Backpacking in the Old Days

[Hickory]

Back in the early 70' s I did a lot of backpacking, that was when I had a strong back and good knees. 60-70 lb loads were common for an enjoyable week of camping.

I still like to camp, but not with any sort of backpack. Nowadays the load is carried in a canoe, on a motorcycle or in the back of the truck.

These new additions to cast boolits will be great.
Might tell some stories of adventures and misadventures of backpacking.

[Artful]

I think in the 70's it was more like 90 lbs load outs - but I didn't bother to weigh cause I could carry green bales of hay in each hand and and toss them up onto the truck - not any more.
Getting old sucks... but we now have cool new light weight gear so the 50 lbs or so I am willing to carry does way more than the old stuff.
I should look to see if I still have my old camp moccasins, those with thick wool socks at the end of the day after soaking feet in cold creek water was the height of luxury.

[opos]

My camping was done in the Colorado mountains in the 40's and 50's....Pretty basic....lots of military surplus clothing for waterproof wear (Mountain patrol ski parkas, etc)for winter and fall hunting camping...levis, engineer boots that had been waterproofed with "bear grease...commercial goop"...Wore surplus ski goggles with the changable lenses depending on the sunlight...ski gloves...packs weighed 50 or 60 pounds...we hunted out of a surplus GI tent with pretty sizable poles and broken into halves or quarters to pack in. no floor so slept on a tarp or pine needles under the sleeping bags. Basic cooking in milsurp cooking and eating gear.

When we camped for fishing during the summer months it was a lot lighter and more basic. and my Wife and kids were constant compantions..just jeans and shirts and hats with sun glasses...lots of mosquito repellant...usually carried pup tents..again the cooking and eating utensils were all milsurp stuff. The GI stores in those days had the real deal surplus items...it was just shortly after the war and surplus stores were huge and super cheap.

Pics are just of some family spring and summer camping...the "kids" in the pictures are now in their 50's....parents and even grandparents. We drug them along no matter where we went...the one pic we lovingly named "Club Mud"...that's how it was a very long time ago..The pic with my son with a Rifle is on top of the continental divide...he is now 56 and a grand father...the one of the tent camping is my Daughter's 2nd birthday at a lake at 9000' in June with the old smelly tent...and the mud shot is my youngest that is now 51....we had been fishing in a high mountain big reservoir and decided to do some water skiiing with some other campers that had a boat and skiis...water about 38 degrees...great but cool camping out. Final pic was fishing on a "raft" we made at a very high mountain lake ...packed in and fished for about 3-4 days at about 9000 feet.

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[No_1]

When I was young the parents had a Coleman Pop-up camper, it was pretty tight for 7 people. I was also a Scout and our troop rule was for each patrol to camp 1 time a month and then the troop camped 1 time a month. Summer camp was offered every year. Saw and learned some very interesting things. I still camp but now with between 4 and 7 other family's. Each now owns some type of large camper. We have all the fun "weekenders" can have without having to do much besides make a fire, enjoy company of friends, eat food and pass out.

[starmac]

I still love pictures of the old camps, both fishing and hunting. When I was young camping with parents and grand parents, camp gear was pretty simple and didn't cost a fortune to have some great times.

[gandydancer]

My idea of camping and roughing it now days is black & white TV. I still have my old kerosene TV set . GD

[MT Gianni]

I turned 12 in 66 and went on my first Boy Scout pack trip. We went to Utah's Uintah range and packed in 12 miles. I had a wooden pack frame with stretched canvas and homemade straps. My tent was a 2 mil plastic 9x12 drop cloth. Half was a ground cloth and half a tarp. I have no idea how heavy my bag was but one pair of boots was all I had. I got a heavy aluminum packframe in the 70's and went to an internal in the 80's. I now try to plan day walks out of a camp ratherthan live out of a pack for a few days.

[Dennis Eugene]

[Love Life]

I love backpacking. I do two long range backpacking trips a year. One in spring/summer and one in spring/winter. Sure is a good way to see an area and maybe I'll find my retirement nugget yet!!!

I'll have to dig up some pics, but I live out of my pack for the week I am gone.

[dagger dog]

Have been out sub zero weather, so before getting ready to sack out for the night would boil 2 canteens of water, pour the boiling water back into the canteens seal 'em well so they don't leak and throw them in the foot of my fart sack.

Not only gives you a cozy warm bag, but you have some liquid water to make coffee with the next morning instead of melting snow or chiping ice out of frozen over ice hole.

Winter time my pack with a -20 down bag, air mat to insulate you from the ground , 3-4 days vittles, 1 pot, spoon, stove and fuel all the stuff I wanted to wear and lug in would go 60 lb.

I always liked wool for winter kept you warm even when wet, but some of the newer synthetics sure work well. GoreTex has to be one of the best new materials going, but I still wear my wool under it !

[2thepoint]

Thick warm socks and mocassins after a bitter cold hike back to the hunting camp brings back many fond memories!! My deer hunting coat was an original Woolrich plaid that I bought in 1965 when I graduated high school. Larry Benoit was my hero!
Stay well!

