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.