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johnny quest
02-17-2008, 17:00
i haunt used book stores and buy any old camping/hiking book. some of the gear is outdated to be amusing but theres lots of neat stuff in there. for instance, anybody know what a tumpline is? anyway, i was trying some recipes from a 1961 camping book this morning. boilded kettle bread didnt work for me but hudson bay toast was pretty interesting. anyone have any old but good recipes for camp cooking?

oldfivetango
02-17-2008, 17:09
Hudson Bay toast?Did George L Herter write that book?
Oldfivetango

johnny quest
02-17-2008, 17:15
i will look when i get back to the house. he wrote dune didnt he?


just kidding.

Tipi Walter
02-17-2008, 17:19
In the old days when backpacks were made with a wooden frame and no hipbelt, trumplines were used as a strap that ran from the frame up and around the person's forehead/hairline area for support. They are still in use in places like Nepal/Tibet and South America. Norman Clyde, a great backpacker from the Sierra Nevadas, used a pack with a trumpline back in the 1930s.

GGS2
02-17-2008, 17:49
If a back woodsman were to carry just one piece of carry gear, it would be a tumpline. Very versatile. One way to carry all your stuff is to wrap it all in your bedding, lash it up and carry it either strung across your shoulder and diagonally across your body, or rolled shorter and carried over your packload on a tump. Tumps were often used to carry awkward loads across portages. The idea would be to have a pack frame and then carry additional load above it, on a tump line. You can carry barrels and boxes that way, and even things like outboard engines, with a bit of padding to protect yourself from the knobby bits.

My experience is that like any piece of equipment , you can get used to it. Your neck can get tired at first, but it will strengthen. But a tump is not a piece of carefree recreational hiking gear. It is for straightforward load carrying. You have a hard time turning your head to look at the views, and the head band can get sweaty and uncomfortable. Works well in the north woods.

tazie
02-17-2008, 18:02
Yes! I love to find old hiking/camping books- we have a few "wonder bookstores" in the area(1000s of dusty books at good prices), I try and visit a couple times a week...I picked up "Ambling and Scrambling on the Appalachian Trail" by James &Hertha Flack the other day---wonderful! They took 8yrs to complete their thru-hike(finally finished in 1978, in their 60's) and the pics in the book alone are priceless. Hiking with bell-bottom jeans and James carrying his bamboo stick. I love that stuff. Have fun with the recipes, you're braver than me. :-)

Jim Adams
02-18-2008, 09:48
JQ,
watch ebay...I started collecting old books about backpacking last fall...some of the info is incredible. was reading a book from the early '60s that was talking about how long you could survive "out there" with a trimmed down light 50lb. pack!

geek

Hikes in Rain
02-18-2008, 10:11
I haunt eBay all time. Must have a dozen saved searches going there. I'm astonished that others have what I always considered an odd hobby, collecting those old outdoor guides and manuals. I'm also dismayed that the others I didn't know were out there aren't as godawful cheap, er, thrifty as I. Constantly outbid.

Also love to try the old recipies, usually when car camping, though. Hard to hump a dutch oven and cast iron skillet very far.

johnny quest
02-18-2008, 10:12
im not trying to hijack the thread away from odd cooking recipes from the past...but dont you just love the old books??? here is the one i was talking about. oldfivetango, the authors were leonard miracle and maurice decker.

johnny quest
02-18-2008, 10:20
Also love to try the old recipies, usually when car camping, though. Hard to hump a dutch oven and cast iron skillet very far.

you know, i used to think a cast iron skillet was way too heavy...but im starting to disagree with that statement. so many things can be done with them....so many more types of cooking than the water-boiling variety.
there is a cute little 6 or 8 inch frypan in the garage that my cat peewee eats out of. i believe i dug it up in the back yard once. im thinking of reclaiming it. no, not for thruhiking, but for a week trip, why not?

mweinstone
02-18-2008, 10:55
how and where we live, an open door to geography was a school book from 1924

the campers own book, log cabin press 1913

james ramsy ullman's the sands of karakorum.1953 first edition!

annapurna by maurice herzog 1953 was 40cents in booktrader!

rear admiral byrd and the polar expeditions first edition 1930!

now im gonna show you my good stuff next!

mweinstone
02-18-2008, 11:05
ruth dyer mendenhall wrote this beauty called backpack cookery . she raised two daughters out of backpacks. her ideas are wonderful.

Wonder
02-18-2008, 11:13
Matty gave me this great AT book published in 1972 from National Geographic.....it's great!
I also got this one off of Ebay call "Living with the Earth" and that has some strange instructions for backpacking

mweinstone
02-18-2008, 11:41
my wonder refers to the book by benten mckee . and its the edition made for congress. the original plan . if thats the one you mean. hey wonder? guess who slept ove and baked compulsive obsessive amounts of baked goods and then made chalk from eggshels? thats right. the new face of the philly hikers. me stonewall and laces!and marco the beagle.need proof? hold.......


lang and dam say thanks for the treats laces and stonewall.

oldfivetango
02-18-2008, 14:00
George L Herter was WAY ahead of his time when I was a kid in the
late 60's and early 70's.He wrote his own ad copy for his catalogs and also
did some camp cooking books.I happen to still have my copy of his 1971
catalog-not for sale.He wrote a guidbook which I hope I still have along with
the cookbook.Made for interesting reading.
I am wondering if anyone else remembers him-what a guy!
Oldfivetango

johnny quest
02-18-2008, 15:27
i will have to look this guy up. and i will check my other old books. i have one about how to fix and repair outdoor equipment that is great...

View
02-19-2008, 12:49
Quote "http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/images/icons/icon1.gif anyone else do this?"

Do this.... everybody does this

Its good to be the king!



i haunt used book stores and buy any old camping/hiking book. some of the gear is outdated to be amusing but theres lots of neat stuff in there. for instance, anybody know what a tumpline is? anyway, i was trying some recipes from a 1961 camping book this morning. boilded kettle bread didnt work for me but hudson bay toast was pretty interesting. anyone have any old but good recipes for camp cooking?

WalkinHome
02-19-2008, 15:13
i haunt used book stores and buy any old camping/hiking book. some of the gear is outdated to be amusing but theres lots of neat stuff in there. for instance, anybody know what a tumpline is? anyway, i was trying some recipes from a 1961 camping book this morning. boilded kettle bread didnt work for me but hudson bay toast was pretty interesting. anyone have any old but good recipes for camp cooking?

Hey J Q ifn you run across a first edition 1934 Maine Appalachian Guidebook give me a shout - they are scarce and pricey. I have all the others. Thanks

BR360
02-19-2008, 18:17
Yea, I collect old camping books. I still use them, too.

I'd love to find an original copy of Horace Kephart's "Camping and Woodcraft." (See first photo). He was the original outdoor sportsman writer of the Smokies, published broadly for his woodsman expertise. Mt. Kephart, on which the Icewater Springs Shelter rests on its eastern slope, is named for him.

But back to cooking. The "Simple Foods for the Pack" book is an old friend, as it was published in 1976, and i have been using it ever since. I like these crackers, and sometimes bake them for use at home.
Thumbnails are clickable.
3386

rat44
02-19-2008, 21:37
Oldfivetango,

I remember George Herter! I bought a ton of stuff from the Herter's catalog when I was much younger!

We're showing our age, but good memories for sure!