If I am travelling for any length of time I use a rucksack or backpack with a net pocket on the outside for a folded cane. I became habituated to travelling with wipes and things due to having a baby, so it's become the norm to do that for my cane too. At home, we have hooks for umbrellas and canes and put newspaper down for shoes and such too, so it's less of an issue.

Oh well. If it touches something, it touches something. The worst of it will be rubbed off by use long before you put it in the backpack, especially if you do constant contact rather than tapping.

I suppose you could wipe the tip off with a wet wipe each time, put it in a separate compartment, keep it in your pocket with the tip facing up, buy a special pouch for it, whatever. But generally you'll be fine even if you don't bother, because stuff generally doesn't stick to the tip quite that much.

My cane goes into a bag extremely rarely for this very reason.

Actually, I’m in a career preparedness class. Someone actually gave a very good tip about cleaning your cane which I have never done in my life. But they are right. What if my cane did lean against something either while folding or whatever. I tend to now wipe my cane with Lysol wipes or alcohol wipes or whatever I’m carrying at hand The reason you would want to clearing your cane is what if you were in a networking event or interview and they look at your very dirty cane and the very clean you.

I give it the sniff test. If I smell something gross when I’m about to put it away, I wipe it with a Clorox wipe. The side of my bag has 2 mesh pockets for “water bottles” (real water bottles don’t fit; only those 16 oz flimsy ones from the store) so I use one for my umbrella and the other for my cane so it never touches my other stuff. You could also carry a sandwich baggie to slip over the tip so you don’t accidentally touch the grossness or get it on the handle if you use a folding cane.

I repurposed a little pouch that was meant to hold reusable shopping bag (that o don’t have anymore). The ball it’s in the pouch. The pouch is made of waterproofed nylon.

Usually after so much use it’s gone. And oh don’t you have to love grass wonderful wonderful stuff or plants if you trail or walk on it it kind of cleanses or wipes your cane for you. Yes wipes are very useful. I am severely alergic and have a bag of it anyway on hand but honestly? Do you really need to? I don’t touch the end much anyway and besides I don’t put it in bags or in places like that I mostly lean it against a wall, put it on the ground folded or unfolded. I use straight canes a lot so there is no such thing as folding.