Twisted Hickory: A Story of the Walking Stick

From time immemorial, homo sapiens have utilized sticks to augment their bipedalism. Moses used one in the Old Testament as has the Pope for centuries. A third ground support is just so darn useful. Walking sticks were the only option until the past 50 years or so. John Muir used one in the 1860s and Grandma Gatewood used one in the 1960s. Hickory was often prized as superior to other woods among sportsman and campers. If one could acquire a hickory stick with a twist or knots, all the more stylish.1

Walking sticks are not just a functional tool. They hold deep meaning and even offer a spiritual connection to some users. A walking stick adorned with a pumpkin and shell bearing a red cross have been a symbol of pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago path in Spain since the Middle Ages. Walking sticks signal to others that we are on a journey, not just an afternoon stroll.

Lord Baden-Powell instructed Scouts to carry a walking stick in his 1908 Handbook for Boys (Boy Scout manual). He preferred a staff made of ash or bamboo and recommended garden tool handles for those that couldn’t find suitable wood in nature.2 Colin Fletcher also recommended bamboo poles 1.5 inches in diameter in his 1968 The Complete Walker book.

Historically, most hikers simply found their own sticks and broke them in on the trail. Some industrious souls carved their own. Wood poles did have a few drawbacks. First, the tips wore down and split, especially in rocky terrain. Once one’s pole split or broke, it was sometimes difficult to find a suitable replacement on the trail if trees were not plentiful. The second drawback was weight. A sturdy staff was also often fairly heavy and could tire the arm over many miles unless one was fortunate enough to access bamboo.

Hiking poles were especially popular in mountainous regions where hikers battled steep slopes and ice and snow. In some of these regions hikers dabbled in skiing in the winter time. So ski poles easily found their way into hikers hand and doubled as a superb hiking pole on the snow-strewn walking paths. After World War 2, when recreational skiing exploded in popularity, bamboo ski poles with metal or plastic tips became standard as the bamboo was lighter than most other woods. In the 1960s, skiers recognized their poles were handy on summer hikes also.

A bamboo pole was light, but it was never designed to arrest a stumbling backpacker carrying forty pounds down a steep mountainside. Karl Lenhart believed hikers needed something stronger. Drawing on aluminum ski-pole technology, he began experimenting with metal shafts that could withstand far greater abuse. He quickly noticed when not in use, ski or trekking poles are carried in the pack. Their length made them cumbersome. So, he installed a three-part telescoping system like a camera tripod leg to make them collapsible. He tested his own product during a successful summit of Mt. Everest. His design was sold by his family's company Leki. It worked so well his basic design is still dominant among hiking poles.3

Hikers suddenly had an option that was easier to pack away when scrambling over rock, stowing poles in dense brush, or strapping them to a backpack during long road walks. Trekking poles became popular in the rugged mountains among off-season skiers and mountaineers. Many hikers remained unconvinced. Why pay for a specialized aluminum pole when the forest supplied them for free? To traditionalists, trekking poles looked like yet another gadget in a hobby already filling packs with expensive equipment.

In 1988 Exerstrider arrived with their trend-setting Nordic walking sticks. Nordic walking was an off-season training fad that tread onto the fitness scene in the 80s and took it by storm. The Exerstrider poles were fixed length aluminum ski poles with fancy graphics and large rubber foot that gripped well on any terrain from dirt to pavement. Nordic walking promised to keep skiers in shape through the summer by engaging the arm muscles while walking for exercise.

Whether Nordic walking lived up to its claims or not, the Exerstrider made walking with modified ski poles cool, and by extension, hiking with them. Over the next decade the high tech hiking pole supplanted the wood stick as the de facto third ground support.

Ski pole technology has continued to trickle down to trekking poles over the decades. For example, the first widely successful carbon fiber ski pole was made in 1990 by Dave Goode of Goode Ski technology. Carbon fiber slowly found its way into trekking poles making them even lighter letting hikers save energy and go farther.4

Leki has continued to be a major influence and has introduced other innovations over the years. In 1982 Leki introduced trekking poles with a built-in shock system. Whether every hiker noticed the difference was debatable, but on long descents the poles no longer transmitted quite as much jarring force into the wrists, elbows, and shoulders. What had once felt like a rigid support now had a bit of spring to it. In 2009 they created a rapid release for the hiking pole hand strap that improves safety and allows more rapid adjustment on the fly. But they have not been on the forefront of every innovation.

