The fry pan is an important part of the outfit, but not the most important. In it may be cooked the entire food for the party—meat, fish, bread and even the coffee. But look out that it is of a convenient pattern for transportation. Get a ten-inch thin iron pan, with a socket on one side for a temporary handle, or have the handle entirely removed, and fit it with a portable handle to screw to the side. This detachable handle may be used to lift any dish from the fire.
But because you have a pet fry pan, with automatic accessories, do not become a slave to it. Use the broiler on all possible occasions. The stomach of the camper will stand many severe strains, but it will finally rebel if treated to too much grease. Use as little of this lubricant as possible, and you will be surprised at the small quantity needed.
Fry pan
The remainder of the kit, with the exception of the baker, needs no special comment; and of that piece of apparatus, I have long been in doubt whether it was a desirable article for the camping outfit.
Personally, I never use the baker, as I prefer to bake my bread in the fry pan, and my fish I roll in wet paper or leaves and bake in the ashes. With a desire to advise those who disagree with me, I wish to say that I was with a party who used an oven which accompanied a cooking outfit, and it worked nicely. In fact, the whole apparatus was without reproach, and was evidently the result of practical experience. If I could afford it, and had the room for its transportation, I should use one just like it, when I had a large party to provide for, as it saved time and some trouble; but it was no better than the more primitive method of the “bean hole,” which will be discussed later.
A rubber blanket of some description is very necessary, and I prefer the poncho with a slit in the middle to enable it to be put over the shoulders in case of rain as well as to lay beneath the blankets while sleeping, to keep off the dampness of the earth. If this pattern cannot be obtained have two eyeletted holes made in one edge of a rubber sheet, far enough apart so that it may be looped around the neck. The ordinary blanket may be of any character that is desired. I use a light wool blanket together with a light cotton blanket, both double and uncut, for summer use, and a regulation sleeping bag for cooler weather. The latter may be made of oiled duck lined with the summer blankets, or with one or more quilted puffs made of calico and cotton batting.
The cloth bag—size of a pillow case—is a very convenient article to be filled with leaves or fir spills; this, however, is not indispensable, for a good pillow may be extemporized of a pair of shoes with a person’s outer clothing laid over them. The small cloth bags will be found convenient in packing remnants of food, sugar, coffee, etc., which is so easily scattered by the ordinary paper packages becoming broken.
Now a word in regard to clothes. Eschew caps, helmets and straw hats, and wear a soft felt hat, the softer the better; it will stand rain, will not get broken, will keep the sun out of the eyes and can be used for a multitude of purposes from acting as holder for a hot pan or kettle to stopping a hole in a stoven boat. Canvas clothes are a delusion; they make a lot of noise in the brush and are uncomfortable when wet. Wear a suit of old woolen clothes with a light flannel shirt; no vest is needed. These garments are comfortable and warm, even when damp, and are easily dried. Look out for your feet; wear good, solid leather boots, and change your socks every night, washing out and drying each night the pair worn during the day. This little attention to the comfort will prevent sore feet on a long tramp. The remainder of the articles seem to explain themselves. Never wear new boots.