JUST CAMPING by Ralph Bice

From July 13, 1977

If records mean anything, as well as the great numbers of cars heading into the woods, camping as a recreation has increased by leaps and bounds the last few years.

I know in the rather small area where I have spent so many summers it does not seem like the same place at times. Lakes that were once so quiet are now crowded. So many campsites and all of them filled, especially on the busy weekends. So many cars are pulling trailers and these must have a place to park. The latter type want to get back in the woods only they want as much modern comfort as they have at home.

I, at times, have had occasion to pass a few of the more modern campsites where everything is handy, plenty to do, a place to do laundry and a well stocked store. Some even have a restaurant in case people decide they do not want to cook for a meal or two.

At times I wonder how these summer guests can really enjoy their holiday when there are so many camped close by that it must seem like they are in a small village. But these summer visitors appear to enjoy it. And they return again and again.

Recently I had occasion to look through some old snapshots taken on fishing trips more than half a century ago. There were the hotels where guests liked to relax and lakes and fishing were not far away. But what meant the most to guides were the summer visitors who wanted to go on a canoe trip. Most such trips were two weeks. To a lake were the fishing was good. But it meant travelling by canoe, sleeping in tents, and there were no foam rubber mattresses then and only a very few air mattresses. Besides there would be no room for such luxuries in a canoe and there were the portages where they would have to be carried. So the bedding, for the most part, was blankets from the outfitting store, perhaps a ground sheet, and the bedding was balsam brush. Some guides got to be really good at making balsam beds and I know over the years many campers had a good nights rest on a bed of balsam.

I have been on some canoe trips that were longer than three weeks. The canoes were standard 16 foot canoes, nearly all canvas covered. Aluminum canoes did not make their appearance until years later, and most of us can remember when the fiberglass canoes became widely used.

In these canoes we packed the equipment, the tents, blankets, personal effects, cooking utensils, and the supplies. And, there had to be room for three persons. There were times, but not too often, when there was a guide for each member of the party, and this meant for better loaded canoes.

The supplies were just for what was needed for the length of the trip. Very little meat was taken outside of bacon. That was a staple. Early trippers did not carry eggs; too often they got broken. Bread for perhaps the first week, then biscuits were made either in a reflector oven or in the fry pan. Think it would be safe to say that in the average week on a camping trip fish would be the main course on at least 12 of the meals. Not many wanted fish for breakfast but the other two meals it was there. And it was good. Can recall a few times that it got boring eating fish so often, but if you just missed a meal or two they got to be good again. I do not recall the fish having the greasy taste so many talk about. Those old guides had a method of cooking fish that still has to be tops.

One of the older, and considered top guides, showed me how to cook a trout, as he called it, “planked”. A plank was made of green maple. A fish of five pounds or better was carefully cleaned, the ribs and backbone carefully removed, and the fish tacked onto this makeshift plank. Then it was seasoned and the plank was placed in front of a good fire. Maybe twice the cook would remove the plank and baste the fish with melted butter. There was no set time for cooking. The cook was supposed to know by the look of the fish when it was ready for the table. Properly done this has to be about the tastiest way of cooking trout.

Then a few years later another old guide showed me how to make fish chowder. This too takes time but it is time well spent. Oh yes, when you served fish chowder you were also supposed to have hot biscuits.

But those trips are a thing of the past as are the guides and the type of fisherman and camper who wanted to go away back in the woods and live in a tent. The early tents had no fly screens or flooring. They were canvas and often leaked. But I will remember those trips much longer than the times I have stayed in camps and had a stove to cook on.

A while back I visited two men who were fishing at a lake you could drive to. They had a camper and a fly tarp that covered their table. A propane stove to cook on and ice box with plenty of ice, sheets on their bunks and comfortable chairs and a table. During the course of our conversation one chap mentioned that he wished his wife would come fishing. She apparently liked to catch fish but said she did not like roughing it. Looking at what they called roughing and then thinking back to those trips of years ago and quite a few women went on similar trips, made me sort of chuckle.

But best of all, even though their attitudes differ, it is nice that so many are enjoying a trip in the out-of-doors.