In 2004 two friends started Trek Technologies LLC to sell one product, the TrekPod. This was a hiking stick designed for the selfie age! It combined hiking pole and foldout tripod, but its secret weapon was a magnetic camera mount which allowed quick connection and disconnection. This made it excellent for a quick trail side pause to snap wildlife or a selfie.5

In 2004, the digital point-and-shoot camera was common in nearly every house, Xanga (an early blog-style social media website) was gaining large numbers of users, MySpace was a year old, and the GoPro debuted. YouTube was only a year away. The stage was set for the selfie to become a cultural staple and the Influencer lifestyle to take over. The TrekPod was there to support every camera.

Sadly, it would never become the trekking pole of Influencers everywhere as some hoped. Sadly, it would never become the trekking pole of Influencers everywhere as some hoped. The TrekPod instead enjoyed a long but modest run of more than 18 years. Along the way, it quietly nudged the trekking pole market toward the digital age. Trekking pole selfie sticks have been around ever since. Leki and other big manufacturers began offering optional camera and smart phone mounts compatible with existing trekking pole models.

The cane-handled trekking pole represented an alternate branch of hiking-pole evolution. Rather than emphasizing the efficiency and athleticism of ski-derived trekking poles, it catered to hikers who viewed a pole primarily as a source of support and stability. For older hikers, those with a disability, and those accustomed to a traditional walking cane, the familiar grip could feel more natural than the sport-oriented handles found on most modern trekking poles. It is a unique design that reminds us that not every trekking pole innovation is aimed at speed or efficiency. Some are designed simply to help more people keep exploring the trail.

Whether you prefer the rugged durability of a hickory stick, or a modern high-tech option, walking sticks are here to stay. Improvements in grip shape, tip design, space-age materials, and locking mechanisms continue to make high-tech walking sticks lighter, stronger, and more comfortable. They can carry us farther and faster than ever before. Sadly, they still don’t carry the pack weight for us. Maybe one day though.

Appendix:

Notably in my research on this topic was the lack of discussion about walking sticks by early camping guide authors like William Murray, John Gould, or George Washington Sears. These giants produced some of the earliest and most important guides on camp craft, but all neglected this topic. Perhaps none of them preferred to use one, or else they deemed the topic too mundane for inclusion.

Walking sticks were so commonplace in the nineteenth century that some early outdoor writers may have considered them unworthy of discussion. Yet today, as hikers debate carbon fiber versus aluminum and compare locking mechanisms and grip materials, the humble walking stick has become a piece of gear worthy of entire articles. The silence of those early authors may tell us just as much about hiking culture as the equipment itself.

Sources:

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=5i09AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA120&dq=hickory+walking+stick+camp&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwit0NOokdmIAxV_pokEHVILByoQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=hickory%20walking%20stick%20camp&f=false
2. Boy Scouts of America: The Official Handbook for Boys, 1913, New York Doubleday Page & Company, Pg 365
3. https://www.leki.co.uk/customer-care/the-history-of-leki#:~:text=1948%20%2D%20Karl%20Lenhart%20created%20LEKI,and%20baskets%20for%20ski%20poles.
4. https://backcountrymagazine.com/stories/carbon-fiber-forefather-dave-goode-passes-away/#:~:text=Goode%20founded%20his%20company%20in,fiber%20ski%20pole%20in%201990.
5. "History," accessed Sept, 19, 2024 viahttp://web.archive.org/web/20190125150535/http://www.trek-tech.com/company/history.html.

From Boiling Pots to Pocket Treatment Plants: A History of Backcountry Water Filters and Treatment

In many spiritual traditions, water is symbolic of life. But not just any water. Specifically clean water that is good tasting. This is a fitting analogy that any backcountry traveler can understand deeply. When you are hot and thirsty, nothing is more refreshing than clean, cool water. Sadly, safe drinking water is hard to find. This is especially true in the backcountry. What did people do before modern technology?

