For quite a few years, I have used some kind of hiking staff or another. These have ranged in complexity from a staff fashioned quickly from a trailside brush pile, to a repurposed replacement shovel handle, a mop handle found on a beach, and finally to a set of fancy-dancy aluminum trekking poles. These last are adjustable in length and I have used them a lot over the last twenty-five years or so, and I really like them.

Costs of these different rigs have ranged from $0 to about fifty-five bucks or so. Checking out REI's current offerings, you can spend as much as $220 on a set of poles, which does seem a mite excessive.

I prefer to use a single pole, rather than a pair. My pole is useful on slippery terrain, and especially when crossing streams, acting as a third point of stability. In snake country, usually dense brush, my hiking staff takes the point, while my feet loiter behind. The adjustability feature is often useful when using the staff as a tent pole. At one time, I had a pole than contained matches and tinder in waterproof cases in the handle (tactical hiking staff??)....

What has been your experience with hiking staffs and their uses? Any good war stories?


Edited by hikermor (04/09/17 10:16 PM)
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