How to Camp Out | Page 3

haversack-flap has a strap which buckles down upon the
front, you can run the strap through the cup-handle before buckling; or
you can buy a rein-hitch at the saddlery-hardware shop, and fasten it
wherever most convenient to carry the cup.
CHAPTER II.
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.