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Make sure that your feet are comfortable. (A comfortable shoe is not too tight nor too loose.)
See that your stockings are without holes and ordinarily without large darns. (When going on a long hike it is well to take an extra pair of stockings with you.)
In walking keep your toes practically straight ahead of you.
Walking with your feet turned out is tiring and results in foot trouble.
Try to have the members of the group of similar age and physical ability.
If going in the country it is well to take a tape line, knife, some string, and some matches.
A compass and a pocket level and a map also are of value in many cases.
A notebook and pencil are of great value.
Remember that the value of the hike is in doing things which you cannot do at home, and last and most important it is wise to set out with a definite object. Here are some of the objects for a short hike:
To determine that hard maple or any other timber does or does not grow in such woods or such a park.
To see how many kinds of trees can be discovered in a given place, or how many kinds of wild flowers.
To practise the building of fires of wildwood material.
To have a practical demonstration in cooking.
To get acquainted with the birds.
To learn the geological formation of a certain rock or ledge.
To get 100 straight rods, 30 inches long; to make an Indian bed of willow, hazel, red willow (kinikinik) arrow-wood, etc.
To get wood for rubbing sticks or the fire-bow.
To get horns for a Caribou dance.
If there is snow, to take, by the tracks, a census of a given woods, making full-size drawings of each track — that is four tracks, one for each foot, and also give the distance to the next set.
Most important of all, remember that though it is wise to start with an object, it is still wiser to change whenever some much more alluring pursuit or opportunity turns up. Any one who sticks to a plan merely because he started that way, when it turns out to be far from the best, is not only unwise — he is stupid and obstinate.
Make sure that as you travel to the point you have selected that your eyes and ears are open to see the hundreds of interesting things that may be seen along the roadside.
