Re: Hiking/trekking poles? Yay or Nay?

zoomie wrote:
> I took the middle fork on this. I use aluminum poles, but didn't
> spring the $120 for the nice Leki/Komperdel nor $14.99 for the Walmart/
> Target poles. I bought mine at a surplus store, they telescope, have
> baskets and caps, neoprene grips, wide straps and each has 10 feet of
> Gorilla Tape wrapped around the shaft.They have about 700 miles on
> them and still look fairly new. ****blem is I'm having trouble finding
> a replacement set.
> 
> Zoom

I guess I'm just a Luddite. I use a 6ft rattan pole.  I put some 
'shoe-goo' on the bottom end, about 1/2" thick on the bottom, and a coat 
of it going up about 8 inches to protect from rock abrasion. I've had it 
for 30 years, put thousands of miles on it over those years, and it 
still looks new. I tried the aluminum telescoping poles, even the shock 
absorbing ones, but went right back to my old rattan pole.