View Full Version : Major Changes in Camping and Hiking
On another thread, I mentioned how the "best practices", equipment, and outdoor philosophy had changed significantly during my 30-40 years of hiking and camping.
I included this quote from a 1959 book. The quote was regarding proper cleanup procedures following a meal:
"Get rid of the garbage. Burn whatever will burn at one end of the fire. Burn out cans and flatten them. Wash out empty jars. Bury the burned out cans and the washed out jars".
I invite you to go back to your "old" camping/hiking books and magazines and provide us with quotes, photos, or descriptions of the silly (and now outdated) equipment, clothing and "best practices" which were being published as being normal "back in the day".
If you can, try to include the approximate publication date too.
(Your own personal pictures, descriptions and approximate weights of your old hiking and camping equipment might also be fun to share).
GoldenBear
05-20-2010, 14:30
Specifically, my first Boy Scout Handbook, which was the 1959 edition. Amongst the things I remember being told:
1) do NOT sip water from your canteen while you hike -- that only makes you thirstier. Instead, keep a pebble in your mouth.
2) how to get a "healthy" tan.
3) how to cut and suck after a snake bite.
4) dig trenches around your tent, so rain goes away from you.
5) how to use a tourniquet.
6) clean a wound with alcohol.
7) raise the neck of a person before giving artificial respiration.
All of the above, of course, was "best practices" back then, as the Scouts invariably are at the forefront of proper outdoor ethos. However, as this thread clearly states, we are talking about how what was "standard" decades ago is now not accepted. My response is in NO WAY a knock at Scouting, for which I owe an un-payable debt for getting me into outdoor activities in the first place.
Most specifically, my Scouting years taught me a basic lesson I've taken with me to this very day: namely, that any outdoor site I come to should be in BETTER shape when I leave than when I arrive.
M1 Thumb
05-20-2010, 14:41
I wonder what practices we engage in today will seem silly and outdated in a few decades?
At least with the cans 50 years ago, they would rust away relatively quickly, unlike the aluminum cans and plastic bottles littering our parks today.
Usage rates also dictate practices necessary to keep the environment intact and usable. 50 years ago, how many people would be hiking and camping on the AT for example? It was probably feasible then to bury the limited amount of waste generated. Today that practice would be short of ridiculous.
Maybe people in 50 years will laugh at the amount of weight people carry today when hiking. Materials and technology in 50 years......
Hikes in Rain
05-20-2010, 14:46
One of the things I've always wanted to try but likely never will is the bough bed. Many references, including Kephart and Nessmuk (1930's?). Springy, fragrant, takes maybe an hour or two to make. If you add the log frames, made from the trees you cut down to make the bed, it could take a bit more. Good for maybe three days of use. It's a lot more than just whacking down some pine or balsums and stacking the branches. It's woven carefully, making sure the butt ends of the branches point downward.
National Geographic Mount Oglethorpe 1949
Notice the Knife
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8707&stc=1&d=1274381214
beakerman
05-20-2010, 14:56
Specifically, my first Boy Scout Handbook, which was the 1959 edition. Amongst the things I remember being told:
1) do NOT sip water from your canteen while you hike -- that only makes you thirstier. Instead, keep a pebble in your mouth.
2) how to get a "healthy" tan.
3) how to cut and suck after a snake bite.
4) dig trenches around your tent, so rain goes away from you.
5) how to use a tourniquet.
6) clean a wound with alcohol.
7) raise the neck of a person before giving artificial respiration.
In fairness to the Scouts, they DID teach me a basic lesson I've taken with me to this very day: namely, that any place I visit or camp at should be in BETTER shape than when I arrive.
All of that "first aid" stuff taught back then was standard best practice for FA regardless of who was teaching it. Everyone was doing it that way.
The concept of a healthy tan really still has not gone away completely and I was taught that a nice tan protected against sunburn.
The trenching...again standard practice inthe day not limited to scouts
My point is other than the old "indian" trick of the pebble in the mouth all of htat was pretty much how everyone was doing it Scouts or not.
modiyooch
05-20-2010, 15:08
National Geographic Mount Oglethorpe 1949
Notice the Knife
Actually, when I started in 1980, I did have a similar knife at my waist. It was large enough whereas I had to display it. Sent it home at the first PO.
I have a picture of my departure. I'm in jeans and a flannel and overfilled backpack.