In the nineteenth century, most people had only a limited understanding of waterborne disease, and illnesses caused by contaminated water were common.1 William HH Murray ignited the camping movement in the United States with his how-to guide to the Adirondacks in 1869. He makes no reference to filtering or boiling water in his guide. Instead, he informs campers where to find fresh, clean drinking water in springs. Campers avoided many illnesses through a combination of luck, fresh spring water, and the widespread habit of boiling water for coffee and tea. A camper may not have understood germs, but he certainly understood that a hot cup of coffee at dawn tasted better than muddy creek water.

By the early twentieth century, outdoor educators were beginning to teach a lesson that would have sounded strange to many frontier travelers: clear water was not necessarily safe water. Springs were still prized, but campers were increasingly being taught that disease could lurk in even the most inviting stream. George O. Shields’ book Camping and Camp Outfits is one of the earliest books to advise campers to boil their water.2 While doctors had experimented with filtration as early as 1855, portable filters suitable for campers remained far in the future.3

Boy Scouts became a major force in the United States in 1911. Its programs introduced generations of youth to the noble sport of camping. An early issue of Boy's Life illustrates how to make a water filter from natural sand and stones layered into a bucket. The point was to filter out visible sediments not pathogens. Having experimented with this Boy Scout method, I can confirm it is as unpleasant as it sounds. The water may emerge looking cleaner, but it still tastes like something better left to the frogs. For early campers though, it was better than getting violently ill.4

Chemical treatment was first used in in the United States around this same time in 1908 when Dr. John Leal secretly began treating New Jersey's water supply with chlorine. He kept his chemical treatment operation a secret for fear backlash from a general public that did not understand this new science. His solution was effective and US water systems have been chlorinated ever since.5 However, this did not help campers in the backcountry.

An easy field solution to treat water chemically was developed by Col. William Lyster in 1913. He perfected a portable water bag system for chlorinating drinking water for the U.S. military.6 The Lyster bag worked well for large groups, but its weight and reliance on liquid chlorine limited its appeal for backpackers. It was perfectly at home in a military camp or summer camp kitchen, but much less welcome on the back of a tired hiker climbing a mountain. Chlorine tablets offered a more portable alternative.

Lyster Bag (alt spelling "Lister")

Halazone chlorine tablets were first advertised to campers in a 1933 issue of Boy's Life and were produced by Bauer & Black.8 For the first time, a camper could carry dozens of water treatments in a shirt pocket instead of hauling fuel to boil every questionable water source.7 

Chlorine tablets degraded in just three days after being opened. During WWII, Harvard University worked along with the U.S. Army to develop portable iodine tablets that had a much longer shelf life. Their research resulted in Potable Aqua iodine tablets. Following the war, as camping exploded in popularity, Potable Aqua found a new market, and campers gained a more user-friendly product to make safe drinking water.9 

Water treatment tablets allowed backpackers and campers to tightly control the chemical dose. So, they could easily treat water right in their canteen. The Lyster bag remained useful for larger groups well into the 1950s.10 Chemical treatments were certainly preferred to getting sick, but they had two main drawbacks, time and taste. Chemical treatment requires at least 30 minutes to purify water. They leave a dissatisfying taste also. Many hikers accepted the tradeoff. Water that tasted vaguely like a swimming pool was still preferable to a week spent regretting a careless drink from a stream. 

The earliest portable backcountry filter option was the Katadyn Pocket Filter, invented in Switzerland in 1929. While highly reliable, it was a heavy, Maglite-sized metal and ceramic device. Carrying one made it feel as though you had packed a small municipal water department. Such early devices were expensive, premium tools engineered for international aid groups, and wealthy globetrotters—not casual weekend hikers looking to have fun on a budget.11

Katadyn Pocket Filter

 

For most backpackers in the midcentury, boiling and chemical treatment remained the standard methods. Clear, flowing water was generally assumed to be safe, and treatment was often reserved for visibly contaminated sources.12 Countless hikers dipped their canteens into mountain streams without a second thought. For generations, that had simply been how backpacking was done.

It was not until 1962 that a camping guidebook even recommended a commercially made filter.13 The First-Need by General Ecology is remembered fondly as many hikers first filter. It came to market in the late 1970s as a pump purifier built especially for human powered travel. Plagued by rapid clogging and poor marketing, it never achieved the popularity of later models. Nevertheless, the First-Need line survived through continuous refinement and remains available today.

