SMALL PARTIES TRAVELLING AFOOT AND CAMPING.
We will consider separately the many ways in which a party can spend a
summer vacation; and first we will start into wild and uninhabited
regions, afoot, carrying on our backs blankets, a tent, frying-pan,
food, and even a shot-gun and fishing-tackle. This is _very_ hard work
for a young man to follow daily for any length of time; and, although it
sounds romantic, yet let no party of young people think they can find
pleasure in it many days; for if they meet with a reverse, have much
rainy weather, or lose their way, some one will almost surely be taken
sick, and all sport will end.
If you have a mountain to climb, or a short trip of only a day or two,
I would not discourage you from going in this way; but for any extended
tour it is too severe a strain upon the physical powers of one not
accustomed to similar hard work.
AFOOT.--CAMPING OUT.
A second and more rational way, especially for small parties, is that of
travelling afoot in the roads of a settled country, carrying a blanket,
tent, food, and cooking-utensils; cooking your meals, and doing all the
work yourselves. If you do not care to travel fast, to go far, or to
spend much money, this is a fine way. But let me caution you first of
all about overloading, for this is the most natural thing to do. It is
the tendency of human nature to accumulate, and you will continually
pick up things on your route that you will wish to take along; and it
will require your best judgment to start with the least amount of
luggage, and to keep from adding to it.
You have probably read that a soldier carries a musket, cartridges,
blanket, overcoat, rations, and other things, weighing forty or fifty
pounds. You will therefore say to yourself, "I can carry twenty." Take
twenty pounds, then, and carry it around for an hour, and see how you
like it. Very few young men who read this book will find it possible to
_enjoy_ themselves, and carry more than twenty pounds a greater distance
than ten miles a day, for a week. To carry even the twenty pounds ten
miles a day is hard work to many, although every summer there are
parties who do their fifteen, twenty, and more miles daily, with big
knapsacks on their backs; but it is neither wise, pleasant, nor
healthful, to the average young man, to do this.
Let us cut down our burden to the minimum, and see how much it will be.
First of all, you must take a rubber blanket or a light rubber
coat,--something that will surely shed water, and keep out the dampness
of the earth when slept on. You must have something of this sort,
whether afoot, horseback, with a wagon, or in permanent camp.[2]
For carrying your baggage you will perhaps prefer a knapsack, though
many old soldiers are not partial to that article. There are also for
sale broad straps and other devices as substitutes for the knapsack.
Whatever you take, be sure it has broad straps to go over your
shoulders: otherwise you will be constantly annoyed from their cutting
and chafing you.
You can dispense with the knapsack altogether in the same way that
soldiers do,--by rolling up in your blanket whatever you have to carry.
You will need to take some pains in this, and perhaps call a comrade to
assist you. Lay out the blanket flat, and roll it as tightly as possible
without folding it, enclosing the other baggage[3] as you roll; then tie
it in a number of places to prevent unrolling, and the shifting about of
things inside; and finally tie or strap together the two ends, and throw
the ring thus made over the shoulder, and wear it as you do the strap of
the haversack,--diagonally across the body.
[Illustration]
The advantages of the roll over the knapsack are important. You save the
two and a half pounds weight; the roll is very much easier to the
shoulder, and is easier shifted from one shoulder to the other, or taken
off; and you can ease the burden a little with your hands. It feels
bulky at first, but you soon become used to it. On the whole, you will
probably prefer the roll to the knapsack; but if you carry much weight
you will very soon condemn whatever way you carry it, and wish for a
change.
A haversack is almost indispensable in all pedestrian tours. Even if you
have your baggage in a wagon, it is best to wear one, or some sort of a
small bag furnished with shoulder straps, so that you can carry a lunch,
writing materials, guide-book, and such other small articles as you
constantly need. You can buy a haversack at the stores where sportsmen's
outfits are sold; or you can make one of enamel-cloth or rubber
drilling, say eleven inches deep by nine wide, with a strap of the same
material neatly doubled and sewed together, forty to forty-five inches
long, and one and three-quarters inches wide. Cut the back piece about
nineteen inches long, so as to allow for a flap eight inches long to
fold over the top and down the front. Sew the strap on the upper corners
of the back piece, having first sewed a facing inside, to prevent its
tearing out the back.
WOOLLEN BLANKET.
Next in the order of necessities is a woollen blanket,--a good stout
one, rather than the light or flimsy one that you may think of taking.
In almost all of the Northern States the summer nights are apt to be
chilly; while in the mountainous regions, and at the seaside, they are
often fairly cold. A lining of cotton drilling will perhaps make a thin
blanket serviceable. This lining does not need to be quite as long nor
as wide as the blanket, since the ends and edges of the blanket are used
to tuck under the sleeper. One side of the lining should be sewed to the
blanket, and the other side and the ends buttoned; or you may leave off
the end buttons. You can thus dry it, when wet, better than if it were
sewed all around. You can lay what spare clothing you have, and your
day-clothes, between the lining and blanket, when the night is very
cold.
In almost any event, you will want to carry a spare shirt; and in cold
weather you can put this on, when you will find that a pound of shirt is
as warm as two pounds of overcoat.
If you take all I advise, you will not absolutely need an overcoat, and
can thus save carrying a number of pounds.
The tent question we will discuss elsewhere; but you can hardly do with
less than a piece of shelter-tent. If you have a larger kind, the man
who carries it must have some one to assist him in carrying his own
stuff, so that the burden may be equalized.
