The greatest test for the camper is the building of a fire in rainy weather when leaves and twigs and wood are far from dry. It can be done and the greatest joy derived in the doing. Choose an old log which is not water-soaked. Split it with an axe; split one-half of it again. With a sharp knife make a little pile of shavings whittled from the heart of the log. Put them in the center of the log cabin formation. Light them from underneath (which is the way all fires should be lighted), and coax the blaze by adding dry shavings as required until there is sufficient blaze to light the small wood which has been collected. This fire takes patience and perseverance.
It is sometimes possible in very wet weather to pick up small wood that has been protected from the rain; also to break off the dead wood of trees or the small twigs on the ends of the limbs to start a fire.
Under no circumstances should a camper use artificial tinder of any kind. No paper, excelsior or oil should be used in building a campfire, and a Scout should need only one match.
Always build a fire where the wind will blow the smoke away from the camp, and never fail to build it on the bare ground where there will be no possibility of its creeping through the grass or underbrush into the woods.
After a meal when necessary to burn garbage, do not throw a quantity right on top of the fire to smoulder and cause a disagreeable odor. Rather sprinkle it around the edges that it may dry before being shoveled onto the coals. When necessary to burn papers, be careful that a burning paper does not blow into nearby brush or woods.
The questions of fires and provisions for hiking are treated at length in the Girl Scout Handbook.
A Deschutes River Fishing Trip in the Deep Forests of the Cascade Range North Western Washington
We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle teems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun—a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal.
—John Muir
There were ten of us—our chaperones, a man and his wife; a good all-round camp man, capable of instructing in camp life, fishing and wood knowledge of all kinds; our Captain and four Girl Scouts.