The Camp Kitchen

Just the other day I was visiting the office and store of a local river outfitter.  Freight was delivered as I arrived and I stuck around to see what the boxes might contain. I’m a real sucker for outdoor gear and watched the unpacking and listened to the ‘ooh’s’ and ‘aah’s’ and ‘isn’t that slick’ remarks as each new item was taken from its wrapping or box, priced and put on display.

Let’s see now there was an ultra-light stove packed in its own ditty bag, a collection of ultra-light tent pegs, a flare launcher the size of a pen, bear bells, see-through map cases, water proof boxes of all sizes and shapes, ultra-light graphite paddles, water filter systems, books, aluminum brightly-colored cook sets, tin cups and a whole lot of other trinkets designed for the “in” user.

The stove had no windscreen, the tent pegs were terribly woosy but looked slick, the flare launcher - well, there has been a time or two that I could have used one. The bear bell, what can I say! Waterproof boxes - I suppose all our fancy electronics have to be protected along the way.  I could go on and on but criticizing is easily done.

The colorful aluminum cooking pots really did not seem big enough for a decent meal and brought to mind some of our unforgettable trips of years gone by. On many a trip a cast iron Dutch oven complete with inverted lid and legs made up at least half the weight of my kitchen bag.  I wouldn’t leave home without it.  The pot, and old Findlay, was kept carefully seasoned and packed in its own protective sack.

We baked biscuits, cooked a casserole, did a stew in the pot and fried bacon & eggs on the inverted lid. I can recall burying the oven in the remains of the morning campfire before going out fishing for the day. When coming back to camp in the early evening, out came the oven with a pot roast dinner and all the trimmings, cooked to perfection!

“Why don’t you just bring an anchor” or “You’re a dinosaur”, are some of the favored comments I now get as I suggest bringing it along.

Preparation for a trip now seems to entail the latest of trendy clothing and gear, the alloy pots, the weightless stove, the packaged and previously prepared meals and the latest design in tents and sleeping mats. We don’t have the time to sit and watch nature happen around us and are constantly on the move. Electronics are a must.  A PLB, a sat phone, a cell phone, a GPS and god forbid a DVD or CD player are all part of the scene.

I’m the guy that inadvertently knocks the player off the log into the ashes of last night’s campfire - “Oh, sorry, don’t have my glasses on” routine. I have a bad case of indigestion when I finally get one of the new tents assembled and when I finally crawl in, I’m amazed at the lack of room in a four-person tent and maybe I should have gone for the family size.

I am a dinosaur I guess.