[at-l] Re: Hiking Poles - which and why?

[lbooher at pure.net (Leslie Booher)]

Most commercial wooden poles I've seen are too heavy. 


What I have done before when I left my pole home is to get a hoe handle from a garden shop.  They're strong, light-weight, and the shop will cut it to any length you want.  After I'd used it the first time, David drilled a hole near the top and put a leather strap through it, and I added a crutch tip.  He used it several times, and now it decorates my elephant's leg.  

OK, it's not REALLY an elephant's leg, but all the old hunter adventurers seemed to have one, so that's what I call the tile flue pipe that I use to hold hiking poles and umbrellas and stuff.  

Now, about hiking poles.  With "real" ones, part of the satisfaction was in the swing of the thing.  There was a rhythm to them.  You held them a good way down from the top, and they had a natural swing that helped propel you along.  The ones we use today have lost all that property.  They perform, perhaps, a bit of a different function, but I miss the old rhythm.  Am I alone here, except for Weary?

anklebear