High in the Catskills: Camp Here Here, a Retreat for Stylish Stoners (and the Rest of Us Too)

To be filed under Book Now Before Everybody Hears About This Place. Camp Here Here is the brainchild of Kat Schaufelberger, formerly director of special events at the Standard Hotel in New York, and her husband, actor Zak Orth of Wet Hot American Summer fame. Here’s how the two Brooklynites describe their bona fides.

“Who: Kat has been camping three times. Maybe four. At least one of those times, she brought a full-length mirror and a chef. Zak has never been camping. He was in a very funny movie about a summer camp.
What: Here Here finally brings together their collective 72 hours of camping experience. And Kat’s decade of experience working in the hospitality industry (Versace, Ian Schrager, Andre Balazs).
Where: Here Here is 23 acres of hidden forest in an unspoiled hollow somewhere in Schoharie County, New York.”

As for the camp’s tagline, “High in the Catskills,” that’s a reference to the altitude (1,158 feet)—and a signal that they’re about letting the good times roll. Join us for a tour.

Photography by Victor Schrager, unless otherwise noted, all courtesy of Aesthetic Movement.

Here’s a nutshell version of the camp’s creation story: Seven years ago, at the recommendation of mutual friends, Kat and Zak had dropped in on Jesse James and his husband, Gus Anagnopoulos, at their renovated upstate New York smithy (the two are founders of the design think tank Aesthetic Movement, which Jesse directs, and we, coincidentally, featured their house right around then). The place had just gone on the market, and Kat and Zak snapped it up—with the unexpected proviso that it remain fully furnished. Initially just weekenders, they discovered they liked upstate life so much that in 2016 they acquired land down the road with the idea of establishing their playful version of a rustic-luxe retreat. To keep them from, in Kat’s words, “turning the camp into Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” they enlisted Jesse and team to provide creative direction. “They’re the only people I trust with spaces,” says Kat.

Working with a small crew, the two devoted many months to setting up camp. “There were just two existing structures on the 23 acres,” says Jesse. “It required a lot of clearing, a lot of road prep, a lot of construction, and plumbing.”

The camp limo is a 1970s checker cab Aerobus that was an airport shuttle; originally bright yellow and red, it’s newly painted deep green to blend in with the scenery and is used to pick up and drop off guests traveling by train (the nearest station is in Hudson).

There’s a separate bathhouse with outdoor washbasins and four individual cedar-paneled showers with copper rainfall showerheads. Photograph by Nick Bean.

We’ve had our eye on the Aesthetic Movement team for a long time and are excited to see them expanding into the hospitality world. Their new gift show, Shoppe Object, makes its debut August 11 to 13 in NYC. Here’s a look at a few of their other projects:

• Calm and Collected: At Home with the Duo Behind Aesthetic Movement
• Now Serving: Perfected Tableware from the Past
• Small-Space Solutions: 17 Affordable Tips from an NYC Creative Couple
• A Chic Fixer-Upper on Fire Island, Budget A-Frame Edition