J. C. Long

“ In addition to their desire to help, the State Foresters realize that besides its health values this camping movement is likely to have a profound effect on our national economic policy. We have been exhausting our timber supply. Every one knows about it, every one believes that forestry is a good thing, but it has been a political issue of such minor interest as to command little attention. As the average man develops the camping habit, comes to know the Forest Reserves, forestry will become a part of his life. ”

“ No matter what car the motor camper may use there are at least four things for him to consider. Perhaps most essential to determine in advance is where and how he will sleep. Food, clothing, and car he need not bother so much about. He has his car, whatever make it may be. His clothes, too, can be made to do, no matter what they may be. His food at a scratch he may pick up by the way, but as to sleeping quarters he must take thought in advance.
If the Ford is a touring car or a sedan the camper or campers to the number of two may arrange to sleep very comfortably in the car itself. ”

“ To be sure, camping is simpler and easier in warm weather, and that is also the season when most folks can get vacations.
But summer camping is not the only seasonal camping. The fall season is one of the pleasantest times to camp. The nights may be cold and even frosty, but the sharp tang in the air will make the experience all the more delightful. ”

“ The average motor camper, however, will find it much more convenient to provide himself with some sort of equipment for cooking or at least heating part of his food and drink. If nothing more, he will carry with him solidified alcohol in some form [65] or other. Those little kits for the use of alcohol in cubes or simply in a can do not give out a great deal of heat and are not good for much except for making tea, coffee or cocoa, or for heating up canned goods, such as beans. Yet they are convenient and absolutely clean. They are also entirely safe and may be used in the car itself. ”

“ In the early morning, too, after having dined well upon the camper by night, they feel more like taking the air. But, seriously speaking, always remember that mosquitoes prefer cool, moist air and dim light rather than darkness or sunshine. If there are any lurking inside during the day to avoid the hot sunshine they [156] may be driven out just at dusk without much trouble—in fact, they will go out voluntarily if an opening is provided. But they are more stupid than flies and need some gentle persuasion to start them moving and aid them in finding an exit. ”

“ So many motor campers in the past have abused the hospitality of farmers by carelessly and even wantonly breaking down shrubbery, leaving rubbish, injuring trees and otherwise comporting themselves as nuisances that in some sections the farmers are hostile to the motor camper and so the decent, law-abiding man has to suffer for the sins of the vandal. ”

“ Even if the car is in perfect mechanical condition, the chassis, the body, the upholstery will require no small amount of cleaning, washing, rubbing and dusting or brushing if it is to be kept from quite speedily showing the signs of travel. If the car should develop temperamental tendencies, such as even the most expensive cars occasionally exhibit, the question of sufficient exercise will not become acute.
If the camper uses a tent, as most campers do, there will be no small amount of exercise involved in setting it up, driving in the pins and seeing that all guy lines are taut and secure. ”

“ A raincoat with blanket spread over it will form a convenient mattress. Some campers, and the weight of tradition, recommend cedar boughs for a bed, but the art of arranging and sleeping on them has to be acquired. The only kind of boughs or browse that can be comfortably used as the basis for a bed must be fine in quality, otherwise the corners of the boughs will find the bones of the sleeper with infernal ingenuity and make his rest very unsatisfying. Some campers prefer to sleep in hammocks. In some cases where the body is of sufficient length these may be slung from end to end in the car. ”

“ In selecting a camp site, other than in a camping park provided with water, as these mostly are, the question of a water supply for drinking purposes is exceedingly important. As mentioned elsewhere, the wells of the countryside and the wayside springs are more or less open to suspicion. So, too, are the brooks, as they may receive drainage from farmhouses near their course or from barnyards. If the camp is near a swamp, the water there may be dark, but that is no sign of especial impurity as the color may be due to discoloration from the vegetation and turf of the bog. ”

“ If the intention is to make use of a public motor park, and the first one found does not seem altogether desirable in point of being roomy, shaded, or in the provisions made for the comfort and convenience of campers, drive on to another and keep on until the best camp site available is found. This advice applies all the more to the camper who intends to camp by himself on private property and who will have to arrange for camping permission, etc., before settling himself for the night. ”

“ Now, the week-end camper need not neglect his religious duties, for in the East and South, as also in the Middle States, the week-ender is not likely to camp in a place so remote as to be more than a fifteen-minute, or thereabouts, motor ride from a church of some denomination where he will be likely to get as much good as he will be able to assimilate. If he is particular as to his brand of religion he can pick his camping site accordingly. ”

