BACK packing of the wilderness adventurer’s outfit is one of the necessary evils to be endured for the privilege of enjoying the freedom of travel and the peace and quietude of cheerful camps in the untracked solitudes of the great outdoors. Truly its trials and tribulations are many, yet when fully mastered and one becomes an adept in cruising methods it spells absolute independence of everything except food supplies. Packing at best is a hard plod but it is to be remembered that there is a certain pleasure in even the roughest experience and that in after years only the pleasant things remain in reminiscence.

Much may be spared in the way of trouble and discomfort in woods travel by the selection of a correctly designed and properly hung pack carrier. Next to being properly shod the possession of a suitable rig for carrying the outfit from place to place is the most indispensable requisite for the hiker. The most common and satisfactory article for this use is to be found among the array of tump lines, pack sacks or baskets, and pack harnesses, each designed for a purpose good for use in its particular field and very little elsewhere.

This choice in turn depends largely upon the weight of outfit to be carried which of course should be kept down to absolutely essential limits and within the personal physical capabilities of endurance. Tasks within one’s strength are pleasing or at least tolerable: those beyond that strength are punishment.

The tramper’s pack, inclusive of a ten days supply of provisions, need not weigh over thirty-five pounds. (The seasoned woods traveler will start with eighty pounds.) Any additional weight of grub will be directly proportional to the time one is to be out. It is always advisable for two persons to go together on such a trip for they can share the shelter, use the same cooking utensils and certain other nonconsumable items.

It is a fact unbelievable to the tenderfoot, yet readily attested by the experienced, that at the beginning the carrying of a thirty-five pound pack is entirely feasible for the average man and at the end of several weeks one can carry many more pounds with some ease. On a short portage trip with canoe relief ahead a pack of one hundred pounds is conveniently transported on one’s back. The footman, however, must be carrying all the time and the beginner will find a thirty-five pound pack a sufficiently heavy burden. This must include shelter, mess kit, bed and a week’s supply of provisions. It is well to keep in mind that the pack lightens some each day as the provisions are used up.

The various pack carriers are so arranged that the weight is suspended either from the head of the woodsman, from his shoulder or by a combination of the two methods. It is to many a surprising statement that a much heavier load can be carried suspended by straps over the head than from the shoulders. This is due to the fact that one is thus enabled to utilize the powerful muscles of the neck. These muscles are generally poorly developed in the novice and this, together with the much better known method of shoulder suspension packing, is doubtless the excuse for the latter’s popularity among other than experienced woods travelers.

The Indian-tump line or head strap is the pack carrier par excellence for the transportation of heavy loads. Such a load hangs entirely from the head of the carrier and not from the shoulders. It consists of a head band of rather stiff leather about two and a half inches in width by two feet in length. To each end of this is attached a strap or thong of similar kind of leather eight to ten feet long but only an inch in width tapering to a still lesser width at the ends and fixed to the head band by buckles.

To make up the tump line pack proceed as follows:—the blanket or shelter cloth is spread out and the thongs laid lengthwise about a foot from either edge—the blanket is then folded inward and across the thongs. The items to be carried are then laid on the end of the blanket well up toward the head piece. The other end of the blanket, from the folds of which the thong ends are protruding, is pulled taut, tied together and passed around the middle of the pack. The knack of comfortable tump line carrying, once the neck muscles are developed and hardened, is in properly balancing the pack.

The load is lifted to the back, the strap passing across the head high up on the forehead and not on top of the head as might be supposed. The load must properly fall in position on the back or discomfort will certainly result with a corresponding decrease of carrying ability. It should fit well in the small of the back, just above the hips. The method is very tiresome to the uninitiated because of the strain on the neck and head but one soon becomes accustomed to it.

The tump line or head strap is the one to use if the pack amounts to much above thirty pounds. Indians are thus able to carry loads of several hundred pounds on short portages but when the outfit can be arranged into several seventy pound packs the woodsman prefers to thus break it up and make several trips. With the tump line one can carry goods of most any bulk and shape. The strap has many other uses about camp.

