THE USE OF DOGS. MAN PACKING
THERE is no good reason why every hiker should not be accompanied by
A HIKING DOG
For if there is anything a dog does love better than its own soul it
is to hike with its master, and every normal boy and girl, and every
normal man and woman, loves the company of a good dog. When they do not
love it the fault is not with the dog but with them; there is something
wrong with them that the outdoor world alone will cure.
But if a dog is going to enjoy the pleasure of a hike with you, if it
is a good square dog it should be willing to also share the hardships
of the hike with you, and to help carry the burdens on the trail. Any
sort of a dog can be trained as
A PACK DOG
But the sturdier and stronger the dog is, the greater burden he can
carry and the more useful he will be on the trail. The alforjas for a
dog, or saddle-bags, can be made by anyone who is handy with a needle
and thread. A dog pack consists primarily of two bags or pouches (Figs.
209 and 210), with a yoke piece attached to slide over the dog's head
and fit across the chest (Figs. 209, 210, 211 and 212). Also a cincha
to fasten around the waist or small part of the dog's body, back of its
ribs. The pouches (Fig. 210) should have a manta, or cover (Figs. 211,
213, and 214), to keep the rain, snow or dust out of the duffel. Simple
bags of strong light material on the pattern of Fig. 210 are best,
because the weight of anything unnecessary is to be avoided.
THE DOG HITCH
Is not as complicated an affair as the diamond hitch, and anyone who
knows how to do up an ordinary parcel can learn the dog hitch by one
glance at Figs. 213 and 214.
Slip the breast band over the dog's head, put the saddle-bags well
forward on the dog's shoulders, tie the cinch around its waist, after
which spread the cover or manta over the bag, and throw the hitch as
shown by Figs. 211 and 214. Fig. 213 shows a bundle with a breast band
made of the lash rope, in which case the lash rope is usually made of
cloth like that in Fig. 211; the whole thing is simplicity itself and a
good dog can carry quite a load packed in this manner.
[Illustration: 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217]
A DOG TRAVOIS
Can also be used at times with advantage, as it was used by our red
brothers of the wilderness. Fig. 217 shows a dog harnessed to a
travois, made of two shaft poles; the harness consists of a padded
collar similar to those used in Northern Quebec for sled dogs, and a
cincha of leather or canvas and traces of rope or thong. Figs. 215
and 216 show a rig made by one of my Boy Scouts; the material used
was the green saplings cut in the woods, the traces were made of rope
manufactured from the roots of the tamarack tree, so also was the cord
used to bind the parts of the frame together. The hooks to which the
traces were fastened were made of wire nails bent over, and the staples
to which the collar was fastened by thongs to the shaft were made of
wire nails, the heads of which were ground off by rubbing them on
stones; the nails were then bent into the proper curve and driven into
the shaft in the form of a staple. Fig. 216 shows the same rig with a
leather harness. The American Indian used the travois on dogs the
same as they did upon horses and the sudden appearance of game often
produced a stampede of dog travoises, scattering the duffel, including
papooses, loaded on the travois.
It is not expected that the reader will make every one of these
contrivances, but if he does he will learn How, and to be a good
woodsman he _should_ know how, so as to be prepared for any emergency.
It is possible to make the whole pack for the dog from birch bark, but
however it is made, if it serves the purpose of making the dog carry
part of the pack, when you put the bark on the dog's back, you will
teach the animal that there are two kinds of _barks_; one of which is
useful as a duffel bag, and the other as an alarm.
In Alaska and other parts of the far North, as well as in Holland and
other parts of Europe, the dog is generally used as a beast of burden;
it draws sleds in North America and milk carts and market wagons in
Holland, but it is not necessary for us to live in Holland or in the
far North in order to make use of the dog; a good dog will cheerfully
carry the packs on the trail, loyally guard the camp at night, and, if
necessary, die in defense of its master.
Any uncomfortable pack is an abomination; too heavy a pack is an
unhappy burden, no pack at all is fine--until you reach camp and hunt
around for something to answer for a toothbrush, comb and brush,
something on which to sit and sleep, something overhead to protect
you from the rains and dews of heaven, something to eat and something
to eat with besides your fingers, something from which to drink which
holds water better than the hollow of your hand or the brim of your
hat, and, in fact, all those necessary little comforts that a fellow
wants on an overnight hike. Without these useful articles one will wish
that he had subjected himself to the slight fatigue necessary to pack
a small pack on his back.
