The moccasin is a better foot covering than one would think. If you walk a few hundred miles in moccasins, on your return, you will be surprised at your carriage. You will stand easier and not sag on your heels in the clumsy attitude of the city man. In walking with moccasins you walk with all your feet, you don’t have a great foot weight to lift around and no binding heel or sole stiffness. One can walk noiselessly and is not likely to slip on rocks or logs. Some contend that the average city man has no license to tackle moccasins at least on the first week of the hike. They are hard on soft footed people for a time at least but the feet soon become accustomed to the change.
By the use of thick wool socks the foot comfort is still further assured. If one desires he can get soled moccasins or those with double bottom to prevent seam leaks, the outer sewed to the welt and the welt sewed to the sole.
The moccasin is absolutely unequalled for warmth, it is light and perfectly noiseless and has stood the test of ages by that race of hunters, the American Indians, who originated also the camp, trail, snow-shoe and canoe. One is, when equipped with them, more certain in carrying a pack, he is not so apt to turn the ankle, and the whole musculature of the foot is brought into play which is a great desideratum in precarious climbing.
Of materials moosehide is popularly associated with moccasins. It does not pretend to be waterproof but it is very durable and provides the softest, lightest, and most comfortable footwear made. A pair weighs but a few ounces and rolls up in a small compass, so an extra pair can be nicely tucked away in a corner of the pack. Even if a man wears shoes during the day a pair of moccasins should be taken along for a restful change of wear about the evening camp fire. Moosehide and elkskin are at present hard to procure hence the names are mainly trade terms. Discriminating sportsmen can get the genuine moosehide cruising packs from the Putnam Company, Minneapolis. For our purpose the oil tanned pack of cowhide is more easily procurable and superior for general use to the moosehide article. It can be kept pliable and a semblance to being waterproof by the application of animal oils.
The shoe-pack is a boot shaped like a moccasin but with a higher top. Either is preferable to a shoe for tramping because of their lightness and softness to the feet. The upper should be high enough to make the total pack height about ten inches.
No matter what footwear you choose you should provide for the wearing of one or two pairs of heavy wool socks into whose tops are tucked the pants leg, thus doing away with leggings. This may sound paradoxical to the tenderfoot. The idea of housing the feet in summertime in heavy wool socks! The notion nevertheless is based on experience. The thick are no hotter on the feet than the thin. It is the leather that keeps the heat in. Wool equalizes the moisture evaporation. If your work forces you into wet places the temperature is modified. One can fish standing in very cold water and not suffer. A sportsman can spend several weeks in an almost normal condition of wet feet without suffering, even in mild fall weather, since his wool socks keep his feet warm in spite of the wet and cold. Where one perspires freely on dry tramping the perspiration is taken up from the skin and transmitted by the wool fibers to the outside of the sock where it is more easily evaporated.
In the coldest weather the feet are always warm when covered with heavy wool socks and moccasins and it is the only successful combination for use in snowshoes. For common tramping they are ideal, for the constant exposure of the feet to the wet is to be anticipated and the thickness of the wool softens the shock and pressure of foot work on rough trails, diminishing the danger of friction and impact. In fitting shoes or moccasins over your heavy wool socks allow a half size larger in length and two letters in width over your street shoe. Even then your foot covering will be about three times the bulk of your tight fashion-plate town footwear.
The life of a good fitting, light weight wool sock worn with a good fitting shoe is about 75 to 100 road miles or about a week’s wear in constant marching under ordinary conditions. Whenever the softness of wool is lost because of frequent washings discard them. Weston wears a natural gray wool sock undyed.
Never start on a long hike with unbroken shoes. A quick way to break them in rather than subject the tender feet to the trying ordeal is to follow the plan of the United States Army as follows: Wearing the shoes over wool socks stand in three inches of warm water for five minutes until the leather is soft and pliable, then walk on a level surface for an hour or until the shoes dry on the feet, to the shape of which the pressure of the body weight and muscular action have forced the leather, in drying, to conform. They will then be as comfortable as old shoes.
The one feature of shoe selection which seems to appeal to the average sportsman is waterproofing. He will allow his sane ideas of size, shape, weight and durability to run riot if only the salesman can prove his assertions of the waterproof qualities of the item at hand. It happens to be well nigh impossible to make leather really waterproof. If one succeeds in impregnating the tanned skin with some water repelling application the seams are apt to leak in worn shoes and the leather treatment goes for naught. In fact waterproof footwear is just the condition the tramper does not want. In the first place it is a sin to encase a perspiring foot in a shoe which retains all the effete matter of perspiration which will soften and weaken the skin. There may be conditions of wet snow where absolute dryness of the feet is paramount but then one had best get the regular rubber overshoe. All that we should expect of leather is that it will be impervious to water sufficiently so as not to soak it up like a sponge. Wet feet won’t hurt you but hot and sore feet always do; an occasional wet foot is far better than a continual sweaty damp foot.