Triple Crowner (Justin Fowler)

Title: Triple Crowner

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Kyu Kim is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2018. He was born in Korea and raised in the northern Virginia/ Washington DC area. During his time at Dartmouth, Kyu enjoys playing the bassoon in the orchestra. In his time away from Dartmouth, Kyu has hiked part of the Appalachian Trail (AT). His plans after Dartmouth include working as a consultant.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Backpackers often travel with one another and share stories along the trail. Often there are various levels of experience within the hiking community. There are people who have hiked many trails or few trails. Further, they may travel the same trails or various trails. The people with more experience tend to be more depended on as a result of their experience and seen as “veterans” so to speak.
Social Context: This specific term came about when talking about the different trails people can take and hike. Often, with the sharing of information and knowledge on trails, people who are more experience and have been in more pressing situations are leaned upon in order to maximize success within the hiking community and builds community within the people hiking.

Item:

The triple crowner is a term used by hikers to refer to backpackers who have accomplished a lot in the hiking world. There are three main long distance backpacking trails in the US. They are the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). Any backpacker who has completed all three is considered a dedicated backpacker. These backpackers are significantly looked up to within the hiking community. It is considered an accomplishment just to finish one of the trails.

(Map from OC Register Newspaper)

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

Transcript:

“So, the triple crowner are people who are definitely looked up to within the hiking community. They are sort of hiking legends. There are three main long distance backpacking trails in the US; the AT, PCT, and CDT. Anyone who has completed all three of these is looked up to in the hiking community. These guys are seriously dedicated backpackers. Anyone who has accomplished even one of the trails is a big deal. But to do all three… yeah… definitely dedicated. It’s a common saying that they have (with hand air quotes) “done a lot of stuff*, seen a lot of stuff*.”

Collector’s Comments:

One thing I found extremely interesting was the term Triple Crowner. In baseball there is a phrase known as the Triple Crown. This is a very prestigious honor to receive indicating you had hit the most home runs, rbis and highest batting average. Due to the rarity of this ever occurring (much less frequent than a hiker hiking all three paths) I thought it was a very interesting term in that the term had a “loaded” context. Further, the time needed to be dedicated to complete all 3 trails is significant.
P.S. in the transcript the * mark indicates a different word was used but for the PG13 of the assignment the word was changed to one with interchangeable meaning.

Collector’s Name: Justin Fowler

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive