Camping gear

“ The camping kit, including the few handy articles needed in the woods, as well as the bedding and cooking outfit, may be either elaborate or simple, according to the personal experience and ideas of the camper. In making up a list, it is a good plan to remember that only comparatively few articles are really essential for a comfortable vacation in the wilderness. A comfortable bed must be reckoned one of the chief essentials, and one may choose the de-luxe couch—the air mattress or sleeping pocket—use the ordinary sleeping bag, or court slumber on one of the several other styles of camp beds. ”

“ Average Citizen, however, can usually get along with an old suit of clothes, an extra set of underwear and a second pair of socks. After a little experience, the week-end camper will be surprised to find how little he really requires in the way of extra equipment. ”

“ As the chinking is excelsior, you can imagine what one of those cedar sparks would do if it snapped onto a bit of the excelsior. Cabins not chinked with excelsior are usually chinked with moss, which is almost as inflammable. With woods that snap, the camper can never be too careful, and no fire made of snappy wood should ever be built near a cabin or a tent. One spark, and it might be too late to check the quickly spreading fire.
There is another thing about which the camp cook and all girls camping need to be very careful, and that is the drinking water. ”

“ Each lock should have a duplicate key to be given to the tent leader, or in a large camp, to the camp banker.
Have an old laundry bag in which to put soiled clothes. "Wash day" is a popular day in many camps. No camper need be dirty when there is abundance of water.
There is a luxuriance in a piece of soap and a clean towel that only experienced campers can understand and appreciate.
Wet towels, swimming suits or tights should not be placed in the trunk or box, but hung upon a rope, or non-rust wire outside of the tent. ”

“ There are many comparatively inexpensive outfits that nest together and so take but little room that will meet all the needs of the average motor camper. Almost anywhere the motor camper may buy aluminum ware that nests together and that will meet all requirements. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every one of the variations just mentioned may be found within the average motoring party of four or five people: one will want to sleep in the car, one in a bag, and the others on and under blankets in a tent. Therefore, a sleeping bag, a removable tonneau seat with the back of the front seat folding down so as together to form a couch, and a couple of small folding cots are desirable on a camping trip. ”

“ Of course, the camping parties, which are legion, are houses on wheels! Aside from the tents, poles, bedding, and cooking utensils, we have seen stoves, sewing-machines, crates of tinned foods, trunks full of every conceivable incumbrance they could buy, strapped to the back and sides and even on the top of the car, and usually the personal luggage jammed in between the mud-guards and hood of the engine. A traveling circus is an orderly, compact miniature in comparison. ”

“ Equipment not needed at every stop is kept in the lower compartment and hence is not in the way when the campers are packing or unpacking.
The Huntington compartment is covered with waterproof canvas affixed with curtain cleats.
End pieces of tent of home-made camping outfit, and the way the design appears when closed. Note the various cross cords and tapes which permit of close tying in case of storms. Normally the side flap is tied back, with the inner mosquito netting flap acting as side wall, since the latter permits of better ventilation. ”

“ Camping equipment is an enigma. A light tent, heavy enough to shed rain, large enough to accommodate all, and not having unwieldy poles, is the first essential; unless cabins, when accessible, or hotels are to be used. Second, enough cots should be provided to accommodate all. Car cushions and car beds are sometimes desirable. Probably the best is the small steel folding double camp bed with springs and a thin mattress. ”

“ The other items of this veteran camper’s outfit consist of a tin cooking set which nests into a six-quart pail and is somewhat heavier than an aluminum outfit, but was chosen because the wife preferred it with its steel frying pan. For a table he used the rack, which is under and supports his rear seat cushion, for a model, and cut a new one out of one-half-inch board to take its place. It has folding legs of three-eighths-inch iron rods sharpened at the end so that they can be pushed into the ground. For chairs he uses the cushions. ”

“ Two usual items of an amateur equipment, better left at home, are a hatchet and a pedometer. A hatchet is of no value, except in the wilderness, and not always is it worth carrying even there. Ordinarily a stout, sharp knife will answer every purpose. When one is on a camping trip on which he makes long stops, he will care for something better than a hatchet—a light axe. Regarding the uses of a pedometer see page 116.
If the contemplated tour lies through the wilderness, and accommodations for the night are not to be had under roofs along the way, one must carry his blanket. ”

“ Along these automobile trails camps are in strong demand. Many trail tourists do not mind patronizing the hotels a part of the time, but for the rest they greatly prefer the tent and the camp fire. To meet their needs the Forest Service has laid out and equipped a large number of camps. These are always located where good water is available, and usually a practicable wood supply is an item of the equipment. Simple provisions are made for sanitation, and cement fireplaces are often installed. ”

“ The left hand breast pocket should be deep and lined with leather, as it not unfrequently becomes a resting-place for the revolver when you do not wish to make an ostentatious display of it. Get a couple of real Scotch caps, such as the Highland shepherds wear; nothing can equal them for sleeping in when camping out, and they form a most convenient head-covering for camp use, or when the sun is not too powerful. ”

