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DavidNH
10-01-2007, 18:10
Just wondering.. any of you folks who have hiked the AT ever tried to hike the trail again but with a new trail name? was it or is it easily done or does a trail name once taken stick to ya like glue?

Davod

Jack Tarlin
10-01-2007, 18:15
I've sure thought about trying to leave Georgia with a new one, but I'm not sure how long it'd work..... :rolleyes:

hacksaw
10-01-2007, 18:20
You'll always be Baltimore to me, Jack.

The Old Fhart
10-01-2007, 18:31
Jack Tarlin-"I've sure thought about trying to leave Georgia with a new one...."Would that be Moosec**k?:D

Sorry, Jack, I still remember you telling that joke.

Footslogger
10-01-2007, 18:53
Just wondering.. any of you folks who have hiked the AT ever tried to hike the trail again but with a new trail name? was it or is it easily done or does a trail name once taken stick to ya like glue?

Davod

=====================================

They stick like stink on shi$$

Hiked the beginning of the AT with my wife on her thru in 2001. I had no trail name. Was getting bugged constantly about it. Turns out that just about everything I ate turned into methane ...so I ended up being called "TooT". Not very flattering, but that was my name, like it or not.

When I decided to do my own thru in 2003 I set out to obtain a different trail name - - one that I chose ! I did some research and came up with the name "Footslogger" for myself. It had special meaning, which I explained to the hiking community (at least those who knew of me) in my on-line journal (at Trailjournals.com) and was amazed at all the flack I got.

But ...in the end I stuck with Footslogger and darned glad I did. Funny though because there are still a couple hikers that knew be back then and still remember the whole "TooT" thing. One of them is Liteshoe. She sometimes still addresses me as "TootSlogger". Then there's Winton Porter at Mountain Crossings (Walasi-Yi) - Neels Gap who knows my trail name but still calls me TooT !!

Yeah ...old trail names are tough to shake.

'Slogger

saimyoji
10-01-2007, 19:06
You'll never shake it if you keep sharing. :-? :)

hacksaw
10-01-2007, 19:06
I don't think I could shake Hacksaw if I tried.

The Weasel
10-01-2007, 19:10
I don't think I could shake Hacksaw if I tried.

NFW, Hack.

TW

fehchet
10-01-2007, 21:17
I don't think I could shake Hacksaw if I tried.

What about those nose thingies? The kind that athletes stick on their faces. It lifts and separates the nostrils for a quiet, pleasant, peaceful sleep. Don't know if it helps on the gulping part. Or the lips vibrating. :rolleyes:

Jim Adams
10-01-2007, 21:26
I get mail addressed to geek!
My postmaster has never hiked but he knows me as geek.
I don't think that I could change it if I tried.

geek

hacksaw
10-01-2007, 22:16
What about those nose thingies? The kind that athletes stick on their faces. It lifts and separates the nostrils for a quiet, pleasant, peaceful sleep. Don't know if it helps on the gulping part. Or the lips vibrating. :rolleyes:

I've tried everything short of surgery. I just tent about 50 yards from everyone else.

Tennessee Viking
10-01-2007, 22:38
Just wondering.. any of you folks who have hiked the AT ever tried to hike the trail again but with a new trail name? was it or is it easily done or does a trail name once taken stick to ya like glue?

Davod
Trail names change like the seasons. If your 2nd trip includes a group, there is usually a theme or series.

If you something interesting happens to you on trail.

A new habbit.

Current reading material.

phishpapond
08-27-2008, 01:44
I am new to hiking and don't have one yet
Think I am going to go with mike.
Hope I like it sounds like it would be a hard one to shake.

Pokey2006
08-27-2008, 03:05
I know someone who hiked with one name the first time, another name the second time, and went back to the first name the third time around. Turned out the first name was his "true" name after all.

For some hikers, a particular name has meaning only for a particular hike. Something unique that they were doing, or a group they were hanging with. But for others, like my friend, a name is true to who they are, and is therefore harder to shake. Same with me. I AM Pokey. Couldn't shake it if I tried, and not sure I would even want to.

It's easier if you pick your own name, but that defeats the purpose of a trail name, if you ask me. Sometimes we don't know ourselves as well as others do...Either way, just let it happen. The name that's right for you will stick, and the one that's not won't.

mweinstone
08-27-2008, 06:56
trail name killed a friend of mine. his name was your momma. when purchasing a cool liabation whilst hikeing to maine, the bartender asked whats your trailname friend? to witch the response came and caused the man to freak and shoot him 43 times in the ear. tru story. lwolf was their.

Tipi Walter
08-27-2008, 08:38
My question is, when did trail names start? Did Benton MacKaye or Grandma Gatewood or Dorothy Laker have trail names??

