“One of the pleasantest times of camping out is the period immediately after supper, when the hunters lie in the blaze of the firelight, talking over what they have done during the day and making their plans for the morrow. And how soundly a man who has worked hard sleeps in the open, none but he who has tried it knows.”

– Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman

Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorite people in history. I’ve been reading “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman”, and it’s a wonderful, easy read considering it is 100+ years old. I read stuff like this, about his camping in the plains, and feel like I would’ve got along with him just fine.

Another excerpt: 

“Generally we have no tent, and the wagon-cover is spread over all to keep out rain. Meanwhile some one gathers the wood and starts a fire. The coffee-pot is set among the coals, and the frying-pan with bacon and whatever game has been shot is placed on top. Like Eastern backwoodsmen, all plainsmen fry about everything they can get hold of to cook; for my own use I always have a broiler carried along in the wagon. One evening in every three or four is employed in baking bread in the Dutch oven; if there is no time for this, biscuits are made in the frying-pan. The food carried along is very simple, consisting of bacon, flour, coffee, sugar, baking-powder, and salt; for all else we depend on our guns.”

Theodore Roosevelt, “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman”