Anything to do with Lord of the Rings
Turtle
(Pack) Mule
(Jack) Rabbit
Snail
Sloth
Bigfoot
Sasquatch
Sherpa
Maverick
Charlie
Iceman
Goose
Ulysses
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Anything to do with Lord of the Rings
Turtle
(Pack) Mule
(Jack) Rabbit
Snail
Sloth
Bigfoot
Sasquatch
Sherpa
Maverick
Charlie
Iceman
Goose
Ulysses
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There's no reward at the end for the most miserable thru-hiker.
After gear you can do a thru for $2,000.
No training is a substitute for just going and hiking the AT. You'll get in shape.
Anything from The Lord of the Rings
Strider
Cosmo
Gonzo
Birdman
Just "fill in a given name"
Bear
Wolf
..
Chainsaw (or other variation of snorer's name). Sorry Don (Chainsaw, 2011).
The one who follows the crowd, will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.
-Albert Einstein
Goat
And while we're at it, every Grateful Dead lyric has already been written in the shelter registers.
is it just me who does not understand the need for a trail name ?
Half Pint
Bookworm
Moonbeam
Doc (Though the Docs I've met on the trail were all retired Physicians, so I think they deserve dispensation)
Any Team or Mascot name.
Any though sounding animal
Anything that sounds tough or macho (Dragon, Bear, Mountain Man Etc.)
To paraphrase a thru hiker I spoke to a few years ago: If you meet a guy named something like Mountain Wildman, you know he gave himself the name. If you meet a man named *****break, you know that he earned it on the trail.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
It's just a nickname plain and simple. The same as you would probably get on a highschool sports team or in the military.
I like trail names because they're much easier to remember, I've met thousands of people named David or Kristen or John or Tom, etc over the years, I've only met one Bullet, one Country Gold and one PB&A.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Maybe it's just coincidence, but I met two Pebbles(es) on the AT and two Siestas on the PCT. Both Pebbleses independently told me, "Well, I'm just going to have to kill the other Pebbles." One Siesta started writing in the journals calling herself Siesta La Mona (Siesta the Cute) and the other one Siesta La Fea (Siesta the Ugly). Siesta La Fea didn't really take to that and was heard insinuating that the other Siesta was a b****. They were actually both really nice people. Fun times!
I met one Lieutenant Dan on both trails, although the AT one was perfect (he looked EXACTLY like Gary Sinise) but the PCT one didn't make sense.
Any conceivable thing with Bear _______ or Coyote has been used. Also any major character from Lord of the Rings. Also,
- Jug or Jugs (Wow! Look at that guy! He drinks out of a milk jug! Amazing!)
- Banjo (Wow! He's carrying an instrument!)
- Sherpa (He walks! And carries stuff!)
- Anything about how big your pack was at the start (primarily an AT thing)
But even if all these are relatively unoriginal by trail-name standards, they're still a lot more interesting than Bill or Bob or Paul or John. Can't complain too much.
Last edited by SCRUB HIKER; 02-23-2014 at 12:58. Reason: keep thinking of more names
"Hahk your own hahk." - Ron Haven
"The world is a book, of which those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine
http://www.scrubhiker.com/
He was a nice guy but I was still a little hinky around Gunrunner.
Last edited by Sarcasm the elf; 02-23-2014 at 13:14.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Mountain Goat. I was given that nickname years ago but I feel that it's too common to keep as a trail name anymore.
"Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still." ~Carl Sagan~
Are you implying one choice is better than the other? I don't understand the perceived negativity about choosing your own trail name. Most people don't get to choose their birth name. Why not use this opportunity to pick something you actually want to be called? Because some other people think that you shouldn't? Forget that. Do what makes you happy out there. I've never heard someone say that a trail name is illegitimate because an 18 year old section hiker, you just met, gave it to you. But I have heard several times, "you gave yourself that name? That doesn't count." It seems one faction prefers you do it the way they did. And the other doesn't give 2 mountain house dumps about how you got your name. Just be happy in your own decision.
There's a couple of good reasons/explanations already posted. Add to them, the idea of the AT/other trails being a different world, hence a different name than the in "the real world". There is also the issue of anonymity, especially for thru-hikers. If you sign a trail or shelter register with your real name, anyone stopping by can read it and see that you are out hiking and track you (for good or bad). From there all sorts of things can happen more easily: auto theft, emptying your home of all your belongings, identity theft, etc. In my experience, trail names are used more on registers than in face to face conversation. Most other hikers you meet tell you both their trail name and real name if you hang out and talk.
"That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett
so many lone wolf's out there , Bigfoot and striders too.
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