[at-l] The Great Pole Tip Test

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

Those who have already made up their minds and are not interested in any 
information that might challenge their preconceived ideas (the real meaning 
of conservative) should hit <Del> now. Those who are open to new data even 
if it does not support their current view (the true meaning of liberal) 
read on.

As Jim O observed I had hoped this nonsense would end because it is boring 
but since it goes ever on and no one has actually presented 'evidence' I 
thought perhaps a bit of evidence might resolve this burning question so I 
devoted part of my walk to determining what level of "damage" my one 
Komperdell pole does as I walk about. Besides it was a beautiful day for a 
walk, brilliant blue sky, 68?F, just like summer.

My qualifications: Raised in a farming area, worked on farms and have been 
a gardener for 30+ years so I know a bit about dirt. College degree in 
ceramics (granted it is a Fine Art degree but we did have to study the 
geology, chemistry and characteristics of clay) so I know a bit about clay. 
Hiker with approximately 1500 miles of trail over hill, dale, mountain, 
etc., maintainer for 11 years so I know a bit about trails.

Theory: Carbide tips on hiking poles (herein after referred to as 'pointy 
poles) do significantly greater damage to trails "tilling" the soil, 
loosening it to the extent that it readily washes away in the rain. This 
tilling is comparable to a farmer tilling a field on a hillside and is a 
serious problem of such magnitude that hikers need to be convinced to 
abandon their poles or at least use rubbers (rubber tips that is) on them.

Even before the field experiment I dismissed the farmer's tilled 
field/pointy pole tilling comparison for the following reasons:
    * Farmers till (plows followed by harrows) entire hillside fields to a 
depth of 6-8 inches or greater destroying all plant matter and replacing it 
with seeds that will (once they germinate) cover about 10-25% of the field 
(depending on row spacing) as opposed to the natural vegetation that 
covered the entire field. Depending on your height and stride pointy poles 
poke holes approximately the size of your little finger about 6-8 feet 
apart (4-6 feet in a staggered pattern if you use 2 poles) to depths 
varying from 1/8th inch in hard packed soil to 5-6 inches (the distance 
from the tip to the mud basket) in extremely soft loose soil. Destruction 
of natural vegetation from pointy poles is random and minimal.
    * An acre of land is 43560 square feet or 6,272,640 square inches. 
Assuming that the cross section of each pointy pole is one square inch 
(generous I think) then it would take in excess of 6 million pointy poles 
piercing the ground (144 per square foot) to the depth of their mud baskets 
to equal the soil loosening effect of a farmer with his plow and harrow.
    * The studies of erosion resulting from farmers tillage discovered that 
the major problem was plowing up and down hills thereby creating pathways 
for water to follow downhill and carrying soil with it. The resulting 
recommendation was to plow across the hill thus creating 'dams' of rotting 
sod beneath the surface that greatly reduced erosion while the crop seeds 
were germinating. Pointy poles make no furrows for water to follow, neither 
up and down the slope nor across the slope and the holes (as previously 
noted) are several feet apart.
What remained was to discover through experiment therefor was whether and 
to what extent my pointy pole "damaged" the ground VS my pole with its 
rubber tip in place.

Methodology: I walked a open path, avoiding the woods because it is hunting 
season and I do not own any florescent orange clothing (it clashes with my 
grey/green eyes). I walked along using my pole without its rubber tip, then 
went back over the same section of trail with the tip trying to plant the 
pole close to the original marks but using the same pressure. The carbide 
tip is about 1/8th inch in diameter and protrudes about 1/8th inch from the 
plastic which is about 5/8th inch in diameter. The slip on rubber tip (snug 
fit, requires twisting to remove) is an inverted mushroom shape that is 
about 3/4th inch across its widest point. The soil was sandy (it's all sand 
around here for miles).

Observations: On dry path the sandy soil is readily disturbed by either tip 
(see photo at http://www.jimbullard.org/Test.htm). The pointy tip makes a 
smaller hole about twice the depth of the mark left by the rubber tip. 
Neither is as deep as the photo suggests. It was late afternoon and the 
long shadows exaggerate the depth. he actual depths were about 1/4" for the 
rubber tip and 1/2" for the carbide tip but the rubber tip disturbs a much 
larger area, plus the mushroom end catches soil when the pole is lifted and 
scatters it forward to a greater extent than the pointy tip. On firmly 
compressed moist soil the rubber tip left a very slight depression while 
the pointy tip left a dimple depression the size and depth of the carbide 
tip with a small shallow ring depression around it. In wet soil with more 
dirt (as opposed to greater sand content) and no vegetation both left 
substantial impressions as did my boots. It was interesting to note that 
many animal tracks made significantly greater impressions (and caused more 
soil disturbance) than either tip, especially dogs and deer. The deer 
tracks were uniformly the deepest in all soil conditions.

Conclusions: Poles, with or without rubber tips leave marks and disturb 
soil but taken on the whole, it's 6 of one/a half dozen of the other. The 
pointy tip disturbed more soil under some conditions, the rubber one under 
other conditions. The effect on predominantly clay soil would be the 
opposite of sandy soil. Clay gets quite firm when dry and is slippery when 
wet. Given the randomness, the small areas involved and the spacing between 
marks I would judge pointy poles to be minor contributor to trail erosion 
compared to the other factors including Mother Nature.

Those obsessed with visions of pointy poles turning their favorite trail 
into a 6' deep ditch should spend more time thinking about world hunger, 
the problem of 15 million American families without any health insurance (a 
few of whom are on this list), The War in Iraq, a looming multi-trillion 
dollar national debt, or some other problem of real magnitude thus 
restoring their sense of proportion. In other words, get real! Trails 
erode. That's why we build waterbars, bog bridges, stone steps, etc. The 
real solution to trail erosion is better planning of trail routes and 
properly hardening trail surfaces.

BTW - It was a great day for a 6 mile walk that took me 1 hour and 52 
minutes including stops to measure distances between pole marks and take 
photos.