340 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1921 
ing been decided that while waiting 
for the boat to be finished we should 
take a few side trips to lakes within 
close range of Minneapolis, carrying 
our tent, etc., in our packsacks, we laid 
our plans accordingly. 
The bass season did not open until 
the fifteenth of June, so we had at 
least two weeks in which to get ac- 
quainted and incidentally to get our 
camp plans 
straigh t e n e d 
out. As I have 
stated, we had 
pack - sacks. 
These were of 
the familiar Du- 
luth style. In 
the Northwest 
these pack-sacks 
are well known; 
in fact as well 
known in this 
region as the 
Adi r o n d a c k 
pack-basket i s 
in New York 
State. 
One can carry 
(big loads by 
means of these, 
the average 
pack weight be- 
ing forty to fifty 
pounds. They 
have straps that 
go over either 
shoulder with a 
flap on the top 
that is buckled 
down by means 
of straps con- 
nected to it. 
A cooking out- 
fit of the “nest- 
ing” type being necessary, we finally 
decided upon one known as the Dread- 
naught, for which we paid seven dol- 
lars and a half. This contained two 
tin kettles, one fitting inside of the 
other. Three tin plates, and four 
cups were included with it, besides 
two knives and forks, two small spoons 
and two large mixing spoons. There 
was also a frying pan with a detach- 
able handle holder. This handle holder 
was screwed onto the pan and a wooden 
handle tapped into it whenever it was 
needed. 
B ESIDES the frying pan there was a 
coffee pot which nestled inside of the 
upper kettle; the cups went inside 
of the kettle and the spoons and knives 
beside it and so were all the chinks 
filled up ; with the frying pan and 
tin plates on top covering all. These 
were placed inside of a special bag 
with a draw cord at the top, with 
which it was kept secure. 
We purchased a small grate of the 
folding sort a foot in length which we 
used at the beginning of the trip, but 
when we finally got the boat and could 
carry more, we located a grate on a 
scrap-pile that was one of the best 
I have ever used. It may originally 
have been the grating for a cellar 
window that once served to keep out 
souls preying bent; but as a grate it 
served a purpose that the maker prob- 
ably had never conceived of. Natur- 
ally it had no legs like the purchased 
grate. By building up a fire-place of 
rocks, entrance to the front, this grate 
could be laid down on top to receive 
coffee pot, kettle and frying pan. 
Our tent was of the shelter type, 
known as the Grace Convertible; a 
tent that I have used for a number of 
years, both in the West and in the 
North. When pitched it is circular at 
the bottom and stands five and one-half 
feet in height from the ground to the 
ridge, and will sleep two persons very 
nicely. It may be set up with an 
inside pole or by a rope from the ridge 
by which it is connected to the limb 
of a tree. Without the inside pole there 
is of course more freedom with more 
of an opportunity to move around, al- 
though it is generally far better to 
have the tent more or less in the 
open away from large trees. Thus 
the only means of putting it up in the 
open is with the inside pole, or with 
shear poles — shear poles, in my esti- 
mation being not nearly so good as the 
central inside upright pole. The Grace 
tent is of excellently woven material, 
and, while it was at one time water- 
proof, it has stood a great deal of 
service in many climates. 
Several hard rains made is neces- 
sary for us to waterproof the lower 
portions of it, which we did by melt- 
ing parowax and pouring it into gaso- 
line; the mixture when used being two 
parts of gasoline to one part of melted 
wax. This was brushed' on and nat- 
urally made the tent thereafter im- 
pervious to the drip, drip of the rain. 
The tent was about as mosquito proof 
as a shelter tent can be. The flap in 
front had a bobbinet of a special grade 
in it, and this netting was long enough 
and wide enough to allow of sufficient 
air entering the tent, so that it was 
not too stifling. 
O UR first camp, on the 28th of May, 
overlooked the world -> famous 
Minnehaha Creek in the land of 
Hiawatha six miles from the historic 
Falls of Minne- 
haha, made 
prominent b y 
L o n g f ellow’s 
poem. Our tent 
stood on historic 
ground, for here 
in the long ago 
the antagonistic 
Indian tribes 
had contended; 
and here, too, 
within a short 
distance of our 
tent, the white 
settlers in this 
region had 
fought a pitched 
battle with the 
Redmen. 
The Minneha- 
ha Creek in the 
early days was 
called Little 
River ; in the 
present day it is 
but a ghost of 
its old-time self. 
Nevertheless, in 
the spring and 
often into the 
summer it will 
be at a more or 
less high stage 
when it can be 
gone down or up by canoe. Fish are 
taken here and there along its twenty 
miles of length before it plunges over 
a rocky ledgfe fo ming the Falls. Then 
shooting down a sharp incline it finally 
hits a level, broadens out and joins with 
the lordly Father of Waters. The Min- 
nehaha Creek has its source in the Min- 
netonka Lake. In the year 1822 it was 
explored from its mouth to its source 
by a man who made the trip in a 
canoe and later wrote an interesting 
account of his findings. 
Upon breaking camp at the Creek 
we hiked out to Bush Lake, not far 
from the Minnesota River. Bush 
Lake is a gem among the “eyes of the 
earth,” as Thoreau calls them, and 
pitching our camp upon its north shore 
we spent some delightful days there 
with always fish enough; particularly 
some large sun-fishes for which the 
Minnesota lakes are so well known. 
Bush Lake is well surrounded’ by 
woods running down to its very shore- 
line, and in the autumn, when the 
rich colors of the foliage are brought 
out, it presents a scene that one can 
never forget. 
From Bush Lake we hiked to the 
Nine Mile Creek, which we fished for 
trout. It contained both. German 
brown trout and rainbows and they 
furnished many a thrill. 
On a Minnesota Stream 
