Читать книгу Going Afoot: A book on walking - Bayard Henderson Christy - Страница 5

It must be the pedestrian’s ideal, when he comes to consider the matters of clothing and burden, in the least possible degree to interfere with these full natural bodily motions: Clothing, while serving its purposes of protection, must not bind nor rub; it may help to maintain, but it may not disturb normal circulation. Burdens must be so imposed as to be sustained with least effort, and to leave the limbs unincumbered.

Footgear is of first importance. If one is to walk comfortably, pleasurably, effectively, the muscles of the feet must have free play; there may be no cramping, straining, nor rubbing; no unnatural position. In Japan the elegant people toddle along in rainy weather upon blocks of wood which raise their dainty slippers above the mud; but your rickshaw runner splashes through the street on soles as pliant as gloves. Shoes and stockings serve but one purpose—that of protection. If roads were smooth and clean, people who live in temperate climates would go barefoot.

When one walks long and hard, the blood-vessels are distended and the feet increase appreciably in size. More than that, in the act of walking, the forward part of the foot is constantly changing in shape: the toes alternately spread and contract, bend and straighten. The whole supple member is full of muscular activity.

The pedestrian accordingly will not advisedly clothe his feet in cotton stockings and close-fitting shoes, however well made. The consequences of so doing would be rubbing and blisters, impaired circulation and lameness. Nor will he put on canvas shoes, nor heelless shoes, nor rubber-soled shoes, nor shoes with cleats across their soles, such as football players wear.

The best material for stockings is wool, and for shoes, leather. The preference for woolen stockings is not primarily because of warmth—even in hottest weather they are preferable. It is because the material is elastic and agreeable to the skin. In winter, warmth is an added advantage; and, when one’s footgear is soaked through with water, there is far less danger of taking cold in woolen stockings than in cotton.

Stockings should be bulky and shoes roomy. The layer of knit wool between foot and shoe leather is elastic; it gives the exercising foot free play, cushions the weight of the body, and, by filling all the space, prevents rubbing. The rough bulky stockings known as lumbermen’s socks are excellent. If their coarseness is harsh to the skin, finer socks (of cotton, if preferred) may be worn beneath. If the woolen stockings available are light, wear two pairs together. Never wear a stocking so small or so badly shrunken as to draw or constrain the toes.

Shoes should be roomy. They should when put on over heavy stockings make snug fit about the heel and beneath the arch of the foot, but the forward part should be soft and wide, to give the toes full play. The “sporting” shoes of shops are to be let alone. The army shoes are excellent, both of the Munson and of the Hermann lasts; they have been carefully designed for just such service as the pedestrian requires, and they are most successful. It has just been said that shoes should be large; they should be considerably larger than the wearer’s ordinary city shoes, both in length and in width. It is not sufficient to find a shoe which is comfortable in the shop; the shoe may be wide enough, but unless there be some allowance in length, one’s toes will, after ten miles of hard walking, be squeezed till they are tender and blistered. A man who ordinarily wears a 9 B, for example, should buy a 9½ D. There should be as much allowance as that, at the least. A roomy shoe, its looseness well filled (though not packed tight) with bulky, springy, coarse wool, coarsely knit, is the very best foot covering. An additional advantage should be mentioned: a tight shoe, retarding circulation, may in extreme wintry weather increase unduly the danger of frosted feet. Heavy stockings and roomy shoes are free of that defect.

There are no water-tight shoes, except in shop windows; and, if there were, they would at the end of a long walk, have become very uncomfortable.

A pair of army shoes should, with proper care, last, without resoling, for 200 to 300 miles of walking—depending on the roughness of the way, and whether one is “hard on his shoes.” If one is planning a longer tour than this, he should provide two pairs of shoes, and wear them on alternate days—a plan which, but for the added weight, would in any case be preferable.

Some men prefer to walk in knickerbockers, others in long trousers (see below). Most of those who prefer long trousers wear shoes with high tops, reaching to the middle of the calves, and covering and confining the ends of the trouser legs. Again, bad conditions of footing—such as deep snow, for instance, or bog land, or low dense growth—may render high shoetops advantageous. Low shoes are not advisable under any conditions. For the open road, shoes of ordinary height are best. They should be laced, not buttoned.

For certain kinds of service, shoes should be specially adapted. Rubber heels are excellent on macadam roads, but it should be borne in mind that on hard wet surfaces rubber slips. The value of rubber heels is greatest when walking through level, well-settled regions. When they are worn, it is well to carry an extra pair.

