Vacation camping for girls

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Camping Check Lists .... i

II. Camp Clothes 13

Chapter I

THERE are some considerations in camping which are staple; that is, questions and needs all of us have to meet, just as there are staple foods which all of us must have. No one knows better than the old camper, who has shaken down his ideas, theories, practices, year after year in the experiment of camping how true this is. If one is wise, one goes well prepared even into the simple life of the woods or mountains or lakes; and it is in a practical way, and under three so-called check lists, (i) camp clothes, (2) camp food, and

(3) camp equipment, that I wish to tell you something about camp life for girls.

From the point of view of clothes there are two kinds of camping: one more or less civilized, the other "rough.'' In the first perhaps we shall be allowed a small box or trunk. In the second we have to depend entirely upon a duffle bag or a knapsack. To the camper who plans for a good many comforts, there Is only one warning to be given : don't be foolish and take finery of any sort with you. Not only will It be In the way, but also a girl does not look well In the woods dressed In clothes that belong to the home life of town or city.

There is an appropriate garb for the wilderness even as there Is the right gown for an afternoon tea. Except for this warning, what you will put In your trunk will be simply an extension of the comforts which you have in duffle bag or knapsack.

As the capacity of duffle bag or knapsack 2

Is very limited, the check lists for its contents must be made out with rigid economy. The most Important Item Is foot gear. A well-made pair of medium weight boots, carefully tanned, drenched with mutton tallow, viscol, neat's-foot oil, or some similar waterproof substance, will prove the best for all-round usefulness. These boots must be broken In or worn before the camping expedition Is undertaken. Nothing Is so foolish as to start out In a new pair. Have In addition to the boots a pair of soft Indoor moccasins. These are good to loaf around camp In. They are grateful to tired feet, and, rolled, take up but little space In the knapsack. To the boots and moccasins add from two to four pairs of hole-proof stockings of some reliable make. If you can get a really first-class stocking and are crowded for space, two pairs will do. One goes on to your feet and the other Into your knapsack. There should also be several combl- 3 nation suits, preferably of two weights, high necked, and with shoulder and knee caps.

Now, see that the skirt you wear Is of durable material; blue serge or tweed (corduroy Is often too heavy) ; that It has been thoroughly shrunk, and is six Inches off the ground anyway. Twelve would be better. Your skirt should be provided with ample pockets; the sweater and jacket also. Under the skirt wear a pair of bloomers, the lighter and sllmsler they are, the better; and the stouter the material, the more practical for wear. I have tried many kinds, and believe percallne which Is light, strong, sllmsy and washable, the best. Silk Is not suitable at all. A flannel shirt waist or blouse, a Windsor or string tie, a soft felt hat with a sufficiently wide brim, but not too wide, complete your costume.

Into the knapsack put two coarse handkerchiefs, a silk neckerchief to tie around your neck, the stockings and combination suit al- 4 ready mentioned, a string of safety pins clipped one Into another, a toothbrush, tubes of cold cream and tooth paste (tubes take up the least room and are the easiest to carry), a cotton shirtwaist, a nail file, comb, small bottle of the best cascara sagrada tablets, a pair of cotton gloves for rough work, a cake of castUe soap, a towel, a stiff nail brush, and, if you are zvise, a book for leisure hours, preferably an anthology of poems or a collection of essays which will afford food for reflection.

In your preparations let It be the rule to strip away every unnecessary article. Take pride In getting your kit down to the absolute minimum. Keep weeding out what you don't need, and then after that, weed out again.

