CAMPING OUT WARREN H. MILLER Class Book Cop)Tight}]°_ COPnUCHT DEPOSIT. THE EXPLORER'S WALL TENT, PUT UP WITH SHEARS AND RIDGE POLE CAMPING OUT BY WARREN H. MILLER Editor of Field and Stream Author of "Rifles and SHOTorrNs," "The Boys' Book of Hunting and Fishing," "The Boys' Book op Canoeing and 'Sailing," etc. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY ^^^ COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY -4 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1917-18. BY THE FIELD AND STREAM PUB. CO. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ©Ci.A-i97159 ^10 I 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 cook- ery, 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 per- manent one, so one may as well learn how the vet- vi 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 vol- ume 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 get- ting 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 adven- tures 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 III A Lone Hike for Bass 65 IV Canoe Voyageuring 80 V We Discover the Adirondacks .... 104 VI Camping out De Luxe 131 VII Horseback Camping 151 VIII Wilderness Guide Posts 172 IX A Go-Light Beach Hike 191 X Camp Cooking 202 XI Omar, the Tent Maker 224 XII The Esquimaux Tent 241 XIII Mainly About Tent Stoves 263 XIV Automobile Camping 286 ' XV Winter Camping 300 . ILLUSTRATIONS The explorer's wall tent Frontispiece PAGE The Tump line—the Red Man's carry-all ... 18 The Squaw Hitch 18 The "Perfect" Pack 34 Carrjing harness and duffle bags 34 Tump strap and tarp pack 34 The siwash pack 34 Tump strap and cam-ing harness SO ^ Hitting the trail with a 30-pound pack . 50 Tarpauhn A-tent with cheesecloth ends .... 60 The " perfect " shelter tent 66 Packsack-sleeping bag, made up as a bag ... 66 The stretcher bed tent with mosquito bar canopy . 74 The stretcher bed tent showing stretcher bed and pole frame 74 The rest stick 82 Shouldering the Peterborough wooden canoe . 82 Carrying the canoe on paddle blades 98 At the end of the portage 98 ' The tent cot and ''handy" tenl . 106 Canoe and duffle in one cany 106 The end of the carr>' 114 Negotiating a log-jam on Ampersand Brook . 122 XI xii ILLUSTRATIONS PAOB Hauling over a beaver dam 128 A Dan Beard tent and folding camp furniture . 146 The morning wash 146 Horseback camping 154 Morning in camp under the pines 154 Telling time by the compass 162 Joan grazing the horses near camp 162 Blazed stake 178 Lob-Tree 178 Cache or trap blaze 178 Corner blaze at turn of trail 178 The Appalachian tent as a packsack 194 Setting it up as a tent 194 Pail and stopple cook kit 208 A nesting aluminum camp kitchen 208 The forester cook kit 208 Tepee, shanty tent, forester, and miner's tent . 226 The forester tent with packsack-sleeping bag . 234 The Esquimau tent with tent stove in tepee end . 250 Side view of the Esquimau tent 250 Tent stove and reflector baker 274 The author's tent stove in mouth of blizzard tent . 274 Camping with an automobile trailer 290 In camp in the Rockies 306 The forester tent in heavy snow . 306 CAMPING OUT CAMPING OUT CHAPTER I PACKING YOUR OUTFIT Like the birch-bark canoe, portages and packs have been with the native Red American since long before the white man came. Curiously, the original Iroquois pack, with its wooden frame, is the type which represents the survival of the fittest, for the latest pack of the present moment is of this type, after years of trial with pack baskets, harness, packsacks, and rucksacks, all of them white man's inventions. The Indian had just two carrying devices, the tump strap and its thongs, and the carrying frame. These two seem to have been universally distributed all over the country. With modifications, you will find them from the Micmacs of the extreme Northeast to th-e Papagos of the Southwest, the tump strap being made of every conceivable natural material from rawhide to woven basswood fibre, and the frame . 17 18 CAMPING OUT varying in the same way, according to the material available in the region in which the particular tribe lived. With the Iroquois it was made en- tirely out of mockernut hickory, including the tump line, not a stitch of animal matter appearing in the makeup; with the Pima and Papago the frame is a mere natural fork of mesquite, spread- ing a deep net of yucca fibre. With all of them the two main natural principles of big weight portable by the strong neck muscles, and a frame holding the load off the small of the back and transferring its thrust to the brisket muscles, are the guiding motives in the design. For, while a load with shoulder harness is very limited—say, 60 pounds as a maximum—the amount that can be carried with the tump line and frame runs up into the hundreds of pounds. The reason why shoulder harness has such a low limit is not the fatigue nor the disposition of the load on the shoulder blades, but the mere fact that con- striction of the big arteries of the arms is pro- duced by the pressure of the straps passing up from under the armpits over the breast muscles. Any one who has carried a packsack much will recall that the first warning that the pack is too heavy is a numb and prickly feeling extending over the entire arm. If not relieved, the arm steadily ?kJ^ PACKING YOUR OUTFIT 19 gets worse and you have the same sensations of ''foot asleep" as when that member is unduly sat upon. At what weight this takes place depends on the pack, the tightness and width of the straps, and the weight carried, but a limit of about 60 pounds is the general maximum. Personally, I limit my pack to 35 pounds, with maybe 40 for a start-off; but, for real comfort, you want 27 to 30 pounds, and that you can carry all day without discomfort. Wherefore, if you are on a light hik- ing trip with rod or rifle, a trek across gamey country on foot, take a packsack and study light- ness to the last ounce.