“ We had taken with us a tent, blankets and three toy pistols, the latter entirely useless in that country, which proved how ignorant we were of Western ways. We were not long in finding a suitable camping spot a mile from [Pg 19] the town and the same distance from the many corrals of the great Western freighters and pilgrims, as the immigrants were called. For miles we could see those immense, white covered prairie schooners in corral formation. Hundreds of oxen and mules were quietly grazing under the watchful eyes of their herders in saddle. It was certainly a novel sight to the tenderfoot. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are many forms of recreation that the motor camper may enjoy, particularly when camping away from the crowd. A basket ball may well form part of the camping equipment. It will not be hard to find two trees sixty feet apart. ”

“ But, they are sound on the bonfire. They pile on the wood in the usual way, criss-cross and haphazard. It makes a grand fire, and lights up the forest for fifty yards around, and the tired youngsters turn in. Having [Pg 53] the advantage of driving a team to the camping ground, they are well supplied with blankets and robes. They ought to sleep soundly, but they don't. The usual drawbacks of a first night in camp are soon manifested in uneasy twistings and turnings, grumbling at stubs, knots, and sticks, that utterly ignore conformity with the angles of the human frame. ”

“ In case of wet weather the open situation will allow the tent to dry out sooner, and a fringe of timber to the west or northward will often enable the tent to safely weather a blow that would otherwise send it kiting.
Be careful not to camp near dead timber which might be liable to blow down on you in a storm with unfortunate results.
Until the camper has had a little experience he is apt to exaggerate the hardships of camping. Colds and minor ailments are not apt to attack those who have taken to the open in a camping trip. ”

“ If the desire is to camp elsewhere than in a municipal motor camping park certain conditions must be considered in making the selection of a camp site. Considering that the motor camper will tent and have a regular camp fire, wood and water are prime essentials. Seek high, well-drained land. Avoid stony or rocky ground or shallow soil. Do not camp in a pine or hemlock grove, at least in summer, as fire is liable to creep and spread in the fallen pine needles and hemlock leaves. ”

“ It should protect the sleeper from the cold which is greatest near the tent’s floor and from the winds whose greatest force is spent when it contends against the properly pitched shelter overhead. Provision must be made for keeping the bedding off the ground and for allowing an egress of moisture in the summer and a retention of heat in winter. One has a variety of styles to choose from, ranging from sleeping on the warmed bare ground to luxuriating on the latest invention for creature comfort when camping—the combined pneumatic mattress and blanket bag. ”

“ Spending the nights under the stars is one of the great fascinations of camping. Each person requires two waterproof ground cloths or ponchos, two pairs of light wool blankets, safety pins, heavy cord, sleeping garments, rain coat, and toilet articles, including such things as soap, toilet paper, sewing kit, electric flashlight, mirror, first aid kit, provision for mosquitoes or flies, five yards of bar netting, and oil of citronella. ”

“ If the winter camper likes he may provide himself with an Indian tent—a circular tent with a hole at the top. With such a tent the fire for cooking may [95] be made on the ground within the tent. The smoke will draw pretty well out of the hole at the top of the tent. The miner’s tent, which is conical in shape, with the pole in the middle, can with little difficulty be used in the same way as the Indian tent. If you are going to have any fire in the tent, other than in an oil or gasoline stove, it will be wise to fireproof the tent. ”

“ The great bulk of your luggage you will generally find it best to carry by wheeling it on a bicycle. Spread your ground-sheet on the floor. On that lay your blankets, doubled so as to make a smaller square, tent, mattress cover and bed suits on that, then your camping utensils and all other paraphernalia and roll the whole up into a sausage about five feet long, when the loose ends of the ground-sheet have been tucked over as in a brown-paper parcel. ”

“ The proper covering for head and feet is no slight affair, and will be found worth some attention. Be careful that the boots are not too tight, or the hat too loose. The above rig will give the tourist one shirt, one pair of drawers and a pair of socks to carry as extra clothing. A soft, warm blanket-bag, open at the ends, and just long enough to cover the sleeper, with an oblong square of water-proofed cotton cloth 6×8 feet, will give warmth and shelter by night and will weigh together five or six pounds. ”

“ If it is intended to tent on the banks, then the party should be larger; for two persons unused to this experience would find it exceedingly lonesome after nightfall, when visions of river tramps, dissolute fishermen, and inquisitive hogs and bulls, pass in review, and the weakness of the little camp against such formidable odds comes to be fully recognized. Often, too, the camping-places are few and far between, and may involve a carry of luggage to higher lands beyond ”

“ A party would not need the same outfit in July that he would require in October—and while there is (13) no sense in sleeping cold at night because of a lack of blankets, there is also no use for a sleeping-bag for a July camping trip, and in this judgment of the actual necessities is where the average camper fails.
The majority of camping parties occur in the warm season when game birds and animals are protected by law, and there is no need for a gun, but most men will confess to a feeling of greater security when there is a firearm in camp. ”

“ If you spend a few winter evenings at home making the pegs, it will save you a lot of time and trouble when you reach the camping ground. The best pegs are made of iron or steel. This is especially true when the ground where they are to be driven is hard or rocky, which is usually the case. Steel tent pins may be bought for six cents apiece or possibly the local blacksmith will make them for less. ”