The same principle of rigid economy In

selection will obtain In the check list for

food. It Is the minimum of expense In the

woods that will bring the maximum of comfort. In arranging for the "duffle" to be taken with you there is one thing that can be counted upon with mathematical certainty: hunger. You are going to be hungrier than you have been in a long time. The problem is, then, how to tote enough food and get enough food to supply your wants. The carriage, the keeping, the nutritive value, all these things have to be taken into consideration in wood life. At home we have fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meats in abundance. How can we supply these things for our camp table? We can't! But desiccated potatoes, dried apples, apricots, prunes, peaches, white and yellow-eye beans, dried lima beans, peas, whole or split, onions, rice, raisins, nuts, white and graham flour, corn meal, pilot biscuit, rolled oats, cream of wheat, cocoa (leave coffee and tea at home) , sweet chocolate, syrup for flapjacks, baking soda, sugar, salt, a few candles (helpful for lighting a fire in wet weather, as well as good 6 for Illumination), matches, molasses, a little olive oil — all these things, with careful planning, we may have in abundance. To these items you should add good butter — the best salted butter is none too good — some cans of condensed milk and evaporated milk and cream, and a flitch of bacon. Meat makes a dirty camp, and a dirty camp means skunks and hedgehogs prowling around. In a properly thought-out dietary it will be entirely unnecessary to tote meat. All that is needed for use you can get at the end of your fish rod or through the barrel of your shotgun, and upon the freshness of what you catch or shoot you can depend. Dr. Breck, in his "Way of the Woods," says that if he were obliged to choose between bacon and dried apples and chocolate, he would always take the apples and chocolate. Both portage and health will be served by avoiding the carriage of a lot of tin cans. The ration of each article needed you can work out with 7 your mother or housekeeper, according to the number of people to be In the party, the menus you plan, and the length of your stay. For a cooler for your food, you will find a wire bait box, sunk in clean running water, excellent. The question of grub, or duffle, as it is called in camp life, in proper variety, abundance and freshness, is the most difficult question of all. To this problem a seasoned camper will give his closest attention.

There are other articles, plus the food stuffs, which we must add to our check lists — chiefly articles of equipment. Two or three pails nesting into each other, a tin reflector baker for outdoor cooking, enamelware plates, cups and bowls, pans, dishpans, dishmop, chain pot-cleaner, double boiler, broiler, knives, forks, spoons, pepper and salt shakers, flour sifter, rotary can opener, long-handled and short-handled fry pans, a carving knife and a fish knife. The cost of these 8 things carefully bought, will be about six dollars. There should also be in your kit some nails and a hatchet, toilet paper, woolen blankets, mosquito netting (tarlatan is better), twine, tacks, oilcloth for camp table, and some fly dope.

With these articles, plus a little knowledge of woodcraft, there is almost no wilderness into which a capable girl cannot go and make an attractive home. But a little woodcraft we must know; the rest we can learn as we go. There Is one fuel In the woods which skillfully used will kindle any fire, even a wet fire, and that is birch bark. You can always get an inner layer of dry birch bark from a tree. Keep a check list of different kinds of wood and have it handy until you learn these woods for yourself. Brush tops or slashings will help to start a quick blaze. Hickory is fine for a quiet hot fire. The green woods which burn readily are white and black birch, ash, oak and hard maple. 9

Look for pitch, which you are most likely to find in old trees, and that will always help out and start any fire. Woods that snap, such as hemlock, spruce, cedar and larch, are not to be recommended for camp fires, as a rule. To be careless or stupid about the camp fire may be to endanger the lives not only of thousands of wild creatures in the wilderness, but also the lives of human beings.

Be careful to have pure water to drink. You cannot be too careful. If you are in doubt about the water, don't drink it, or at least not until it has been thoroughly boiled. Take with you, besides those I give, a few useful recipes for cooking experiments. They will bring pleasure and variety on dull days. Choose a good place for your cabin or shack or tent, whichever you use, especially a place where the natural drainage is good. Know before you set out whether black flies, mosquitoes and midges have to be encountered

lO and go prepared to meet them. They are sure to meet you more than halfway. Don't take any risks on land or water. The people who know the way of the woods best are those who are least foolhardy. Common sense Is the law that reigns in the wilderness, and, in having our good time, we cannot do better than to follow that law.

So much for skeleton check lists, many of which, in the chapters to come, at the cost of repetition, I shall amplify. Among the questions which I shall take up are the all-important ones of camp clothes, camp food, cooking, the place, camp fires, furnishing the camp, the pocketbook, the camp dog, the outdoor training school, the camp habit, wood culture, camp health, camp friendship, homemade camping, the canoe, fishing, and the trail. This great, big, beautiful country of ours is full of girls, real Camp Fire Girls^ who love the keen air of out of doors and the smell of wood smoke and the freedom of II hill and lake and plain, and to them I want my little book to come home and to be a camp manual which will go with them on all journeys into the wilderness.

Chapter II

IF you have been camping once, there Is no need for any one to help you decide what wearing apparel to take the next time. Through the mistakes made and the discomforts involved, the girl will have learned her lesson too well to forget it. But there is always the girl who has not been camping. It is chiefly for her benefit that I am writing these chapters on camp life for girls.

In the first place, there are two kinds of camp clothes to be considered, for there are two kinds of camping: (i) the expedition which permits taking a box or trunk with you, and (2) the rougher camping that allows only the carrying of a duffle bag or a knapsack. If you are limited to a knapsack 13 or a duffle bag, your kit must be of the most concentrated sort and chosen with the greatest care. You will find ten or fifteen pounds the most you wish to tote long distances, although at the beginning this size of pack may seem like nothing at all to you. As I have found personally, even seven pounds, with day after day of tramping, may make an unaccustomed shoulder ache under the strap.

