atn may–june 2000 appalachian trailway news

Camping in the 1940s
did I state that the Trail is not for everyone.
Fortunately, of those who do use the
OGER MEYER’S NOVEMBER/DECEMBER some of the down bags even then in ex-
five pounds, it was a little heavier than
Trail, most are trying to escape from the R 1999 ATN article about camping in istence, but they were too expensive for
city rather than trying to take the city to
the Trail.
Harold Croxton
Abingdon, Va.
the 1940s was interesting and doubtless
accurate as far as his experience went, but
I found superior camping resources even
ten years earlier.
As a member of Takoma Park,
us. That booklet also listed the firm of
Ome Daiber in Seattle. In 1941, I scraped
up the ten dollars needed to buy their version
of the Bergan frame rucksack that,
with one replacement sack, served me
The First Thru-hikers? Maryland’s Boy Scout Troop 33, we had a until 1970. And, yes, it had pockets.
VERY YEAR I READ WITH INTEREST THE troop committee made up of scientists Two books that I acquired should
E names of that year’s thru-hikers in from the departments of agriculture and have also been available to Mr. Meyer and
the ATN. Mine was so listed for 1983. In
1994 (November/December), an article,
“The Summer of 1936,” documents the
thru-hike of Max Gordon, Seymour
Dorfman, Louis Zisk and three other Boy
Scouts from Troop 257, Bronx, New York.
Regarding their hike, the editor offers the
caveat that three miles of the Trail were
“not yet complete.” Using this criteria,
the following hikers cannot be given
credit for finishing the Trail:
1. Myron Avery—credited with finishing
in 1936, before the A.T. was even done.
2. Earl Shaffer—during his 1948 hike, the
Blue Ridge Parkway construction had
wiped out much of the route south of
Roanoke, which forced him to improvise
a route.
3. Ed Talone—during my 1983 hike, the
A.T. was not recognized for about five
miles around Sherburne Pass, Vermont,
and a second section was wiped
out by logging in Maine.
4. Every hiker who has had to leave the
Trail because of fires, landowner disputes
(I’m showing my age), and so on.
Before anyone has a stroke, I only list
the above examples to illustrate the point
that even today the A.T. is hardly ever
“an unbroken footpath.” The six intrepid
hikers of 1936 followed a little known and
poorly (by today’s standards) maintained
route from Katahdin to Mt. Oglethorpe.
Their tremendous achievement should be
celebrated. I look forward to seeing the
names of Max and his fellow hikers in the
next listing by ATC of those who report
completing the A.T. To Max and the others
I say, “Welcome to the Club.”
Ed Talone
Silver Spring, Md.
Editor’s note: The names were added to
the listing in this issue.
the interior. One of them, for example,
was able to get permission from the
Weather Bureau to let us camp at Mt.
Weather in 1938. That included my first
hike on the Appalachian Trail. I haven’t
been able to stop yet. (Finished the whole
Trail in 1979.) Members of Troop 33 certainly
carried trash out, dug holes for our
waste, and certainly filled up those holes
and the ditches we dug around our tents.
At the end of each outing, the committeemen
snooped around each patrol’s
campsite and expected to find no evidence
that we had ever been there or had built a
fire. “No-Trace Camping” is not so new
as some might think.
These same men introduced me to
L.L.Bean. From Bean’s I got—among other
things—a “Hudson Bay” axe, a pack basket
with waterproof cover, a three-and-a
half point “Hudson Bay” blanket and dehydrated
Maine potatoes—yes, not as
good as freeze-dried, but not bad. I still
have the blanket and the ax. When another
Scout and I spent three weeks in
the Shenandoah Park in 1941, there were
stacks of chestnut logs at each shelter.
The axe was great for splitting these logs
down to size. I did not use a stove until
hiking the Smokies in 1966.
The 1938 Scout hike on the A.T. led
me to visit the original office of the ATC
and to learn about the Potomac Appalachian
Trail Club. I didn’t join PATC until
1941 (at age sixteen, I believe that I was
their youngest member to date, and it was
through Jean Stephenson’s intervention
that I was deemed worthy). In those days,
PATC had a wonderful booklet listing
lightweight camping and trail-maintenance
equipment. As a result of that
booklet, my parents bought me a David
T. Abercrombie mummy sleeping bag. At
gave invaluable help on lightweight
equipment. One, of course, was Horace
Kephart’s Camping and Woodcraft. The
other was the Boy Scout Fieldbook. (Incidentally,
Camping and Woodcraft was
originally printed in 1917 and reprinted
in 1988 by the University of Tennessee
Press. Even some of you “young squirts”
reading this letter could learn something
from it.)
Lightweight tents made of some material
like that of parachutes (also called
“balloon silk”) and well waterproofed
were in existence, but rather expensive.
A friend and I made a lightweight Fraser
tent (Camping and Woodcraft, page 83)
out of unbleached muslin with much help
from his mother. Our first waterproofing
didn’t take. In 1940, we were soaked at
Keys Gap after hiking in two weeks
from the Susquehanna River. But, I
rewaterproofed it, and, in 1945, I was
“high and dry” in a hurricane rain at Petites
Gap.
Much of my experience did resemble
Mr. Meyer’s. Other than Bean’s potatoes,
we didn’t have lightweight food. We usually
ate Ralston or Cream of Wheat (not
instant) for breakfast or pancakes if there
were time. We frequently baked our own
bread. In 1942, at Katahdin Stream Campsite,
my buddy turned out a blueberry
cobbler that would surpass anything from
Mountain House or AlpineAire. We carried
the cereal and flour in paraffin-treated
cloth food bags that were no more mouseresistant
than today’s plastic. Even though
I did not enter the Coast Guard until 1943,
I always preferred canned corn beef to
Spam. Like Mr. Meyer, I profited by World
War II’s equipment developments, especially
those for the mountain troops. In
Continued on page 28
APPALACHIAN TRAILWAY NEWS 7