koolaidguzzler
New Member
When I started backpacking in the 70s I used Colin Fletcher's THE COMPLETE WALKER as my guide, and it strongly recommended a hiking staff.
I've used shovel handles, dual ski poles, field expedient sticks, wooden manufactured hiking staffs, and a 1999 older version of the LEKI Wanderfreund "cane" style adjustable aluminum trekking pole. I keep it at about 40 inches long, and hold it like a walking cane. It helps me keep rhythm on flat walks, relieves some leg effort on uphills, helps stabilize me downhills, and is essential when crossing streams and sloped muddy trails. I've used it to test areas for snakes, knock on rocks and logs to test for rattlers and scare off rattlers, clear spiderwebs, prop up my pack when I sit on the ground and use the pack as backrest, field expedient tarp pole, picking fruit, dipping canteens into creeks, retrieve gear fallen into crannies or places you don't want to stick your hand into, pushing aside poison oak, poking fires, using it to retrieve stuff when I don't feel like getting up, and just about anything else you might do with a stick with a handle on the end. I adjust it shorter when I go uphill, longer when going downhill.
NOW, that said, I keep trying to convert to some variation of a wooden stick, because of the aesthetics, feel, and ruggedness of a wooden shaft. But the aluminum trekking pole's adjustable length, much lighter swing weight, and the difficulty finding a cane-handled wood stick over 36 inches long that's light but strong -- those factors keep me going back to the boring ultralight adjustable LEKI wanderfreund.
I've used shovel handles, dual ski poles, field expedient sticks, wooden manufactured hiking staffs, and a 1999 older version of the LEKI Wanderfreund "cane" style adjustable aluminum trekking pole. I keep it at about 40 inches long, and hold it like a walking cane. It helps me keep rhythm on flat walks, relieves some leg effort on uphills, helps stabilize me downhills, and is essential when crossing streams and sloped muddy trails. I've used it to test areas for snakes, knock on rocks and logs to test for rattlers and scare off rattlers, clear spiderwebs, prop up my pack when I sit on the ground and use the pack as backrest, field expedient tarp pole, picking fruit, dipping canteens into creeks, retrieve gear fallen into crannies or places you don't want to stick your hand into, pushing aside poison oak, poking fires, using it to retrieve stuff when I don't feel like getting up, and just about anything else you might do with a stick with a handle on the end. I adjust it shorter when I go uphill, longer when going downhill.
NOW, that said, I keep trying to convert to some variation of a wooden stick, because of the aesthetics, feel, and ruggedness of a wooden shaft. But the aluminum trekking pole's adjustable length, much lighter swing weight, and the difficulty finding a cane-handled wood stick over 36 inches long that's light but strong -- those factors keep me going back to the boring ultralight adjustable LEKI wanderfreund.
