We all love our gear and think it is the best. We all choose based on our needs and wants. But it is our gear and don’t be talking it down. Getting our gear ready is as important as using it. So to further illustrate my point, I thought we might get the thoughts of Horace Kephart… “It is not to be supposed that experienced travelers will agree with me all around in matters of equipment. Every old camper has his own notions about such things, and all of us are apt to be a bit dogmatic. As Richard Harding Davis says, ‘The same article that one declares is the most essential to his comfort, health, and happiness is the very first thing that another will throw into the trail. A man’s outfit is a matter which seems to touch his private honor. I have heard veterans sitting around a camp-fire proclaim the superiority of their kits with a jealousy, loyalty, and enthusiasm they would not exhibit for the flesh of their flesh and the bone of their bone. On a campaign you may attack a man’s courage, the flag he serves, the newspaper for which he works, his intelligence, or his camp manners, and he will ignore you; but if you criticize his patent water-bottle he will fall upon you with both fists.’ Yet all of us who spend much time in the woods are keen to learn about the other fellow’s ‘kinks.’ And field equipment is a most excellent hobby to amuse one during the shut-in season. I know nothing else that so restores the buoyant optimism of youth as overhauling one’s kit and planning trips for the next vacation. Solomon himself knew the heart of man no better than that fine old sportsman who said to me ‘It isn’t the fellow who’s catching lots of fish and shooting plenty of game that’s having the good time; it’s the chap who’s getting ready to do it.” Horace Kephart got it right in my mind, and some things never change.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 01:24:49 +0000
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