The pack carriers which are suspended from the shoulders are fitted with loops through which the arms are thrust and which are connected behind to the load with either a set of harness intended to be buckled around any sort of camp duffle or riveted and sewn to a sack or basket. Fifty pounds is about the limit of the pack which one with experience can comfortably carry suspended from the shoulders. Breast straps are required for use with all types of shoulder harness to fasten the arm loops together in front or they promptly slip off. In case of accident in the water they are disengaged with difficulty.

One caution is necessary in selecting this type of packing apparatus. The shoulder straps must lead from a common center near the front and top of the pack and they may then attach as usual to each lower corner. The advantage in this single point suspension is this—if the straps hug close to the neck of the packer there is not the down drag or tire which would be the case were the straps nearer the points of the shoulders.

The pack harness is good for transporting an outfit provided one does not have to open the pack on the trail much—a procedure taking up too much time. In making up such a pack the blanket and shelter are made into a compact elongated bundle. The loose articles of camp duffle, mess kit, food bags, and extras are shoved into a specially made sack of light waterproof stuff of say twelve by thirty-six inch dimensions and with a tight-fitting top. The two bundles are placed side by side and the pack straps secured about them. The pack harness with the tump line combination is the best style to use if one prefers not to use one of the pack sacks.

The pack basket of wicker can be at once eliminated as it is too clumsy and bulky for our purpose and further it is not waterproof. It however fits very nicely into lithographs of supposedly ideal camp scenes. Being nonexpandable it limits the bulk of outfit. It is nevertheless popular with a certain class of New England outdoor men.

THE BELMORE BROWNE PACK STRAP

An ingenious packing apparatus has been perfected by Belmore Browne of the Parker-Browne Mt. McKinley Expedition of 1910. It consists of a padded canvas yoke which fits over the breast and shoulders of the wearer and the yoke ends connect by small stout ropes to the pack much the same as with a regulation tump line. The size of the pack regulates the length of the lash rope.

This pack strap is made very simply after

the accompanying diagram. The length of the breast strap depends upon the breadth of the chest of the wearer. It is composed of a piece of ten ounce canvas of say twelve inch length and eight inches wide which is folded lengthwise making it twelve by four inches and is padded by felt or cotton. To either end of this is attached the shoulder straps consisting of double thicknesses of ten ounce canvas thirty-six by six inches and folded lengthwise and cut to taper from the yoke end. To its smaller end is attached a small stout rope of the length desired for the pack you will carry. The first twelve inches of the shoulder straps only are padded. The rope is lashed about the pack and the loose ends B and D are secured in the holes A and C near the arm pits.

To enable one to use the neck muscles also in addition to the shoulder straps a head strap is used. This is simply a double piece of ten ounce canvas two inches by twelve inches at whose ends are tied ropes which are attached to the pack. Browne has carried with this rig 100 pounds all day for several days at a time.

Various styles of pack sacks are extant. The foreign sportsman has what he calls a rucksack which means a “back sack” and which is a triangular shaped affair usually of waterproofed materials which he hangs over his back by two straps passing up across the shoulders. The top is the puckered end of the sack and reaches up close to the neck, the flared out bottom hangs down to about the small of the back. It is sometimes fitted with pockets. It is very good for country road tours or for foreign sight-seeing trips where the items carried cover some such list as a noon day lunch, a raincoat, a change of underwear, photo films, notebook and guide book, but it is unsuitable for heavy weight work on the wilderness cruise.

The haversack or knapsack slung by a strap from one shoulder is out of date and never measured up to the requirements for use in heavy packing. It is handy for lunches or as a ditty or emergency kit bag. The best pack sack was originated and put out by one Poirier of Duluth some twenty-five years ago and was originally really the whiteman’s improvement of the Indian tump line and pack cloth, ingeniously folded and tied so as to serve as a sack with suspension harness. As listed today by most outfitting firms it consists of a sack with shoulder straps and head suspension. It is a very desirable article from the point of view of the wilderness voyageur as he is enabled to ease up different sets of muscles while on the hike and

in handling a heavy pack the combined use of the neck and shoulder muscles are brought into play.