The word "pack" itself is a joy to the outdoor man, for it is only
outdoor men who use the word pack for carry, and who call a bundle
or load a pack. The reason for this is that the real wilderness man,
explorer, prospector, hunter, trapper or scout, packs all his duffel
into a bundle which he carries on his back, in two small saddle-bags
which are carried by his husky dogs, or a number of well-balanced
bundles which are lashed on the pack saddle with a diamond hitch over
the back of a pack horse.
You see we have pack dogs, pack horses and pack animals, pack saddles
and packers, as well as the packs themselves, which the packers pack
and these animals pack on their backs, or which the man himself packs
on his own back. Then we also have the pack rat, but the pack rat does
not carry things with our consent. The pack rat comes flippity-flop,
hopping over the ground from the old hermit, Bill Jones's, packing with
him Bill Jones's false teeth which he has abstracted from the tin cup
of water at the head of Bill Jones's bunk. The pack rat deposits the
teeth at the head of your cot, then deftly picking up your watch, the
rat packs it back to Bill Jones's cot and drops it in the tin cup of
water, where it soaks until morning.
It is easy to see that however funny the pack rat may be, and however
useful he might be to the Sunday comic paper, the rat's humor is not
appreciated by the campers in the Rocky Mountains, where it is called a
pack rat from its habit of carrying things. Thus it is that in a newly
settled country the word "carry" is almost forgotten; one "packs" a
letter to the post box, or packs a horse to water, or packs a box of
candy to his best girl, or a pail of water from the spring.
MAN PACKING
When you, my good reader, get the pack adjusted on your back and the
tump line across your forehead (Fig. 226), remember that you are
being initiated into the great fraternity of outdoor people. But no
matter how tough or rough you may appear to the casual observer, your
roughness is only apparent; a boy or man of refinement carries that
refinement inside of him wherever he goes; at the same time when one is
carrying a pack on one's back and a tump line on one's forehead (Fig.
226½), or a canoe on one's head, even though a lady should be met on
the trail it would not be necessary for one to take off one's hat, for
even a foolish society woman would not expect a man to doff the canoe
he might be carrying on his head. Under all circumstances use common
sense; that is the rule of the wilderness and also of real culture.
The most important thing that you must learn on the trail is not to
fret and fume over trifles, and even if your load is heavy and irksome,
even though the shoulder straps chafe and the tump line makes your neck
ache
DON'T FIGHT YOUR PACK
When we speak of "fighting the pack" we mean fighting the load; that
does not mean getting one's load up against a tree and punching it
with one's fists or "kicking the stuffings out of it," but it means
complaining and fretting because the load is uncomfortable.
There are two kinds of "packs"--the pack that you carry day after day
on a long hike, and the pack that you carry when on a canoe trip and
you are compelled to leave the water and carry your canoe and duffel
overland around some bad rapids or falls. The first-named pack should
be as light as possible, say between 30 and 40 pounds, for on a long
tramp every pound counts, because _you know that you must carry it_ as
long as you keep going, and there is no relief in sight except when you
stop for your meals or to camp at night. But the last-named pack, the
PORTAGE PACK,
Figs. 218 and 223, the kind that you carry around bad pieces of water,
may be as heavy as you can, with safety, load upon your sturdy back,
because your mind is buoyed up by the fact that _you know_ you will
not have to carry that load _very far_, the work will end when you
reach the water again, and--strange to say--the mind has as much to do
with carrying the load as the muscles. If the mind gives up you will
fall helpless even under a small load; if the mind is strong you will
stagger along under a very heavy one.
When I asked a friend, who bears the scars of the pack straps on his
body, how it was that he managed to endure the torture of such a load,
he replied with a grin that as soon as he found that to "fight his
pack" meant to perish--meant death!--he made up his mind to forget the
blamed thing and so when the pack wearied him and the straps rubbed
the skin off his body, he forced himself to think of the good dinners
he had had at the Camp-fire Club of America, yum! yum! Also, of all
the jolly stories told by the toastmaster, and of the fun he had had
at some other entertainments. Often while thinking of these things he
caught himself laughing out loud as he trudged along the lone trail,
FORGETTING the hateful pack on his back. "In this way," said he, with
a winning smile upon his manly and weather-beaten face, "I learned how
_not to fight_ the pack but to FORGET IT!" Then he braced himself up,
looked at the snow-capped mountain range ahead, hummed a little cowboy
song and trudged on over the frozen snow at a scout's pace.
