BY THE WILD.
Find your way in at trailfeast.com/benchmade.