Phil

[shtur]

Growing up in West Texas, I would hike with my Dad and uncle from a ranch house east of Big Bend NP down to the Rio Grande River for fishing trips. We would hike down late Friday evening and hike out late Sunday afternoon. The ranch owner would loan us one mule for our camp equipment and cooler. We would take a Colt SAA .357 magnum, a Colt woodsman, and a Browning .22 takedown auto.
My Mom and aunt would make chorrizo tacos placed in aluminum foil. We would make a fire to cook the tacos plus fish. Fishing was with set lines. We would explore the many caves looking for arrowheads and gathering cottontails for eating. We slept in lightweight down sleeping bags and under the stars. We never had a tent in the three years we camped there. My Dad and uncle each carried a pack frame, one with a case of beer, the other with water canteens and coca cola (for me). We would come home with a few pounds of catfish fillets and several quartered cottontails. I have two large frames with all the arrowheads collected from 1968-1971 and several Indian grinding stones and some weaving displayed in my game room. My most memorable trip was getting two mountian lions with that SAA 357 magnum on the same day. It was pretty neat my Dad and uncle offered me to shoot first. I went into the USMC and family moved away from the area, so the last trip was in spring 1971. I moved to the NW and took my Dad up the north Cascades, this time I hauled the pack and let him shoot all the grouse with the woodsman, but still no tent. I have new areas now in the NW, each have their best time to go. I have to take a tent now, because the weather can change quickly in the mtns.

[Kull]

I was spoiled because we had animals growing up. Trips to the mountains were painless and in luxury compared to backpacking. We'd stick cooler chests in the soft pack boxes, top load lawn chairs, tents, tarps and other stuff. The hard pack boxes we had for the mules turned into a camp pantry/food prep area transformer style. No matter the reason for the trip I always had a rifle in a scabbard and would ride around pretending it was 1885 instead of 1985. Good times.

Only reason I bring that up is because I've made a couple attempts at backpacking in recent years and my god I about killed myself. I used to look down on backpackers and llama packers from my high horse. See what I did there, not any more. You guys that can hump 50, 60, 90 pounds of gear up into the woods have my full respect.

[Combat Diver]

I started backbacking in the mid 70s with the Boy Scouts. Once a year a 12 miler, once hike for 2 wks at Philmont Scout Ranch (45lb pack) in NM. Then I gradulated and joined the Army. Now in the Army those were killers. From quarterly (every 3 months) 12 miler with 60lbs within 3 hrs, 75 miles in 3 days in southern Germany and many exercises with 100 lb rucks in deserts, moutains and swamps. During Gulf War 1, we each carried a 150lb load on our recon mission. Now days I pack up the truck and live out of it

CD

[Victor N TN]

In the 1970s my wife and I used to throw on a pack every now and then. My first pack when I was a kid was a used Boy Scout pack. In the late 70's we both got new Jansport outer frame packs. Then after a couple more she got a model with a hip suspension frame. We both have mummy bags. But right now we're both too fat to use them.

[Lead Freak]

Like just about everyone else, I did lots of heavy backpacking from the 70's (in northern Michigan), continuing through the late 90's (in Big Cypress Swamp in S. Florida). I basically wore out both knees and had them both replaced. Not wanting to quit "getting out there", I bought an off-road "Bob Sport Utility" stroller on Craig's list and hit the trail again. It has 3 large 16" inflatable tires that roll easily over most small logs and is narrow enough to fit past most obstacles on the trail. Living in Florida is a plus, because there are very few hills to worry about and central to north Florida stays reasonably dry. It also has an 85 lb. carrying capacity which covers most of my trips. Check out my pictures from a short overnight on the 4th of July weekend...

[Victor N TN]

I love reading these stories from older*** uh people like myself. I'm glad I'm not the only one falling apart. And I never had the idea about the 3 wheel stroller. I'll have to watch the neighborhood yard sales this summer. That sounded like a wonderful idea. One time when we were on the Appalachian Trail, we saw a guy pushing a cheap lightweight wheel barrow full of camping gear. I guess you use what you have.

[pull the trigger]

I started backbacking in the mid 70s with the Boy Scouts. Once a year a 12 miler, once hike for 2 wks at Philmont Scout Ranch (45lb pack) in NM. Then I gradulated and joined the Army. Now in the Army those were killers. From quarterly (every 3 months) 12 miler with 60lbs within 3 hrs, 75 miles in 3 days in southern Germany and many exercises with 100 lb rucks in deserts, moutains and swamps. During Gulf War 1, we each carried a 150lb load on our recon mission. Now days I pack up the truck and live out of it

CD

I do not know how you guys do it. Very impressive. And thank you for doing it for us. You still dont get enough cudos.

[GhostHawk]

After a 15 year hiatus my wife and I tried camping twice this year. Both were pretty much disasters for different reasons. Neither involved any real hiking, but I never really got into hiking. Growing up in Northern Minnesota I was a Canoe camper.

My first real camping experience I didn't plan for at all, was planning a short afternoon's fishing on a small lake. But I had no more than got out in the middle of the lake and I see this huge thunderstorm building SW of me. So I headed to shore, found a spot where 2 tree's made a V, put the nose of the canoe up there, other end on the ground. Some bushes pretty much filled the gap on the windward side. I quickly gathered up a pile of wood and stacked it at the low end. Built a hat sized fire just in the lee so it would be at least partially protected from the storm by the canoe, but the smoke would mostly miss the canoe. About then the storm came, not bad wind, rain like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Some hail, but it must have been small as it didn't dent my Aluminum canoe.

Spent the night keeping the fire alive, snug as a bug in a rug. Caught my first fish at daybreak while still under the canoe.

Life was good!

[WRideout]

When I was a lad, my boy scout troop in Oxnard, CA used to go camping once a month, year 'round. It was usually in the coastal foothills, but once a year we would take a week-long back-packing adventure in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and live out of our packs. The smell of freeze-dried food cooking still brings back memories. Up on the top of the Sierras, nothing grows, not even moss or algae. When I dove into one of the ice-melt lakes up there, I could see everything under the water, it was that clear. That swim lasted about thirty seconds. Now that I live in PA, some people talk about being way up in the mountains; I just laugh. They have trees growing all the way to the top.

Wayne