Hobnails are to be used only when necessary. Any attachment to, and particularly any excrescence from, the sole of the shoe, is disadvantageous. Iron hobs add appreciably to the weight; and they tend to localize a pressure which should be evenly distributed over the whole sole. For walking in level or in moderately hilly regions, for such simpler mountaineering as consists in traversing highways and mounting wooded slopes, one does not require hobnails; the soles of his shoes should be of plain leather. One should let alone the rubber hobs and inlays, the small scattered spikes, such as he sees attractively displayed as part of the golfer’s outfit. To the pedestrian these things are not worth the fancy prices asked; indeed, they are worth nothing to him. Hobnails, then, must justify themselves in advantages which outweigh their disadvantages; this they do in difficult mountaineering. Worse than useless on the level, they become in the high mountains practically a necessity. For climbing steep slopes, the rock faces and the dense short turf of mountain tops, for scaling precipices of “rotten” rock, for traversing snowfields and icy ledges, one needs to be “rough shod.” In the Alps the soles of the mountaineers’ shoes are studded all about their rims with flügelnägel—great square-headed hobs of iron, with “wings” overlying the edges of the soles. Soft iron proves to be the very best material to give purchase on rock surfaces, whether wet or dry, and on ice and snow, too, it is best. These flügelnägel, known as “edging nails,” and round hobs for the middle of the sole, called “Swedish hobnails,” may be had in this country from dealers in sportsmen’s goods.

For mounting icy slopes, steel spikes in leather carriers, called crampons, are secured to the feet over one’s shoes. These, it is believed, are not now procurable in this country.

For snowshoeing a soft-soled shoe is preferable. Deerskin moccasins are not serviceable for, unless protected by some outer covering, they soon become water-soaked, and then they are worse than useless. Shoepacks are good, and “Barker” shoes better. Barker shoes are made with vamp of rubber and upper of leather. On this subject, see “The Snowshoe Manual,” compiled by the Snowshoe Section of the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Special footwear is provided for other particular pursuits: The duck hunter on the tide-water procures hip-boots of rubber; the ski-runner wears shoes of special design, and so does the skater. But here we are in realms of sports other than walking.

Footgear, then, must be comfortable, durable, adequate.

Sufferers from weak or falling arches will wisely modify these suggestions, according to the advice of a reliable orthopedist. Indeed it is well for any one who goes seriously about walking to have his feet examined by a competent adviser, that he may guard against latent defects and prevent difficulty.

Clothing should afford necessary protection; should be light in weight, should be loose, and should be so planned that, as one grows warm in walking, the superfluous may be taken off. It is best that the temperature of the body be kept as nearly even as possible, and there is danger of chill, if one stands in cold wind—as on a mountain top, for instance—while his underclothing is saturated with perspiration. Ordinarily one’s clothing will (besides shoes and stockings) include underwear, shirt, trousers, coat, and hat.

In summer, underwear has no value for warmth; it should be of cotton, sleeveless, and cut short at the knees. If, however, one is walking in the mountains, or at a cooler season, he will do well to carry with him a flannel undershirt, to wear at the end of the day, when resting. In cool weather light woolen underwear covering both arms and legs is best—and when the thermometer falls low or one is to endure unusual exposure, the underwear should be heavier. Some pedestrians will leave cotton underwear out of account altogether, wearing, by preference, light wool, and, on a very hot day, none.

The shirt should be of flannel, light or heavy, according to season. In milder weather, cotton shirts, such as the khaki-colored ones worn in the army and procurable at army supply stores, are good. On a summer walking tour it is well to provide one’s self with one cotton shirt and one of flannel. The collarband should be large; collar and cuffs should be of one piece with the shirt.

In the matter of trousers, one man will prefer long ones; another, short.

Knickerbockers, for summer wear, should be of khaki (or of one of the various close-woven cotton fabrics which pass under that name; a material called “cold stream duck” is good), or of jean; for winter, they may be of corduroy or of woolen goods. The army breeches, narrowed at the knee, and laced close to the calf of the leg, are riding breeches, really; and, while fairly good, they are not of best design for walking, since they restrain somewhat free movement of the knee. Knickerbockers should be full at the knee, and should end in a band to buckle about the leg immediately below the knee joint. Such walking breeches may be had of dealers in sportsmen’s goods.

