Camps and Camping.
I will say that the conditions and location in which one is to camp
makes a great difference in the preparations. If one is just going
outside of town to camp for a few days outing, commodities may be to
your liking as to quality and quantity. In these days, should the
larder run low, it is only necessary for the camper to step out a
short distance to a farm house where he is almost sure to find a
telephone. In such cases all that the camper has to do is to 'phone
to town, ordering his favorite brands delivered to camp, and soon an
automobile is on the road laden with supplies, hastening to the
campers' relief.
Conditions are different when the camper is far from town; or perhaps
miles from a dwelling or perhaps even a public road and the camper is
compelled to pack his camp outfit, grub stake and all over miles of
rough trail, or it may be no trail at all; then the camper must
curtail his desires to their utmost limit.
If the camper is on strange ground, and the camp is to be permanent
or for some weeks, it is best for the camper not to be in too big a
hurry to select the camping ground, and take up with any sort of a
place. It is even better to make a temporary camp and look the
locality over and select a place where good water can be had, and
wood for fuel is plentiful and near camp. If possible, select a spot
in a thicket of evergreen timber of a second growth and out of the
way of any large trees that might blow onto the camp.
If the ground is sloping, place your camp parallel with the slope,
whether tent or log cabin, as the surface water can more readily be
drained off, and not allowed to soak into the ground and cause
dampness inside of the tent. A ditch should be dug around the tent to
drain all surface water, and eaves so the water will not soak inside.
If a log cabin, the dirt from the drain can be thrown up against the
logs of the cabin.
If the camper expects to camp through cold and snowy weather, it will
pay him to place a ridge pole in crotches placed firmly in the
ground. The pole should be a foot above the ridge of the tent, then
place poles from the ground, the ends resting on this ridge pole as
rafters to a building, then nail a few poles to these rafters
sufficient to keep boughs from dropping down onto the tent. The
boughs should be of an evergreen variety. This outer covering should
be well thatched or covered with these boughs. This extra covering
adds greatly to the warmth and comfort of the camp, as it protects
from the wind blowing directly on the tent, also keeps the snow from
falling onto the tent.
It is also a great convenience if this ridge pole is allowed to
extend out three or four feet, and a strip of canvas run over the
pole and down to side poles, so as to form a sort of an awning so one
can step outside to wash when it is raining without getting wet. It
also makes a convenient place to pile a small amount of wood, and
will be found useful in many ways such as hanging furs, clothing,
etc., out to air.
Do not make your bed on the ground. Build a box bedstead by driving
four posts into the ground, then nail pieces across, up about twelve
inches from the ground. Lay small poles on these cross pieces, then
nail one or two small poles entirely around on the posts above the
bottom pieces forming a sort of crib. This crib may be filled first
with boughs, then on top of the boughs put a quantity of leaves or
grass, when the mattress is lacking. There will also be store room
under the bed, which would be wasted if the bed is made on the
ground.
Brother camper, when you are going well back into the tall timber
where you are obliged to pack your outfit over a rough trail or
perhaps no trail at all, do not waste any energy packing canned "air"
in the shape of canned fruits. Take your grub in a crude state in the
way of flour, beans, lard, bacon or pork, and if fruit is taken, take
it in a dried form. Take the necessary supply of tea, coffee, sugar,
salt and pepper, also that unavoidable baking powder.
[Illustration: WOODCOCK FISHING ON PINE CREEK.]
As to preparing an emergency camp for a night, if the weather is
cold, and there is snow on the ground, the camper should pick a place
where he will be as much sheltered from the cold winds as
circumstances will allow and where he can get wood as conveniently as
possible.
Select a log (if one can be had) that lays close to the ground. Now,
scrape away the snow about six or eight feet back from this log, and
where you will have your bed, build a fire, on this space the first
thing you do. Then build a cover over this space or fire, by first
setting two crotched stakes about four feet apart and five or six
feet high, back three feet from the log. Cut a pole, and place it in
these crotches and then from this pole lay poles long enough to come
back so as to give room for your bed, covering the space where the
fire is built; one end of the poles resting on the ground. With
evergreen boughs, cover this entire framework, top and two
sides--toward the log open.
Now scrape the fire down against the log and proceed to build your
fire for the night. Cover the space where the fire was with fine
boughs; this is your bed. Take off your coat, and spread it over your
shoulders, rather than wear it on you as usual.
When the camper has plenty of time, and a good axe, in building an
open campfire the thing to do is to cut two logs six or eight inches
in diameter and three feet long and place them at right angles with
the back log, and three or four feet apart; then lay the wood across
these logs. This will give a draft underneath the wood and cause the
fire to burn much better than where the wood lays close to the
ground.