This pack goes under the name of the Duluth, Poirier, Woodsman or Northwestern Pack and with slight modifications is listed under other names by various dealers in camp supplies. The genuine, however, consists of a simple flat bag of dimensions twenty-eight by thirty inches with adjustable shoulder and head straps. It has a large top flap with three long straps to hold it down thus enabling one to adjust it to a large or small pack. The following features are to be insisted upon—get the straps broad and soft and see to it that the connections are both sewed and riveted. The Poirier pack is much used on the Canadian border and is easily procurable or it can be made at home.

All things considered and especially in view of the ignorance of the average man as to how to adjust his pack straps properly the Woodsmans or Poirier is the best.

In its position on the back the pack should be carried low so the bulge fits the hollow of the back. If too high there is too much backward strain on the head and shoulders: if it is too low it interferes with the gait. One can ease up the impact of a pack by letting the knees give a little with each step. In the case of heavy loads or a weak neck the strain can occasionally be relieved by clasping the hands behind the head or by slipping the straps from the forehead to the top of the head and grasping it with both hands about “ear high” so as to get a straight pull downward instead of backward.

CONTENTS OF THE PACK

With a properly chosen pack a man can comfortably carry on his back all that is needed for a two weeks’ stay in the wilderness, inclusive of shelter, bed, cook kit, simple first aid requisites and the necessary provisions. Besides these the pack must carry miscellaneous items of duffle as follows:

Extra clothing may be very meager indeed. A gray all wool sweater for protection against cold, mainly at night or to be worn when washing the shirt, and two pairs of heavy all wool socks are all that one needs. In the way of toilet articles include a tooth brush and a tube of paste and two brown crash towels for the daily rub down. A bar of wool soap suffices for toilet and laundry purposes. The map mounted on cloth should be encased in a waterproof envelope.

Provide a repair kit consisting of a few items for simple mending—a spool of stout linen thread No. 12, with suitable needles, a few rivets, safety pins, some waxed harness thread, needles and a light awl.

A good axe is almost indispensable. Although an experienced camper may learn to get along well no matter what is lacking, without an axe he is seriously handicapped for food, warmth and camp making and often protection from beasts and insects depend on the axe and the fire it makes possible. A gun may be dispensed with but never the axe. Don’t try to economize too much in its weight. For average trips and moderately cold nights a light belt axe of say one and one-fourth pound head is about right. It should have a long helve and it will then give greater power than a heavy one with a short helve. Pocket axes are not advisable.

If the nights are cold and you have to keep up an all night fire in front of the leanto, an hour’s work will enable you to spend the night fairly comfortable. You will need a large amount of good dry wood. To secure this the axe had better be a well tempered, light regulation chopping axe of say a two pound head and a thirty inch handle. Never take a poor axe into the wilderness where comfort and ofttimes life depend on it. Soft tempered edges bend where thin and if tempered too hard they will break in frozen wood or knots.

A small whetstone for sharpening must be with you. The combination coarse and fine carborundum sportsman stone is handy. A leather sheath will help to protect the axe edge from becoming dulled and the outfit from being cut. In use keep the axe clear of overhead limbs or brush which might turn it. Hold it rigid and learn to hit the spot aimed at.

The inclusion of fishing tackle depends on the nature of the locality you are to visit. Fish make an agreeable change from a bacon, biscuit and tea diet. Take a few hooks, a stout line, flies and spoon hooks and you can depend on improvising the pole where used. For bait you may be driven to bacon fat, frogs, grasshoppers or grubs from an old rotten log. If the prime object of the trip is for fishing purposes of course a more elaborate equipment is permissible. You really won’t much notice the extra weight of a fish rod.

When every ounce and square inch of duffel have to be debated over in view of the all important question of food supply and transportation facilities the addition of a small film camera bears few objectionable features. In no other way can a truthful record of vacation scenes be preserved. It truthfully portrays wild life in native habitat and is a great stimulus to personal observation. Almost any one can push the button and run a good chance of getting a clean cut picture, the clever thing is to amplify the camera’s working with one’s good sense in composing the picture. In woodland views when the sun is low expose to get the long shadows. In wild animal work get leeward to the trails. The lighting of your subjects should always come from behind the camera. Film must be protected from moisture and you can insure this in no way better than by getting the kind which is hermetically sealed as sold for tropical use and obtainable from the makers on special order.