Do you carry a stick when you walk or hike/ backpack? Why? What kind?

6' long bamboo staff, mainly to clear away spiderwebs.

-Blast

4 foot long birch sanded stained and poly'd. Leather wrap hand hold, not sure why, just like it. Oh ya ... not big on spiderwebs either blast.

Trekking poles. 20+ years of youthful invincibilty with too many heavy packs over 1000's of miles of rough trail hiking and mountaineering has now started to play havoc on my mid 40's knees...

When hiking I like to have a sturdy pole of some description.

I have a few I've used previously buy I often forget to bring one and often simply scavenge one near the trail head from dead fall. Bamboo is nice if it is handy and in good condition. But I'm not really picky. Nor do I get very sentimental about a stick. Picked up at the trail head I often leave it leaning against a tree for the next hiker when I get back.

Mighty handy. Clearing spiderwebs, checking to see if that 'puddle' is really six feet deep (it happens in the land of sinkholes), checking a clump of grass for snakes before charging into it, and probing the water's edge for alligators hiding underwater before kneeling down and working your water filter. Also handy for persuading a snakes to move off the trail, discouraging an overly friendly raccoon, and propping up one edge of a poncho to make a quick shelter to sit under while waiting for the afternoon rain to clear.

A nice stick is about as universally handy as a good bandanna.

bought one over the winter - a 1st for me:
http://wupensticks.com/index.html

An oak taproot, sanded and polyurethaned.

Besides the purposes already listed, I also use it as: a lantern stand, part of a shelter, clothes dryer hanger, and anything else that a need identifies.

I do a lot of skiing. Poles are considered somewhat mandatory. (Not quite true, our kids learn to ski without. Improves balance and the proper nordic skiing technique comes automatic when you don't fuss with the poles. This is why our family motto is: The cool and though ski without poles. Of course I must set the example and ski without poles with our kids...)


Using ski poles 3-4 months each year I am a bit pussled that I'm not bitten by the hiking poles bug. I've tried a couple of times, and objectively there is no doubt that it relieves the knees and legs. But so far it feels better to hike without them. Guess I have somewhat to try a bit harder...

If I'm ever in snake / spider / gator country I will follow the 6' pole advice pretty quickly. Not really a probleme here. If I need a stick to check water levels or whatever I just find one, but I never walk with it.

Nope.

Not coordinated enough.

Cameron

DW and I do a lot of hiking on the forest and prairie trails. Always have our 5' black walnut walking sticks with us. Cut, peeled, dried and sanded by hand, they take on a great luster when stained a golden oak color and coated with glossy polyurethane. Add a camo paracord wrist strap with wooden beads, and a hard metal tip embedded into the bottom end, and it's a joy to wield. We always have a couple of blanks drying in the shed. The sticks give us a little extra traction on a muddy slope, parts the thorny canes to access the blackberries, moves the nettles aside to search for morrels, shuffles the gravel in a clear brook to uncover the agates, helps answer the question; what's that?................