Title: Hiker Description Slang

General Information about Item:

• Customary & Verbal Folklore, Ritual, Slang
• Language: English
• Country where Item is from: United States
• Informant: Ben Ferguson
• Date of Collection: 10/28/2017

Informant Data:

• The informant was Ben Ferguson. Ben is from Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College, and he graduated in 2015. He is currently working at the Mount Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. He spent a lot of time in the White Mountains as a child because his parents and grandparents went to Dartmouth, so they would come to New Hampshire and Vermont to hike and ski. He always wanted to hike the Appalachian trail after learning about the meaning of the white blazes as a child. He hiked the trail in the Spring and Summer of 2014. 

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The social context in which these words are used is when hikers first meet each other on the trail. They may be going in opposite directions. They may be traveling in the same direction, and the purpose of the slang terms is to concisely describe how you are hiking the trail and to provide information on the condition of the trail that you were just on. It’s a way of sharing your intentions and your knowledge with other hikers, and because some descriptions were used so repeatedly they were abbreviated and turned into hiker slang terms that are specific to the Appalachian trail.

• Cultural Context: When Ben came to Dartmouth, he learned that the Appalachian Trail goes right across campus, and he learned that he could change his course schedule so that he could find the time to hike the Appalachian Trail during college. He hiked the Appalachian Trail in the Spring and Summer of 2014. For much of the hike, he hiked alone, however at several points along the trail, he hiked with others. Most hikers are either on their own or in small groups, and so it is customary to greet others on the trail and to use this slang as a means of expressing their intentions on the trail. 

Item:

When hikers come across each other on the trail, they usually exchange some slang words to describe which way they are hiking the Appalachian Trail. This can be one of the following ways:

• “Nobo”: This means a north-bound hiker. They are hiking the Appalachian trail from the south to the north.
• “Sobo”: This means a south-bound hiker. They are hiking the Appalachian trail from the north to the south.
• “Flip-Flop: These are people who hike the Appalachian trail halfway and then jump to the other end of the trail and hike it the other way. For example, they make hike the southern half of the trail from South to North, and then they may go up North to the start of the trial and hike half of the trail North to South.
• “PUDs”: This stands for pointless ups and downs. It describes parts of the trail where there are a lot of rolling hills and it doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

• The relevant clips start at 14:40 and 23:30

Transcript of Associated File:

• “Another big one is PUDS. Which stands for pointless ups and downs. Like in places where the trail is on top of a ridge and it will go up and down a lot and it’s really frustrating because it seems like you’re not going anywhere. So people call those pointless ups and downs.” (This is taken from the transcript of the entire interview)
• “There are whole dictionaries of hiker terminology written. Tell me if you’ve heard any of these words before, but Nobo means northbounder. Sobo is southbounder, and flip-flop is people who hike the trail halfway and then jump up and hike the trail the other way. So they’ll do the southpass hiking northbound and then the northpass hiking southbound. So like when you introduce yourself you would say like “Nobo” or “Sobo”.

Informant’s Comments:

• None

Collector’s Comments:

• The item is paraphrased from the transcript of the interview.

Collector’s Name: Andrew ogren

Tags/Keywords:

• slang, Appalachian Trail, hiker