Date: 2004-05-01
From: Tri-Corner Knob Shelter

To: Mt Collins Shelter
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: light rain

Pole Tips11PM, 5/3 - Fontana InnToday's weather (5/1) was much like the previous day's, but a little wetter. I passed many gorgeous-looking viewpoints, but got no view. Visibility was less than 100 yds, so all I saw was white. There was no place to stop along the Trail, except for the usual 3-minute chat whenever I met hikers. So I just kept on slogging. When I got to the shelter I planned to stay for the night, it was still early. I didn't fancy sitting around in a damp shelter for hours waiting for dark (I have always been known as the restless one in my family), so I just hiked on to the next shelter. (One thing that I have learned on this hike is that rain viewed from inside a shelter is always worse than rain you are walking in, no matter how wet the real rain actually gets you.)As a result, I walked my farthest today. I also forgot many more hikers' names today, partly because I didn't take the opportunity to sit down and record them, and partly because the mind becomes numb after so many miles. I don't even remember much of what I was pondering about.Here are the hikers I remember meeting:Zammy; 2 Day hikers; Jaws; Doc T (thanks for the apple, Doc. Fresh fruit really hits the spot out on the Trail); Spice Man; The Hobbit; Darrin; Lomax; Santa; Crazy Legs; Everglades; Tall Tales; David; Will; Jo Jo; Joker. One thing I remember pondering about was pole tips.I have Leki hiking poles (That is the second hint for my defective word problem. NH Ken, you should be able to solve it in an instant now. And Vt Ken, surely you have been able to solve the Little Wolf Creek Crossing puzzle by now! Yet my mailbox and my guest book remain void of any mention of my puzzles. And Chrissy, I haven't heard from you at all!! NH Ken, please tell Chrissy she's working too hard. I know Ned would agree, even if SS may not.). Leki poles come with carbide tips. Carbide is an abrasive, so doesn't slip off rocks easily. It also abrades rocks, and worse it leaves a deep, narrow hole wherever it lands on soil. If I still owned a lawn I would hire thru-hikers to walk back and forth across my lawn each spring because Leki poles do a wonderful job of aerating the soil.However, they are not kind to the Trail. The AT through the Smokies is a trench, at one point at least 6' wide and 3' deep. (I need to take back what I said in the previous entry about horses and large, loose rocks. Part of today's trail was closed to horses, and was just as rocky. Another part was open to horses and wasn't particularly rocky. It must just be the nature of the underlying soil.) Judging by the border of Leki holes all along the Trail, I would guess that they contribute to the Trail's trench-like nature.Last night (4/30) Kent, the ridge runner (the AT's front line in trail maintenance), commented favorably on the rubber tips on my Lekis. Not many people have them. Burnie joined the conversation, saying that she had considered getting them, but was advised at two different outfitters not to get them. The perception is that they lose their value if tipped.I totally disagree with that position. They clearly damage the trailbed if not tipped, but my poles barely leave a trace (remember Leave No Trace hiking). The tipped poles serve the functions of support and sensing (which is about 98% of the use of my poles) as well as the untipped poles in almost all circumstances.The knock on tipped poles seems to be that they slip on damp surfaces a lot more easily than untipped poles. That is true, but that argument is a double-edged sword. I value my tips precisely because they DO slip on wet surfaces, like rocks at a creek crossing, slightly more readily than do my boots. Before crossing suspicious rocks, I test them with my poles. If my poles don't slip, I'm pretty sure my boots won't. I would hate to step on a slick rock that my poles did not slip on, because in my experience a slipping foot on a creek rock is usually not savable by a pole, no matter how firmly it adheres to a rock. If I encounter a creek where all rocks are too slick to step on, I am willing to wade the creek.Comments expected.See you on down the Trail