  Family Camping Trip
Part One
One evening after dinner, Greg Zimmer was reading a magazine. “Look at these pictures of the Cascade Mountains,” he said. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
“They sure are,” answered Mr. Zimmer. “I’ve always wanted to go there. It’d be a wonderful place to camp.”
“Why don’t we go camping there this summer?” Mrs. Zimmer asked. “You don’t have to teach school then, George. The children don’t have school then either. And I can take a vacation from my job any time during the summer.”
“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed Mr. Zimmer. “We haven’t been camping in a long time, and we’ve never visited that part of the country.”
“Let me read what it says in this magazine,” Greg said. “It says, ‘Mount Baker National Forest is in the Cascade Mountains. Every year thousands of campers enjoy its wild beauty. It’s a favorite place for campers because there are few roads. Campers have to leave their cars behind and walk into the woods, carrying everything they need in backpacks.’”
“That sounds hard, doesn’t it?” Mrs. Zimmer asked. “We’ve never gone backpacking before. We’ve always camped near the car.”
“I think that we can do it if we plan carefully,” Mr. Zimmer said. “We can all carry our own equipment if we buy some big backpacks. And we can plan to stay in the woods for only two or three days at a time. Then we can go back to the car.”
“It still sounds hard to me,” Greg said. “What would we have to carry?”
“Each person would have to carry a sleeping bag and some clothes,” Mr. Zimmer said.
“We’d each need dishes, silverware, and a flashlight, too,” Mrs. Zimmer added.
“We’d need a lot more than that,” Greg said. “Who’d carry the tents and the stove and the food?”
“We’d all have to help carry those things,” Mr. Zimmer answered. “Let’s look in our catalogue of camping equipment and see what we’d have to buy.”
Mrs. Zimmer got the catalogue. “Here are some backpacks,” she said. “We’d need big ones like these.”
“Luckily we can use our old tents and sleeping bags,” Mr. Zimmer said. “But we’d have to buy a new camping stove. Our old one is too heavy to carry.”
“Are there any stoves in that catalogue, Mom?” Greg asked.
“Yes, here’s a good one,” Mrs. Zimmer answered. “It has a stove, two cooking pots, and a frying pan packed in a kit. The whole kit weighs less than three pounds.”
“Three pounds!” exclaimed Greg. “That’s not very much. How much does the other equipment weigh?”
“Our sleeping bags each weigh five pounds,” Mr. Zimmer explained. “A tent and tent poles weigh about three pounds. And don’t forget that you’d have to carry your clothes.”
“We’d have to carry a lot of other things, too,” Mrs. Zimmer said. “We’d need gas for the stove, a first-aid kit, little things like matches, soap, and a needle and thread, and enough food for all of us for two or three days. And we might have to carry our drinking water.”
“Wow! That sounds like a lot!” Greg exclaimed. “Enough food and water for all of us would be heavy. How much can one person carry?”
“It says in this catalogue that an adult can carry about 25 pounds and a child of twelve can carry about 25 pounds,” Mrs. Zimmer said. “It also says that there are special kinds of food for campers. The packages don’t weigh very much.”
“I think that we can carry everything if we all help,” Mr. Zimmer said. “I’ve been reading this magazine of Greg’s. It says that August is a good time to go to the Cascades. Sometimes it snows high in the mountains in the spring and autumn. We don’t want to go camping in a snowstorm, so let’s plan to go in August.”
“That’s great!” Greg said. “I can’t wait to tell Barb and Jenny. They’ll really be excited. Both of them love to go camping.”
Mrs. Zimmer was still reading the catalogue. “Look,” she said. “Here are special backpacks for dogs.”
“Can we get one for Spot?” Greg asked.
“Sure,” said Mrs. Zimmer. “Then we can take him along and he can carry his own food. It’ll be fun for him. He likes to run around in the woods.”
“Let’s order the backpacks and the stove now,” said Mr. Zimmer. “We’ll want to practice carrying them before we go camping.”
“Backpacking will be fun,” said Mrs. Zimmer. “And it won’t be very expensive, because we won’t have to pay for hotel rooms. I’m glad we thought of it.”
Have you ever used any of this equipment? Which things did you use? What did you use them for?