As I think back, I have replaced the jeans and flannel, but still carry my goose down vest and rain poncho. I kept my Sierra Design tent for 20 years and it was lighter than my replacement tent. I still have the same backpack, nowhere filled to capacity. I probably have the same cooking pot. I never acquired poles.
Blissful
05-20-2010, 15:39
Nice pic of the southern terminus.
Actually, tourniquets are back in vogue. I don't necessarily agree, but we now must teach and the National Registry of EMTs tests all basic students on their use early on in control of bleeding. Like I said, I don't agree, but it is what is in vogue now - right or wrong.
beakerman
05-20-2010, 16:56
wow really tourniquets? nah you're pulling my leg!
wow really tourniquets? nah you're pulling my leg!
Nope. Here is a link to the actual skill sheet used in assessing EMT, EMT Intermediate, and Paramedic skills for the National Registry. This is the organization that provides standardization and is used as the testing organization for many State licensing process.
This particular skill sheet was just implemented this year.
http://www.nremt.org/nremt/downloads/bleedingcontrolshock.pdf
In regards to practices as recent as the 1970s that seem bizarre today: lean-tos in the Adirondacks had huge trash pits. It was expected that people would dispose of their unwanted stuff/garbage there.
FritztheCat
05-20-2010, 17:41
I wonder what practices we engage in today will seem silly and outdated in a few decades?
There will probably be some study done in the future on how people to treated water with iodine contacted some disease or damaged their liver in some way. Then future hikers will sit around wondering why on earth people put iodine in their water. :D
Here's a link to the cover of a gear catalog from 1978. As "light" and "small" as that stuff was for it's era (and as good and durable as it was) my 48 year old body would sure creak and groan if I had to carry very much of that "bulky" equipment today! Pay particular attention to the coats, hiking boots, and pack frames. Look at the size of that tent--it is almost as tall as their shoulders. (However, I must confess that I sure love the durability of that "old" stuff!).
http://www.pbase.com/losthiker/image/123522838
We've seen a change in fashion since the 70s. Perhaps I'm showing my age, but I really think men looked way better back then.
http://i.pbase.com/g1/83/635583/2/72979840.frOdRwg2.jpg
Feral Bill
05-20-2010, 19:49
We've seen a change in fashion since the 70s. Perhaps I'm showing my age, but I really think men looked way better back then.
http://i.pbase.com/g1/83/635583/2/72979840.frOdRwg2.jpg
I sure did.
modiyooch
05-20-2010, 20:06
The sleeping bags have come a long way in design. I keep buying them because they keep getting smaller and lighter. My first one wouldn't even fit into my pack. It was a chore to stuff.
Specifically, my first Boy Scout Handbook,
6) clean a wound with alcohol.
I thought pouring ethanol on a wound was a good idea. I always wondered about methanol. Apparently a saline solution is better. I'll have to start carrying salt in the first aid kit.
restless
05-20-2010, 20:33
"Campid and Woodcraft" by Horace Kephart,copyright 1988 University of Tennessee Press, Vol. II Woodcraft, p. 145 AND I QUOTE!!!
The following outfit is complete save for gun, ammuntion and cleaning implements. For a longer trip than one week, a reserve of provisions can be cached at some central point in the hunting district.
lbs oz
Pack sack, with tump strap 2 12
Tent 4
Sleeping bag 8
Pillow bag 3
Rubber cape 1 5
Mackinaw stag shirt 1 8
Spare underwear, 1 suit 1 8
Spare socks 2 pairs 5
Moccasins 1
German socks 12
Axe and muzzle 1 12
Cooking kit,dish towel, tin cup 2 2
Cheese Cloth 2
Mill file, 6 in. 2
Whetstone 2
Pliers 4
Wallet, fitted 6
Twine 2
Toilet articles 6
Talcum powder 2
toilet paper 1
First Aid kit 5
Spare matches in tin 6
Alpina folding lantern 8
Candles, 1/2 dz 8
Emergency ration 8
Tobacco, in wpf bag 8
Spare pipe 3
total pack without provisions 28 12
Note: this book was origanally published in 1917. Maybe later I will post his provisions for a week which brought his total weight to 42lbs 12oz. I'll take my ULA anyday:banana:banana:banana
restless
05-20-2010, 20:34
:eek:Oops that should be "Camping and Woodcraft"
Here's a link to the cover of a gear catalog from 1978. As "light" and "small" as that stuff was for it's era (and as good and durable as it was) my 48 year old body would sure creak and groan if I had to carry very much of that "bulky" equipment today! Pay particular attention to the coats, hiking boots, and pack frames. Look at the size of that tent--it is almost as tall as their shoulders. (However, I must confess that I sure love the durability of that "old" stuff!).
