Читать книгу Going Afoot: A book on walking - Bayard Henderson Christy - Страница 6

On a one-day excursion, a man will walk unburdened; and, on exceptional longer trips, pack-horses may carry the baggage from one camping ground to another; but, ordinarily, on a tour continuing day after day, one will carry on his own back all that he requires. Should his route lie through settled country, where shelter and bed are to be found in farmhouse or wayside inn, the man will travel with lighter load, and with greater freedom and enjoyment; if he must carry his blanket, too, walking becomes harder work. It may be that one will spend his vacation in the woods, and journey partly afoot, partly by canoe. In that case, a good part of his walking will be the arduous toting of impedimenta (canoe included) across portages, from one lake or stream to another. Proportionately as his burden is heavier, the sojourner in the wilderness will be disposed so to plan his trip that he may stop for successive nights at favorite camping places. From these he will make shorter trips, and, unencumbered, climb mountains, perhaps, or explore other parts of the country about.

The bulk of what is carried should be borne on the back. Drinking cup may be hung to the belt; knife, watch, money, and various other small articles will be carried in pockets; map-case, field glasses, or fishing rod may be slung by straps from the shoulders or carried swinging in one’s hand, ready for use; but, for the rest, everything should be carried in the knapsack.

In case the pedestrian is traveling in settled country and is not obliged to carry a blanket (and such is by far the freest, pleasantest way to go afoot), the best knapsack to be found is of a kind in general use in the Tyrol. It goes under its native German name, rucksack. It is a large, square-cornered pocket, 20–24 inches wide and 16–18 deep, made of a light, strong, closely woven, specially treated fabric, of a greenish-gray color, and all but water-proof. The pocket is open at the top, slit a few inches down the outer face, is closed by a drawing string, and a flap buckles down over the gathered mouth. Two straps of adjustable length are secured, each at one end to the upper rim of the sack at the middle point, and at the other end to one of the lower corners. When the filled knapsack is in place, the supporting straps encircle the shoulders of the wearer, the closed mouth lies between the shoulder blades, the bottom corners extend just above the hips, while the weight of the burden, hanging from the shoulders, rests in the curve of the back. Genuine Tyrolean knapsacks are, since the War, no longer procurable in this country; good copies of them are, however, to be had in our sporting-goods shops. The army knapsack is fairly good.

In case the pedestrian makes his tour in some remote region, where lodging places are not certainly to be found, he will be obliged to carry his blanket, and probably some supply of food. In such case, he will choose a larger knapsack. The sack known as the “Nessmuk” is a good one; and another, somewhat larger, is the “Gardiner.” These sacks are neither of them large enough to contain both blanket and the other necessary articles of camping equipment; the blanket should then be rolled and the roll arched upon and secured to the knapsack after the latter has been packed. Grommets sewed to the knapsack afford convenient means for securing the blanket roll in place. A still larger (and heavier) knapsack, large enough to contain one’s camp equipment, blanket and all, is called the “Merriam Back Pack.” It is recommended by an experienced camper, Mr. Vernon Bailey, chief field naturalist of the U. S. Biological Survey.

In hot weather the knapsack becomes uncomfortably wet with perspiration. Wicker frames, sometimes used to hold the sack away from the back to allow circulation of air beneath, are bothersome and uncomfortable.

For carrying heavier burdens short distances, as when making portage on a camping trip, a pack harness is used. Its name sufficiently explains its nature. An additional device, called a tump line, may, if desired, be bought and used with the pack harness. The tump line is a band which, encircling the load on one’s back, passes over the forehead. With its use the muscles of the neck are brought into play, aiding the shoulders and back in carrying. It is astonishing, what an enormous burden a Canadian Indian can manage with the aid of harness and tump line. These articles may be bought at sportsmen’s stores, and at the posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, in Canada.

