Winter Camping
People usually think of motor camping as a diversion of the summertime. 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. In fact, some who are seasoned to motor camping hold that it is only when the leaves begin to fall that nature puts at the disposal of the autoist a copious supply of material by which more satisfactory sleep can be [[92]]secured. These assert that with a few armfuls of leaves a camp bed can be created that will make the house bed feel like a row of boards in comparison. Another advantage which is adduced by the autumn camper is the comparative exclusiveness that can be secured. A great many of those who tour in summer, not appreciating the enjoyment to be had during the autumn, will stay at home week-ends, or attend the football games. This will give those who do venture forth less crowded roads on which to drive and doubtless exclusive use of their favorite places. Some are selecting semi-permanent sites, which they expect to improve each week-end, and they are fairly sure that on their return to them each time they will not be occupied by others, as would be apt to be the case in the summer.
Specially built touring bungalow, on a Reo chassis, adapting the Pullman idea to the motor vehicle
Hettrick tourist tent showing awning for use outside of sleeping hours or stormy weather
While most of the summer campers may not admit that they are inconvenienced in any way by mosquitoes, bugs or insects of any sort, those who contemplate camping in the fall are quick to agree that one advantage of this sport in cooler weather will be the absence of many such pests. They advise, however, that motorists should take along with their tents a few extra blankets as a protection against the nippings of Jack Frost.
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. One winter these “tin can tourists” assembled in the city just mentioned to the number of several thousand and formed an organization entitled “The Tin Can Tourists of the World.” This organization was rather informal and seems to have gone out of active existence.
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.
But there is another class of winter campers. We refer to those whose blood is warm and who can rough it a little even in the face of snow and ice. These hardy souls enjoy camping out during the winter season with a zest that summer cannot afford.
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. The best way is not to wear overcoats and thick, heavy underclothes. Much better, put on two, three or even four suits of light underwear and they will keep you warmer than heavy ones. As many as five light jerseys may be worn without making the body bulky and without interfering with your activities in walking, climbing or swinging the ax. The advantage of this arrangement is that you may peel them off like the skins of an onion as you grow warm; and put them on again as you grow cold. Don’t go burdened with too much truck. Take two good blankets, your poncho and your shoes, well oiled, or wear rubber-footed boots, such as may be secured from Boy Scouts Headquarters in New York. Wear two or three pairs of good woolen stockings. If you can secure a pair of buckskin mittens, they will keep your hands warm when pulled over woolen gloves. Take along some stubs of candles, not to burn at night, but with which to light your fires. It does not require much skill to light a candle, even on a windy day, but it sometimes requires a great deal of patience to light a fire on the same sort of a day.
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. To fireproof a tent all that is required is to get a few cents’ worth of alum at any drug store. Dissolve the alum in water and soak the tent fabric in the solution until it is thoroughly wetted, after which dry it out.
Whether you sleep in your car or sleep out in a tent, you will find in cold weather that a good sleeping bag is a great source of comfort. They come in many varieties and are fully described elsewhere in the book. Here suffice it to say that a mighty comfortable and inexpensive home-made sleeping bag may be constructed by taking flexible, enameled oilcloth, a high-grade horse blanket or a pure wool house blanket. Continue the bag back of the head and neck so as to form a hood over the head. This bag can be improvised with large safety pins to hold it together. Have the flexible oilcloth in two pieces. Pin the pieces together, roll in the blanket and slide in. Change your stockings if you would avoid cold feet. [[96]]
CHAPTER VIII
FIRE AND FOOD FOR THE CAMPER
Raw Foods—Hotels—Various Fuels Compared—Fireplaces Provided at Most Camp Sites—Wet Weather Fire-making—Primitive Cooking Methods—Prepared Foods—Corrective Foods—Camp-fire Cooking—The Dingle Stick—Forestry Regulations Concerning Camp Fires—Coffee and Flapjack Making—Wayside Markets—Men Cooks—How to Cook a Quick Meal—Improvised Fireplaces—A Varied Dietary—An Ideal Meal—A Balanced Menu—Recipes for Camp Cooking—A List—Biscuits, Flapjacks, Corn Bread, Corn Meal Mush, Fish, Rabbits, Squirrel, Game Birds, How to Boil Potatoes, Baking in Clay, etc.