http://www.pbase.com/losthiker/image/123522838
Two years ago when I was hiking outside of Bland, an older gent in his sixties came hiking into the shelter and proceeded to set up an old J.C. Penny tent from the sixties. It was tall enough for me to stand up in. State of the art coated nylon. Amazing.
fiddlehead
05-20-2010, 20:47
I didn't get my first down sleeping bag until 1977 although they had been available before then.
Packs are much lighter now as are most things like tents, stuff sacks, stoves, raingear.
Flashlights are 100 times lighter in my opinion because i only carry a photon II weighing in at .2 oz. now.
Polypro came out in the late 70's and revolutionized long underwear IMO.
Before that, i remember folks using those quilted things for tops and bottoms.
I don't see the game getting much different in the next 30 years though.
The technology will improve but walking remains the same. Artificial knees, hips, ankles, etc. will get better so maybe even i'll be able to hike at an old age.
I see nothing wrong with the old boy scout ways except perhaps the LNT rules have definitely changed. (boughs and duff for a mattress, leanto made from boughs, etc)
I still think alcohol cleans a wound, trenches around tents are worthwhile in some situations, tourniquets are ok and cut and suck a snake bite might keep someone alive (still) and the 12 points of their creed or whatever it is called are still important.
I see nothing wrong with the old boy scout ways except perhaps the LNT rules have definitely changed. (boughs and duff for a mattress, leanto made from boughs, etc)
I still think alcohol cleans a wound, trenches around tents are worthwhile in some situations, tourniquets are ok and cut and suck a snake bite might keep someone alive (still) and the 12 points of their creed or whatever it is called are still important.
I became an Eagle Scout as a teen and I am an Assistant Scoutmaster at the present time.
Even though I will often chuckle (or shake my head) when I look at some of the things printed in old Scout Handbooks (and Scout Fieldbooks) the Scouting movement has always tried to be pretty "mainstream" in terms of what they taught in regard to camping and hiking. If you pick up an old Scout Handbook, you can be pretty certain that the camping and hiking skills being taught in that book tend to reflect the generally accepted mainstream practices of that era.
Some of our WhiteBlaze members seem to have a problem with Scouts and the Scouting movement. They are sometimes critical of the camping and hiking methods that they see practiced in Scouting. However, for many decades, Scouting has been the predominant youth outdoor program in the U.S. (and the world). Many people who have become lifelong campers and hikers often received their start in Scouting.
Teenagers and pre-teens are going to naturally be a bit "crazy", loud and wild--especially when they are together in a group. That is not the fault of the Scouting movement. It is just a part of being a youth. Furthermore, very few youth organizations are able to fully equip their youth with state-of-the-art camping and hiking equipment. Thus, Scouts might not appear to be well-organized or well-equipped, when you see them hiking. Just remember--they are "newbies" and they are teenagers too!
A first year high school biology student probably doesn't have the tools or the skills necessary to be a heart surgeon. However, all heart surgeons probably got their start in a high school biology class. Scouts are a lot like the first year biology student--their skills and their equipment will improve with time.
As an Eagle Scout and current Scoutmaster who takes his troop on the AT at least once a year, I agree! My guys wouldn't even know what the AT was if it wasn't for our troop doing backpacking trips there. Last year at Dahlgren CG in MD we met several SB thru hikers, two were Eagle Scouts. They came over to our campfire and talked at length about thru hiking. The scouts had lots of questions and were really interested. When we got back from our trip we always discuss likes and dislikes. I was surprised when one scout said he wanted to be a thru hiker, then the whole group chimed in "I wanna be a thru hiker!". A very positive moment indeed.
Tuckahoe
05-20-2010, 22:31
Sorry about the quality of the photo. It is of a camp of the 318th Infantry, in France about August 1918. Anyway, as mentioned trenching around tents was a pretty mainstream practice. In this photo we see not only trenching, but in this case the soldiers actually dug pits a couple feet deep and set up their shelter tents over the pits. They learned to pile the dirt up to keep water from running in to the pits.
