When I was a little girl, we used to go on fishing trips on the weekend when Daddy didn't have to be on call with Northern Lights.
The Baileys lived next door to us, and  "Grandpa Bailey" always went on the fishing trips with us. The two families had lived across from each other in Paradise Valley, gone through the Great Depression together, and they were just like family to us.

My mom would fry chicken, make a huge bowl of potato salad, and then we packed whatever else she wanted along for meals.
There was always a large can of pork and beans; which we always called "Fishin'Beans", since that was the only time we ever usually ate them.
Sleeping bags, air mattresses, and my mom's hammack all went in the back of the car somewhere.
She would pack little plastic toy sets (boats, cars, etc) for me to play with at the water's edge, and often my swimming suit if she felt it was safe enough for me to actually be IN the water.

Grandpa Bailey had an old wooden rowboat, and it  pretty much spent the summer months strapped to the top of his car, a 51 Ford.  Our car was a 1953 Buick Special; so neither car was especially suited for off-road travel to the lakes where we went fishing.

Brush Lake (north of Bonners Ferry), and Solomon Lake were two of their favorite spots, but we also went other places sometimes.
 The roads getting back into the lake were not much more than two dirt tracks in the grass back then; and if you made a wrong turn or missed the right road, you just had to keep on going until you got to the end.

One such trip, we missed the turn for the lake (Solomon, I think), and hours later finally ended up at the lookout up on top of the mountain. No one wanted to drive back down that road in the dark, so we made a hasty camp, and spent the night there.
 After having a big black bear nosing around camp the next morning, we didn't waste any time packing up and once again heading down to the lake.

Mom always slept in her sleeping bag in her hammock, but the rest of us were on the ground on the airmattresses. I well remember waking Mom up at nite because some critter (packrat?) went scurrying across my legs and feet.
 I KNEW it was actually a bear, about to eat me up; but she would assure me that she could see my sleeping bag , and there were no bears on it !  (I still slept with my head buried into the sleeping bag).

When we had caught some fish, Mom would cook those for us to eat. Pancakes and fresh trout (cooked over a campfire) is to this day, one of my most favorite breakfast memories ! !

Great story!! It reminds me of camping with my family when I was young.  We would go on weekend camping trips and my dad, brother, and I would fish.  Once I caught a Dolly Varden, and made my parents laugh in hysterics when I announced that I had caught a "Dolly Parton" (my favorite singer when I was little).  We would ride motorcycles, and would sometimes run into bears and mountain lions during our adventures.  It is funny how you sometimes don't appreciate special trips like that until you are much older.

Rosy, that sounds like you had a lot of fun camping with your family, just like I did ! It is too bad that so many families get to experience that kind of "family event" anymore. It seems like the kids are busy on their playstations, and playing computerized games, and the adults are often working long hours, and just don't have the time for these things, like we used to do.
You must have been up in the mountains if there were both bear and cougar. Was that in Western Washington somewhere, or did you  live elsewhere growing up?
I remember seeing bear when I lived near Mossyrock, but I don't think I ever saw cougar there. The bear actually would come right up in the back yard and play on a slash pile left there from some earlier logging on the property.
They were actually pretty noisy. We thought it was the kids out there playing and making noise at first, and since it was at night (the kids had a loft bedroom over the garage, they were teens), my husband shined the flashlight out to see that in the world they were doing out there.
Much to our surprise; it was two partially grown bear cubs out there happily playing and growling at each other.

It is a great store. Always nice to reminisce about family and memories. I love to camp and have really fond memories of camping with my family. I can't wait to take my children camping and carry on some of the amazing traditions we had