If you are to be limited to a small duffle bag, or a fairly capacious knapsack, what are the articles of clothing without which no girl can start? Let us take up the most important item first, and that is foot-gear. Wear a well-made pair of medium weight boots, thoroughly tanned, soaked with viscol, or rubbed with mutton tallow both on the inside and the outside, to make them waterproof. Never start out with a new pair of hoots on your feet. If necessary, get your boots weeks beforehand, and wear them from time to time till they are thoroughly 14

MECCOMOC OXFORD

ELKSKIN MOCCASIN comfortable. In addition to these boots which you wear, take a soft pair of indoor moccasins. These can be worn when you are tired and loafing around camp, or while the guide is drying or greasing your boots. If you have ever worn moccasins and are going to tramp in a moccasin country, that is, a country of forest trails and ponds, then buy a pair of heavy outdoor moccasins; larrigans or ankle-moccasins are best. These should not be too snug. Worn over a heavy cotton stocking, or a light woolen one, or woolen stockings drawn over cotton, the moccasin is the most ideal foot-gear the wilderness world can ever know.^ Neat's-foot oil is also excellent for greasing moccasins. Buy from two to four pairs of hole-proof

*If you have room take with you an extra pair of shoes. When you have become a real woodswoman you will never be without woolen socks and moccasins. The thick, soft sole of sock and moccasin spare tender feet which are not accustomed to hard tramping and rough paths.

i6 stockings of some reliable make. If these stockings are first class and can be depended upon, two pairs will do. One pair you will wear, the other goes into your knapsack. Have also several combination suits, some for your bag and one for your back. These suits should be high-necked and with shoulder and knee caps; of sufficient warmth for cold days and nights; in any case porous and of two weights.

If you are going to tramp in a skirt, as you must if your route touches upon civilization, see that it is short. Six inches off the ground is none too much, and twelve is a good deal better. In an outing of this sort it is as poor form to wear a long skirt as it would be to wear a short skirt at an afternoon tea in civilization. The skirt should be of some good quality khaki, army preferably, or a tweed; it should be thoroughly shrunk, and if it seems desirable, it should be possible to put this camp skirt in water 17 and wash it.^ Have ample pockets on either side of the front seams. If I had to choose between the best of sweaters and a jacket with a lot of pockets in it, I should always choose the latter, and that is not on account of the pockets alone, but because it is a more convenient article of clothing. In case of cold weather it affords better protection, also better protection against rain as well as cold. You can have it made with two outside pockets and several inside — the more the merrier. Underneath the skirt wear a pair of bloomers. The lighter and stouter these are, the more of a comfort they will be. I have found a good quality of percaline to be the best investment. Percaline is light, strong, slimsy after a little wearing, and washes well. I have never yet found a silk that was practicable in the woods. Silk

*You can buy an ideal hunting suit at any of the big shops in Boston, New York or Chicago for from $8 to $10.

i8 bloomers go well with the comforts of civilization, but they are not fit to endure the test of roughing it. A flannel shirtwaist or blouse, a Windsor or string tie, a soft felt hat — you may have it as pretty as you wish, provided it is not too large or over trimmed — complete the outfit which you carry on you, so to speak.

Now to return to the outfit you carry in your pack and not on your back. A pair of indoor moccasins, an extra pair of holeproof stockings (these you must have, not only on account of a possible wetting, but also because the stockings must be changed every day, for you cannot take too good care of your feet), two coarse handkerchiefs of ample size, a silk neckerchief to tie around your neck, an extra combination suit, a few safety pins clipped one into another until you have made a string of them, a tooth brush, a little tube of cold cream and a tube of tooth paste (the tubes are not breakable 19 and take up the least room, they are therefore the best to carry), a cotton or linen shirtwaist of some kind, a nail file, a comb, a small vial of cascara sagrada tablets, several rolls of film for your camera — the camera itself can be slung on a strap from the knapsack — a pair of garden gloves for rough work with sooty pots and kettles, a good-sized cake of the best castile soap, a towel, a good stiff nail brush, and one or two books.

