Thanks Nick - seems I have a long wait for my found object to make a stronger hiking stick, lol!

Thanks everyone for the input. I went back to the spot today and after looking along the path I found this, I saw the little tree it had torn off from, and the actual tree bark is quite different from this stem, but the torn place matches the stem so I think I've found the tree - the leaves do look like elder leaf images online.

Thanks so much everyone for identifying this for me!