[Illustration: 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 226½
DETAILS OF MAN PACKS]
Now that you know what a pack is, and what "fighting a pack" means,
remember that if one's studies at school are hard, that is one's pack.
If the work one is doing is hard, difficult or tiresome, that is one's
pack. If one's boss is cross and exacting, that is one's pack. If one's
parents are worried and forget themselves in their worry and speak
sharply, that is one's pack. Don't fight your pack; remember that you
are a woodcrafter; straighten your shoulders, put on your scout smile
and hit the trail like a man!
If you find that you are tempted to break the Scout Law, that you are
tempted at times to forget the Scout Oath, that because your camp mates
use language unfit for a woodcrafter or a scout, and you are tempted
to do the same, if your playmates play craps and smoke cigarettes, and
laugh at you because you refuse to do so, so that you are tempted to
join them, these temptations form your pack; don't give in and fall
under your load and whimper like a "sissy," or a "mollycoddle," but
straighten up, look the world straight in the eye, and hit the trail
like a man!
Some of us are carrying portage packs which we can dump off our
shoulders at the end of the "carry," some of us are carrying hiking
packs which we must carry through life and can never dump from our
shoulders until we cross the Grand Portage from which no voyagers ever
return. All our packs vary in weight, but none of them is easy to carry
if we fret and fume and complain under the load.
We outdoor folks call our load "pack," but our Sunday School teachers
sometimes speak of the pack they bear as a "cross." Be it so, but don't
fight your pack.
MEN WHO HAVE CARRIED THE PACK
The whole north country is sprinkled with the bones of the men who
fought their packs. Our own land is also sprinkled with men we call
"misfits" and failures, but who are really men who have fought their
packs. But every post of eminence in the United States is occupied by a
man who forgot his pack; this country was built by men who forgot their
packs. George Washington carried a portage pack in weight all through
his life, but it was a proud burden and he stood straight under it.
Good old Abe Lincoln had even a heavier pack to carry, but in spite of
the weight of it he always had a pleasant scout smile for everyone and
a merry story to send the visitor away smiling. If Daniel Boone and
Simon Kenton had fought their packs we would never have heard of them!
In the illustrations are shown many figures, and one should not forget
that these are sketches of real men in the real wilderness, and not
fancy pictures drawn from imagination. Figs. 230, 231 and 232 show many
different methods of carrying big game on one's shoulders or back. Fig.
232 also shows a couple of prospectors on the trail. One has the bag on
his back, held in place by shoulder straps; the other has a bag thrown
over his shoulder like a ragman.
The alpine rucksack will carry--or to speak more properly--with it one
can pack a camera, notebook, sketching material, lunch and all those
things which a fellow wants on an enjoyable hike. The alpine rucksack
is a many-gored poke about 18 inches wide and about 22 inches long
without the gores. These pokes can be made so that the gores fold in
and produce an ordinary-sized pack, or they may be pushed out like an
umbrella so as to make a bag in which one can carry a good-sized boy.
[Illustration: 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232D
MAN PACKING]
THE BROAD BAND
Fig. 232D shows the broad band used by the men of the far north. The
reader will note that the broad canvas bands come over the shoulders
from the top of the pack; also that a broad breast band connects the
shoulder bands, while rope, whang strings or thongs run through eyelets
in the band and to the bottom of the pack. This is said to be the most
comfortable pack used and has an interesting history; it was evolved
from an old pair of overalls. There was a Hebrew peddler who followed
the gold seekers and he took a pair of canvas overalls and put them
across his breast, and to the legs he fastened the pack upon his back.
The overalls being wide and broad did not cut his chest, as do smaller
straps, thongs or whang strings.
But breast straps of any kind are not now recommended by all
authorities. It is claimed that they interfere with the breathing and
a fellow "mouching" along the trail needs to have his chest free to
expand, for not only his speed but his endurance depends upon the free
action of his lungs.