Personally I feel that the books are as indispensable as anything in the knapsack, for in moments of weariness, or when stormbound, they prove the greatest comfort and resource. The volume taken must not be a novel which read through once one does not care to read again. Better to take some book over which you can or must linger. I have tramped scores of miles with the "Oxford Book of English Verse" in my knapsack, and it has proved the greatest imag- 20

Inable pleasure and solace. A small anthology or a book of essays, or something that you wish to study, as, for example, guides about the birds or the trees or the flowers, are good sorts of volumes to tote with you — besides, of course, this camping manual.

Your kit for the rougher kind of camping, provided you have guides or men folks who will carry the food, or "grub," as it is called in camp parlance, and the blankets, is now complete. But for the one girl who goes on this rougher sort of camping expedition, twenty go into the woods to be happy in a quite civilized log cabin or shanty. These girls will be taking a camp box with them, or a trunk, and can add to their wardrobe. There is no excuse, however, for adding the wrong sort of thing. There is no excuse for wearing unsuitable, unattractive old rags about camp, clothes which have served their civilized purpose and have no fitness for the wilderness life. Let me give you one other word, from an old timer at camping, about what you should wear. Don't be foolish and put in any finery. The finery is as out of place in camp as your camp boots would be at a garden party at home. But several middy blouses, more shoes, more stockings, another skirt, a number of towels, a few more books — all will prove just that much added food for pleasure; first, last, and always, be comfortable in camp. There is no reason for being uncomfortable unless you enjoy discomfort. Anything, however, over and above what you actually need will be only a hindrance. Those who go camping, if they go in the right spirit, are looking for the simple life; they want to get rid of paraphernalia, not to add to it. To learn the happy art of living close to nature, means stripping away unnecessary things. There is no place in camp life for fussiness or display of any sort. All that Is beyond the dally need Is so much litter and clutter, making of camp life something that Is a burden, something that Is untidy, uncomfortable, confused. Of no thing Is this more true than of a girl's camp clothes.

Chapter III Food

THERE are several reasons why the camp food is almost more important than any other consideration. To begin with, most girls are leading a more active life than they are accustomed to living at home. This makes them hungry, and, add to the exercise the natural tonic of invigorating air, the camper becomes fairly ravenous at meal time. There are other reasons, too, why food is an all-important question. If one is in the real wilderness, it will be difficult to get. One is obliged, therefore, to consider carefully beforehand the kinds of food necessary for a well-provided table and a well-balanced diet. Another reason for taking thought about this whole subject is the portage. All the foods must be toted 24

FOOD

in, and not all kinds will prove suitable or economical in the long run for this sort of portage. Finally, there is the question of the ways and means for keeping the food, after it is once safely In camp, in good condition. As a rule, when we go on our expeditions we leave regions where It Is easy to get a great variety of foods. The city or Its suburb or a comfortable country town, is the place we call home. Our tables are filled the year long with fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meats, and all kinds of bread. This dietary in all its variety, to which we have been accustomed at home. Is quite impossible of realization in the camp. We might just as well make up our minds to that at once. Yet accustomed to vegetables and fruits as we are, we need them both in wholesome quantities. How shall we get them? Potatoes of course. If the camping expedition Is for any length of time, that Is ten days or more, must be lugged. And lug- 25 ging potatoes Is heavy work over a trail. As for the other vegetables and fruits, and even meats, most people buy large quantities of tinned articles and so get rid of the whole question. Personally I think that this is a great mistake. It was a delight to me to find in Doctor Breck's "Way of the Woods'* that he, if obliged to choose between bacon and dried apples and chocolate, would always choose the chocolate and dried apples. And when the question of portage as well as health enters in, it may be said right here that it is quite impossible to carry a pack full of tins. But aside from the comfort of the guides, a tin-can camp is not likely to be a wholesome one. I am convinced that tin-can camping is responsible for whatever ills people experience when they go into the woods.

It is quite simple to get different kinds of dried vegetables and different kinds of dried fruits — and the best are none too good — In 26

FOOD

bulk. At present there are even evaporated potatoes on the market for campers. Such dried foods pack and carry best and are most wholesome. Both white and yellow eye beans, dried lima beans, peas, whole and split, onions, evaporated apples, dried prunes, dried peaches and apricots, rice, raisins, nuts of all kinds, lemons, oranges, and even bananas, if they are sufficiently green, can be quite easily taken into camp. Various sorts of flour and meal, too, will be needed. Find out how much it takes to bake the bread at home and add that to the length of your stay plus the number of the campers and plus a little more than you actually need, and you will be able to work out the flour problem for yourselves. There should be then white and graham flour, or entire wheat, corn meal, pilot bread (memories of toasted pilot bread in camp can make one smile from recollected joy), some rolled oats, cereals like cream of wheat 27 which carries well, cooks easily, and is hearty, and various sorts of crackers.