In the 1950s and early 60s when I started backpacking I did not have a trail name, no one even thought to give me one or whatever.

In 1978 when I started backpacking again I picked up the trailname FUNGUS and it stuck to me, well, like a fungus. In the mid 1980s I went by Sundog and the summer I wore a hindu ochre skirt I was known as Atmananda. Now I prefer Tipi Walter as it clearly denotes my time spent living in a, well, tipi.

yaduck9
08-27-2008, 09:14
trail name killed a friend of mine. his name was your momma. when purchasing a cool liabation whilst hikeing to maine, the bartender asked whats your trailname friend? to witch the response came and caused the man to freak and shoot him 43 times in the ear. tru story. lwolf was their.


43 times in the ear?

And why is it, whenever some odd event occurs, Lone Wolf is there to witness it?

Its almost like a Clark Kent / Superman sort of thing :D

Monkeywrench
08-27-2008, 09:16
"Call me anything, just don't call me late for dinner."

Mags
08-27-2008, 09:16
My question is, when did trail names start? Did Benton MacKaye or Grandma Gatewood or Dorothy Laker have trail names??





A trail name is nothing more than a nick name. Seeing as "Grandma" is not Emma Gatewood's name, I'd say yeah..she had a trail name. :)

Of course, Earl Shaffer was called the "The Crazy One" by many people in 1948....

(My "trail name" is only a nick name that I happen to use on the trail. Paul MAGnanti. Always gets butchered... people just call me Paul Mags or simply Mags. Of course, a two year old I'm very fond of now calls me "unca Mags". :) Since the outdoors is a major part of my life..don't feel the need for a separate nick name)

mister krabs
08-27-2008, 09:40
I've tried everything short of surgery. I just tent about 50 yards from everyone else.

I tried the surgery, now I sleep in my own bed again. It makes you realize what your uvula used to be for, but you get used to it after a month or so.

saimyoji
08-27-2008, 11:33
And why is it, whenever some odd event occurs, Lone Wolf is there to witness it?

trail gods see all

Just Plain Jim
08-27-2008, 16:29
Model T gave me my first T N.
A neighbor called me "Packman" when he saw me out hiking.
A young lady hiker called me "Fairy God Mother" :-? because I brought several food bags into the shelter on 2 diferent mornings [in the rain] and all of the other hikers voted on that one. think I like Packman.

leeki pole
08-27-2008, 16:39
...all my family calls me leeki.... them and my trail buddies...even the switchboard operator at work knows if somebody asks for leeki where to transfer the call, so yep, it sticks....:D

MOWGLI
08-27-2008, 16:40
I had a trail name in 2000. I no longer use it. Only one person calls me by that name.

BTW, Mowgli isn't a trail name - and never has been. It's a USERID I use for all kinds of different systems. (Used to be Mowgli16) I've used it so long that people think it's a trail name, and call me that at Gatherings and such. I prefer my real name.

Red Hat
08-27-2008, 17:37
In 2003 and 2004 I was "Oldkathy". But when I joined the Red Hat Society I didn't want to be "old" anything. In 2005 I became "Red Hat" and have been ever since. Of course, I only hiked a little over 100 miles in 03, and 40 in 04, so not that many people knew me by my trailname. Those who did haven't seemed to have a problem with the change.

Slo-go'en
08-27-2008, 18:32
My question is, when did trail names start? Did Benton MacKaye or Grandma Gatewood or Dorothy Laker have trail names??

Likely when large groups of hikers started to head out at the same time. In a group of 20, there are bound to be several Mikes, Johns, etc. Rathier than using everyones last name like it the millitary, people started using trail names to keep the confusion down.

Of course, some hikers are so unique they don't need a trail name. Several come to mind...

TD55
08-27-2008, 20:13
I always thought a trail name should to be given and accepted by your peers to be genuine. I've also always thought that a trail name kind of said something about your identity. I don't normally care about what name I pick up or get tagged with. In the late 70's and early 80's I hiked with a dog (sometimes 2). My partner was often off the leash, a braided black leather 18" job that I carried snapped to a belt loop. I guess it looked like a Bullwhip hanging at my side because that is the name I got stuck with for a little while. When I stopped carrying the leash that way, I lost the name.

Ronnie Motrose
09-21-2008, 02:56
Hike incognito, it works till you get liquored up. Lol Or meet someone who knew you from past hikes. In my section hikes in 05' 06' and most of 07' I used a different name. I shared shelters with many people that I knew exactly who they were from the internet, however they had know clue who I was, I played dumb like I had never been on the internet or heard of the sites they would mention. Was kinda fun to tell you the truth. Then I blew it all in 2007 going on a 4 day binge near the end of my hike. Infact do we really hike to let everyone know who we are in the first place?