Trekking Poles Tryout

Dec. 19, 2011, Trekking Pole Try Out. Walked solo from William Hawrelak Park east along the south river breaks to the Whitemud Freeway bridge and back.

While hiking to Raven Lake and Grizzly Den back in October, and on previous hikes as well, my brother brought Trekking Poles. Before he got the trekking poles this he often used a walking stick or staff. I have usually resisted using a walking stick. Some of my reasons why I have resisted are because I am forgetful and so often leave my walking stick somewhere or I forget to bring it, I have also found that a walking stick can be a great asset on some terrain but in other situations it can quickly become a liability. On a few hikes now I have borrowed one of my brother’s trekking poles, usually to descend steep and difficult sections of the trail and I have to recognize that a trekking pole clearly gives any hiker greater stability. A staff or a walking stick also aids whit stability but what I came to realize is that the retractable trekking poles can be collapsed and put away in a backpack when they are not needed thus eliminating the nuisance of having to carry them when you are not needing to use them. This one feature alone convinced me to make trekking poles a part of my hiking equipment.
Today I bought trekking poles at MEC. I bought Komperdell poles because they were marked down to $66. That seemed like a bargain so how could I resist. This afternoon I went on a hike to try them out. I started at William Hawrelak Park and I hiked the east and south river breaks to the Whitemud Freeway bridge where I crossed to the north river breaks and returned from west along the river. As I there is variety in the terrain on this walk it was a good choice. I met a guy carrying a camera and with an impressive telephoto lens. I stopped to chat with him and in the course of our conversation I learned about the types of woodpeckers that frequent these areas and I heard the word leucism, reduced pigmentation particularly in birds, for the first time, or not that I recall at least.
I noted many signs or portions of this route warning of dangers and to stay off the trail but there were lots of foot prints going where the signs said not too so I followed the people tracks on through these posted areas. On my return walk I ended up in the off leash area so I encountered many dogs. One or two dogs seemed mildly intimidated by the trekking poles.
For the most part the trekking poles worked out well.

Distance walked about 10 km.
Moving time 2 hr. 35 min. stopped time 18 min.
total acsent 536. max elev 2338