Title: Miscellaneous Trail Names
Our informants mentioned many trail names of hikers they met in massing that did not have long stories attached to them. We listed these examples here to create a clearer picture of how trail names arise and what they mean.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural context: Hikers give each other trail names based on notable attributes, defining events, or personality traits. From then on, you are known by your trail name. Some hikers met people and never learned their real names. Hikers often keep the same trail name their whole lives. This tradition helps immerse hikers in their experience and distances them from their real-life identity while on the trail.
- Social context: Being named by the hiking community tightens friendships and serves as a rite of initiation into the thru hiker life.
- See [tag] Camino de Santiago for context about this particular trail!
General information about item:
- Verbal Folklore
- Language: English
- Country: Spain, U.S.
- Informants: Tommy Botch, Sam Lincoln, Jimmy Coleman
- Dates Collected: 11/05/19, 11/09/19, 11/06/19
Tommy Botch – El Camino de Santiago
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- Tommy Botch is a 24-year-old lab manager in the Robertson Lab in the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department at Dartmouth College, where he studies vision in virtual reality. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and completed his undergraduate education in psychobiology at UCLA. Tommy enjoys describing fine cheeses and baking sourdough bread in his spare time. He undertook his thru hiking journey when he was 20 years old.
- Item:
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- Tommy and his fellow hikers gave one another trail names on the first few days of the hike in order to get through the hardest part of the hike, which is surpassing the Pyrenees immediately upon setting out. They coined the following names:
- Can-Do: Tommy was dubbed “Can-Do,” not because of his “Can-Do” attitude but because the people he hiked with thought he could do anything.
- With-A-Spoon: a young woman with whom Tommy hiked looked a lot like Reese Witherspoon, but kept repeating she wanted to “kill [herself] with a rusty spoon”
as she was so miserable in these first few days.
- Magic: a man in their group would disappear for a few days and just suddenly reappear with the group out of nowhere and lighten the mood.
- Four seasons: this individual went through so many mood swings that she was seemingly “Four seasons in one hour.”
Sam Lincoln – Colorado Trail
- Informant Data
- Sam Lincoln is a 21 year old college student studying mechanical engineering at Arizona State University. He was born in Wisconsin and raised in Arizona. He began overnight backpacking when he was 15 and hiked the Colorado Trail after he graduated from high school in 2016. He enjoys archery and playing video games. Sam is the twin brother of Rachel Lincoln, who collected this item.
- Item
- Sam got the trail name Goat Slayer on the Colorado Trail in 2016.
- Second Wind: a man in his mid-60s named Michael was solo hiking and joined Sam’s group for a few days. While many hikers start early and stop in the late afternoon, Michael got a burst of energy late in the day and always wanted to continue–he got a “Second Wind.”
- Chief: one woman was a professional guide whose job was leading teenagers on two or three week hikes. That authority and her personal presence made her a leader, so despite not having Native American heritage, she was nicknamed “Chief.”
Jimmy Coleman – John Muir and Appalachian Trails
- Informant Data
- Jimmy Coleman, age 20, is a sophomore at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he is studying mathematics and computer science. He was born in Baltimore County and loves the outdoors, which he learned from his ample hiking and camping trips with his family as a child. He undertook his thru hiking adventure on the John Muir Trail at 14 years old and the Appalachian Trail at 17 years old.
- Item
- Jimmy has used his trail name Tadpole since he was 14.
- Bear and Hookah: Jimmy was not told the story behind these two hikers’ names, but he assumed “Hookah” came from their hippie smoking habits. He also never learned their real names.
- Informant’s Comments:
- “I have had meaningful relationships on long hikes with backpackers who are going about the pace as me. And I never knew—like, two people on the AT that I thru hiked with—I didn’t thru hike the AT but I did a big piece over one summer—and I met these two people, these two hippies named Bear and Hookah. And I still know them and I still have their letter to me in the back of a book. But I only knew them as Bear and Hookah.”
Ashlyn Burnside – Appalachian Trail
- Informant Data
- Ashlyn Burnside is a 21 year old senior at Hope College in Michigan. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and always loved being outside and riding horses. She sings and volunteers with her church. When she’s on break, she travels the country spreading the gospel.
- Item
- Ashlyn was nicknamed “Soul Surfer” while thru hiking the Appalachian trail because of her Christian faith and love of the outdoors. She had been struggling with her beliefs and the trail helped her center herself and find meaning in her life again.
Collectors’ comments:
- Trail names can be tongue-in-cheek or teasing, but all informants felt that their name was used affectionately. Tommy’s felt the ones of his group mates bonded them together in these tough first few days, and he says he remembers these people by their trail names long after he has forgotten their real ones.
- We collected trail names from all of our informants except those who hiked the Chilkoot. That trail is shorter than the other, so we hypothesize that length may be correlated with receiving a trail name.
Tags/Keywords:
- Trail Name, Appalachian Trail, John Muir Trail, Camino de Santiago, Colorado Trail, Verbal Folklore