“ Practically every community of any size along the Lincoln Highway west of Omaha offers to the motor tourist the use of a camp site, if it is only an open lot in which the tourist is free to park for the night. No accurate figures can be compiled of the number of motor campers, partly because many never register or use the more popular municipal camping parks, and partly because even where registry is required there is no central bureau to which the figures can be reported. ”

“ We have seen motorists camping in a meadow by the side of a stream below a road skirting the foot of a precipitous hill. We have even seen such a camping site pictured as ideal. Ideal it would be in fine dry weather, but a heavy summer shower, particularly at night, would endanger the camp and its occupants. Such streams often rise with great suddenness, and if nothing more the campers would be put to extreme discomfort by having to move in haste, and in the wet, to higher ground. ”

“ There are many Boy Scouts that can quickly, i.e., within a minute, make a fire with one of these outfits, but the scout is rare indeed who can make his drill from a cottonwood root, get his base of harder wood, gather his punk, string his drill bow, and start a fire with nothing but these implements. If the motor camper wants some real fun out of the process of building his fire let him buy one of the Boy Scout outfits for making fire from wood and try, try, try again until he becomes expert at such fire-making. ”

“ A canvas fly may be arranged overhead to keep off rain. It takes some experience to be able to rest easily in a hammock, but once the habit is acquired there is no more comfortable bed. The hammock is the bed of our sea jackies and marines, and they thrive on that kind of a couch.
In summertime a raincoat and a pair of blankets for each person, with hammocks, car beds, or tent, should care for the necessary sleeping equipment so far as covering goes. ”

“ The matter of insect pests is of importance. A tent with a good floor cloth will help to keep out mosquitoes, which are likely to be the most obnoxious pest encountered by the motor camper. Mosquitoes, however, are by no means found everywhere. There are many sections of the middle and mountain states where one has to travel hundreds of miles to find one of these pestiferous songsters, but along the coast, especially the Atlantic coast, they are pretty sure to be bothersome. They are hard to get used to, and hard to keep out of tent or car at night. ”

“ As time goes on the number of motor campers trekking South each winter is bound to increase, for those who can spare the time to get away from home will sally forth and head their cars loaded with camping equipment into the South so as to escape the rigors of the season in the North. A few days’ cruising will take the motor camper away from winter into summer and at a cost about equivalent to that of staying at home, particularly when coal bills are taken into consideration. ”

“ When the fish are jumping one had almost rather do without his cup of hot coffee than spend twenty minutes making fire and bringing the water to a boil. But when one learns how, he finds that such delay is not necessary. A substantial breakfast of eggs, bacon and coffee can be prepared in from ten to fifteen minutes, and the fire built, even in the rain, within this time limit. Few motorists know the essentials of a successful fire for cooking. A fire that could be built [111] within the limits of an ordinary soup plate will cook quicker than the bonfire that the motor camper usually builds. ”

“ Colorado has no State Parks, but the claim of the state authorities is that “every town and community in Colorado has an auto camp.” The City of Denver has a Mountain Park system that is unmatched. It consists of a series of plots aggregating about four thousand acres distributed over a region embracing approximately one hundred square miles, connected by some seventy-five miles of mountain boulevards, and providing many camping spots. Denver offers every possible hospitality to the auto camper. ”

“ Sometimes the expeditions have been in search of food and plunder, but mixed in with these motives has been the human passion for something better, the hope for sunnier scenes lying over the horizon.
Hemmed in by the restrictions of modern business life, people no longer, even in this Western World, move by tribes or companies into new homelands. ”

“ The camper, for an ocean to ocean trip, requires but little, if anything, more in the way of equipment than is needed for a week-end tour. With the steady increase of cross-country travel the traveler can secure all necessary supplies in practically every village along the main highways.
In taking such a long tour as across the continent it is well to pay a little more care to the camping outfit. ”

“ Each car is allotted a space twenty feet square, and the charge for camping space is fifty cents for each twenty-four hours. This appears to be the only charge.
These camps just described are but typical of a multitude of other camping parks, many of which are quite as attractive as those mentioned.
Most municipalities court the motor camper, and when the contrary is the case it is felt as a fault. One chamber of commerce secretary in an Indiana town writes, “We have no motor camp site. We are made up of a bunch of retired farmers, the most unprogressive lot of folks on earth.” ”

“ Sleeping in the car gets one away from the intrusion of the creeping and crawling things that abound on the ground, and which will succeed more or less in getting into the tent where that is used for sleeping quarters. Then, too, in time of wet and storm the car is sure to be dry. On the other hand, the sleeping quarters in the ordinary car are very close and crowded. There will be no trouble about ventilation, but pretty much all the space in the tonneau will be occupied by the bed. ”