THE TUMP
Figs. 226 and 226½ show the use of the celebrated tump strap. This tump
strap is used from Central America to the Arctic Circle. The Mexican
water carrier uses it to tote his burden; the Tete Bule Indian and the
Montenais Indian in the Northeast also carry their packs with a tump
line.
Fig. 226½ shows how the tump line is made. It is a strap or lash rope
with a broad band to fit over the packer's head, and thus relieve the
weight which the shoulders have to bear.
Fig. 218 shows the well-known portage pack basket which is used by the
guides in the Adirondack regions. Fig. 219 shows the Nessmuk knapsack.
Fig. 222 shows a pack harness of straps by which two duffel bags are
borne on the back. Fig. 225 shows a duffel bag which is laced up at one
end with a thong; also the end of the bag open.
THE DUFFEL BAG IS USEFUL
The duffel bag is the ideal poke in which to pack one's, belongings. It
is waterproof, it makes a good pillow, a far better pillow than an axe
and pair of boots on which I myself have rested my weary head many a
night, and it also makes a good cushion upon which to sit. The duffel
bag may be procured from any outfitting establishment. The ones I own
are now shiny with dirt and grease, gathered from the camps and forests
extending from Maine to the State of Washington, from Northern Quebec
to Florida. I love the old bags, for even though they be greasy and
shiny, and blackened with the charcoals of many campfires, they are
chuck full of delightful memories.
Fig. 220 is the old-time poke made of a bandanna handkerchief, with its
ends tied together and swung over a stick.
This is the pack, a cut of which may be found in all the old newspapers
antedating the Civil War, where runaway negroes are advertised. It is
the sort of pack respectable tramps used to carry, back in the times
when tramps were respectable. It is the kind of pack I find represented
in an old oil painting hanging on my dining-room wall, which was
painted by some European artist back in the seventeenth century. When
fellows carry the runaway pack they are "traveling light."
Fig. 229 shows how to construct a makeshift pack. A rope of cedar bark
is arranged with a loop C (Fig. 229), for the yoke the ends A and B are
brought up under the arms and tied to the yoke C, which then makes a
breast band.
For a long hike thirty pounds is enough for a big boy to carry, and
it will weigh three hundred and fifty pounds at the end of a hard
day's tramp. Heavy packs, big packs, like those shown in Fig. 223,
are only used on a portage, that is, for short distance. Of course,
you fellows know that in all canoe trips of any consequence one must
cross overland from one lake to another, or overland above a waterfall
to a safe place below it, or around quick water, or to put it in the
words of tenderfeet, water which is too quick for canoe travel, around
tumultuous rapids where one must carry his canoe and duffel. But these
carries or portages are seldom long. The longest I remember of making
was a trifle over five miles in length.
Remember that the weight of a load depends a great deal upon your
mind. Consequently for a long distance the load should be light; for a
short distance the only limit to the load is the limit of the packer's
strength.
BUT
People differ so in regard to how to carry a pack and what kind of a
pack to carry, that the author hesitates to recommend any particular
sort; personally he thinks that a pack harness hitched on to the duffel
bags (Figs. 221, 222 and 224), is the proper and practical thing.
Duffel bags, by the way, are water-proof canvas bags (Fig. 225), made
of different sizes, in which to pack one's clothes, food, or what not.
The portage basket (Fig. 218), is a favorite in the Adirondacks, but
it is not a favorite with the writer; the basket itself is heavy and
to his mind unnecessary, the knapsack (Fig. 219), is good for short
hikes when one does not have to carry much. The best way for the reader
to do is to experiment, see how much of a load he can carry; fifty
pounds is more than enough for a big strong man to carry all day long,
day in and day out, and forty pounds is more than he wants to carry,
but a good husky boy may be able to carry forty pounds on his back.
At the Army and Navy stores and at the outfitter's you can find all
sorts of duffel bags and knapsacks, and at any of the big outfitting
stores they will tell you just what kind of baggage you will need for
the particular trip, for someone in the stores has been over the very
ground that you are going over, for all the clerks and proprietors of
the outfitting stores are sportsmen. But--yes, there is a "but"--the
real genuine American boy will construct his own outfit duffel bags,
mess kit and tents.