The gentle art of tramping

Jog on, jog on the foot-path way And merrily hint the stile-a The merry heart goes all the way The sad tires in a mile-a.

The sad heart, in this case, often has just a thin sole. Two friends set out last spring to tramp from Bavaria to Venice, luggage in advance, knapsack on shoulder. But they had not the right sort of boots, and they lingered in the mountain inns quaffing steins of brown beer to take their thoughts away from their toes. They are in those mountains yet.

You should have leather-lined boots with most substantial soles. They may squeak, they may feel clumsy as sabots when you first put them on. They may feel like comfortable baskets on your feet. Slight and elegant boots seldom stand the strain, or, if they do, your feet do not. I have tramped in little steel-soled boots in the Caucasus, and in plaited birch-bark boots, lapti, in the North, but I do not recommend novelties in footwear. It is difficult to better a new pair of Army boots. But the best I ever had were a pair of chrome leather fishing boots which I once bought in a wayside shop in the Catskill Mountains. My feet were in a poor state, having got frozen by night and blistered by day in a disgusting pair of light boots. I got into these capacious fishing boots one evening and never felt another twinge all the way to Chicago. As regards Army boots, men suffered on the march because often they were wearing other men’s boots worn and shaped already to a different pair of feet and then patched and cobbled. One cannot with advantage wear dead men’s boots.

Of course, one should go gradually with a really stout pair of boots. Beware of the zest of the first and second day’s tramping. It is so easy to cripple oneself on the second day out. You dispose of the first surface blisters, and then you get the deeper, more painful, blisters, and those you cannot squeeze. They intend to squeeze you. One should wear thick woolen socks, or even two pairs of socks at the same time. When the socks wear out one can even increase the number of pairs to three, though it is better to discard socks that have worn to hard shreds. I do not believe in soaping socks, though it does not hurt to put them on damp. One should try to get a dip every day, in mountain stream or lake. An ideal combination is sea-bathing and tramping. The salt-water exercise certainly helps the feet. It takes several days to get town-nurtured feet into condition. With that in mind one should not overdo it at the beginning. Mile averages are a curse. So are definite programs. Like a good cricketer, you should play yourself in before you begin to score.

Of all tramping the most delightful is in the mountains; the most trying is along great highways. Both have their place in the ideal tramp’s life. But experience teaches where the most fun is to be found. Mountain walking is really much less tiring because, first of all, there is no dust, then there is more contrast and mental distraction, and last, not least, one’s feet hit the earth at varying angles, employing more muscles. The sole does not hit a road with monotonous regularity upon the same dry spot of blistering skin.

I find that in the mountains a boot of rather lighter sole is preferable, with either brads or Phillips rubbers. One must nevertheless beware of shoddy. After the second scramble amid rocks I have seen the whole sole of a boot part company with the upper. I have seen the heel come off. Well established lines of workingmen’s boots are safer than fair-seeming boots for clerks. On the other hand, boots whose nails come through are a nuisance, digging holes in the soles of one’s feet. Boots which are letting iron in should be hammered inside with a stone, but if, as often happens, some sharp nail edge cannot be smoothed it is as well to put in a certain amount of paper till a cobbler can be found to right the wrong.

Metal plates, “bradies,” on the outside of the soles are of little use as they get very smooth and slippery. Brads also wear to be more slippery than plain leather. The new type of very hard rubber patches made by Phillips and others are ideal for climbing. It is to be remembered that tramping across country in the mountains one comes to steep and dangerous descents, and upon occasion one risks one’s neck on the grip of one’s feet. That is where the Army type of rubbers comes in. As an auxiliary it is not a bad plan to have a light pair of tennis shoes in the pack, as you can get over some obstacles in prehensile rubber shoes which one could never negotiate in boots. But hard rubber bars across one’s leather soles are in any case very good. These rubbers would “draw” your feet on an exposed level road. But in the mountains one’s feet keep cooler, and the comfort of a safe grip on slippery rocks is not to be disdained. When in the Rockies with Vachel Lindsay he had bradded boots, but they got very shiny and smooth, and he could slide in them. In certain dangerous descents we made I could see that much-worn bradded boots were clearly at a disadvantage.

It is a good plan on a long tramp to carry a duplicate pair of boots in the pack. While it adds to the weight carried there is a counter-balancing pleasure in a change of footgear now and then. It is moreover possible that in wild country one may wear out one solid pair of boots in a month or so. Uppers have a way of bursting in the mountains, especially when one indulges in rushing down great slopes of silt with myriads of knife-edged little stones. By the way, one should beware of toasting one’s feet in front of camp fires, or of leaving one’s boots too near the embers when sleeping out. If not using them as the foundation of a pillow, it is well to put them in a fresh and airy place, smearing a little grease on them perhaps, to keep the uppers soft and pliable. Beware, however, of the grease getting near the bread.