It would take an epidemic to push backpackers towards making water filters and chemical treatment mandatory. Giardia lambelia outbreaks proliferated in the early 1980s.15a Suddenly, all backpackers were confronted with the reality that no water source was safe. Everyone was debating water treatment.16 The carefree confidence of earlier generations gave way to suspicion. A sparkling alpine stream might look inviting. Backpackers who once judged such a source by how it looked now found themselves wondering what microscopic horrors might be swimming through it.

Ads for water filters and purifiers lauded their ability to make water safe from the dreaded giardia. One model was cheekily named The Giardia Trap.17. It might be the only product in outdoor history named after the disease it promised to prevent. Many competitors entered the market. Every conceivable design was tried, most failed.18 By the late 80s, water filters became an essential piece of backcountry gear. However, performance was unreliable and few products could withstand the rigors of the backcountry. MSR released their first filter, The WaterWorks Total Filtration System, in 1991. It was elegant and easy to use and lightweight and pushed the boundaries of water filter design.19.

Pump filters were a mainstay of the 1990s and early 2000s. A revolution in thinking came in 2005 with the introduction of the LifeStraw, a straw water filter that required no pumping or hoses. It generated enormous interest among outdoor enthusiasts. The marketing promised that drinking from a muddle puddle could be as simple as sipping from a juice box. Reality proved slightly more complicated. It clogged easily and cannot readily be shared among a group. These limitations kept the LifeStraw and similar designs from greater popularity. However, it found a niche among day hikers and preppers for emergency situations.

While the LifeStraw has seen limited adoption, it’s design has influenced the whole category of water filters based around an inline filter. One notable example is the Sawyer family of filters. Starting in 2009, Sawyer released a small, black filter meant to be used in the line of a water bladder hose. Their combination of a lightweight, reliable product and a price point below $50 helped them become one of the most common brands on the trail. By the 2010s, it was difficult to walk a long-distance trail without seeing a Sawyer filter hanging from someone's pack.20

LifeStraw Filter (photo by Badri Sheshadri)

One last honorable mention in this saga is the SteriPEN UV water purifier. It was so popular and revolutionary, it made Time Magazine's list of 100 greatest and most influential gadgets.21 Not bad for a device whose primary purpose is shinning a flashlight into your drinking water. However, it does have its limits. Prefiltration is often required. Also, it is limited by the weaknesses common to all electronics. Nevertheless, it is a great feat of engineering.22

After more than a century of innovation, hikers now carry ceramic elements, charged iodine matrices, hollow-fiber membranes, and ultraviolet sterilizers into the wilderness. All this effort is devoted to accomplishing a task that our ancestors routinely performed by squinting at a stream and declaring it "probably fine." The challenge remains the same as it was for Murray and the first generation of campers: finding water. The difference is that modern hikers can carry their own treatment plant into the wilderness.

Written by David F. Garner


Sources

1. https://www.bethelhistorical.org/legacy-site/Drinking_Water_in_the_Civil_War.html

2. https://northernbush.com/wp-content/downloads/woodcraft/Shields-George-Camping-and-Camp-Outfits-1890.pdf (see pg 51)

3. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=200024H9.txt

4. https://books.google.com/books?id=GP19Dn55Qq8C&lpg

5. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/10/30/1331082/-How-John-Leal-Put-Poison-In-Our-Drinking-Water-And-Saved-Us-All

6. https://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/misc/evprev/ch7.htm

7. Russell, Philip. 100 Military Inventions that Changed the World. United Kingdom: Little, Brown Book Group, 2013.

8. https://books.google.com/books?id=xQVf9FBnxdQC&pg=PA30&dq=halazone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM-O6JgtLxAhUHheAKHRFQCcYQ6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=halazone&f=false

9. https://www.potableaqua.com/history/#:~:text=Potable%20Aqua%C2%AE%20iodine%20water,disinfection%20for%20over%2050%20years

10. The Camping Magazine. United States: American Camping Association, 1949. https://archive.org/details/sim_camping-magazine_1932-01_4_4

11. https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Katadyn

12. Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker, 1968, pg 94.