Leggings. If knickerbockers are worn, the calf of the leg should be properly covered. In spite of such disadvantages as those incident to travel on dusty roads and over burr-grown land, long stockings secured at the knee are best for summer wear, without more. Spiral puttees are good in cool weather; in summer they are uncomfortably hot, and even when carefully put on, are somewhat confining. They have one notable advantage: when used in deep snow they prevent, as no other leggings can, melting snow from running down the legs and into the shoes. For ordinary service the canvas puttees worn in the army are better than the spirals—indeed these canvas puttees are on the whole more satisfactory to the pedestrian than any other covering applied over shoes and stockings. Leather puttees are unnecessarily heavy, and their imperviousness is an actual disadvantage. It is only when traveling through dense undergrowth and briars that leather puttees are really serviceable—and that sort of wear is very hard on the puttees. High shoetops, too, become under such conditions useful, as has already been noted.

In wearing breeches laced about the calf, and in wearing spiral puttees, care should be taken that they do not bind. Many of our soldiers in the recent war suffered from varicose veins, and this was attributed in part to the emergency, that many men unused to physical labor had to carry heavy knapsacks. But it was attributed in part, too, to binding too tightly the muscles of the legs.

For one special service heavy leg covering is desired: To the hunter traversing the swamps and palmetto-grown plains of Florida, there is some danger of snake bites. Ordinarily, apprehensions about snakes are to be laughed at. The feet, ankles, and legs to a point two or three inches above the knees, should be protected. This protection may be effective either by being impenetrable, or by being bulky and thick, or by virtue of both these characteristics. One expedient, now on the market, consists of leggings having an interlining of wire gauze. Another may be improvised: a bulky wrapping of quilted material, incased in tough leggings of leather or canvas. Care must be taken to protect the ankles below the reach of an ordinary pair of puttees. Any covering such as here suggested must in the nature of the case be heavy and uncomfortable, and will not be worn unnecessarily. One can only say for it, that it is better than a snake bite.

Long trousers should be of smooth close-woven material, not easily torn by thorns, and, for winter wear particularly, resistant to penetration by wind. The legs of the trousers should be confined within shoetops or leggings. Long stockings are not required, only socks. In long trousers, the knee movement is quite free. This rig is particularly good for rough work.

Some men prefer to wear a belt; others, suspenders. The drag of long trousers is greater than of knickerbockers, and, generally speaking, the man who wears knickerbockers will prefer a belt; and the man who wears long trousers, suspenders. The belt, when worn, should not be drawn very tight. The best belt is the army belt, of webbing; it should not be unnecessarily long.

In summer a coat is needed only when resting, or as protection from rain. On one summer tour, the writer found himself comfortable without a coat, but in its place a sweater and a short rubber shirt, fitting close at neck and wrists and with wide skirts, to cover man and knapsack together. Such a rubber shirt, called in the supply houses a “fishing shirt,” may be had of willow green color, or white or black. A sweater is so convenient to carry, and so comfortable, as to be all but indispensable; but, as protection from rain, the rather expensive, and for all other purposes useless, fishing shirt is by no means a necessity; a canvas coat or the coat of an old business suit will answer well. One does not walk far in a downpour, and the slight wetting of a passing summer shower will do no harm. In the Tyrol where, before the War, walking as recreation was developed as nowhere else, many pedestrians carried neither coat nor sweater, but a long full cape of heavy, close-woven, woolen material; when not needed, the cape is carried hanging over the knapsack. Such a cape serves, in some degree, the purposes of a blanket.

A convenient mode of carrying a coat is described by Mr. William Morris Davis, in “Excursions around Aix-les-Bains” (see Bibliography). Mr. Davis says:

“Clothing should be easy fitting, so that discomfort shall not be added to fatigue. Even in warm weather, a coat will often be wanted on a ridge crest, or mountain top: it can be best carried as follows:—Sew the middle of a 30- or 35-inch piece of strong tape inside of the back of the collar; sew the ends of the tape to the bottom of the arm holes: pass the arms through the loops of the tape, and let the coat hang loosely on the back; it will thus be held so that nothing will fall from the pockets and the arms and hands will be free.”

For winter wear, one will dispense with any such garment as a fishing shirt, but will require both coat and sweater. The sweater should be a warm one, and the coat should be, not heavy nor bulky, but windproof rather.

A valuable garment for cold weather is the Alaska “parka,” a shirt-like frock, light, windproof, and it may be made storm-proof. Made of heavy denim or of khaki cloth and worn over a sweater, the parka is very satisfactory. Description in detail will be found in Appalachia, Vol. XI, No. 3, page 287.

