Man Packing
Man Packing. Pack Rats. Don't Fight Your Pack. Portage Pack. Great Men Who Have Carried A Pack. 
Kinds Of Packs. Alpine Rucksack. Origin Of Broad Breast Straps. Make Your Own Outfits

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 
flippityflop, 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 tune when one is carrying a pack on one's back and a tump
line on one's forehead (Fig. 226-1/2) , 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.

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 hi 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.

THE BROAD BAND
Fig. 232-D 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 226^ 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. 226 1/2 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.

End of Excerpt.
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