Transcriber’s Notes
Text printed in italics in the source document has been transcribed
between _underscores_, text in small capitals has been converted to
ALL CAPITALS.
VACATION CAMPING
FOR GIRLS
VACATION
CAMPING FOR
GIRLS
By
JEANNETTE MARKS
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK AND LONDON
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1912, by DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. CAMPING CHECK LISTS 1
II. CAMP CLOTHES 13
III. FOOD 24
IV. COOK AND COOKEE 37
V. LOG-CABIN COOKERY 46
VI. THE PLACE TO CAMP 68
VII. CAMP FIRES 77
VIII. OTHER SMOKE 87
IX. FITTING UP THE CAMP FOR USE 94
X. THE POCKETBOOK 107
XI. THE CAMP DOG 118
XII. THE OUTDOOR TRAINING SCHOOL 127
XIII. THE CAMP HABIT 139
XIV. CAMP CLEANLINESS 147
XV. WOOD CULTURE AND CAMP HEALTH 157
XVI. WILDERNESS SILENCE 171
XVII. HOME-MADE CAMPING 181
XVIII. THE CANOE AND FISHING 193
XIX. THE TRAIL 209
XX. CAMP DON’TS 221
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Camp Footgear 15
A Group of Camp Utensils 33
Nessmuk Range and Small Cook Fire 79
Sleeping Bags and Camp Cot 99
A Group of Tents 109
Bough Lean-to and Frame 113
Some Game and Water Birds 131
Birds Every Camper Should Know 135
Leaves of Familiar Trees 137
Some Common Fish 199
Fishing Tackle 201
Rod Case, Tackle Case, Net and Creel 205
Angling Knots 207
The Dipper 213
Moose, Buck, Doe, Fawn and Caribou 215
Animals the Camper May Meet 217
VACATION CAMPING
FOR GIRLS
CHAPTER I
CAMPING CHECK LISTS
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, (1) 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 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 combination
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 slimsier
they are, the better; and the stouter the material, the more practical
for wear. I have tried many kinds, and believe percaline which is light,
strong, slimsy 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 already
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 castile soap, a towel, a stiff nail
brush, _and, if you are wise_, 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 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 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, enamel-ware
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 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. 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 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 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.