Camping and woodcraft; a handbook for vacation campers and for travelers in the wilderness by Kephart Horace 1862-1931

Author:Kephart, Horace, 1862-1931
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Camping, Outdoor life
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan Company
Published: 1921-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

52 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT-

may turn into a snowstorm; so we cannot sit around waiting on the chance of its rising.

Below the balsam zone (5,000 to 6,000 feet) the leaves, in autumn and early winter, lie very thickly upon the ground, so that a scurry of wind may at any moment obliterate the trail for some distance. When a cloud settles upon the mountain, a man hurrying along to get into the valley before nightfall, and over-confident, perhaps, of his bearings, may easily miss the trail and find himself on the wrong ridge—where? Once of¥ the trail, there are no blazes to guide him, and the going gets worse and worse until it becomes damnable. If one could see out, he would not hesitate; but he cannot see a tree two rods away.

In such case, it is of serious Import for a man to decide, rather promptly, upon which particular ridge he may have straggled; for many of these ridges are very thickety, some of them lead Into laurel "hells," and on others one's progress is impeded by cliffs. To descend immediately into a creek valley would be the worst thing he could do, for the headwaters generally rise in almost impenetrable thickets of laurel and rhododendron, and their beds are rough and steep.

Now, what does a mountaineer do In such dilemma? Trust to instinct? Not a bit of It. Our strayed man might not be able to explain the process, he probably would not even be conscious of the Infinitude of details involved, he might lay it all to "woods sense" and let you credit him with a mysterious "gift"; but this Is what he would do: first, he would scan the trees and shrubs, closely observing their prevailing habit of growth; then he w^ould examine the ground itself; he would move about like a dog scenting for a track; presently he would find evidence, not single, but collective—gathered from many sources—which his memory and reasoning powers would combine Into a theory of locality, and, five times out of six, his theory would prove correct.

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