The equipment for a summer walking tour, on which one is not obliged to carry a blanket, should weigh from ten to twenty pounds, according as one carries fewer or more of the unessentials. It is impossible to draw up lists of what is essential and what merely convenient, and have unanimity; one man will discard an article which to another is indispensable; the varying conditions under which journeys are taken will cause the same man to carry different articles at different times. The ensuing lists are intended to be suggestive and reasonably inclusive; for any given walk each individual will reject what he finds dispensable.

Requisites carried in one’s pockets: Watch; knife; money; compass; matches; handkerchief.

Requisites carried in the knapsack: Change of underclothes, stockings, and handkerchiefs; toilet articles; mending kit; grease for shoes.

Articles which, though not necessary, are altogether to be desired: Second outer shirt; second pair of walking shoes, particularly if the tour be a long one; sweater; pair of flannel trousers, light socks and shoes (gymnasium slippers are good), and necktie for evening wear; medicaments; notebook and pencil; postcards or stamped envelopes; a book to read.

Articles which may be requisite or desired, according to season or circumstance, to be carried in pocket or knapsack or, some of them, slung from the shoulders ready for use: Colored glasses; pajamas; head net, as protection against mosquitoes; woolen underclothing; gloves or mittens; knitted helmet; naphtha soap, for washing woolens; map case; canteen; culinary articles; whistle; clothes brush; flashlight.

An indefinitely long list might be made of articles which a man will choose, according to taste and inclination. A bird-lover will carry a pair of binoculars; a collector, his cases; the fisherman, rod and fly-book. Some member of almost every walking party will carry a camera.

Notes upon some of the articles thus far enumerated will be useful:

The pocketknife should be large and strong, with one or two blades; leave in the showcase the knife bristling with tools of various kinds; see that the blades are sharp.

Let the watch be an inexpensive one; leave the fine watch at home; do not wear a wrist watch, particularly not in warm weather. At the wrists perspiration accumulates and the circulating blood is cooled. Any surface covering at that point, and particularly a close-fitting band, is in hot weather intolerable. But, regardless of season, a wrist watch is in the way, and is sure soon or late to be damaged. For the pedestrian its disadvantages greatly outweigh the small convenience it affords.

The best moneybag is a rubber tobacco pouch; a leather bill-folder and its contents will soon be saturated with perspiration.

A compass is a requisite in the wilderness, but not elsewhere. Regarding compasses, see further pages 75 and 116.

Matches should be carried in a water-tight case.

Toilet articles will include, at a minimum, soap, comb, toothbrush and powder. A sponge or wash-rag is desirable. A man who shaves will, unless journeying in the wilderness, carry his razor. The soap may be contained in a box of aluminum or celluloid; the sponge in a sponge bag; the whole may be packed in a handy bag or rolled in a square of cloth and secured with strap or string.

Towel and pajamas are not indispensable; because of weight, they should be classed as pedestrian luxuries.

The mending kit will include thread, needles, and buttons, and here should be set down safety pins, too, an extra pair of shoestrings, and—if one wears them—an extra pair of rubber heels. A small carborundum whetstone may be well worth the carrying.

The best dressing for leather is mutton tallow. Various boot greases of which tallow is the base are on the market; one, called “Touradef,” is good. There are lighter animal oils, more easily applied; a good one is called “B-ver” oil. Mineral oils are not so good; “Viscol,” the most widely used of these, is sold in cans of convenient size and shape.

Medicaments should be few; a disinfectant (permanganate of potassium in crystalline form, or tablets of Darkin’s solution), a cathartic (cascara is best—it may be had in tabloid form, called “Cascaral Compound”), iodine, a box of zinc ointment, a roll of adhesive tape, and a small quantity of absorbent cotton will suffice for casual ailments. If one is going into the wilderness, he may well take a first-aid kit—with knowledge, how to use it—and medicine to deal with more violent sickness; ipecac and calomel. In malaria-infested regions, one should carry quinine, with directions for administering. Talcum powder and cocoa butter are, in proper time, soothing. Citronella is a defense against mosquitoes; another repellent is a mixture of sweet oil or castor oil, oil of pennyroyal, and tar oil; spirits of ammonia is an antidote to their poison.