Now the writer does not think meat necessary in camp. Except for the fish caught and the birds shot, none need be eaten. All the meat element or proteid necessary is provided for in the beans, peas, and nuts. But it is well to take a flitch of bacon or a few jars of it to use in broiling or frying the fish or game. Pork and lard are entirely uncalled-for in a properly thought out dietary.^

^ A brother camper says that he thinks even the fish would feel neglected without pork. On the contrary, trout are very sensitive to good bacon — in short, prefer it to salt pork. If you do not believe this true fish story, then catch two dozen half pound trout, slice your bacon thin and draw off the bacon fat. Take out the bacon, put the fat back into the frying pan — don't burn yourself — and pop in one-half dozen trout. After the first mouthful you will find that my contention that trout are most sensitive to bacon entirely true. Be sure to put a little piece of bacon on that first bite. Following that, all you have to do is to keep on biting until your share of the two dozen trout is consumed. Remarkable how those two dozen will fly — almost as if the little fellows had turned into birds! The reason I am opposed to pork and lard camping is that we all

FOOD

Sufficient good fresh butter Is very much needed. If campers feel that they must have other tinned meats, the best kinds to take are the most expensive, ox tongue, and that sort of thing. Several months ago four of us started off on a ten days' camping expedition into a very northern wilderness unknown to us. One of the party, needlessly ambitious, took a preserved chicken in a glass jar bought from the finest provision house in Boston. By the time we reached our destination, the chicken was anything but preserved. Indeed, unless all signs failed, it had already embarked upon a new incarnation. No arm in the party was long enough to carry it out and set it on a distant rock for the skunks to visit. Nor shall I soon forget

know nowadays how diseased such meat may be. To go into the woods for health and run any avoidable risks is folly. Get a flitch of the best bacon and the best bacon is Ferris bacon. From this you will get enough fat for all frying purposes; also, in case you use fat as a substitute for butter, there will be enough bacon fat for cakes, etc.

a certain meat ragout which we concocted in a Canadian wilderness. We had the ragout, but alas, we had a good deal else, too, including a doctor who had to cover half a county to reach us ! Aside from the fact that people who live in cities and towns eat altogether too much meat, in camp there is not only the question of its uselessness, but also the fact that there are no ways to care for it properly. Meat makes a dirty camp.^

^ I cannot emphasize too often the absolute importance of keeping a clean camp. Mr. Rutger Jewett, to whom this camping manual and its author are indebted for many wise suggestions, thinks that it is not always feasible to burn up everything. "Every camp," he writes, "has some empty tin cans. It seems to me that the best plan in this case is to have a small trench dug, far enough from the camp to avoid all disagreeable results and yet not so far away that it is inaccessible. Here cans and unburnable refuse from the kitchen can be thrown and kept covered with earth or sand to avoid flies and odors. Everything that can be burned, should be." The only difficulty in my mind is, in case the region is hedgehog-infested, that those charming creatures will form their usual "bread-line" — this time to the trench — and add digging to their accomplishments in gnawing. However! Better rinse out your tin cans; Sis Hedgehog is less likely to mistake the can for the original delicacy.

FOOD

All food refuse should be burned up, anyway, never thrown out into the brush, and it is difficult to burn meat bones. The girl or woman who keeps a dirty camp is beneath contempt. There is likely to be one neighbor, if not more, in the vicinity of every camp, who will make things uncomfortable for the campers. He should be called the camp pig, and he is the hedgehog. Also his cousin, the skunk, will hang around to see what is carelessly thrown out or left for him to eat. The hedgehog is the greediest, most unwelcome fellow in the woods, and even the fact that the poet Robert Browning had one as a pet will not redeem him in the eyes of the practical camper. He hangs around any camp that is not kept clean, gnaws axe handles which the salty human hand has touched, licks out tin cans which have not been rinsed as they should be before they are thrown away — in short, he follows up every bit of camp slackness. There is only 31 one way to keep off hedgehogs and that is to have an absolutely tidy camp.

In addition to the food stuffs already mentioned, there are several others which should be taken in the necessary quantities. Salt and pepper — better leave tea and coffee at home and take cocoa — soda, sugar, a few candles (helpful in lighting a fire in wet weather, as well as for illumination), matches, in a rubber box if possible, kerosene if your camp outfit will permit such a luxury, olive oil, maple syrup for flapjacks, molasses, condensed and evaporated milk or milk powder.