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  1. #1
    Registered User ADVStrom14's Avatar
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    Cool Solo hikers and trail names

    Just curious - those of you that solo hike, do you have and how did you get your trail name? I have heard stories from people earning or receiving their trail names while out with their group or meeting other groups on the trail, etc. I don't have a trail name and I'm wondering how I'll get one as a solo hiker.

  2. #2
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    Yes, and I solo hike as a section hiker. I fell in with a group for two days and they gave me a trail name.


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  3. #3

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    I started backpacking in 2006, hike by myself a lot, and didn't acquire a trail name until 2014. A hiker going the opposite direction in the San Juans on the Colorado Trail gave me a name and it seemed appropriate to me, so now I answer to it.
    Life Member: ATC, ALDHA, Superior Hiking Trail Association

  4. #4
    GoldenBear's Avatar
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    Cool Simple

    I chose my own trail name, because I happen to like it.

  5. #5
    Wanna-be hiker trash
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    Just accidently choose an online username that sounds like a trail name. Then start to hike with people who know you online and assumed it was your trail name. Before you know it you'll be stuck with it.
    Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

  6. #6
    Registered User ADVStrom14's Avatar
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    Lol! Good! I was beginning to worry I would never have a trail name!

  7. #7
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    Default Solo hikers and trail names

    there's a Martin Sheen movie called "The Way", where he's doing some hiking and this younger lady refers to him as Boomer - cause he's a member of that baby boom generation. I liked that name, and it fit - so I adopted it for myself.

  8. #8
    In the shadows AfterParty's Avatar
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    I have a 12 year old dog named party. After she goes so do I from GA.ME I love my dog
    Hiking the AT is “pointless.” What life is not “pointless”? Is it not pointless to work paycheck to paycheck just to conform?.....I want to make my life less ordinary. AWOL

  9. #9
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    I still don't have one. Some guys at camp 2 weeks ago wanted to call me "Cable Guy" they said because I was making them laugh. Should I keep it? I don't like it. My long-time nick is "Javelin" because I used to drive a '71 Javelin.

  10. #10
    Registered User Fireplug's Avatar
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    Gave me myself a trail name before I did something stupid and get a name. FIREPLUG. I'm a retired firefighter. Kinda fits.

  11. #11
    Registered User ADVStrom14's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jefals View Post
    there's a Martin Sheen movie called "The Way", where he's doing some hiking and this younger lady refers to him as Boomer - cause he's a member of that baby boom generation. I liked that name, and it fit - so I adopted it for myself.
    I love this movie. I stumbled on it by accident and have watched it twice. Thanks Boomer!

    Jes

  12. #12
    Registered User ADVStrom14's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fireplug View Post
    Gave me myself a trail name before I did something stupid and get a name. FIREPLUG. I'm a retired firefighter. Kinda fits.
    I like that one.
    Quote Originally Posted by jpolk84 View Post
    I still don't have one. Some guys at camp 2 weeks ago wanted to call me "Cable Guy" they said because I was making them laugh. Should I keep it? I don't like it. My long-time nick is "Javelin" because I used to drive a '71 Javelin.
    Yeah I don't want to get stuck with one I don't like. I like Javelin. It sounds BA.

    Jes

  13. #13
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    I was "given" my trail name in 1989 while spending a month hiking in Scotland's NW Highlands. At the time I was staying at an old shooting lodge located high up in the Kinlochleven mountains. It was a great basecamp because a number of trails begin right behind the lodge. After about four or five days of leaving for a hike in the morning and returning in the late afternoon the lodge staff started expecting me back. One afternoon as I approached the lodge from above I heard a young woman who worked in the lodge yell "here comes the hillwalker, draw him his beer". When I reached the bench outside the lodge entrance to take off my boots, there was my pint waiting for me. Even though "hillwalker" is a common title used for many hikers in Scotland, I liked the title and have used it ever since.

    Mamore Lodge.jpg
    Everyone has a photographic memory. Not everyone has film.

  14. #14
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    Nice Story, Old Hillwalker!

    We here don't have the habit of trailnames, but one Bedouin guide gave me a name: Nimr, that translates into Tiger.
    I didn't take this name though, as I'm rather the opposite of a tiger.

  15. #15
    Registered User Maydog's Avatar
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    Mine is really a nickname given to me by two different non-hiking people. One in TX, one in GA. Neither one knew the other, but they both always called me Maydog or Maydoggie. I used to HATE it. But it stuck, at least in GA. Now that I don't see those folks much any more, the name doesn't bother me. Don't sweat the small stuff, right?
    "I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." - S. Sontag

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by jefals View Post
    there's a Martin Sheen movie called "The Way", where he's doing some hiking and this younger lady refers to him as Boomer - cause he's a member of that baby boom generation. I liked that name, and it fit - so I adopted it for myself.
    I have to say if I hadn't of seen this movie I would have never walked the Camino and definitely wouldn't have hiked the AT. As for my trail name when I was on the Camino all of the French and Swiss kids called me Heisenberg because my last name is White and Breaking bad was still popular and I guess I bare some resemblance to the character. On the AT I became Walter White almost instantly when I mentioned my Heisenberg nickname on the Camino...funny how that worked out, I was expecting some sort of hiking equipment nickname or something trail related like everyone else. You can kind of tell early on who picks their own name and who doesn't, proper trail names usually require some sort of explanation that you would have never figured out on your own. A lot of times I liked to try and tweak self made names to give it a little trail flare, like jpolk says his nickname used to be Javelin I would trailize it into Javelina...but names always come best from a group of hikers who just met one another sitting around a camp fire laughing and having a good time, fond memories of Hawk Mountain.

  17. #17
    Registered User SkraM's Avatar
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    A few years ago while section hiking in NC/TN I fell into a group of northbound thru hikers. My name, “Mark S” was written on the inside, lower corner of my tarp was readable (backwards) from the outside of the tarp (when backlit). So “Mark S” read as “S kraM” from the outside. SkraM became my trail name.
    "The mountains are calling and I must go." John Muir

  18. #18
    Registered User theinfamousj's Avatar
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    Just because I hit the trail without going with others, doesn't mean that I don't meet others on the trail. That said, I have had my trail name since high school, where I was a trail runner (cross country).

    Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

  19. #19
    Registered User ADVStrom14's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hangfire View Post
    I have to say if I hadn't of seen this movie I would have never walked the Camino and definitely wouldn't have hiked the AT.
    I know! When I watched the movie I instantly decided I wanted to walk the Camino. It seems almost magical.


    Jes

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by ADVStrom14 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Hangfire View Post
    I have to say if I hadn't of seen this movie I would have never walked the Camino and definitely wouldn't have hiked the AT.
    I know! When I watched the movie I instantly decided I wanted to walk the Camino. It seems almost magical.


    Jes
    That trail -- or, at least the way it's depicted in that film -- seems like a whole different kind of experience from what I normally think of as hiking. I know one can say, "well, the PCT is a totally different experience than the AT, and the CDT is totally different than either of those. But still it seems to me that they all have more in common whrn compared to the Camino. It just seems like it's "something different". Cant quite put my finger on it, but I'd love to do it one of these days.

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