There are many reasons I hate camping: I see no worthwhile advantage to sleeping on dirt. My idea of roughing it is having to walk up a flight of stairs to get to the hotel ice machine. I've seen "Deliverance."

Now I can add another reason after watching "Nightmare at Bitter Creek," a CBS movie airing from 8 to 10 tonight on WBBM-Channel 2.

This film does for camping what "The High and the Mighty" did for air travel.

Yes, brothers and sisters, if you're feeling that urge to commune with nature, to suck in some of that fresh mountain air, to frolic with God's little creatures in the forest, take a gander at tonight's "Bitter Creek" nightmare and you may prefer a weekend hanging around the back of a bus on Michigan Avenue.

Lindsay Wagner, Tom Skerritt, Constance McCashin and Joanna Cassidy star in this tale about a group of citified women looking for a peaceful weekend in the mountains. The outing suddenly turns into a tense struggle for survival - not to mention a need for a shower.

Wagner plays Nita, who recently has moved to Lake Tahoe to begin a business. But in an effort to maintain her friendships with her two closest friends, Connie (McCashin) and Allison (Cassidy), she suggests a few days together in the great outdoors.

The trip appears to start badly when the friends meet their guide, Ding Harris (Skerritt), a grubby, drunken, irascible, middle-aged cowboy who seems woefully out of place in the company of the women - or in the 20th century, for that matter.

But the women soon will face a bigger problem. On the other side of the mountain range they are about to explore, a police SWAT team has flushed out a group of American Nazi survivalists, who already have killed several law-enforcement officers. The renegades also have accumulated a vast stash of weapons and explosives.

The fugitives manage to escape into the rugged mountains, heading in the same direction as the unarmed women led by the drunk.

When the neo-Nazis set upon his group, Ding the drunk manages to spirit the women away in the nick of time. But the killers are desperate for hostages in order to escape from the SWAT team on their heels.

Thus "Nightmare at Bitter Creek" quickly transforms itself into a keen little adventure tale about a broken-down cowboy being forced to confront his responsibilities while the women discover untapped reserves of resilience and cunning they never realized they possessed.

This is a frequently worked-over theme in the movies, from "Deliverance" to "Southern Comfort." Tonight's film is merely the latest of its type.

Despite its plot shortcomings, "Nightmare at Bitter Creek" comes across as an engaging, well-paced thriller in the hands of director Tim Burstall, who knows how to push all the right emotional buttons. He also captures fine work by his cast.

If Skerritt gets any craggier with age, he will begin to look like a raisin. He delivers a strong, durable, convincing performance as Ding.

Wagner continues to emerge as a first-rate actress in an emotionally and physically demanding role.

And Cassidy, who has the most infectious laugh of anyone on the screen today, joins McCashin in lending solid supporting help.

One flaw in "Nightmare at Bitter Creek" is its one-dimensional treatment of the Nazis chasing the women. We never learn anything about these heavies, whose dialogue is restricted to occasional mutterings over a walkie-talkie. A little more character development with regard to these characters would have served to heighten their evil. Instead, they're portrayed simply as a vague, threatening presence.

Still, this movie is as good a reason as any for limiting one's exposure to the great outdoors to the backyard grill.