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Posted by Bill S on September 11, 2007 at 1:18:27 pm EDT
In reply to My first backpacking trip - Trip Report - 3/14/1969 - 3/16/1969 posted by Fred on September 11, 2007 at 7:26:47 am EDT

Man, Fred, you have a far better memory than I. But, I was wondering about that climb on the Tooth. Any climbing on the Tooth has been strictly forbidden for quite a few years now (officially, that is - certain people have been known to do a route or two around the time of the annual Climbing Directors Conference).

I remember the Yucca pack. I had one that I got to go to the 1953 Jamboree (the one at Irvine - bet most people who live in Irvine and go to UC Irvine don't know why it's named "Jamboree Boulevard"). I used to hang it on a Sears aluminum pack frame that I had for a few years before I could afford to buy a real Kelty.

My first backpack was actually a horse-pack, according to what my parents told me (and I found in my father's diaries, plus the photos - one of which is on my website). I was about 6 months old at the time. So I have no recollection of it, other than what I was told, read from Dad's diary, and see in the ancient B&W photos.

First backpack I remember was also in Scouts, at 12 years old (the minimum age when I joined, with the minimum being changed to 11 that same year). That must have been in 1952. I lived in Phoenix, so we went out to Paradise Valley, far, far out in the desert (it's now the site of one of the world's largest shopping centers, even with its own REI!). I don't remember very many details beyond a few gear items and that my best buddies Eddie and Roger were also on it. My sleeping bag was a rectangular duck down bag that weighed a ton. But it had its own canopy (actually the outer cover that wrapped around the bag when you rolled it up, but could be pitched as a hood over the head end). Not that it would have done a lot of good if it had rained - the bag wasn't waterproof. I also had a very heavy air mattress that was frequently flat because of all the cactus thorns we had in the deserts.

What else? Lessee - Official Boy Scout knife, Official Boy Scout mess kit (the round one with the fry pan, dish, and hinged handle with a wing nut that had to be replaced often, since it got lost on almost every trip), some kind of army surplus pack (soon replaced by the Yucca pack), Army surplus quart canteen in its snap canvas cover that hooked into an army surplus belt (the kind with lots of little holes to hook things in), a hand ax (cover hooked into the army belt), a folding shovel (cover hooked into the army belt). I don't remember what else.

I also don't remember much about the trip itself, except that at some very late hour, Eddie, Roger, and I were awake looking at the stars (which were always very spectacular many miles out in the Arizona desert - one of the reasons I became a professional astronomer later in life). The adults were still sitting around the campfire 40 or 50 feet away. Roger or Eddie (don't remember which) whispered "is that whiskey they are drinking?" (next morning we found an empty whiskey bottle, so yeah, I guess they were). And they were all smoking cigars! Even in those days, before BSA put a lot of restrictions on what adult leaders were permitted to do within sight of the youth, that seemed very un-scoutly to us. During my years as a young scout, I saw that a lot, but seeing that on my first scout backpack was the one thing that sticks with me.

But yeah, my packs in those days were way too heavy with way too many things that were unused. I will say, though, that those whiskey-drinking, cigar smoking (some pipes) adults taught us a lot about living and traveling in the desert and in the mountains of northern Arizona as well. Some of them were Native Americans whose ancestors had lived in the area for a thousand years. We learned that you didn't really need any of that stuff - Mother Earth and Father Sky provided it all. You just had to know how to recognize it.

My mother wasn't concerned about the dirt. After all, my family was into the outdoors all my life, so we were used to the dirt from backpack and horsepacking trips. Goes with the territory, as they say.

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