Once upon a time, I had a hiking stick that I bought in a gift shop atop one of the Bavarian Alps. In July 1999 I took that stick to Greenland, and it never came back. The airline lost it, thank you very much, First Air.

Since November 1999, I've started collecting replacements. I harvest them myself, some under spectacular conditions. I collect one per state or province that I visit. If I bring home more than that, the excess must be disposed of. I like to give sticks away, but all my friends have sticks by now. So now I sell them.

Anyway, here's what's left.

Photo	Stick / Cane	Type of Wood (if known)	State / Province	Location	Month Harvested	Narrative
	Stick	?	Wisconsin	Door County	September 2000	I found the stick laying across the sidewalk in a small public park in the middle of a busy tourist town. It was such a perfect hiking stick, I had to ship it home. This started my tradition of collecting sticks from everywhere I travel.
	Stick	?	Louisiana	Terrebonne Parish	November 2000	I went into a grove in uninhabited territory north of Cocodrie to find this stick. And it came in handy, because (as often happens during my vacations) I walked far enough and hard enough to raise blisters. A guard at one of the Louisiana State Museums in New Orleans tried to keep this stick out, but thought better of it when he saw me limping.
	Cane	Hickory	Connecticut	Ridgefield	December 2000	One Christmastime when I was visiting my sister, I snuck out to a public park and found this cane-sized stick. I kept it around, because canes are useful for balance on icy ground. It even went to Illinois with me, where I finished the cane. The strap is suitable for carrying over my neck and shoulder.
	Stick	Eucalyptus	California	Berkeley	January 2001	I plucked this stick from the steep hillside on which lies the University of California "C", overlooking the San Francisco Bay, in the shadow of the Berkeley Cyclotron. A homeless guy who was selling his own walking sticks in downtown Berkeley, identified the wood as eucalyptus. I finished the stick within a month, and found at Total Confusion that it made a lovely prop for role-playing games. Its strap fits over my shoulder.
	Cane	Eucalyptus	California	Berkeley	January 2001	This stick came from the same place as the other Berkeley stick, but it needed much more work. I finished it on Prince Edward Island. I don't own the stick any more, but I honor it here because in October 2001 it was auctioned off for disaster relief.
	Stick	Rosewood	Illinois	Hoffman Estates	March 2001	I got this one on a business trip. I didn't have to go any farther than one vacant lot away from my hotel to get it. I suspect it is rosewood; I certainly had to clear away enough thorns from it. I finished it before going home. The stick bears its own pass to the Ameritech Center; I would put my own pass on it after leaving work every day. Sometimes the stick's pass got me past the guards when nobody else would sign me in.
	Cane	Pine (?)	Iowa	Sabula	March 2001	The Illinois trip went long enough to spawn side trips. I plucked this stick from the banks of the Mississippi River, two weeks before massive flooding would have made it driftwood. It replaced Stick-of-Dubuque that I'd harvested earlier that day; that stick was thrown into the river by government agents at Lock #12 at Bellevue, Iowa. Really.
	Stick	?	Prince Edward Island	Fort Amherst	May 2001	Prince Edward Island has lots of parks and sticks. The stick I kept to represent the province, came from a pile of brushwood thrown over a cliff onto the beach, next to Fort Amherst Provincial Park. I finished it before leaving the province.
	Cane	Hickory (?)	New Brunswick	Middle of Nowhere	May 2001	This stick came from a vacant lot roughly 100 km east of Minto, New Brunswick.
	Cane	Birch	Maine	Griffin Island	May 2001	This birchwood stick came from the middle of an island in Lake Mooselookmegunticook. I kept some bark on, to prove its origin. Birch wood is weaker than some, but this stick was strong enough to push a boat off the island.
	Cane	?	Indiana	Elkhart	September 2001	I harvested this stick from the parking lot of a "Texas Roadhouse" restaurant on the side of the Indiana Toll Road. If not for terrorists, I'd have been flying to Chicago instead, and the stick would have wound up in a wood chipper. But now it's my winter stick, complete with ice grip, and has already saved me from injury on icy sidewalks. Up yours, terrorists.
	Stick	Balsam	Michigan	I-94 Rest Area	September 2001	This is the second of three sticks I got that month. It came from a highway rest area west of Kalamazoo.
	Stick	Oak	Ontario	Grand Bend	September 2001	My September 2001 vacation was supposed to be on an airplane. I drove a car instead, which led me to the shores of Lake Huron. This stick came from the grounds of a historical museum at the edge of Huron County, Ontario.
	Stick	Hickory	Massachusetts	Hudson	October 2001	I took this stick from a friend's backyard. (I compensated him with my first self-hand-made hiking stick, also from Massachusetts.) This stick is decorated with my own hair, a ponytail that grew from 1997 to 2001.
	Stick	Oak	Vermont	Windsor	November 2001	This stick came from the slopes of the Ascutney Mountain Ski Resort. I was there in conjunction with the Carnage on the Mountain gaming convention, about which the less said, the better. But at least the mountain was beautiful, and had sticks lying around it.
	Cane	Hickory	New Hampshire	Cornish	November 2001	On my way home from Ascutney, I stopped in a New Hampshire state park which commemorated an artist colony. The statues on the grounds were so-so, but the woods were beautiful and yielded this strong stick. I kept most of the bark on, and turned it into a cane.
	Stick	Cypress	Florida	Big Cypress National Forest (Alligator Alley)	January 2002	I went on an air trip to Florida, from which the most lasting benefit was a new hiking stick. This one came from a rest stop on "Alligator Alley". It's the longest hiking stick I've ever collected, and it strongly resembles Gandalf's staff in the "Lord of the Rings" movie.
	Stick	Pine	Pennsylvania	Delaware Water Gap State Park	March 2002	I went on a road trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, from which the most lasting benefit was a lot of new hiking sticks. This one came from the state park on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.
	Cane	Rosewood	Maryland	Chambersburg	March 2002	That same day, I went on to Maryland. As often happens, I found better sticks in humbler places. This one came from the back of a Wal-Mart.
	Stick	Hickory	Virginia	Blue Ridge Parkway	March 2002	The next day, I made it to Virginia. This stick came from the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway, south of Lexington.
	Stick	?	North Carolina	Charlotte	March 2002	I eventually made it to Charlotte, where I worked for a day and a half before the Bank of America changed their mind about needing an expert in source control. Oh well, at least the hotel had sticks lying around.
	Cane	?	South Carolina	Greater Charlotte	March 2002	I spent enough time in Charlotte to make it across the state line on a bicycle. It was like biking into a scene from "Deliverance". This cane came from the side of a country road.
	Stick	?	Delaware	Lums Pond State Park	March 2002	On the way home from Charlotte, I took a rest stop at a state campground in Delaware. This stick came from a big pile of brushwood there.
	Cane	Spruce	New Jersey		March 2002	That same day, I stopped for the night in New Jersey. Thanks to a helpful park ranger, I avoided the hotel with the roaches and the hotel with the drug dealers, and stayed at a hotel in a typical suburban town with brushwood along the sidewalks. Whence, this cane. It sure smelled nice before I coated it with polyurethane.
	Cane	?	New York	Highland Falls	March 2002	The next day, I made it to the gates of West Point. This cane came from a hotel backlot, with a spectacular view of the Hudson River.
	stick	?	Ohio	Ashtabula	June 2002	I took another road trip later, and found this stick in another hotel yard.