“ The most common way of cooking over a camp fire is to cut two forked stakes or small posts and drive them into the ground far enough away from the fire so as to be in no danger of burning. The crotch of each fork is open to the fire, and in this crotch, which should stand a couple of feet up from the ground, a pole an inch or so through is laid. Over this pole above the fire is placed an iron hook, or a couple of hooks, with which the camper has provided himself at a hardware store before starting forth on his tour. ”

“ The change from the usual heavy meals to this simpler and lighter diet will do the average man a world of good.
Then, too, while journeying through the country the motor camper may with profit add to his diet from the green growing things which may be eaten raw. The so-called “raw food fiends” have a degree of fact back of their theory concerning the superior value of raw foods from a nutritive standpoint. Children like to eat the tender young peas that they shell to be cooked for dinner. Most country children like to eat raw turnips, those of the white variety. ”

“ The motor camper, however, will not be likely to suffer exposure to these poisons.
It is the children that most frequently get poisoned, and on a camping tour they are most likely to get poisoned by things found in the woods or near the camp. The most common source of poisoning is the poison ivy. This is sometimes very painful, but seldom dangerous to life. Pokeberries are said by some authorities to be poisonous, but in some sections of the country poor people gather them and use them as filling for pies, the same as elderberries, without any apparent ill results. ”

“ The various kinds of gasoline stoves specially designed for the use of the motor camper are described in Chapter VI.
Oil stoves have their advantages. They are safe, convenient and reliable. The fuel is readily obtainable almost anywhere, and is economical. Oil stoves, however, have the disadvantage of requiring [99] more attention in the line of cleaning than gasoline stoves because the oil is not as volatile as the gasoline, and so will remain on the parts of the stove and gather dust. This combination is sure to make the stove smelly and a sort of a nuisance in camp. ”

“ If no stones, bricks or even cans are at hand, dig a small hole in the ground. All that is necessary is to find something that will support a skillet or frying pan in a steady and even position. A small fire directly under the skillet will work wonders. There is not much heat, but what there is goes right to the spot where it is needed to do the work. The camper soon learns how to make this small fire, feed it bit by bit, and control it even in rain or wind. ”

“ Some motor campers get along finely by sleeping in hammocks slung from the sides of the car at the ends to near-by trees or even to tent poles. There are some wide hammocks that answer very well as beds. The snug hammocks that are used in the navy are of strong canvas, but they are very hard to get into and at first quite uncomfortable. It takes several nights to get used to one of these hammocks, and some people never get to enjoy them.
There are really no very satisfactory sleeping hammocks on the market. The navy hammock can be bought of dealers in navy supplies. ”

“ The State Parks and Forests, however, usually do not offer much more than camping privileges, though some states—New York, for example—make some provision for campers, building fireplaces and rude shelters.
It is the municipal camping parks that are most numerous and that make most extensive provision for the comfort of the touring camper. Many cities like Denver and Los Angeles expend large sums of money in the equipment of extensive camping parks that in the course of a season entertain many thousands of campers. ”

“ Before going into details concerning the various articles in the way of equipment, such as tents, bedding, cooking utensils, stoves and the like that contribute to the comfort of the auto camper, it will be well to consider somewhat the methods by which the car itself can be best adapted to the purpose of motor touring. ”

“ Week-end camping will tend to bring the town and the country into closer acquaintance and sympathy to the mutual advantage of both. The tendency more and more will be for the week-ender to take occasion on his outing to stock up with fresh vegetables, eggs and fruit, thus giving the farmer a more profitable market for his products and giving the city and town dweller fresher and more wholesome food. ”

“ Then he can write to his State Forester and learn where there are camp sites that he may occupy in the real wilderness within reach of his week-end tether.
The State Forester is usually a man after whom other politicians might pattern. There is not, as a rule, much money in his job. In the main he is doing it primarily for the love of the work, and he will take pains to help all those wishing to visit his domains. A State Forester of California, for instance, has made a special study of the motor campers requirements and makes these suggestions for his equipment. ”

“ The winter week-ender gets a spice and a thrill from life in the open under the frosty skies of winter that the summertime cannot supply.
When camping during the wintertime seek a sheltered place protected from the wind. In mid-winter the swamps are found the best of places for camping. The mud and water are frozen hard. If possible [94] get under the lee of a dense growth of underbrush, hackmatack or other conifers to keep the wind from blowing the camp fire smoke into your eyes.
The winter camper should not fail to dress as warmly as possible. ”

