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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> Woodcraft and Camping
> By Nessmuk

Nessmuk was the pen name for George Sea and is a fascinating person. He was
a very small person at just over 5 feet and 100 pounds and often in poor
health.  He died in 1890 at 69.  He was an adventurer hunting and camping
all over the east and later writing for Forest and Stream as Nessmuk.  He
pushed ultra light camping at a time when camping gear was a gun, knife,
wool blankets, canvas tents and cast iron cooking pots.  His ultra light
canoe Sairy Gamp was built by Ruxton and was a marvel of ultra light
construction before fiberglass.

Thirty years later little had changed, read W.O. Douglas' book on his
camping trips in the Washington Cascades during the twenties.  His pack was
a cast iron pot full of beans rolled up in a wool blanket and canvas sheet
slung over the shoulder and a hatchet on the belt.

I find Nessmuk's writings great reading.  There was a recent book about a
woman who retraced some of Sears journey in her own lightweight canoe,
Fairly Damp.

> Roy
> Who bought an unused Army surplus pick-axe head, and needs a handle.

I bought a post maul head at an auction this last summer.  At an antique
tractor show last weekend I saw a man selling handles and bought what what I
hope is a handle that fits.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html