Do you have a trail name?

NorthCascades

I went hiking recently with an old friend, who's been doing a lot of trail running. We chatted about everything, and she had a story about getting in trouble with some friends for using their trail names in a formal setting.

I don't have a trail name. My curiosity piqued, I found out most of my hiking friends don't have trail names either. Maybe we're not cool enough. We all just use our given names.

Do you have a trail name? (So we're all on the same page, you can't pick one for yourself, somebody else has to choose one for you.)

jjpptt2

No, I've never even heard of this. But I don't have friends, either, so...

L1zardQueen

I never heard of this, I’m not cool either. Big L on my forehead. Lol

NorthCascades

Glad to read that not only am I not alone, I'm in good company too!

mom23mangos

No, but I have a roller derby name...Pain Austen.

L1zardQueen

mom23mangos wrote: »

No, but I have a roller derby name...Pain Austen.

Oooh! I have a gym name, it is “Swamp Thing”.

lalalacroix

My husband and I talk about it a lot, but so far nothing has stuck. Maybe soon.

Cahgetsfit

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Oooh! I have a gym name, it is “Swamp Thing”.

Ha! awesome!

I don't think I have a gym name, but I give the regulars at my gym nicknames (which I don't use to their faces - just to talk about them to other people). So unless they all think of me as some name or other, then no, I have no name in anything...

And wow, had no idea about trail names. Count me in the uncool club.

kayak4water

In 2015, I hiked 2000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail beginning at the US Mexico border near Campo California. When I started the hike I did not have a trail name. Other hikers who had done a long trail such as the Appalachian Trail simply used the trail name they acquired then. People hiking hundreds or thousands of miles in the vicinity of one another would eventually find it more cumbersome to use given names. It was also easier to remember somebody's name if their name had a story behind it. Maybe that kind of camaraderie doesn't develop on shorter hikes.
... At the first shady rest stop on the trail, I found myself waiting for the Sun to crest before continuing up a steep hill. I had said to other hikers that I was not going to go until conditions were just right. One hiker looked at me and said, "you should take the trail name Goldilocks!" I didn't feel like I should have a trail name on the first day. Nor did it occur to me that the trail name "Just Right" might be as appropriate.
... As the hike progressed, we would pass Trail registers and sign them with our given names. Given names would gradually be relinquished and in their place Trail names would appear.
... Hikers would take on trail names that indicated something unique about them. If somebody gave you a trail name and you didn't like it, then you just didn't use it. Several hundred miles in, very few people who had height that far did not have a trail name.
... Eventually I did take Goldilocks as my trail name even though my hair is jet black and I'm a guy.

kayak4water

"hiked" not "height"

hesn92

jjpptt2 wrote: »

No, I've never even heard of this. But I don't have friends, either, so...

hahaha same...

debrakgoogins

Man I suck. I think we should all give each other trail names.

JetJaguar

I've heard of it, but as I'm not a hiker I don't have one, myself.

girlwithcurls2

Hmm, trail runner and hiker here, and no trail name. In fact, I've never heard of that. Then again, I hike and run with family and they already have names for me...

apullum

I mostly run alone, and I like it that way, but it means there's no one to give me a trail (road?) name

I hike with my husband, who would probably come up with a trail name if I asked him to, but that seems like cheating.

Another writing professor and I were on a relay team once. We were "The Run-Ons."

Jadesfire93

For some reason I thought trail names were only given on the Triple Crown trails- PCT, CDT, Appalachian. That's probably misinformed, but that's the only context in which I've ever heard of them being used.

MelanieCN77

If I trail run alone, who's going to give it to me??

cwolfman13

Never heard of this...but while I do hike, it's not all that often...usually when I'm camping. I do have a cycling buddy who calls me "smokey" because I used to be a heavy cigarette smoker and now I vape.

spiriteagle99

Originally it was mostly be an AT thing. When there are 5 Jim's and 8 Mike's on the trail, it's easier to differentiate them by Bald Eagle, Hobbling Mule, Three Bears, etc. than to remember last names. It was a way of keeping your individuality when there were a lot of thruhikers out there. (Of course, one year there were 3 Yogis, and 2 Bald Eagles, but they were spread far apart.) When I thruhiked the AT, almost everyone had a trail name. When we hiked the CDT and PCT (in 1999 and 2000), only the people who had hiked the AT first had trail names. We dropped ours on the western trails because there weren't many hikers then. It was easy to know who was who. Now that you have hordes of thruhikers on all the trails, trail names are more popular.

lorrpb

Never heard of it!

lkpducky

kayak4water wrote: »

... Hikers would take on trail names that indicated something unique about them. If somebody gave you a trail name and you didn't like it, then you just didn't use it.

Sounds like the Hash House Harriers hash names. But if you didn't like your name, you'd get something worse!

Examples: Iron Balls (a guy in his 70's who did several Kona Ironman races), Fungus Amungus (speaks for itself), Stick Bite (saw a stick in the woods and thought it was a snake), Keeps It Up Longer (an ultra runner), ComeonIwanaleyia (from Hawaii), Hash Harlot (recruited the most hashers), Stay Out Stay Alive (from a warning sign near an inlet with barbed wire).

-Mudflaps (fell on my rear when crossing a creek, landed in mud)