[pct-l] Trekking pole negatives

["Eric Lee (Office)" <elee@MICROSOFT.com>]

Even though I'm a rabid pro-pole fanatic, I should point out a couple of
slight annoyances that people should take into consideration.

One, I think it does take a little more concentration to hike with poles.
You see a little less of the scenery as you're mostly watching the trail bed
to see where to place not only your feet, but also your pole tips.  The
tradeoff is speed and efficiency of travel vs. sightseeing.  At least,
that's the way it's been for me.  Possibly if you use your poles every day
for weeks at a time, you may achieve a higher plane of consciousness where
you get so used to the poles that your actually spend *less* time watching
the ground than without them, because you've got more stability to prevent
stumbling.  I don't know - I'm not there yet.

Two, on overgrown or very narrow trails, there's sometimes not enough room
for both your feet and the poles at the same time.  If the entire trail is
that way, then you might leave the poles home since you won't get to use
them much.

Three, if you're wearing a rain shell in bad weather, water will often run
up your sleeves because your forearms are level with the ground or angled
slightly up, rather than hanging down at your sides where they'd be
protected from leakage.  The answer is to either deal with wet sleeves or
take a pair of waterproof gloves that extend past the cuff of your coat
sleeve.

Eric
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