Hiking Sticks

While traveling, I have always explored the area by foot as well as by vehicle. In the islands, this included hikes in rain forests as well as trails around the islands or just walking through town. I traveled with a partner at that time and on hiking trails, made him lead the way to catch all the spider webs and on rare occasions, flip a snake out of the path - or at least to scare them away.

Now that I'm traveling alone, I still go on hikes. But now I don't have a "front" man to lead the way and catch the nasties. I was pretty lucky through Florida, somehow I never got caught in a web. Mississippi is a different story - first hike here the other day and I spent the time dodging spider webs and catching them across my face. Yuck! It was about halfway through the trail that I saw a sign telling me that I was 3/4 of a mile through the trail. That sign also had the universal icon of a hiker - an outline of someone walking with a hiking stick. In a flash, I knew why people carry hiking sticks! It's to carry in front of them to catch all the webs!

You can bet I'll be on the lookout for some type of hiking stick for my future hikes through the woods. Sooner or later, my hikes will be in the desert and maybe I'll still carry one for the rattlers!