When purchasing a light-weight tent, see that the dealer supplies a bag of proper size in which to pack it.
A pack cloth 6 × 7 feet in size, of brown waterproof canvas weighing about 31/2 pounds, makes an excellent covering for the tent floor at night. On the portage blankets and odds and ends will be packed and carried on it. If one end and the two sides of the pack cloth are fitted with snap buttons it may be converted into a snug sleeping bag with a pair of blankets folded lengthwise, the bottom and sides of the blanket secured with blanket safety pins as a lining for the bag.
My standby for summer camping is a fine all-wool gray blanket 72 × 78 inches in size and weighing 51/2 pounds. This I have found sufficient even in frosty autumn weather—always, in fact, until the weather grows cold enough to freeze streams and close them to canoe navigation. Used as a lining for the improvised pack cloth sleeping bag, this blanket is quite bedding enough and makes an exceedingly comfortable bed, too.
A three-quarter axe with a 24- or 28-inch handle makes a mighty good camp axe. A full axe is heavy and inconvenient to portage and the lighter axe will serve every purpose in any country at any time. Personally I favor the Hudson's Bay axe. This may be had fitted either with a 24-inch or 18-inch handle. In the two-party outfit which we are discussing there should be two axes, one of which may be fitted with the shorter handle, but the other should have at least a 24- and preferably a 28-inch handle. Every axe should have a leather sheath or scabbard for convenient packing. The so-called pocket axes are too small to be of practical use. The camper does not wish to miss the luxury of the big evening camp-fire, and he can never provide for it with a small hatchet or toy pocket axe.
Cooking utensils of aluminum alloy are the lightest and best for the trail. Tin and iron will rust, enamel ware will chip, and unalloyed aluminum is too soft and bends out of shape. The best sporting goods dealers carry complete outfits of aluminum alloy. I have used them in the frigid North and in the tropics, in canoe, sledging, tramping and horseback journeys, and can recommend them unequivocally, save perhaps the frying pan.
The two-man cooking and dining outfit should contain the following utensils:
- 1 Pot with cover 7 × 61/2 inches, capacity three quarts.
- 1 Coffee pot 6 × 61/8 inches, capacity two quarts.
- 1 Steel frying pan 97/8 × 2 inches, with folding handle.
- 1 Pan 9 × 3 inches, with folding handle, for mixing- and dish-pan.
- 2 Plates 87/8 inches diameter.
- 2 Cups.
- 2 Aluminum alloy forks.
- 2 Dessert spoons.
- 1 Large cooking spoon.
- 1 Dish mop.
- 2 Dish towels.
The regular aluminum alloy cup is too small for practical camp use. There is an aluminum bowl, however, holding one pint, but without a handle. This is about the right size for a practical cup, and I have a handle riveted on it and use it as a cup. The top only of the handle should be attached, that the cups may set one inside the other. The heat conducting quality of aluminum makes it a question whether or not enamel cups are not preferable.
To pack the outfit snugly, set the mixing pan into the frying pan, the handles of both pans folded, place the plates, one on top of the other, in the mixing pan, the cooking pot on top of these, and the coffee pot inside the cooking pot. The cups will fit in the coffee pot. The weight of this outfit complete is 51/2 pounds.
A waterproof canvas bag of proper size should be provided in which to pack the utensils. Forks and spoons, wrapped in a dish towel, will fit nicely in the canvas bag alongside the pots.