As to reading matter, each will choose for himself. The book carried may be the Bible, it may be “The Golden Treasury,” it may be “The Three Musketeers.” Again, it may be a handbook of popular science or a map of the stars.

Regarding map and map case, see page 75.

Colored glasses. On snowfields, on the seashore, where light is intense, the eyes should be screened. The best material, carefully worked out for this purpose, is Crooks glass. Its virtue lies in this: that it cuts out both the ultra-violet rays and the heat rays at the opposite end of the spectrum. Crooks glass may be had in two grades: Shade A and Shade B. Shade A, having the properties just described, is itself almost colorless; Shade B is colored, and cuts out, in addition, part of the rays of the normal spectrum. Goggles may be had of plain sheets of Crooks glass, and these will serve merely as a screen; but, if one wears glasses anyway, since two pairs worn at once are difficult to manage, it is well to have one’s prescription filled in Shade A, and (if one is going to climb snow peaks or walk the seabeach) then a second pair in Shade B. Ordinary colored glasses will serve a passing need; amethyst tint is best.

A canteen is requisite in arid regions and when climbing lofty mountains; elsewhere it is sometimes a justified convenience.

The writer well recalls the amazement of two Alpine guides some years ago when, on the top of a snow peak, hot coffee was produced from a thermos bottle. He hastens to add that the thermos bottle was not his; he regards such an article as a sure mark of the tenderfoot.

Even though one be traveling light, the pleasures of a summer holiday may be widened by providing one meal a day and eating it out of doors. In order to accomplish this, one needs to carry a few culinary articles: A drinking cup, of course—that is carried in any case, conveniently hung to the belt. Then one should have plate, knife, fork, spoon, a small pail, perhaps a small frying pan, canisters of salt and pepper, a box of tea, a bag of sugar, a receptacle for butter. Most of these articles, and some toilet articles as well, may be had made of aluminum. Do not carry glassware, it is heavy and breakable. Don’t carry anything easily broken or easily put out of order. But even here make exceptions. For example, a butter jar is better than a butter box. The writer, for one, despises an aluminum drinking cup; when filled with hot coffee it is unapproachable, when cool enough not to burn the lips the coffee is too cold to be palatable; he, therefore, in spite of its weight, chooses to carry an earthenware cup.

A whistle will have value chiefly for signaling between members of a party.

A party of two, three, or four will carry more conveniences than a man journeying alone. For illustration, in the party, one camera is enough, one map case, one pail, one butter jar; and these may be distributed, so that, while carrying only part, each member of the party may enjoy all. With a camera in the party, a supply of films will be stowed away in a knapsack; a light, collapsible tripod may be worth the taking, if one cares to secure pictures under poor conditions of light.

Two usual items of an amateur equipment, better left at home, are a hatchet and a pedometer. A hatchet is of no value, except in the wilderness, and not always is it worth carrying even there. Ordinarily a stout, sharp knife will answer every purpose. When one is on a camping trip on which he makes long stops, he will care for something better than a hatchet—a light axe. Regarding the uses of a pedometer see page 116.

If the contemplated tour lies through the wilderness, and accommodations for the night are not to be had under roofs along the way, one must carry his blanket. The blanket should be selected with lightness and warmth in view. The army blankets are fair, but softer, lighter, warmer ones may be had. Blankets should be of generous dimensions. A large double blanket should not exceed eight pounds in weight, and single blankets should weigh half as much. The Hudson’s Bay blankets are justly famous.

