Hiking Nicknames

Title: Hiking Nicknames

General Information about Item:

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: hiker nicknames are given to hikers on the trail by other hikers. The nicknames are generally descriptive. They describe something unique about the specific hiker. When you do something distinctive or unique, then another hiker will give you your nickname. That is the name that you use for the rest of your hike, and that is the name which other hikers will know you by.

Cultural Context: Hiker nicknames have an important role in hiker culture. There are many different types of people that hike the Appalachian trail, but the nicknames are a unifying element. Everyone is given a nickname, and that nickname is specific to something that they did on the Appalachian trail or some aspect about them that was noticed on the Appalachian trail. For my informant Ben, 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. The first time he learned about hiking nicknames was on the first day of his Appalachian trail hike, where he was ascending one of the first mountains along with a group of others.

Item:

As explained in the transcript, there is a custom of giving other hikers nicknames. Once a hiker is given a nickname, they use this nickname for the rest of the hike. These nicknames typically have a significance associated with them. For example, the story that Ben tells is that he was given his nickname on one of the first days on the trip. He ran ahead of the group and got to the top of the mountain first. The peak of the mountain was covered in trees, so he found a large boulder that he could climb so that he could see above the trees. He sort of perched on top of the boulder, and when everyone else caught up to him, they saw him perched on the boulder and thought he looked like a gargoyle. So, he was given that nickname and he used that nickname for the rest of the trip.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

“Hikers like to give each other trailnames. Some people come up with their own trailnames, but that’s pretty uncommon. When you do something super distinctive during your first few weeks on the trail, someone will come up with a name for you. And for the rest of the hike, you’re known by that name. And it’s cool because it tells a little bit about your personality. It served as a conversation starter, because you could tell the story of your trail name. My trail name was gargoyle, which I got on the first Thursday on the trail, because we were hiking up the biggest mountain so far in Georgia called Blood Mountain. It was over 4000 ft, and I was super excited. I was with a pretty big group at the start. So, I like ran ahead to get to the top, and I got to the top and it was sort of disappointing because it was covered in trees, so I found this giant boulder that had a point on top, and I climbed up on top and I brought my camera and some postcards and I sat on top and wrote postcards and took pictures, and once everyone passed below me I got down and continued on to where we were staying, and everyone was talking about the guy who looked like a ‘gargogyle’ up above the trail, so that was my trailname.” (paraphrased)

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

Collector’s Name: Andrew Ogren

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive