The Fabulous Forager

Recently, Jason and I were wandering through REI looking for a birthday gift for Mike when we stumbled upon a book called Let’s Get Primitive: The Urban Girl’s Guide to Camping by Heather Menicucci. It looked to be a clever, irreverent guide to back-country camping designed for women not so used to the outdoors. I thought it might be perfect for me (my camping excursions have up until now remained solidly in the front-country, and I have yet to go camping without some sort of Port-A-Potty somewhere nearby), but I was suspicious. Mainly because some months ago, Jason and I got really excited about this other book that promised to be a clever, irreverent guide to Dungeons & Dragons designed for women not so used to role-playing, but ended up being a condescending parade of stereotypes. With that in my recent memory, I flipped through Let’s Get Primitive suspiciously, looking for any reference to cosmos, Manolos, or mani-pedis. I couldn’t find any and liked what I did see, so I bought it. And I’m glad I did.

Let’s Get Primitive is chock-full of useful information for the beginning camper. I’m always woefully unprepared for just about everything (though I like to think I’m getting better), so I can already tell that I’ll keep coming back to Menicucci’s detailed lists of what to bring, what not to bring, and how to pack effectively. She tells you how to set up your camp, make a tarp lean-to, hang your food and trash from tree branches, and (oh horror of horrors) dig a cat hole. Although if you’re like me and the thought of squatting over that cat hole fills you with terror, you can continue your research (a.k.a. procrastination) with the full-length book, How to Shit in the Woods.

She also provides some of her favorite back-country recipes (she may love cheese as much as I do — maybe even more, if that’s possible). And as little experience as I have venturing outside established campsites, I must say, her advice on the perfect back-to-civilization shower is absolutely spot-on. Let’s Get Primitive is filled with amusing anecdotes that last just long enough, and its tone is humorous without becoming cloying or overshadowing the good advice. There’s just enough of everything in this book, making it fun to sit down and read through but also useful to use as a reference while camping. I’d definitely recommend it to n00bs as pathetic as myself. Heck, I might even recommend it to people less pathetic than myself. If you have fifteen dollars you can’t stand to look at anymore, buying this book is an excellent excuse to get rid of them.