“ An auto camper who has been at the camping game for the past ten years, who has kept at week-end camping right along and who has crossed the continent a couple of times, camping along the route, has out of his long experience reached this as his standard outfit. He takes an “Auto bed” with a 7 by 7-foot tent; a six-pound cotton pad or mattress for the bed; a two-burner gasoline camp stove; one heavy double blanket; one wool-filled quilt; a blanket roll; two eight-quart milk cans for water; and a refrigerator basket. ”

“ Both enjoyment and health require a varied menu for the camper. The numerous wayside markets which may be found every mile or so along the main highways afford the camper an opportunity of picking up a variety of supplies which will serve to diversify the camp menu.
To the average person much of the enjoyment of motor camping will depend upon the quality of the meals that are supplied. If the day be started with a good breakfast of steaming coffee, a rasher of crisp bacon with hot flapjacks and crisp fried potatoes, the day is well begun and everything else is likely to pass off delightfully. ”

“ The wayside spring is by no means a safe source of water supply, as it often receives drainage from barnyards or from fields upon which manure has been spread. The same may be said of the small streams which abound in some sections of the country. The larger streams also are open to the suspicion of impurity. What then is the camper to do in case he wishes to camp elsewhere than in a public motor camping park? There is only one safe thing to do when you must use water that has not been tested and certified, and that is, boil all the water you drink. ”

“ Most motor-camping parks provide either fireplaces or stoves of some sort. In many of the state and national forests the sites set aside for motor campers are provided with fireplaces. Open fires are not usually permitted at these camping sites where fireplaces or other facilities for fire are already provided. But where no provision has been made to help the camper with his fire, there is no objection to his providing himself with an open fire. Those in charge of state and national forests strongly advise the motor camper to supply himself with a stove. ”

“ We would not advise a newly married couple to try motor camping. While motor camping may offer more adventure and real enjoyment than motor touring with its eating and sleeping at hotels en route, it is more perilous in its effects upon the disposition. The infinite variety of experience that motor camping offers is likely to bring some things that will tend to cloud the honeymoon, and the young couple had best have a year or two of experience in trying out the problem of living together before undertaking camping. ”

“ Certainly sufficient and restful sleep is a prime essential if the motor camper is to enjoy his camping trip and is to get full measure of profit from his experience.
In the selection of sleeping accommodations in a motor-camping tour much depends upon the familiarity of the campers with outdoor conditions. There are some people who can curl up under a thick blanket on the bare ground, and there sleep in perfect comfort. There are others who shiver and stay awake even though completely inclosed in a warm, soft sleeping bag under a waterproof tent ”

“ There are still others met with along the road who are not interested in the subject of fire and the preparation of food. We refer to those motor tourists who tour but do not camp—those who always travel on until a hotel is found where they may eat and lodge. This is an easy and from some standpoints an attractive way of traveling, but very much more expensive than motor camping. ”

“ Making a Pleasure Rather Than a Business of Camping—Coöperation in the Camp—Rightly Selecting the Camp Site—Playing by the Way—Basket-ball, Quoits, etc.—Exercise—Emergencies, First Aid—Prone Pressure Method of Restoring the Unconscious—Poisons and Antidotes—Position of Tent—Supposed Hardships of Camping Mostly Illusory—Keeping Dry—Keeping Out Insects—Sample List for a Medicine Kit—Care of the Car—Evening Sports.
A motor-camping trip is not a business trip, but a journey whose object is recreation and rejuvenation. ”

“ It may be asked, what about taking exercise while motor camping? In these days most every one has his “Daily Dozen,” or two dozen flexes or genuflexes, that he takes in order to keep fit. Now, should these be kept up when in camp? Really, each one will have to settle this for himself according to his bent. Most campers will have considerable exercise in keeping the car fit, and that exercise will go a long way at the same time in the direction of keeping the car owner fit. ”

“ It is unsightly and dangerous to health. Clean up at once after each meal. If you have no hot water scrub your plates and kitchen utensils in a brook or lake, using a handful of sand, moss or sod for a dish rag.
The location of the latrine is a matter of great importance both from the standpoint of health and convenience. The motor camping parks established by municipalities as a rule provide toilet facilities. Where the camper does not have these facilities some provision must be made. In many instances a small tent is carried along which provides shelter for a chemical closet. ”

“ In the winter time motor camping is mostly confined to the crowd of motor campers who to the number of many thousands follow the sun to the Southland. In some places that are central, and, so to speak, crossroads of this travel, as at Tampa, for example, the “tin can tourists,” as those driving [93] a popular make of car are sometimes called, and this, with their own hearty acceptance of the term, have assembled in convention to the number of thousands. ”