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb77/Tuckahoe64/scan0006-2.jpg
GoldenBear
05-20-2010, 22:36
For decades it was standard practice to cleanse a wound with rubbing alcohol. This substance is, after all, a VERY good germ killer.
In the last few years, however, Red Cross training now teaches that the damage done by alcohol to exposed flesh is not worth its germ killer ability. Remember how, as a kid, you didn't want your mom to wipe out your cuts with alcohol, because it hurt so much? It turns out you were right!
The technique now favored for wounds without major bleeding is to wash it out with mild soap and water, then rub anti-bacterial cream (Neosporin{R} or Triple-X) into it, and then cover with a sterile pad. If you want to use Sponge Bob Band-Aids{R}, that's fine.
www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-cuts/FA00042
Regarding alcohol. I think you guys in the US have the right stuff, Everclear I think its called. Can't buy it up here; best we can get is 50% Vodka. But the 100% stuff is multipurpose: disinfectant, for wound and equipment (needles and knives, etc). disinfect your water, mouth and gi tract as well, and it's also good fuel. Course, you should probably dilute it some for most purposes, so maybe the Vodka works about as well, except for the fuel. Can't drink the denatured stuff, or the rubbing alcohol, and I'd just as soon not put methanol or propyl alcohol on an open wound. And if you have a major open wound, it's probably safer not to pour alcohol over it. The patient might come to life a bit too quick, and lay you out. But I don't see myself carrying distilled water and saline salts on a hike. And pouring salt on a wound hurts just about as bad.
Oh, and as to iodine. I just don't think it works well enough to use all the time. I don't need it nutritionally, and my wife can't tolerate it. As far as I can see, it's not recommended. I'd prefer to filter.
My first equipment was all cotton and wood, with some wool. And knives were big and fixed blade, and there was a camp axe in there somewhere. I still love those sweet little axes, with sharp, thin blades. Food came in bags and tins. and so on. I never got to make a bough bed, even though I had the axe, and some of the country we traversed was far enough into the bush. But we always just trekked out and stayed in a motel. Sigh. That was prospecting back in the late sixties north of Lake Superior. By the way, my professor used to buy butter in tins. I wonder if it's still available that way.
A well equiped Scout Troop/Future Thru Hikers
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8709&stc=1&d=1274414336
I still have a copy of Harvey Manning's Backpacking One Step at a Time. It was, and still is, an excellent introduction to backpacking. Manning was one of the first to popularize the "new ethic" of LNT priciples. I first read it as a teen in the '70s. The parts on gear are obviously dated but his humor and enthusiasm for hiking is still fresh.
One nugget from the section on stoves: "A central disadvantage is that alcohol stoves have virtually disappeared."
fredmugs
05-21-2010, 10:54
I wonder what practices we engage in today will seem silly and outdated in a few decades?
Great question! I'm thinking....
Water purification techniques
Maps
Bear pepper spray
Anything made out of merino wool
Mole skin
double d
05-21-2010, 11:33
National Geographic Mount Oglethorpe 1949
Notice the Knife
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8707&stc=1&d=1274381214
Very cool photo (I also own that issue of NG), the young man in the picture is most likely a WWII vet, the knife looks like a Marine K-bar issued knife (but I could be wrong).
Funkmeister
05-21-2010, 13:29
I've hesitated to add to this thread, but considering the shaky thread drift already, this won't hurt a bit:
As a scout in the late 60s/early 70s, I remember many of the things everyone describes. I also had my older uncle's scout book (late 50s vintage), where pages were spent on things like making a bough bed and the pebble in the mouth trick. I do recall trenching and burying trash and cans.
Scouting was my first taste of the AT; growing up in Berks Co, PA, I hiked plenty of trail on both sides of Port Clinton back in those days. Academy brand external frame pack? Check. Big 6v flashlight? Backup d-cell flashlight? Double check. Hatchet and sheath. You bet. Coins taped to the bottom of my first aid kit for pay phone emergencies? Of course. Jeans, poncho, flannel bag--was there any other way?
But not all old equipment is bad equipment. To this day I still have plenty of 'old' things that I sometimes use, as the situation allows. I have fleece, windshirts, and booties that sometimes get used on trips. And the original Eureka! Timberline 2, complete with vestibule, still sits on the shelf. It's the go-to tent for a backyard sleepout when kids are here.
Earlier this year I met some guy on Baxter Peak using the ice ax that I've attached here. Anyone know when this relic was made?