I find that a walking stick has come in handy many times. Poking in the bushes listening for a "clunk" of an ammo can (works), hiking up and down hills, and moving rocks and leaves. One of the most benificial uses was taught to me by my two young sons. In the Alaska woods there are usually a lot of spider webs. Being 6'3" tall I seem to run into them all the time. My two youngest sons 10 and 12 y/o hate them and started walking around holding a stick about 2 feet in front of their face which breakes the (mostly unseen) webs around the stick instead of their head. Now I do that all the time. Went to hide a new cache last nignt and did not have the stick - cam home with quite a few strings of webs on my head and in my hair. I thought it was pretty funny that two young guys could come up with the simple solution.