By Ernest Seton
It is a good rule in hiking to set out with the idea of keeping the party together, having a pleasant time, and seeing interesting things, rather than of showing how hardy you are. It is as bad as trying to show how smart you are. Do not try to make a record. Record breakers generally come to grief in the end. Take a few boys, not more than a dozen, and set out determined to be moderate. Plan a moderate trip of which not more than half the time must be consumed in going and coming.
For example, if it is Saturday afternoon and you must be home by six o'clock, having thus four hours, divide the time into two hours' travel, going and coming, and two hours' exploration or sight-seeing. Three miles is a moderate walk for one hour, so that should be the limit of distance that ordinarily you tramp from your starting point. At five o'clock all hands should be ready to face homeward.
In a large city it may be that the hike will be taken to a park, to a museum, or to a place or point of historical interest. In this connection it might be well for some member of the tribe to make a list of the interesting historical places, of the museums of various kinds, of interesting buildings, including any manufacturing plants; and have this list ready when it is decided to take a hike.
The following are some of the rules which have been found good in hiking:
 | Do not go in new shoes. |
| Make sure that your feet are comfortable. (A comfortable shoe is not too tight nor too loose.) |
| See that your stockings are without holes and ordinarily without large darns. (When going on a long hike it is well to take an extra pair of stockings with you.) |
| In walking keep your toes practically straight ahead of you. |
| Walking with your feet turned out is tiring and results in foot trouble. |
| Try to have the members of the group of similar age and physical ability. |
| If going in the country it is well to take a tape line, knife, some string, and some matches. |
| A compass and a pocket level and a map also are of value in many cases. |
| A notebook and pencil are of great value. |
| Remember that the value of the hike is in doing things which you cannot do at home, and last and most important it is wise to set out with a definite object. |
Here are some of the objects for a short hike:
| To determine that hard maple or any other timber does or does not grow in such woods or such a park. |
| To see how many kinds of trees can be discovered in a given place, or how many kinds of wild flowers. |
| To practise the building of fires--of wildwood material. |
| To have a practical demonstration in cooking. |
| To get acquainted with the birds. |
| To learn the geological formation of a certain rock or ledge. |
| To get 100 straight rods, 30 inches long; to make an Indian bed of willow, hazel, red willow (kinikinik) arrowwood, etc. |
| To get wood for rubbing sticks or the fire-bow. |
| To get horns for a Caribou dance. |
| If there is snow, to take, by the tracks, a census of a given woods, making full-size drawings of each track--that is four tracks, one for each foot, and also give the distance to the next set. |
| Most important of all, remember that though it is wise to start with an object, it is still wiser to change whenever some much more alluring pursuit or opportunity turns up. Any one who sticks to a plan merely because he started that way, when it turns out to be far from the best, is not only unwise--he is stupid and obstinate. |
| Make sure that as you travel to the point you have selected that your eyes and ears are open to see the hundreds of interesting things that may be seen along the roadside. |
Books Recommended
BOYS' BOOK of HIKING, Edward Cave. Published by Doubleday, Page & Co. Price 50 cents.
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