On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:56:57 -0700, "Jeff Taylor" wrote:

Late September I found myself in a predicament standing in the N.F. of the
Clearwater, with that uneasy feeling of a Full Reid if I took a step in any
direction. I made it out without a dunking, however told myself it was time
to look for a wading staff.

I looked through the archives, although the information is a bit dated. Are
there any on the market that you would suggest and or stay away from?

I took a look out on e-bay and found the following:
http://tinyurl.com/47v53

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions appreciated...

A compass on a wading staff? Two thoughts: 1) cheap, far East, (supposedly)
multipurpose crap - the KPOS of wading staffs, and/or 2) Silly-assed
GI-Joe-for-adults toy.

I tend to agree with Ken about them _in general_, but there are _limited_
situations where they are probably a useful and helpful thing, and for those
situations, Joel's offer of one fashioned from a ski pole is both generous and
useful. If one has a place to get inexpensive used ski gear and even a basic
hardware store in their area, they can have as many 5-10.00 wading staffs as
they want.

HTH,
R