Vacation Camping for Girls

As you go through the woods, cross the ponds and lakes, climb mountains, your luncheon in your pocket, compass and knife and cup and match-box all ready and friendly to your hand; as you feel the wilderness becoming more and more your empire, be sure that you do not abuse the privileges which are revealed to you. The more gentle and considerate you are in this life which has opened itself up to you, the more it will tell you its secrets. That you should leave disfiguration and destruction and bloodshed behind you does not prove that you are in any sense a true sport. The camera is one of the best guns for the wilderness. It is better to be film-thirsty than bloodthirsty. A girl who is in earnest about camera shooting can test her “nerves” quite sufficiently for all practical purposes. How about facing, or chasing, a six- or seven-hundred-pound moose, plunging down through a cut or a trail, and having the nerve to press the bulb at just the right moment? Or a big buck? Or a little bear? Or a porcupine? A good kodak and some rolls of film are all that is needed to begin the work of photography. A fine way to do, if you intend to go into the matter seriously, is to get some book on nature photography and make a thorough study of it. Other books, too, there are, which will be full of profit for you as you come to know the wilderness life. Begin with Thoreau, John Burroughs, John Muir, Stewart White, Ernest Seton Thompson, and these will lead you on and out through a host of nature books and finally into a more technical literature on hunting, camping, and the wilderness life in general.

I believe that in the end an intelligent study of the woods made with eyes and ears, heart and mind, notebook and book, will bring down more game than any shotgun or rifle ever manufactured. I have seen guide-books of northern wildernesses whose collective illustration suggested only the interior of some local slaughter house. No tenderfoot myself, for, when the first shotgun was placed against my shoulder, I was so little that its kick knocked me over, I do not write this way because I am unfamiliar with the pleasures of well-earned or necessary game, but because I have tried both ways and I prefer a friendly life in the wilderness. To kill what you see, just because you do see it, to set big fires, to be wasteful, to take risks in your adventures, are no signs that you know the woods—and they are most certainly no guarantee of your love.

CHAPTER XX
CAMP DON’TS

Don’t forget your check list.

Do make your plans early for the camping expedition.

Don’t be dowdy in the woods. Dress appropriately.

Do keep a clean camp. Otherwise you will go in for hedgehogs, skunks, flies, and other disease-breeding pests.

If in doubt about drinking water, don’t drink it—at least, not till it is thoroughly boiled.

Do be independent. Camp is no place for necklaces, however beautiful.

Don’t start out camping with a new pair of shoes on your feet.

Do keep from adding to the things you want to take with you, or you won’t be able to reach the “jumping off” place.

Don’t forget your fly “dope.”

If your appetite is good, be polite to the cook.

Don’t forget the box of matches.

Don’t be foolhardy. It might take too long to find you. If you feel that way, have somebody attach a tump line to you.

If you have an open stove, when you go off for the day, be sure to close it.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions—everybody does.

Do help others with the work.

Don’t cut your foot with the axe. It will not add to the pleasures of camp life.

Dish-washing is not pleasant work. Do your share just the same.

Don’t step on the gunwale of the canoe, and upset it, or trip over a thwart. The canoe is a ticklish craft.

Do conform to the camp routine. Don’t keep the dinner waiting, delay the fishing expedition, or call out a search party.

Don’t be ignorant of the topography of the region in which you camp. By not studying the map for yourself, you will give others a lot of trouble.

Listen to what your guide says.

Remember, I shall be glad to answer brief, pointed questions, addressed to me at

CAMP RUNWAY,
Moosehead Lake, Greenville, Maine.

