User Review: Sea to Summit iPood Pocket Trowel

What can one say about a small little trowel, designed to dig cat-holes in the woods to bury crap in? Well, how about it’s well designed, has a really fun name, and does what it’s supposed to do?

This thing is not designed to dig trenches around your tent in a rainstorm, make fire pits, cut kindling, mine for gold, or stir your scrambled egg breakfast. It’s designed to dig small hole in the ground. Remember that. Remember, too, that while the iPood Pocket Trowel is a really neat item, it’s not 100% perfect.

The handle is designed with a removable plug in the end to store a lighter and a bit of TP. Sounds good, but in practice, it’s not very practical. Paper just gets wedged in there, making it difficult to remove. It’s faster and easier to keep any “necessaries” you might need, along with the iPood, in a separate stuff sack in the top of your pack. Just grab and go. I tend to wait until I really have to “go” before I “go” and just taking the time to dig a cat-hole takes enough time already. It’s better to have everything handy, as it were.

The iPood Trowel does a fine job digging a hole in softer ground, but add in some rocks and roots and it falls short. Still, you must remember that this is a hand trowel, not a shovel. It won’t cut tree roots and you won’t be able to use it to pry our large rocks. It does a fine job making a small hole, but that’s all. I wish that the iPood was a bit pointier. I think that would make digging holes a bit easier.

I do like the included stuff sack and the nifty way the head comes off the handle. It makes it a bit smaller for storage. The blade is strong. I’ve yet to damage it, even when digging holes in a glacial moraine in the Grand Tetons. The spring clip that holds the head to the handle, so far, has worked flawlessly, though I can see keeping it dirt-free is important to its continued functioning.

Overall, I’d say the iPood Sea to Summit Pocket Trowel is a winner, especially considering it only weighs 3.8 ounces, packs well, and does a fine job digging small cat holes, even in somewhat rocky soil.