Trail Names

Title: Trail Names

General Information about Item:

  • Customary/Verbal Folklore, Tradition, Ritual
  • Genre: Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Origin: United States
  • Informant: John T. Brady
  • Collector: Colton French
  • Date of Collection: 10-31-2017

Informant Data:

  • John Brady is Dartmouth student in the class of 2019. John is from the suburbs of Chicago, IL. He grew up north of the city in a nice suburban town which he described as very “bubbly.” John was part of a boy scout group growing up in the Chicago area. Every summer for about one week, John and his fellow boy scouts went backpacking. They backpacked all over the United States. His scout troop went to New Mexico, California, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and other places. One of his earliest backpacking trips was actually a section of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina and Tennessee. The trail started out of Hot Springs, NC. His early experience with the Appalachian Trail sparked an interest for John to conquer the entirety of it.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: The social context for the “Trail Names” is among all hikers on the trail. Trail names are given to all hikers by other hikers. People do not start off hiking the trail with a trail name. Usually, a trail name is derived from something a person does or says that is unique and sticks. Real names are never used while hiking. The use and creation of trail names are unique to the hiking community and serves as a rite of passage into the group. Trail Names are given from a hiker to another hiker, After the creation of the name, all other hikers use that Trail Name when referring to the person.
  • Cultural Context One reason behind Trail Names is the idea that you are a completely different person when you are hiking. Your past life is not important and you are only judged for what you do on the trail. It is a symbol of escape and a metaphor for reestablishing yourself as the person you want to be.
  • Overall Context:John Brady’s early experience hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail encouraged him to later attempt to complete the whole thing. With his boy scout troop, he hiked a 40-mile section of the Appalachian Trail (AT), but he knew that the trail consisted of over 2,000 miles. He said that he saw some “weird looking Hippie dudes” as he described them, and thought that he may want to hike the entire trail between high school and college. John said that people are on the trail because they are in between things in life. “You are either in between school, love, or jobs” John said. For him, he was in between graduating from high school and starting his new life at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH.

    John hiked the Appalachian Trail from March 5th until July 29th. Starting on March 5th was early in the season, but not too early where it would be uncomfortably cold. He also started early to avoid the large crowds that start the AT between mid-March and mid-April. It took John 149 days, or just under five months, to complete the AT. John’s preparation consisted of “googling” and asking knowledgeable backpackers about how they prepared for the trail. John did not spend a lot of time physically training for the journey but instead made sure he had a good plan of attack for the first month of the trail, which is most important according to him. Some people try to get ahead and complete many miles quickly but end up hurting themselves. John made sure that he set a pace that would allow him the most success.

    John starting hiking the AT with a lifelong friend of his that was also in his boy scout group. His friend was from the same hometown in Chicago, IL. His friend hiked for about three or four days before he got sick with a stomach illness and had to stop hiking. He hiked with many different groups of hikers going Northbound. The most prominent person that John hiked with was a man with the trail name “Werewolf.” Werewolf was from Tennessee. He was a grocery store manager and recently divorced from a long time wife. John and Werewolf got along very well given that Werewolf was around 40 years old. He also hiked with a mechanic named “Macgyver” from one of the southern states. He also hiked with two brothers named “Link” and oddly enough “Folklore.” the brothers were twins and were known on the trail as the “Arkansas twins.”

Item:

  • Trail Names. Trail names are fake names given to hikers that take the place of their real names. Some names include “Biscut, Werewolf, Hotdog, Youngblood, etc.” They are names that are used only when hiking and are a sacred tradition and ritual within the hiking community.

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

  • none

Transcript of Associated File:

  • none

Informant’s Comments:

  • “My trail name was biscuit. People asked me why? I told them because I felt like I was warm, buttery, and American. So i cheated in the whole trail name thing. I gave myself my trailname which is not how it is typically done. Like I mentioned, the first backpacking trip I ever did was 40 miles on the AT. I went with my boy scout troop. And the night before we started hiking we went to a diner in Hot Springs, NC. I had one of those scout masters that was insistent that if you ordered something you would eat all of it. I ordered Biscuits and gravy because I was in the South and it seemed like the correct thing to order. So I ate all of the biscuits and gravy, every last bite of it. Leaving the resturant I was feeling queesy, because it was a lot of food for a seventh grade boy. That night I spent in a motel room with a couple other scouts. When we were watching TV, I suddenly got up and starting throwing up in the motel bathroom. It was a very memorable experience, and so for that reason, that is why I chose my trail name.

    The way you typically get your trail name is the first month your hiking you do something, you see something, you say something, and you have some particular quirk about you that other people point out. Then they suggest ‘why don’t you go with this name?’ and many people shed one name for another as they continue hiking if they feel a name suits them better. I was biscuit and I figured after I successful hiked the AT I didn’t care that I didn’t follow the norm of letting someone else give me my trail name. Once I conquered the AT, how I got my trail name was the least of my concerns.

    “I think people have trail names for a couple of different reasons. One is that you don’t know who you are hiking with. You can be about anybody on the Appalachian Trail. The reason for trail names is partially because you don’t want to give your name out to random people on the trail, but I think a lot of it has to do with a positive affirmation of that fact that you can be whoever you want to be on the trail or you can be somebody entirely different than who you are in regular life. Trail names allow you to escape or not be bound by your past self. What you do on the trail matter for the trail. People are going to judge you for your actions and how you present yourself on your trail. It is a way to escape reality and create a new identity for yourself and who you want to be.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • None

Collector’s Name: Colton French 

Tags/Keywords:

  • Hiker Names, Tradition,

 

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