I'll chime in too... in the early 2000s, when I was in my mid-20s, I did a pretty long and rocky hike by myself (Brown Mountain in the Angeles National Forest). I was in good health and never had any trouble with my joints. I used a pair of REI anti-shock trekking poles (made by Leki, I think) which I still have. Shortly after starting the return back to the car, I lost my footing and twisted my ankle. The poles absorbed the majority of the shock, but I still had a lot of difficulty hiking back out, and was sore for days. Without the poles, I might have been in very bad shape in terms of getting back to the car. I didn't see anybody else on the trail that day.
That said, my poles do not attach to a camera, and I find them cumbersome to have around when I'm trying to use a camera or binoculars. I don't use them that much anymore (the trails I do now are not quite as rugged). But if you have any concerns about stability, I think they can be extremely worthwhile. On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 8:28 PM, Rick Womer <rickpic...@gmail.com> wrote: > Brian, > > Rather late to the party, but anyway... > > If it weren't for hiking poles, I would have had to give up hiking in the > mountains 20 years ago (I'm 62), because going downhill was becoming too > painful for my long-ago-injured left knee. With poles the knee is fine, and > my stamina has become the hike-limiting variable instead. > > I'm a born klutz, and yes, they also help with stability. > > My current poles are Lexi Makalus, which weigh 600g (~1 1/4#) for the pair. > They are spring-loaded to absorb the jolts of going downhill, which I like. I > once bought a lighter-weight pair, and one of them snapped on the first hike. > > Since I switched to digital, I haven't once wished that one of them could be > a monopod or tripod. > > Cheers, > > Rick > > > > > On Mar 3, 2015, at 1:02 AM, Brian Walters wrote: > >> G'day all >> >> Ever since I had that stroke a couple of years ago I'm finding I get >> exhausted a lot quicker than I used to. This is curtailing my bushwalking >> somewhat. >> >> I'm wondering whether one or two hiking poles might help - these are the >> ones I'm considering: >> >> http://www.photographybay.com/2015/01/16/manfrotto-officially-launches-off-road-backpacks-walking-sticks-tripods/ >> >> One of the side benefits is that one of the poles has a camera mount, so can >> be used as a monopod. >> >> I should add that I'm not talking about extreme bushwalking - I doubt I'd be >> covering more than perhaps 4 or 6 km over uneven ground in any one walk. >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Cheers >> >> Brian >> >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> Brian Walters >> Western Sydney Australia >> http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ >> >> >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > http://photo.net/photos/RickW > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
