Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

134 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTOtherwise It is a matter of finding a proper sleepingbag, and I have tried here to make the essentialsplain.decisive factor.Beyond this, one's personal taste must be theEmerson Hough:Let us hear from another old-timer," As to your bed, let us have one more whack at thesleeping bag — that accursed invention of a misguidedsoul. Leave your sleeping bag at home, in the Adirondacksor in the Minnesota woods. Take a pair of goodwool blankets which will weigh not less than ten pounds— more weight is better. Don't despise a good wool comforteror a ' Katy ' which will fold double and make anice mattress under you. And whatever you do, don'tfail to have for your own use a good, big bed tarp * ' as itis known in the West. On the stock ranches we alwaysused to have the tarpaulin of 20-oz. duck, about 7 x 14 ft.,jand sometimes it had harness hooks on it, sometimes not.It surely would turn rain. For the pack travel of todayyou will not need canvas of quite so much weight. Butcanvas and wool in abundance you surely should havefor your bed. No hunting trip is a success when youdon't sleep well and dry at night. Canvas and woo!together are the correct dope for the mountains. Take anair mattress if you insist, or if your dealer does: don'tblame me if you sleep cold."When all is said, plain blankets are cheaper thansleeping bags, and they can be used at home: thatsettles the matter for most folks.Mattresses and Pillows.— It is folly to sleepon bare ground if one can help it. A bed of balsambrowse is not excelled, if properly made and frequentlyrenewed ; but it takes fully an hour to makeone right, and on many a camp ground there is nobrowse, not even spruce. As a substitute one mayuse pine needles, grass, ferns, the moss off old fallentrees, or even dead leaves. Such stuff, however,packs hard and spreads from under one unless confinedin a bag.For years I carried a bag of commonbed ticking for this purpose, 2^^ feet wnde by 6^feet long, and weighing only i^ pounds. Such abag made of tanalite is more practical than any kindof carryall or bed-sheet, for it serves just as well to