Small Parties Travelling Afoot and Camping
(Page 3 of 9)

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.

 

[2] A German officer tells me that his comrades in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1 had no rubber blankets; nor had they any shelter-tents such as our Union soldiers used in 1861-5 as a make-shift when their rubbers were lost. But this is nothing to you: German discipline compelled the soldiers to carry a big cloak which sheds water quite well, and is useful to a soldier for other purposes: but the weight and bulk condemn it for pleasure-seekers.

[3] In general it is better to put the shelter-tent in the roll, and to keep out the rubber blanket, for you may need the last before you camp. You can roll the rubber blanket tightly around the other roll (the cloth side out, as the rubber side is too slippery), and thus be able to take it off readily without disturbing the other things. You can also roll the rubber blanket separately, and link it to the large roll after the manner of two links of a chain.