Hiking sticks

[gb6491]

I do quite a bit of walking/hiking and have become a big fan of walking sticks. A big enough fan that I now seem to have a collection of them
Anyway, here's one that I recently won an auction for (on the right):

It has had a lot of pyrography done on it. I think the person that did the work has some skill at it.



I found the seller's description of the work interesting (even if it's a little mumbo-jumbo):
"A Beautiful Celtic theme hiking staff! Lots of beautiful stippling pyrography work and designs. This staff measures 52 inches long and is 1 and 1/4 inches diameter. Carved from crape Myrtle its light weight but strong.

The dragonflies symbolize good luck and long life, also prosperity, strength, peace, harmony and purity.Dragonflies carry messages that deal with deeper thought - and they ask that we pay attention to our deeper thoughts and desires.

The mantis is a symbol of meditation and contemplation. The mantis never makes a move unless she is100% positive it is the right thing for her to do. An appearance from the mantis is a message to be still, go within, meditate, get quite and reach a place of calm. It may also a sign for you to be more mindful of the choices you are making.

Circular Knots: Possibly symbols of cycles of life or eternity, but also seen as a sign of unity. The“endless” quality of Celtic knots seems to make lots of people assume they symbolize time without end, possibly because the look a bit like the familiar horizontal 8 symbol we use the represented eternity

Spiral Slash are universal symbols of the spiritual balance between inner and outer consciousness, the sun,and the Cosmos "

To add some firearm content, I often carry my CW45 when hiking.

...but I must confess that this is more often by my side:

to be continued...

[gb6491]

This is where I most often do my walking:

The sun just starting to peek over the mountains (not much as mountains go {3000 ft range} , but they are rugged)

Some of the critters we've run across:
A baby rabbit the dogs caught (a little wet from being mouthed, but no worse for wear...I think)

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture

A Tarantula that my dog Jack found:

A Diamondback Rattlesnake (pretty sure I've posted this one before)

.....

[gb6491]

..and a sunset (zoomed in on, I think it looks a little like the desert is on fire):


Regards,
Greg

[xsailer]

All interesting pictures and completely foreign regarding my environment. Do more sometime.

bob

[Bawanna]

Great pics Greg. I could do without the snake and the spider. Good dogs to play with the rabbit but not hurt it, seems like that would be kind of rare. My cat brought in a baby rabbit a couple weeks back that she had chewed badly.
Wasn't happy about that myself.

And somebody definitely put some time and effort into that walking stick, very cool.

All that walking must be the secret to staying slim and trim. I gotta give that a try, I'm not happy going from 6 pack abs to the keg myself.

[Acasper708]

Hiking sticks

Nice.
Have you seen Cold steels defensive walking sticks?
The Irish blackthorn is pretty cool.

http://youtu.be/EJvLNkFzblQ

[yqtszhj]

Beautiful pictures. Post as many of those as you want. those could make me consider AZ as a place to live.

[TucsonMTB]

Great pictures of my favorite part of the planet taken by a well equipped adventurer.

Thank you for sharing, sir!

[chrish]

Very cool pictures. Gotta get to the SW sometime soon. As an east coaster, don't get that direction much. Been as far west as Salt Lake City (flew out) coming back from the Grand Tetons on a rock climbing adventure in my younger, dumber days. But starting to plan a long drive round the country at some point and will definitely be headed to the SW on that trip. Absolutely gorgeous!


Hey, gb, what's that holster you are sporting on the Kahr? Looks like neoprene/nylon w/ some retention. Just curious.

[wyntrout]

Great pictures, Greg. I like walking out in the Southwest, too. I haven't gotten to do that much in the last 6 years or so since Wifey was working and we had to fly to SW Colorado for Christmas. I don't try to hike in the mountains in the snow, either.

Since I have a cell phone and or digital camera with me all of the time, I would be taking a lot more of pictures, too. I liked turning over likely rocks and things to look for "critters". Thanks for sharing!

Wynn

[wyntrout]

One of those staffs and this "knife" could come in handy...


Wynn

[jocko]

humm 52" staff. kinda makes me think of myself!!! Just sayin

[chrish]

humm 52" staff. kinda makes me think of myself!!! Just sayin

You musta really hit your head HARD in that fall?

[xsailer]

The close ups of the burned staff background would lead you to believe he might be a good stipple'r of grips.

[mr surveyor]

as I get older, and still "active in the field", I've become a big proponent of carrying a walking stick. For the field, I either carry an old aluminum extension type stick that I painted shut to my favorite length, or just carry a 48" 1x1 survey stake (hand picked for the straight grain). It's saved me a many a fall in the last several years. When mrs surv and I took our trip to Alaska a couple of months ago, I took one of the commercial extension walking stick for both of us to use when hiking. She didn't want to "keep up" with her's, but I never was without mine for the entire trip. I don't think I'll ever want to use an "old people cane", but I do like my "stick".

Incidentally, I have a hand carved cane passed down from my great grandfather. It was given to him in the 1880's when he was about 14 years old by an old fellar that sat on a bench in front of the general store. The old guy never completely finished the detail before he gave it to "grandpaw", then died a couple of weeks later. It's a thin, round handled walking stick with a rattle snake carved in wrapping the entire length. I'd post a picture, but I still can't get pukebucket to work for me (even when I deactivate my AVG s/w).

I've been carrying some sort of walking stick / brush beater since I got into surveying in the mid 70's, even if it was just cutting one from a small sapling for just the day. I do love the security of having a good stick in hand