THE END

INDEX

• Beavers, 88-89
• Beds:
• bough beds, 97-100
• browse bed, 100, 101
• sleeping bags, 103
• Birch bark, 9, 40
• Black flies, 10-11
• Blankets, 21
• Bloomers, 4, 18-19. See Clothing
• Blouse, 4, 19, 22. See Clothing
• Books, 20-21, 219
• Breck’s fly “dope,” 102
• Breck’s “Way of the Woods,” 7, 26, 45, 63
• Camera film, 20, 218-219
• Camp Fire Girls, 11, 115
• Camp habit, 139-146
• Camping grounds, 68-76
• sites to be avoided for, 73
• sites to be chosen for, 73-76, 181-192
• Can opener, 8. See Cooking utensils
• Canoes, 193-208
• care in handling, 193-200
• cost of, 196
• length of paddle, 195
• paddling, 200
• Cascara sagrada, 5
• Check lists, 1, 96
• Cleanliness, 147-156, 168
• Clothing, 1-5, 13-20, 21-23, 165-166
• gloves, 5
• hunting suit, cost of, 18
• jacket, 18
• Cold cream, 5
• Combination suits, 3-4, 17, 165-166
• Cook, 37-45
• Cooking utensils, 8, 34-35, 62, 104-105
• Cooler, 8, 32-34
• Dishes, 8, 35
• Duffle bag, 2, 14
• Economy, 5, 107-117
• Equipment, 2, 8-9
• cost of, 8
• poncho, 100
• tents, 110-111
• tools, 9, 35
• Expenses, 107-117
• for food, 114
• for party of four or five, 108-111
• for tents, 110
• Feet, care of, 19
• Fires, 11, 77-86
• Fishing, 193-208
• fly, 202-204
• Fishing tackle, 200, 204-208
• Fly “dope,” 9, 35, 101-102
• Food, 1, 6-8, 24-36
• bacon, 28
• butter, 29
• cleanliness of, 30-31
• dried vegetables, 26-27
• flour, 27
• meat, 28-30
• milk, 32, 37, 114-116
• portage of, 24
• Footgear, 2, 3, 14-16
• Fry pans, 8, 62. See Cooking utensils
• Fuel, 9-10, 40-42
• Furnishings, 11, 94-106
• Gloves, 5. See Clothing
• Guides, 69, 85, 118-126
• assistance to, 123-125, 145
• character of, 122-123
• duties of, 119-121
• Hat, 4, 19
• Head net, 101
• Health:
• clean-working digestion and, 166-168
• eating and, 169
• hygiene and, 127-138
• physical culture drill and, 161-165
• rules for, 159-161
• water and, 10, 42-44, 76, 157-170
• Hunting suit, 18. See Clothing
• Hygiene, 127-138. See Health
• Jacket, 18. See Clothing
• Knives, 8. See Cooking utensils
• Matches, 40
• Moccasins, 2, 16. See Footgear
• Mosquitoes, 10-11
• headnet and, 101. See Hat
• netting for, 35
• tarlatan for, 101
• Neat’s-foot oil. See Waterproofing
• Nesting pails, 8, 34
• Pockets, 4. See Clothing
• Poncho, 100
• Privy, care of, 168. See Sanitation
• Recipes, 45
• apples, 49
• bacon, 62
• baked beans, 59-60
• baking powder biscuits, 55-56
• boiling vegetables, 65-66
• bread-making, 51
• broth, 62
• buckwheat cakes, 61
• Chinese tea-cakes, 63
• chowder, 62-63
• corn bread, 56-57
• corn meal, 48
• corn pone, 60-61
• eggs, 54-55
• fish, 52-53
• fudge, 64-65
• gingerbread, 63
• macaroni, 48
• mashed potatoes, 61-62
• mayonnaise dressing, 66
• molasses cookies, 64
• mushrooms, 61-62
• olive oil, 65
• pancakes, 57-58
• partridge, 53-54
• penuche, 64
• rice, 48
• soups, 58, 59
• stewed fruits, 65
• stock, 46
• vegetable stew, 49
• white sauce, 63
• Reflector baker, 8, 39. See Cooking utensils
• Safety pins, 5. See Clothing
• Sanitation, camp health and, 157-170
• water and, 10, 30-31, 42-44, 76
• Skirt, 4, 17-19
• extra. See Clothing
• khaki, 17
• tweed, 17, 22
• Soap, 5, 20
• Sporting catalogs, 103
• Sporting magazines, Outing, Country Life in America, Forest and Stream, Field and Stream, Recreation, Rod and Gun in Canada, 110
• Stockings, 3. See Clothing
• holeproof, 16, 17, 19
• woolen, 16
• Sweater, 18. See Clothing
• Tents, 110-111. See Equipment and also Expenses
• Tin can camping, 26
• Tools, 9, 35. See Equipment
• Tooth brush, 5
• Tooth paste, 5
• Trail, 209-220
• following the, 211-214
• independence on, 209-211
• lost on, 214-216
• walking, 70
• Vacation Bureaus, 115
• Viscol. See Waterproofing
• Water, 10, 42-44, 76. See Health and also Sanitation
• Waterproofing, 3, 14, 16. See Footgear