Touring with Raymond Spears 
Practice for Touring; Comfort and Efficiency on a Long Trip Depend Upon Your 
Selection of a Proper Outfit and the Skill and Facility with Which You Use It 
T often happens 
that one finds peo- 
ple in a car on the 
way from ocean to 
ocean, to the Yel- 
lowstone Park, or 
going on tours 
thousands of miles 
long who have 
never camped out 
over night, but 
expect to cook by the wayside, who 
have never traveled anywhere, and yet 
guessed an outfit together, and who 
have undertaken an _ extraordinary 
journey with just the most casual ex- 
pectation of finding everything exactly 
to their notion. A hodge-podge outfit, 
too many hats and not enough wraps, 
too little bedding and too many extras. 
I have discussed many phases of 
touring in this series. The problems 
that arise are numerous. Advice as to 
outfit, suggestions as to what to seek, 
things to look out for—a general view- 
point can be given. In the last analysis, 
no two automobiles are alike, the needs 
of one man are the luxuries of another, 
small children and fat men, handsome 
women with complexions to conserve 
and experienced girls, all vary with 
their requirements. And even an old- 
timer, one with more or less experience 
in varied conditions, like myself, can 
hardly hope to make all his points ab- 
solutely clear for the individuals whose 
needs are determined by personal 
likings, the regions to be visited, the 
model of his car and the experience or 
lack of experience of his family. 
I should like to insist that those who 
plan a tour lasting more than ten days 
or so make a preliminary test of their 
equipment for camping and touring. 
This is worth a good deal of considera- 
tion. There is a great deal of oppor- 
tunity for practice trips, if one but 
makes a search for it. 






ONSIDER, for example, my own 
experiences. In order to try out 
my sleeping outfit, the tarpaulin, the 
running-board bed, the folding cot, the 
waterproofed tent, the camping appa- 
ratus, I have at various times gone out 
after an evening meal, found a place to 
pitch a tent and spent the night with 
just the beds, shelter, and bedding. 
Summer months, especially, are good 
for these kinds of trials. The effort 
can especially be made by all those who 
have Saturday and Sunday for their 
own devices. With friends, we have 
sallied forth on Saturday afternoon 
and returned in time on Monday morn- 
ing for the clock-pushers to be on the 
job, with a camp breakfast for fuel. 
And if one finds this suggestion a bit 
in conflict with the usual family habits 
—what will the actualities of touring 
without previous exact and comprehen- 
sive experience prove to be? 
I believe that the best way to learn 
camping, and especially automobile 
touring camping, is to go at it delib- 
erately, thinking on all phases of the 
subject, keeping a note-book to record 
service given by various types and 
kinds of equipment, advantages and 
disadvantages. The real test of an 
eastern camping equipment is how it 
stands up under the conditions of a 
three-day downpour of rain. The test 
of a desert outfit is how it stands up 
under the test of a forced stop thirty 
miles from water, in a dry-gale sand- 
storm, or under the deluge of an arid 
Jand cloudburst. The test of a Con- 
tinental Divide equipment is how it 
proves up in an August or a July bliz- 
zard. And the Transcontinental Outfit, 
or any outfit with a _ straightaway 
2,000-mile service before it, is proven 
by the way it packs on an automobile, 
as well as how it stands up under 
various weather tests. 
BECAUSE no two outfits can be 
alike, any more than any two 
parties of tourists are alike in require- 
ments, advice can merely clear away 
the worst difficulties by helping the 
planner to foresee what is coming. I 
can hardly imagine any one heading 
for a strange country in an automobile 
who will not find himself changing his 
mind. For the average automobile 
camper of no previous experience, it 
would be a tremendous help just to go 
to the local tourists’ camp ground, or 
to the nearest camping place, and spend 
a number of nights sleeping out. And 
for the experienced traveler, going into 
a region of weather, geological, high- 
way and other conditions novel to his 
experience, not to look ahead and to 
develop his outfit accordingly is to 
neglect the teachings of his own ex- 
perience. But beware of theory; try 
everything out before definitely adopt- 
ing it. 
All the sporting magazine depart- 
ments know the newcomers to the out- 
doors who plan to go to the far-back 
wilderness, and propose to carry an 
army rifle and a 45-caliber “side arm,” 
revolver or automatic, “for protection.” 
And every experienced hunter knows 
that a 22-caliber rim fire rifle is the 
most useful of “all around firearms,” 
while the “side arm” is generally (and 
without warrant) illegal, despite the 
United States Constitution. In all 
equiping, the problem is to have the 
right things for the people who are 
to use them for certain kinds and types 
of service. 
HE United States has, without es- 
timating too exactly, more than 
forty kinds of automobile touring. 
They range from hotel and restaurant 
wanderings from resort to resort, from 
city to city to downright trail cutting 
and shoveling in the wilderness. The 
huge lunch hamper for a picnic, with 
a lump of ice for the salad, and double- 
bottles to keep things hot may weigh 
sixty or so pounds for one meal. The 
grub box of the vagabond will be only 
the same size, in cubic measure, for 
carrying weeks of provisions. Those 
who contemplate long camps in far- 
back mountains beside two-rut trails 
cannot afford space for the bulky hand- 
some and special-occasion things. 
Beware, therefore, in the short-trip 
practice that the big basket full of a 
dozen kinds of things to eat. for one 
Supper, or a supper and breakfast, 
doesn’t take up space that should be 
used for a ham, a few cans of corn, a 
jar of thick, satisfying jam, and other 
articles for the simple meals of the 
wayside. A lunch in Bear Mountain 
park, on the Hudson, is one thing; a 
lunch beside Bear River, Utah, is quite 
another thing. The picnic in the Cats- 
kills of a day’s duration would hardly 
be satisfactory if it had only the bread, 
butter, fried potatoes, broiled rabbit 
and a can of black coffee that is enough 
for a wilderness meal. 
The fancy meals of the picnic give 
way to the plain, simple, rapidly cooked 
meals of the wayside on a long tour. 
A good deal of waste time and waste 
(Continued on page 436) 
‘i H Pi FON | 8, 
~ 
Nex SAS Grn 
. AW oh 1 
Qe STL 
We AN ea 
{i = 5 A BM ex) i 

