Title: Trail Gnome

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Customary Lore, Ritual / Game

  Language: English

  Origin: United States

  Informant: David Hauge, student at Dartmouth College Class of 2021

  Collector: Colton French

  Date of Collection: 11-2-2017

Informant Data:

• David Hauge is a Dartmouth Student in the graduating class of 2021. David is originally from Washington D.C. He is an only child. David took a year off in between high school and college to hike the Appalachian Trail.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: The garden gnome game takes place alone or in a group. Sometimes one person takes the 5-pound gnome the entire forty miles to the next hostel. Sometimes people pass the gnome off after a certain number of miles. The game can be individual or a social game. If the gnome arrives at the next hostel, a free night is given to those who carried the gnome. Many hikers take part in the ritual and the lore is passed down by word of mouth. Those who have yet to hike the trail may know about the gnome ritual.

• Cultural Context: This is a game only played between two hostels on the Appalachian Trail. There is no specific cultural prerequisite to play the game. Most hikers have heard of the ritual of the gnome and try to take part in it while hiking the AT.
• Overall Context:David took a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trail after graduating from high school. David knew from the time he was twelve that hiking the Appalachian Trail was something he wanted to do. He heard about it, and it lodged itself in the back of his mind as something that he wanted to complete in his lifetime. David started hiking the AT February 6, 2017. Many people start hiking the AT mid-March to early April. That group is what is called the “bubble,” or the largest group of hikers. David’s hiker experience is a bit different from the average thru-hiker on the AT simply because he started very early in the season when there were not many people on the trail. David was probably the 60th person to start thru-hiking this past year. In the “bubble” about 75 to 100 people start hiking every day.

  David started hiking the AT alone and continued to mainly hike alone throughout his entire journey. He met people at shelters along the trail. He met a young couple from New Hampshire. They were both nineteen years old and David hiked with them for a good portion of the trail. David also hiked with an ex-marine from Virginia who worked for the National Park services. He also met very nice people at the hostiles along the way. David kept a journal of all the people that he met on the trail. It is easy to meet people along the trail because everyone has something in common and is out on the AT for similar reasons.

Item:

• There were two hostels that were forty miles apart. At the first hostel, the was a garden gnome. The garden gnome was five pounds. When you leave the first hostel, you put the gnome in your pack and if you are able to carry it to the other hostel, you get a free night of stay at the hostel.

Informant’s Comments:

• none

Collector’s Comments:

• none

Collector’s Name: Colton French 

Tags/Keywords:

• gnome, game, ritual, material, customary