Re: [at-l] trekking poles

[ThatSloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>]

--- shannon williams <razerblade99@hotmail.com> wrote:
> But I'm reconsidering, due to the new picture I have in my mind of 
> flexible staffs, rubber stoppers, gentle grips.  But I've never even 
> seen one of these things in real life.

### I'm with Kay Cake Haul We, in that I am/was a thurough bamboo kinda hiker
(lighter, stronger, cheaper than anything around). Even with a bare tip, it
only lost an inch per hundred miles, and a sheet metal screw would have done
wonders to turn that loss to zero. 
 But on this Long Trail hike, I used a commercial one-piece aluminnnnummmm
thing with a walnut top and a fine-grade neoprene handle (and rubber tip,
btw) from Tracks (Therma-rest folks) that cost like $25.00 new. It was ALMOST
as light as bamboozle, did not have joints to screw with (literally, eh?) and
therefore avoided associated structural weaknesses (no jokes, please) and the
weight penalty of joints, and was a pure pleasure to grip that handle. 
 Were I smart, I'd go with bamboo, screwing a big ol roundhead screw into the
bottom to stop wear. But whilst I remain dumb, this single piece shaft of
neoprene technology stood up to a lot of use. (I stride/push with my "stick"
with each footfall -- I don't poink it occasionally.)


  Just say no to joints.
    Sloetoe

=====
"A man who is not a liberal in his youth has no heart.
     And  a man who is not a conservative in his maturity
   has no brain."         W.Churchill


Call me 'middle-aged.'    T.McGinnis

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