Camping and Woodcraft Quotes

“A camper should know for himself how to outfit, how to select and make a camp, how to wield an axe and make proper fires, how to cook, wash, mend, how to travel without losing his course, or what to do when he has lost it; how to trail, hunt, shoot, fish, dress game, manage boat or canoe, and how to extemporize such makeshifts as may be needed in wilderness faring. And he should know these things as he does the way to his mouth. Then is he truly a woodsman, sure to do promptly the right thing at the right time, whatever befalls. Such a man has an honest pride in his own resourcefulness, a sense of reserve force, a doughty self-reliance that is good to feel. His is the confidence of the lone sailorman, who whistles as he puts his tiny bark out to sea.”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness

“You may loan your last dollar to a friend; but never loan him your axe, unless you are certain that he knows how to use it.”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness

“The following recipe is from Abercrombie & Fitch s catalogue:   “Skin and clean carefully four muskrats, being particular not to rupture musk or gall sac.”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness

“The bite of a mad dog, wolf, skunk, or other animal subject to rabies, requires instant and heroic treatment. Immediately twist a tourniquet very tight above the wound, and then cut out the whole wound with a knife, or cauterize it to the bottom with a hot iron; then drink enough whiskey to counteract the shock.*”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness

“SUMMER twilight brings the mosquito. In fact, when we go far north or far south, we have him with us both by day and night. Rather I should say that we have her; for the male mosquito is a gentleman, who sips daintily of nectar and minds his own business, while madame his spouse is a whining, peevish, venomous virago, that goes about seeking whose nerves she may unstring and whose blood she may devour. Strange to say, not among mosquitoes only, but among ticks, fleas, chiggers, and the whole legion of bloodthirsty, stinging flies and midges, it is only the female that attacks man and beast. Stranger still, the mosquito is not only a bloodsucker but an incorrigible winebibber as well—~she will get helplessly fuddled on any sweet wine, such as port, or on sugared spirits, while of gin she is inordinately fond.”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness

“The scrotum of a buck, tanned with the hair on, makes a good tobacco-pouch.”
― Horace Kephart, The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness