ARO Hiking Sticks

Hikingstaffs@gmail.com Tripp doesn’t consider himself an artist, just someone who loves exploring the woods of Georgia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and his regular job is that of a high school history teacher.  The idea of creating hiking sticks came from an unfortunate encounter his uncle had with a rattlesnake while walking the trails around his North Carolina home. The first hiking stick was made out of Black Walnut from the hills of Dallas, Georgia, and presented to his uncle. From then on, the demand grew with friends and family and within a short time he was making them for the Girl Scouts, local stores, and selling them at Arts and Crafts shows. Each stick is harvested from the woods of Northern and Western Georgia. The sticks are dried for six-to-nine months, shaved, sanded, stained, and sealed with polyurethane or shellac. They are finished with a rubber tip, a compass, a hand-grip, and a thumb strap. When selecting a hiking stick,