Camping out

Front matter

WARREN H. MILLER

Class

Book

Preface

Camping out may well be classed as one of the liberal arts, so wide is its application. Once the bulwarks of civilisation are removed, veteran and tyro alike come under the same skies, and must conform to the same principles governing life in the open. Whether one hits the far trail, by canoe, pack train or back pack, or whether one camps within easy distance of team transportation, the same actualities of weather, insect life, camp cookery, and shelter confront one, and their successful solution must be achieved to make the camp an enjoyable memory. Virtually the only difference is in the limitations of weight imposed on the nomadic camper who travels in the wilderness, which limitations are by no means as exacting when the camp is permanently located for the proposed stay. Hence a book on modem camping out would have to contain chapters adapted to both kinds of camping, since the equipment used would vary greatly, while the general system would remain the same.

While perfection of detail and organisation in the travelling camp is an essential, it makes no less for convenience and saving of time in the permanent one, so one may as well learn how the vetvi PREFACE

eran does it from the start, for no experienced man will tolerate hardships and discomforts as part of the accepted regime of his camping out. He needs his strength for the toil of the trail and so requires a restful camp quite as much as does the man who merely wants to loaf in the woods and do it at a minimum of discomfort.

Perhaps the author's experience of thirty years of camping out in all climes and conditions, going once a month throughout every month of the year, and often once a week in the fall and spring months, will enable him to produce a useful volume on the subject. The reader will find that this book covers a wide range, from the de luxe camping of the man who can afford a fine outfit and goes to the woods for rest and recreation, to the explorer's and hunter's camping, where getting into big game country or little-travelled lands far from the nearest railroad involves the utmost of comfort on the minimum of weight. Between the two lie many variations, such as the canoeist's trip, the lone hike, the automobilist's trek, the winter cruise by snow shoe and toboggan, the late fall camp where the tent stove becomes a feature, and the beach camp where sand and wind offer a new set of conditions requiring special solutions.

While the general scheme of modem camping is the same throughout, the reader will find that each kind of outdoor life offers its own special features, and, as nearly all of them will be tried by the enthusiast at one period or another in his

PREFACE vii

development as a master camper, reading up on the subject before getting into the practice of it will well repay. It is the author's hope that a camp for every kind of trip has been well covered within the limits of this volume. The permanent log shack has purposely been omitted, for the reason that, as a rule, new scenery, new adventures at each succeeding season appeal more to the outdoorsman than a return each year to the same spot, every foot of which locality becomes all too soon too well known to excite further interest.

Wabken H. Millee.

Inteelakbit, N. J., 1918.

Contents

CHAPTBB PA«SH

I Packing Your Outfit 17

II With Knapsack and Rifle 41