A blanket enveloped in a windproof blanket cloth is very much warmer than if not so shielded. Herein lies the virtue of a sleeping bag. Similarly, a tent—particularly a small one, for one or two men—keeps out wind and retains warm air. With the use of a tent, the weight of blankets may be less. The blanket cloth serves both to keep the wind from penetrating the blanket and also to keep the blanket dry. It prevents penetration of moisture from the ground; and, if one is not otherwise protected, it shields one from dew and from light rain. The blanket cloth, too, must be of the least weight consistent with service. Because of weight, rubber blankets and oiled ponchos are out of the question. Better light oilcloth, or, better still, the material called “balloon silk” (really finely woven, long-fiber cotton) filled with water-proofing substance. “Tanalite” is the trade name for a water-proof material of this sort of a dark brown color. A tarpaulin seven feet square made of tanalite is, all things considered, the most serviceable blanket cloth. With blanket and tarpaulin, one’s pack should not exceed 25–30 pounds in weight. A mode of rolling blanket and tarpaulin and of securing the roll to the knapsack is suggested on page 18.

Blanket pins are worth carrying. By using them one may keep himself snug, nearly as well as in a sleeping bag.

A small cotton bag, useful in a pack, may be stuffed with clothing and serve as a pillow.

A satisfactory sleeping bag will hardly be found in the shops; those that are serviceable are too heavy for the pedestrian. And yet the idea embodied in the sleeping bag, the idea of attaining maximum warmth from the materials used, jumps precisely with the pedestrian’s needs.

The difficulty with the sleeping bags on the market is that they are made for gentlemen campers, and not for those who take up their beds and walk. For one thing, the gentleman camper has abundance of clothing, with changes of all kinds. But the pedestrian sleeps in his clothes. Of course he does. It would be folly for him to carry in his pack the equivalent of what he wears on his back. His day clothes should be serviceable as night clothes, too. All he need carry is the additional protection required when he is resting on the ground in the colder night hours. And, in addition, he will have a change of the garments which lie next his skin; but no more. If when sleeping a man is not wearing all that he carries, then he is carrying more than is necessary. He may, indeed, have stuffed in his pack woolen underclothes, for night wear only. For another thing, in making choice between one material and another, the weight of the material is important in far greater degree to the walker than to the gentleman camper. With these considerations in mind, the pedestrian contrives his sleeping bag of the lightest material available to serve the ends in view.

Essentially, a sleeping bag is a closed covering of two layers: an inner layer of heat-insulating material, and an outer layer of water-tight, wind-tight material. Even the gentleman camper, scornfully referred to above, chooses the lightest, warmest blankets he can find; the pedestrian can do no better. However, he does not take so many. But, respecting the outer covering, the pedestrian refuses the heavy water-proofed duck of the ordinary sleeping bag, and selects instead water-proofed balloon silk.

The simplest sleeping bag may be made by folding a six by six wool blanket within a cover of water-proofed balloon silk and sewing together the bottom edges, and the side edges, too, from the bottom upward, to within a foot or so of the top. The bag measures approximately three feet by six, and should not weigh more than five and one half pounds.

Instead of the blanket, other material may be used. Men differ in the amount of covering they require; and then there are the inequalities of climate and season to be reckoned with. A suitable material, lighter than wool and affording less warmth, is sateen; a somewhat warmer, somewhat heavier, substitute for the wool blanket is a down quilt. When still greater warmth is needed the blanket may be double, or blanket and down quilt may be combined.

A rectangular bag, such as that just described, may be criticized in two particulars: for one thing, it is not long enough for a man of good stature, and, for another thing, there is waste material in it. It would be just as warm and just as serviceable if, instead of being three feet wide at the bottom, it were at that point only two feet wide.

The specifications of an excellent sleeping bag for pedestrian use are given in a pamphlet published by the Appalachian Mountain Club, “Equipment for Mountain Climbing and Camping,” by Allen H. Bent, Ralph Lawson, and Percival Sayward, and with the courteous assent of the designers, are here incorporated.

A bag made on the dimensions given is suitable for a man five feet eleven inches tall.

A strip of the material for the inner layer is cut to the pattern indicated below. It is 87 inches long, and at its widest point 32½ inches across. The widest point is 45 inches from the foot. At the foot the strip is 20 inches wide, and at the head, 21 inches. The sides are outwardly curved. This is the under strip.