Allen Bernstein’s Overnight Hike for First Class,
April 21/22, 1956

 

Dad and I walked to Bernstein’s house.  After he put on his pack, we went to Mountain Lake the long way:  Up Pine Street, past the swimming pool at Lake Lincoln, down over the bank to the bridge, across the ?????? up the stone steps across the road over the stone path to the Laurel Line railroad bed.  We went to the right and past the spring and angled up the bank to the Erie Railroad bed past the washout where they cut out a lot of the rails and took up some of the railroad ties.  Then we walked down to East Mountain Road and stopped at the store for an ice cream cone and to rest our backs a bit before our climb. 

 

We hiked up the path in back of the beauty parlor then on to the back of Waldorf Park (We climbed) and we could see the barred gate at the end of the tunnel through the mountain that the water pipe comes through.  We camped out at Mountain Lake near the house that sits by the little coal cave.  We climbed the hill near the little square concrete block building and dropped down into a depression because of the wind and we had to build a fire.  I made a bed using the cover of my Dad’s Army sleeping bag.  I filled it with leaves.  Then I put up the pup tent and made a coat hanger on a hemlock tree.  Allen made the fire.  He and I went to a house for water and potatoes.  While we were gone, Dad ditched the tent.  Allen used my air mattress and half of the pup tent. 
I slept in my sleeping bag on top of the leaf mattress that I made.  Dad slept outside under the stars.  He fixed the canopy of his sleeping bag so it would shelter his head. 

 

About 9:00 O’clock, a bunch of Hy-Y’s came dashing through our camp site.  They were having an initiation of some sort.  Some of them had paper bags over their heads.  One of them remembered my brother Jack when he was the Nature Boy at Goose Pond summer camp.
We made a trench fire and built the sides up with stone to block the wind.  Allen had quite a job getting all of the leaves swept away from the fire site.  For supper, I made jello first, hamburger, fried sliced potatoes, hot cocoa and biscuits.  Dad brought along a heavy aluminum omelet pan and used it as a Dutch oven.  I used Bisquick.  It was my first try and I think it came out pretty good.   I also had a can of beans and I roasted an apple.  Just as I was going to eat the apple, it fell off the stick so I scooped it out of the fire and ate the inside. 

 

It rained about ˝ an inch in our frying pan but none of us got wet.  We got up about 7:00 am.  There were enough coals in the ashes, in spite of the rain, to get the fire restarted using Dad’s inspirator so that we could ready breakfast.  (Dad had hidden some dry wood in a plastic bag to keep it dry.  While Bernstein took care of the fire and made his breakfast, Dad and I went birding.  I saw a nuthatch and a downey woodpecker.  We took a couple pictures of the camp. 

 

For breakfast, I had a roasted banana and part of something Dad made from a can of kidney beans, ˝ lb of hamburger, two eggs and three slices of bread.  He fried it in the frying pan and it was good and hot. 

 

We will call this the “Lost Hike.”  Bernstein lost his ring, I lost my axe, and Dad set his lantern down at the bridge and lost that too. I left for Sunday School at Temple Israel at about 8;30 am.  Dad came home at about 12:00.  Bernstein had to stay until the afternoon to make it 24 hours.  We all had a good time.  I finished the requirements for First Class Cooking and Camp Making.