If you take tent-poles, they will vex you sorely, and tempt you to throw
them away: if you do not carry them, you will wonder when night comes
why you did not take them. If your tent is not large, so that you can
use light ash poles, I would at least start with them, unless the tent
is a "shelter," as poles for this can be easily cut.
You will have to carry a hatchet; and the kind known as the axe-pattern
hatchet is better than the shingling-hatchet for driving tent-pins. I
may as well caution you here not to try to drive tent-pins with the flat
side of the axe or hatchet, for it generally ends in breaking the
handle,--quite an accident when away from home.
For cooking-utensils on a trip like that we are now proposing, you will
do well to content yourself with a frying-pan, coffee-pot, and perhaps a
tin pail; you can do wonders at cooking with these.
We will consider the matter of cooking and food elsewhere; but the main
thing now is to know beforehand where you are going, and to learn if
there are houses and shops on the route. Of course you must have food;
but, if you have to carry three or four days' rations in your haversack,
I fear that many of my young friends will fail to see the pleasure of
their trip. Yet carry them if you must: do not risk starvation,
whatever you do. Also remember to always have something in your
haversack, no matter how easy it is to buy what you want.
I have now enumerated the principal articles of weight that a party must
take on a walking-tour when they camp out, and cook as they go. If the
trip is made early or late in the season, you must take more clothing.
If you are gunning, your gun, &c., add still more weight. Every one will
carry towel, soap, comb, and toothbrush.
Then there is a match-safe (which should be air-tight, or the matches
will soon spoil), a box of salve, the knives, fork, spoon, dipper,
portfolio, paper, Testament, &c. Every man also has something in
particular that "he wouldn't be without for any thing."[4]
There should also be in every party a clothes brush, mosquito-netting,
strings, compass, song-book, guide-book, and maps, which should be
company property.
I have supposed every one to be dressed about as usual, and have made
allowance only for extra weight; viz.,--
Rubber blanket 2-1/2 pounds.
Stout woollen blanket and lining 4-1/2 "
Knapsack, haversack, and canteen 4 "
Drawers, spare shirt, socks, and collars 2 "
Half a shelter-tent, and ropes 2 "
Toilet articles, stationery, and small wares 2 "
Food for one day 3 "
----
Total 20 pounds.
You may be able to reduce the weight here given by taking a lighter
blanket, and no knapsack or canteen; but most likely the food that you
actually put in your haversack will weigh more than three pounds. You
must also carry your share of the following things:--
Frying-pan, coffee-pot, and pail 3 pounds.
Hatchet, sheath-knife, case, and belt 3 "
Company property named on last page 3 "
Then if you carry a heavier kind of tent than the "shelter," or carry
tent-poles, you must add still more. Allow also nearly three pounds a
day per man for food, if you carry more than enough for one day; and
remember, that when tents, blankets, and clothes get wet, it adds about
a quarter to their weight.
You see, therefore, that you have the prospect of hard work. I do not
wish to discourage you from going in this way: on the contrary, there is
a great deal of pleasure to be had by doing so. But the majority of men
under twenty years of age will find no pleasure in carrying so much
weight more than ten miles a day; and if a party of them succeed in
doing so, and in attending to all of the necessary work, without being
worse for it, they will be fortunate.
In conclusion, then, if you walk, and carry all your stuff, camping, and
doing all your work, and cooking as you go, you should travel but few
miles a day, or, better still, should have many days when you do not
move your camp at all.
OTHER WAYS OF GOING AFOOT.
It is not necessary to say much about the other ways of going afoot. If
you can safely dispense with cooking and carrying food, much will be
gained for travel and observation. The expenses, however, will be
largely increased. If you can also dispense with camping, you ought then
to be able to walk fifteen or twenty miles daily, and do a good deal of
sight-seeing besides. You should be in practice, however, to do this.
You must know beforehand about your route, and whether the country is
settled where you are going.
Keep in mind, when you are making plans, that it is easier for one or
two to get accommodation at the farmhouses than for a larger party.
I heard once of two fellows, who, to avoid buying and carrying a tent,
slept on hay-mows, usually without permission. It looks to me as if
those young men were candidates for the penitentiary. If you cannot
travel honorably, and without begging, I should advise you to stay at
home.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] A German officer tells me that his comrades in the Franco-Prussian
war of 1870-1 had no rubber blankets; nor had they any shelter-tents
such as our Union soldiers used in 1861-5 as a make-shift when their
rubbers were lost. But this is nothing to you: German discipline
compelled the soldiers to carry a big cloak which sheds water quite
well, and is useful to a soldier for other purposes: but the weight and
bulk condemn it for pleasure-seekers.
[3] In general it is better to put the shelter-tent in the roll, and to
keep out the rubber blanket, for you may need the last before you camp.
You can roll the rubber blanket tightly around the other roll (the cloth
side out, as the rubber side is too slippery), and thus be able to take
it off readily without disturbing the other things. You can also roll
the rubber blanket separately, and link it to the large roll after the
manner of two links of a chain.
[4] I knew an officer in the army, who carried a rubber air-pillow
through thick and thin, esteeming it, after his life and his rations,
the greatest necessity of his existence. Another officer, when
transportation was cut down, held to his camp-chair. Almost every one
has his whim.