Hmmm, I use a wooden staff myself. I don't think it's long enough to be considered a true staff, but I won't go on the trail without it. More times than I can count, it has steadied me, tested potentially faulty ground, propped up my chin, etc.

Earlier this summer, my sister and I were in the Shenandoah and came upon a very hard-working PATC team. These folks were seriously putting in a hard day's work repairing and developing a steep portion of a side trail. However, one senior member of the team admonished my sister and me to get rid of our sticks and get trekking poles. His tone and demeaner were so pompous and superior he turned me off of trying poles for a long time!

Conversely, a grand fellow named Jim who was working last year at our local Gander Mountain in Fredericksburg, Virginia, told my sister and I that "two poles or staffs were like four-wheel drive to hiker." Amen to that.

As for sales staff that will sell anything and everything without so much as a "have you ever heard of this before?", well, I'm sure we've all come across more than our share of them. Occasionally though, we come across some really helpful folks like the guy at REI in Fairfax, Virginia, who measured me for a pack and we "discovered" that I'm "vertically torso challenged" (aka super short torso). Actually getting a measurement made it a lot easier to shop for a new pack because I finally knew what size range to look for! He eventually stopped laughing . . .