Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019 - 8

FROM THE EDITOR

The Appalachian Trail
shelter in this 1955 photo
is strongly suggestive of
old ways remaining alive
today; the chair and
the packs not so much.
Kurt Rheinheimer (green
hat), here with his late
father, also seems to have
changed a bit over those
years.

ARMY-SURPLUS CANTEENS AND PACKS

Keeping the Old Ways Alive (or not)
The accoutrements for hiking have changed over the years, but remnants of the old ways remain.
By KURT RHEINHEIMER

ver the last few years of his life, when he
visited us for a few weeks at a time, my father would, on Saturday mornings, present
a pretty reliable and predictable reaction as
The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All and I
prepared to head out for our weekly hike.
He seemed to admire the hiking shoes-
sturdy-looking Keen Targhee IIs for both of us. And he
didn't seem too disturbed with the shorts with all those
pockets.
But ice? In a big blue bag called an Ice Mule?
And that bladder thing with a hose to your mouth
on it?
What are these things and don't you just have a canteen?
was his reaction.
My father began hiking in the 1930s and hiked into
the early '90s, and he may have had the same canteen
the whole time. Military surplus, I guess, as so much
hiking gear was back in the day when he began-in the
early days of the Appalachian Trail's existence.
And though Gail and I were not inclined to go
retro-back to wool socks, say, and a canteen of summer-warmed water-there was at least a tinge of guilt
or maybe nostalgia-for-him as we picked up our multipocketed, several-zippered, many-strapped Osprey packs

BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

to head out the door.
And I'm not sure he ever knew that those packs were
equipped with their own rain covers, deftly hidden at
their bottoms by yet another zipper. Certainly he did
not know of all the compartments and zippers, the
stetch cords and the adjustable straps that these days
render a well-adjusted good pack almost part of your
body.
The packs of his day were an army-gray canvas material, with a big flap over the top and maybe one or two
pockets. One of which held that canteen full of warm
water. When it rained, the stuff inside got wet.
The Day Hiker and I do give ourselves credit for keeping at least a few old ways alive. We are out in the woods,
after all, carrying our sustenance and the layers-technical versus all cotton back in the day-that we'll need for
the day. And planning, at least on inclement days, to
pause for lunch at one of the Appalachian Trail shelters
that are pretty much exactly as they were in, say, 1955,
when the accompanying photo was taken.
There are lots more old ways to keep alive. We have a
few of them in our issue photo essay, beginning on page
38. And a lot more of those old ways at least alluded to,
in our Annual Almanac, back to our pages after a hiatus
of more than a decade. It starts on page 54.

http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM

Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2019