The hat should shield a man’s head from a driving rain, and, if it be a bald head, from the sun. If the man wears spectacles, the brim of the hat should shield the glass from rain and from the direct rays of the sun. The hat should be small enough and soft enough to be rolled up and tucked away when not needed. An old soft felt hat will do; the crown should be provided with ventilation holes of generous size; a leather sweatband is uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather, and may sometimes cause bothersome infection of a sunburned and abraded brow. The writer has found a white duck hat, its brim faced with green underneath, very serviceable in summer. In tropical countries the familiar pith helmet is an almost necessary protection.

One who wears eyeglasses should be careful to provide himself with spectacles, preferably metal-rimmed, and on a long tour will advisedly carry a second pair, and even the prescription. See further regarding spectacles, under the caption, “Colored glasses,” page 22.

The choice of clothing for cold weather may be governed by these few simple rules: (1) The objective is maximum warmth with minimum weight. (2) The trunk of the body—the spine, particularly—the upper arms, and the thighs should be most warmly protected. (3) Let the clothing be soft and bulky within (of wool chiefly), and externally let it be substantially windproof. The hoods worn by the Eskimos are made of the skins of water-fowl, worn feathered side in. (4) Have no crowding of clothing under the arms. (5) Do not wear long coat-skirts; let the coat be belted at the waist. (6) Protect the ears, when necessary, with a knitted “helmet,” or with a cap having an ear-flap which, when not needed, folds across the crown. (7) Woolen gloves or, better still, mittens should be worn, and, outside of these, if it be very cold, loosely fitting leather mittens. (8) Except in extremely cold weather, do not wear leather garments, nor fur. Even a fur cap is intolerable when one becomes warm in walking.

The color of clothing is not unimportant. Whether as naturalist or sportsman one desires to be inconspicuously clad, or as a mere wayfarer on dusty roads he wishes to conceal, so far as may be, the stains of travel, he will choose khaki color, or the olive drab made familiar nowadays in the uniforms of the navy aviators. Gray flannel trousers, a white sweater, a bright-colored necktie, for wear in the evenings, are good as part of the equipment. But to that subject the next chapter will be devoted.

In planning an extended hike one will ordinarily have to reckon on some railway traveling. City clothes may be sent by express to the point where walking ends. Then the return journey may be made comfortably and inconspicuously.

The foregoing notes for men will be found sufficient to indicate what is a suitable costume for women pedestrians. With a woman’s needs particularly in mind, it should be said that skirts should be short, hanging at least six inches clear of the ground; shoetops may be accordingly higher; and all garments should be loose. When walking in remote regions, many women will prefer to wear knickerbockers rather than skirts, and in mountaineering knickerbockers are requisite. Even bloomers are objectionable. In such case a woman’s costume more nearly approaches that of men.

A girl, writing of a tour upon the Long Trail in Vermont (see page 84), says: “Khaki riding breeches are best, as they are of light weight and briars do not catch on them. I can’t picture any one taking the Trail in a skirt.”

The Appalachian Mountain Club prescribes a climbing outfit for women in the New England mountains, as follows: High laced boots with Hungarian nails; woolen stockings and underwear, light weight; woolen or khaki waist, skirt, and bloomers; felt hat; leather belt.

And the Alpine Club of Canada publishes this among other notes upon women’s costume: “It is the dropping of the waist line down to the hips that is the secret of a woman’s wearing her knickerbockers gracefully. The top of the knickerbockers should hang on the point of the hips, with the belt as loose as possible. This makes discarding corsets, which of course is absolutely necessary, most comfortable.”

These notes on costume are intended to cover the subject, and to serve as reminder and advice to those contemplating walking tours of all sorts. But the practice of walking as an art and recreation does not by any means require such elaborate preparations. Otherwise, the devotees would be few. For an extended tour, or even for a holiday excursion, one may well give consideration to these many matters; but for a Saturday afternoon walk, it will suffice to put on proper footgear, leave one’s overcoat at home, carry a sweater if need be, use forethought about details, and be ready to betake one’s self from office to highway, with assurance of comfort and enjoyment. And beyond this, there still remains to be spoken of the daily round of walking from home to work and back again, from office to restaurant at noon. This daily regimen of walking requires no special costume—admits of none, indeed. It may be that as one is thoughtful to take more steps on the routine path of life, he will give more careful attention to the shoes he buys and to clothes. But let no one close his mind to the subject with the too hasty conclusion that walking requires an impossible amount of special clothing. Any one who cares to, can make any needed modification of his ordinary business costume, without making himself conspicuous, and probably with gain in comfort and consequent well-being.