[pct-l] walking poles

[Steel-Eye]

Good morning, Steve,

 

While I've hiked the west over the last 45 years I only began using hiking poles in '05.  I hiked all of the Oregon and Washington PCT without them, and did well.  That was the correct choice for me at that time.  Now, age has a lot to do with my choosing to use poles.  Not being quite as agile and flexible as I once was, I find I like the additional stability.

 

I use jointed poles, but the feature is a bit of a waste because the only time I changed the length was when I fully collapsed them for hitchhiking.  I'll probably find a pair of lighter, fixed-length, poles for the future.  I don't use the shock-absorbing feature, and I saved weight by removing it from the poles that I used on the PCT in '07.  I think shock springs are mostly a marketing-driven feature, and I don't like the squishy feel.  Besides, the little shock springs can attenuate force over only approximately 0.5 inch, while the human upper body structure can attenuate force over 10 to 20 inches.

 

Some hikers insert their hand through the hanging strap loop and grasp the pole.  In that way the bight of the loop is around the bottom of the wrist.  I don't like that feel and geometry, so I insert my hand up through the loop and grasp the two sides of the loop as well as the pole.  In that way the bight of the loop is above my wrist.  I much prefer the resulting force distribution and the way the pole can pivot during a stride, particularly when going down hill.

 

While I initially used the wrist straps, I soon removed them entirely to save weight and improve convenience. I find the straps are a nuisance when I want to use a hand for something else.  Without the straps I can instantly shift a pole to the opposite hand when needed.  I've never had the least wrist strain for want of the straps.  I initially worried that without straps I might loose a pole if I lost balance on slippery terrain so I made a lite-weight pair of mini-bungee tethers to loosely secure the poles to my wrists.  They worked fine, but I didn't use them on the trail.

 

I use the poles to erect a tarp .. on the rare occasions that I actually did erect the tarp .. but for many years I got by using whatever sticks or trees were at hand and suffered only minor inconvenience.

Steel-Eye
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Fosdick 
  To: pct-l 
  Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 7:41 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] walking poles


  I can see that opinions on water caches are as wide as an ocean. Thanks for all the comments.
   
  Now, my next big dilemma is whether or not to carry walking poles. In a lot of photos in journals, I see many hikers using them. I rarely use a walking stick of any kind. Here in Oregon, if I really feel the urge to use one, there are always plenty of tree limbs lying around that will do the job just fine. However, I find that I soon tire of carrying it, so I toss it far off the side of the trail as though it had just blown down like all the other tree limbs lying around. I'm sure there won't be a lot of poles lying around on the So. California stretches of the PCT, so if I want them, I'll need to bring my own along.
   
  Will I be the only hiker on the trail without walking poles? Other than using them to flick off a rattle snake, hold up a tarp-tent (my tent has its own poles) or defending myself from a charging bear (yeah, right!), will I wish that had some on my thru-hike? I'll have an ice ax for the parts of the trail that have snow. When hikers get out their ice ax, do they put their walking poles away?

  I understand that ski poles are not the same as hiking poles. And Keen Fit Poles are NOT hiking poles, according the Keen Fit website! (That was really funny. I followed the link "Hiking Poles" to the Keen Fit site, and one of the first things on their video was "These are NOT hiking poles!")

  I hope this topic is not as controversial as water caches! But I would like to hear some advice from experts out there.

  Hikin_steve



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Pct-l mailing list
  Pct-l at backcountry.net
  To unsubscribe or change list options (digest, etc):
  http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/attachments/20071230/a6565d81/attachment.html