Camping out

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V WE DISCOVER THE ADIRONDACK^ It is a curious fact that the Old Forge-Saranac trip, well known and ancient as it is, has not been written of in the outdoor press in years. Many a time have I pored over it in maps, but the sight of a well-defined steamboat route running the whole length of the Fulton Chain and through all the principal lakes of the trip, made me pass it up whenever a canoe trip through the famous old route was proposed. I pictured a chain of Lake Hopatcongs, with a summer cottage on every available point, and nowhere where your honest vagabond camper could lay his head without having the owner's dogs set on him. It just couldn't be uncivilised enough and yet have all those steamboat lines in evidence, for steamers mean people to ride in them, and that argues a crowded lake. As a matter of fact, the country is too big to be mindful of a puffy launch or two masquerading as a steamboat line, and, as we came to learn later, those boats looked like lone ants crawling over the bosom of the waters when seen from the surrounding mountain tops. So we decided to try it, and the party was soon made up; Joan of Arc the Second in the bow of the canoe, Ye Olde Scoutte at stern paddle and the Doctor amidships. There was a thousand-to-one chance of our picking up Nicky somewhere in the Adirondacks a week later, and about the same time the Doc's brother, Professor Andrews, and Arthur Loesser, the famous pianist, were to join us at the Saranac end of the trip. The route lay about 120 canoe miles in a general northeasterly direction across the Adirondacks, with sixteen lakes, two rivers, and some»thirteen miles of portages making up its tortuous length. Once at Saranac you could blossom out in a dozen directions and do a dozen delightful things. To pro...