Discussion Questions
1. Where does the family get the idea for a camping trip?
2. Who thinks it won’t be so hard to camp and why?
3. What old camping equipment can they use for the trip?
4. Why can’t they use some of their old equipment?
5. What does each person need to carry for themselves?
6. What else needs to be carried for everyone’s use?
7. What kind of food should the family take?
8. Why is it best to go to the Cascades in August?
9. Can the family dog come, too? What are they going to get for him?
10. What does the Zimmer family expect of their camping trip?
Thinking Skills:
11. What do you think the greatest danger would be in the woods in August: forest fire or heavy rains/flooding? Why?
12. What are the best and worst things about going camping in the mountains or woods?
13. Have you ever been camping? Did you go with your family? Did you enjoy it: why or why not?
14. What is the difference between an organized summer camp and camping? Which do you prefer?
Part Two.
Prescriptions
Mrs. Zimmer: Come on, girls. We have to get everything that we need at the drugstore today. Remember that we’re leaving on Wednesday.
Jenny: What do we need to get here?
Barb: I have the list. We have to get things for our first-aid kit. We need some bandages.
Mrs. Zimmer: The bandages are right here. What else is on the list?
Barb: We need medicine to put on cuts and scratches. And we need medicine to take if we get sick.
Mrs. Zimmer: Okay. I have those. What else?
Barb: A snakebite kit.
Jenny: Snakebite! You didn’t tell me there’d be snakes.
Mrs. Zimmer: We probably won’t see any snakes. But we should take the kit with us anyway.
Jenny: I sure hope I don’t see any snakes!
Barb: Oh, don’t be silly, Jenny. Most snakes can’t hurt you. Besides, I think that some of them are pretty, don’t you, Mom?
Mrs. Zimmer: Don’t worry about snakes now. Let’s get the rest of the things on the list.
Barb: The next thing is skin cream.
Jenny: Here’s some.
Mrs. Zimmer: We can’t take that, Jenny. It’s in a glass bottle. It’s heavy, and it might break. This kind in a plastic bottle is better. It doesn’t weigh much, and it won’t break.
Barb: There’s one more thing on the list – toothbrushes.
Jenny: Let’s buy an electric toothbrush to take along, Mom.
Mrs. Zimmer: We can’t do that, Jenny. They’re too expensive. Besides, you know we can’t run anything electric in the woods.
Jenny: Oh, Mom. I know that. I was only joking. The toothbrushes are over there. I’ll get some.
Mrs. Zimmer: Fine. Then we can pay for these things and go home.
Discussion Questions
1. Why are Mrs. Zimmer and the girls in the drugstore?
2. What do they decide to put in their first-aid kit?
3. Are they expecting to be bitten by snakes in the mountains?
4. Is Barb afraid of snakes?
5. If they buy the skin cream in a glass bottle, how can they make it lighter to carry?
6. What kind of joke does Jenny make?
7. What else would you buy in a drugstore to take and why? Insect repellant? Sun cream? Burn ointment? Other?
8. What kinds of accidents can happen when you are camping?
Part Three.
Crossword Puzzle
Across:
1. a bag to carry camping equipment
4. a storm with a lot of snow
8. some; a few
9. a light small enough to carry
11. act or perform
13. covered with grass
15. a number less than two
16. have to pay
18. at any time
19. a pole used to row a boat
21. a large creek
22. something bad that happens
23. a color
25. be
27. in; on; by; near
30. in all places
31. move away or along
32. in front; before
34. finished
36. I; myself
37. take; pick up and keep
39. each
40. take a long walk
41. not beautiful
Down:
1. next to
2. a large hole in the ground
3. chunks of snow falling down a mountain
5. close to; by
6. knives, forks, and spoons
7. a parent
9. cook in a frying pan
10. a covering for the hand
12. above
13. finish and leave school
14. all at once; quickly
15. one of two things; either
17. you and I
19. no more; just
20. same as 27 across
24. a large piece
26. more than one man
27. how old someone is
28. this day; now
29. to live outdoors
33. that man or boy
35. an animal that barks
37. same as 33 down
38. same as 15 down
Word Bank
Submitted by Erin Bouma
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