There are two things about Grandpa that I know I’ve
inherited:
1.) His love of books, words, and writing.
2.) His sense of adventure.
Playing Upwords with him and his MASSIVE antique dictionary
and hearing his camp stories and backpacking tales have always been my best
memories with him. Despite hearing some of Grandpa’s stories countless times,
they never managed to get old.
A favorite of his was how he became the “mean dean” at Camp
Gilead; he overheard a couple of the girls plotting how they were going to
sneak out of their cabin one night. After a day of Western Washington rain, he
waited in the dark for them to come around; when they did, he shined his
flashlight straight at them and demanded to know what they were doing. The
girls were incredibly startled and promptly fell into the mud amid their fright.
As soon as they picked themselves up, they went zooming back into their cabins
and crawled into their sleeping bags, mud and all!
After learning that I have future plans of backpacking, he
also had a few tips and experiences to share on that topic, my favorite of
which came from his first trip out when he was in his late 20’s. He and a
friend of his planned the whole thing: from trails, to gear, to food. The
problem was that neither of them were particularly experienced cooks. They went
to the store and decided to purchase pancake mix to use for their breakfasts –
one bag per man per meal seemed sufficient. It was not until after their first
breakfast that they realized a single bag between the two of them would have
more than covered it for the entire trip! They endured a good number of miles
with an unnecessary 20lbs of pancake flour before finally finding an empty
cabin on top of a mountain where they could stash it all for future campers. “You
will never need more than one bag of pancake flour.”, he emphasized, then
finished off his advice with, “And never ever leave your boots right next to
the fire to dry. I melted the soles right off of mine!”
I look forward to continuing your outdoor legacy, Grandpa!
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Please feel free to add memories in the comment sections. I am moderating all comments and will copy and paste them into a new post so they don't get lost in the comments sections.
If you remember any quaint sayings my Dad used to say, please send them to me. I would like to make a post of his funny sayings.