The motor camper will always require fire because food and drink cannot be properly or palatably prepared without the assistance of fire. It may be thought that this rule like others admits of exceptions, and perhaps this is so. There are some people who do not seem to believe in fire, at least in connection with the preparation of food. Their religion seems about the opposite of that professed by the “Fire Worshipers.” As the Brahmins of India will not eat anything that has ever been alive, so these people will not eat anything that has been cooked. We might term those we have in mind the “Raw Food Worshipers.” They are not very numerous, still there are enough of them to make it worth the while for grocers to carry the products [[97]]they demand in the way of raw wheat crackers, raw oat biscuit and the like. We have met these people on the road, and it must be confessed that they appear to be a well-fed, well-fleshed folk, whether made so because of a diet of raw food or not is somewhat uncertain as sequence is not always consequence. These people, naturally, will not need instruction concerning camp fires.
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.
In some circumstances it may be the wise way of procedure. We have known of many bridal couples that have spent their honeymoons motor touring. 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. It may here be remarked that where a camping party includes more [[98]]than the family it would be well to be sure in advance that all composing the party are congenial and ready to work together in harmony.
Coming to the question of fire, it may be said that the easiest thing to do is to take along a stove of some sort.
The gasoline stove has one advantage, the advantage that lies in the fact that its fuel is the same as that used in the engine of the car. There are disadvantages, too. Gasoline is somewhat dangerous, and being very thin leaks very readily. Gasoline will leak through a seam that will be sufficiently tight to hold oil. The jolting that is inevitable in connection with motoring, particularly with some of the more popular cars, has a surprising efficiency in opening up the seams of an ordinary gasoline stove. There have been many instances where small leaks have led to the explosion of these stoves. These explosions often have resulted in severe burns, and sometimes in death. Village tinsmiths along the motor highways testify that they frequently have gasoline stoves brought to them by motorists to have leaks stopped.
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. Scrupulous attention in keeping the stove always clean will obviate almost completely the tendency to smelliness. Stoves using a wick are much greater offenders in the way of smelling than the stoves that operate without a wick. The motor camper will find the wickless stove, especially the pressure oil stove, by far the most satisfactory oil stove to use.
Wood stoves, and stoves that will burn any solid fuel, are offered in wide variety by the various dealers in sporting goods. Most of these are very convenient, and the collapsible kind take up very little room. These stoves operate very well with twisted newspapers. If the motor camper instead of throwing away, burning up, or almost giving away his old newspapers to the rag man will bundle up fifty pounds or more of them in a flat package he will have a week’s supply of first-class fuel for his camp stove. Pick up a paper, fold it across once or twice, twist it up tight and hard, thrust it in the stove, light it, and the result will be a good hot fire.
The most useful types of these wood stoves are also discussed and described in Chapter [VI], which deals in part with camp equipment. In the same chapter appliances using solidified alcohol are described likewise. These little devices are convenient [[100]]and very useful for the purpose of heating milk or water for tea or coffee. They are also invaluable where a baby is with the campers. The Theroz and Sterno outfits use this solidified alcohol. The former offers the fuel in the form of cans filled with small cubes of the article, the latter in small cans filled with the fuel in undivided bulk. The little kits which use this kind of fuel are inexpensive, and are mentioned in Chapter [VI].
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. The foresters say: “Camp stoves should be taken wherever they can be transported. They are safer than open fires, more convenient, require less fuel, and do not blacken the cooking utensils.… In the absence of a stove an open fire must be built. A safe and serviceable fireplace can be made of rocks placed in a small circle so as to support the utensils. Where rocks are not obtainable poles may be used.”
If the camper stops with his car in an ordinary bit of woods he is almost sure to find plenty of dead [[101]]wood for his fire. When gathering these dead sticks do not take those lying flat on the ground as they will be damp and so will burn poorly.