13. https://books.google.com/books?id=749LR15uQzoC&pg=PA140&dq=water+filter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR7rKRksrxAhUHmGoFHfI3CIk4FBDoATABegQICxAC#v=onepage&q=water%20filter&f=false

14. https://books.google.com/books?id=8N8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77&dq=water+filter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVqKH7jcrxAhWFlGoFHTbiDAUQ6AEwAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=water%20filter&f=false

15. https://books.google.com/books/about/Field_Stream.html?id=AQoUSNNI5h8C


15a. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5150856/

16. https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/waterborne/prevention/backcountry.pdf

17. https://books.google.com/books/about/Backpacker.html?id=8d8DAAAAMBAJ

18. https://books.google.com/books/about/Backpacker.html?id=o-EDAAAAMBAJ

19. https://www.msrgear.com/blog/gear-archives-trusted-source-evolution-miniworks-ex-microfilter/

20. https://sawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/UNC-Handout_2015-10-21.pdf

21. http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2023689,00.html

22. https://bangordailynews.com/2011/12/14/outdoors/blue-hill-outdoorsman-inventor-paves-the-way-to-safe-water-any-time-anywhere/

The Most Overlooked Piece of Outdoor Gear: A History of Disposable Bags

What do disposable bags have to do with the outdoors? Throwing trash in the street, in the river, or elsewhere was a common practice prior to the introduction of the disposable trash bag. Plastic bags have not only made our modern lives more sanitary, they have transformed how we manage waste at home and in the outdoors.

In 1852, Francis Wolle received a patent for a machine that made a paper bag.1 The paper bag introduced the concept of cheap, disposable packaging. It was the birth of the disposable bag. Nearly a century later, inventors would apply the same idea to plastic. Two Canadians invented the plastic garbage bag in their kitchen. These green bags were used in Winnipeg General Hospital to help reduce the spread of polio and became a standard household product in the 1960s.

Disposable plastic garbage bags have quietly become one of the most useful pieces of outdoor equipment ever invented. Plastic bags are inescapable for the outdoor recreator. Nearly as soon as they became widely available, backpackers and outdoor enthusiasts adopted them.

By the late 1960s, plastic bags had become so useful that Colin Fletcher included them in The Complete Walker, one of the earliest backpacking guidebooks.7 They can be used to package food, keep clothing and gear clean and dry, double as an emergency poncho, hold your trash, or simply keep your gear organized. Modern backpackers spend hundreds of dollars on ultralight equipment, yet some of the most useful items in their packs still cost only a few cents.

Two brothers, Max and Edgar Austin, saw promise in the idea to make a resealable plastic bag using a zipper closure. In the mid-1960s Dow Chemical approached the brothers for exclusive rights to make the product. The famous Ziploc was born.4,5 Ziploc advertised directly to campers and backpackers until the product became ubiquitous. For many hikers, a Ziploc quickly became less of a kitchen product and more of a piece of outdoor gear.

Ziploc Ad From May 1986 Issue of Backpacker Magazine

Today, plastic bags are inseparable from outdoor pursuits. Few pieces of outdoor gear are as versatile as a plastic bag. Most hikers carry several without ever thinking of them as gear. Backpackers will passionately debate backpacks, tents, and stoves while quietly relying on a collection of humble plastic bags.

Plastic bags are designed to be discarded. Most are durable enough to survive several multi-day trips despite being designed to be thrown away after one use. Reusing them has the added advantage of lowering excess waste. This modern convenience is a result of over 100 years innovation and precision manufacturing. Disposable bags rarely appear in gear reviews or lists of essential camping equipment. Yet few inventions have done more to keep gear dry, food organized, and campsites clean. For such a simple invention, the humble plastic bag has earned a permanent place in the modern backpacker's kit. As one backpacker noted, "When its pouring buckets, plastic is fantastic!"

By David F. Garner

Sources:

1. https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/bag-envy.html

2. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4024908

3. https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/plastic-bag-1950s-hot-new-thing

4. https://www.whoinvent.com/who-invented-ziploc-bags/

5. https://www.impakcorporation.com/history-of-ziplock-resealable-bags

6. https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/the-history-of-plastic-bags/

7. Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker, 1968, p. 271, print.