THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
THEODORE ROOSEVELT advised American leaders to speak softly and carry a big stick.
The big stick he referred to was the Navy. But Teddy was a hiker, too. And there's no doubt he'd have enjoyed looking at the sticks in the back yard of retired Navy officer Peter C. Micken Jr.
There, hundreds of unprocessed walking sticks are propped against a fence and hundreds more are sorted by size and shape in a shed.
Gnarled, worm-eaten, vine-encrusted knobby sticks, all weather-worn. Some are as undulating and as big around as a thick wrist, others as smooth and slim as cue sticks.
Micken is the owner and sole employee of the Virginia Hiking Stick Co. If you want a proper walking stick, hiking stick or cane that will be handed down from generation to generation,
Micken's back yard is the place to look.
Pick one you like. Micken will design it any way you choose before brushing on three coats of marine polyurethene.
How about a nice Christmas stick?
``I just did one of those for a family of four that had all their names on it, candy canes, the family Christmas tree and the town of Bethlehem carved into the wood,'' Micken said.
He even has his own Christmas stick. That was has a face that might have been created by Dr. Seuss but appears naturally in the wood. It's nicknamed ``Slim Nick.''
In addition to Virginia Hiking Stick Co., Micken owns and operates Training Systems of Tidewater, a provider of computer-based training to companies. He carved his first hiking stick when he was a Boy Scout in Connecticut.
It was decorated to resemble a totem pole with about 20 heads on it. The tall stick was decorated with the troop flag and attracted lots of attention.
The carver and his wife, Audrey, spend much of their spare time biking and canoeing. Back in 1985 they found an interesting stick on a trail near Charleston, S.C., and brought it home. Micken made a hiking stick of the wood.
``I took it into Seashore State Park, where someone offered me $25 for the stick, and I sold it,'' he recalled. A business was born.
Micken believes the most prized pieces of wood for stick-making are those where old vines have coiled around a limb like steel bands and worm tracks have grooved the wood with elaborate, shallow channels.
Many customers like the interesting grain and worm tracks and wouldn't think of changing anything. Still others want their names carved into the sticks. And many of his sticks are ``life sticks'' with emblems affixed, carved with significant dates: children's names and birthdays or career milestones.
His works are displayed at Seashore State Park, poking sometimes from a base with holes in it resembling a hedgehog or porcupine. Quite a few sales are to women who prefer a cane to a golf club or lead pipe as protection while walking.
Micken never drives anywhere without his Browning Collapsible Utility Camp Saw. While behind the wheel, he instinctively takes note of felled trees.
``I was returning from church one Sunday and ran across a 4- or 5-acre grove of trees downed by a bulldozer,'' he said. The tract contained quite a few interesting sticks for his business.
And when lightning struck a neighbor's tree, he quickly claimed the limb shorn from the trunk.
Charges for his works vary, depending on beauty, rarity of the wood, and time spent carving and painting. They range in price from $50 to $125. Most of the sticks are about 5 feet, 6 inches long.
One of his most colorful sticks was for a powwow of Native Americans. It was decorated with multicolored bands and the symbols of 12 North American tribes.
Micken concedes that his sticks seem to be too handsome or elaborate for veteran walkers of the Appalachian Trail, who prefer to find their own sticks a few yards off the pathway. His sticks are simply too nice to risk burning while angled over a campfire to hold the handle of a pot.
His business continues to grow, he says. Busch Gardens recently commissioned him to do six sticks for the German dancers there.
No telling where his mini-business might take him. If he sticks to it. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Richard L. Dunston
Peter Micken Jr. is the founder of the Virginia Hiking Stick Co. in
Virginia Beach
by CNB