Trail Names

[Former Admin]

How did your trail name come to be ? Is it self-appointed ? Did other hikers give you your trail name?

[Kerosene]

I belonged to a small, all-male a cappella singing group during college that performed about 200 concerts a year throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. While I was assigned a variety of nicknames by the group (as were most members), Kerosene ended up 'sticking' for two reasons. First, it was a convenient variant on my surname, Karaman. More importantly, it reminded everyone in the group of the time I "went down in flames" with a girl I spent the evening with after one of our concerts. It's been with me ever since. As a long-term section hiker, the opportunities to establish a close bond with other hikers who could provide me with more of a trail-related nickname are somewhat limited.

[EarlyRiser]

I use my trail name here. EarlyRiser, it was given to me on my past trip. i was always the first one up, well before everyone else, and my gear was usualy stowed and i would have the bearbags down and breakfast in the process of being prepared before anyone else was up, including the councilors of the camp i hike through. so one morning Charles one of the councilors decided that im just an earlyriser. it stuck so thats how i got mine. a few other kids picked up names along the trip, including nakedboy, a pair of shorts boots and socks are all he needs aparently. i believe that trailnames are better given from somone else naturaly than made up by that person. using your own name is just fine too i dont believe that people should descriminate against any hiker without a trail name.

[psuruns10]

I recieved mine on top of Mount Massive second highest peak in colorado. we were out on a road trip trying to hit as many 14ers as we could on our days off. So 4 peaks later i was exhausted and needless to say at 14000 feet i was having troubles forming sentences that make sense. May have been the alt. but i have this trouble alot. my brain thinks one think and my vocal cords say something incoherent hence i recieved the name JIBBERISH.

PSU'S BACK
JIBBERISH

[highway]

Hmmmm...
What altitude do you live?
14000 ft is not so high it would affect you that much unless you lived very low. I can take 13000 ft after 2 days acclimatizing at 11500 ft. and I live at 26 ft above sea level! I do it every year in S Colorado, God's country!

[psuruns10]

i live in state college pa. flew out to denver then drove to leadville and hiked the 14000ers all in 4 days

[Jumpstart]

I got mine my second day on the trail, and it was given to me by Brushy Sage...because I had a tendency at the start of the trip to fall asleep by 6:00pm and wake up at 4:00 in the morning!

[Peaks]

Originally posted by Jumpstart
I got mine my second day on the trail, and it was given to me by Brushy Sage...because I had a tendency at the start of the trip to fall asleep by 6:00pm and wake up at 4:00 in the morning!

And I thought you were the original "Jumpstart." On March 9, 1986 Robie Hensley parachuted to the top of Springer to start his hike. Hence, his trail name. Read about it in Larry Luxenberg's book "Walking the Appalachian Trail."

[Trail Yeti]

Well my trail name was given to me by a past thru-hiker...my cousin Poppa Smurf /97. My nickname in the Marines was Yeti and when my cousin found out, he added the "trail" prefix. So I started w/my name. I actually did a couple of stupid things during my hike that would have led to a new trail name if mine hadn't stuck so well.
Life is Good, Wear a Kilt!

[SGT Rock]

Trail Yeti!

How ya doing!

Glad you made it. I started to worry when you quit keeping your journal at TJ. But the occasional E-mails were a good reminder you were plodding along.

I'm also glad you found this forum, please share your knowledge with the group and keep comming back.

BTW, did the stove finish the trip?

[Trail Yeti]

Rock!!!
hey brothah. I still have some entries to post on TJ....my niece is 2 and my sis just didn't have the time to post my stuff.
the stove is STILL going strong....I am never leaving home w/out it.
I will email you an "after action report" on it. ha ha ha
Life is Good, Wear a Kilt
Yeti
ps-you should have seen my beard!!!! my buds back at 2d Recon would have pooped themselves in envy!!!!!

[SGT Rock]

I hope you got some good pictures!

I'm glad the stove worked. I've got a new one, so do you think you can squeeze another thru-hike into your schedule next year to test it LOL!

[Trail Yeti]

Long Trail next year so send it my way!!!! ha ha ha

[MedicineMan]

Been a section hiker for 30 years (began at age 13 in the Scouts) and have never had a trail name...had many nicknames via 13 years of college- 'blue', 'Ra','Seus', others,,,but sadly no trailname...maybe they are for the thru-hikers?

[Jack Tarlin]

Funny question. Everyone assumes I'm from Maryland. In fact, I get asked this about every other day when I'm hiking; I wish I'd seen this coming and perhaps picked something else; too late now, I guess. I was actually born in Boston and raised entirely in Massachusetts, except for a very brief period in Maine. I live in New Hampshire now. I only go to Maryland when I'm hiking or driving to Springer; all I've seen of Baltimore was what I saw from the train on my way to Georgia; with no dis-respect, I'm not altogether sorry I stayed on the train. Other than a desire to see a ballgame in Camden Yards and leave some flowers and a drink on Edgar Allan Poe's grave, I have no real desire to spend any extended time there.

The trail name comes from a Bruce Springsteen song called "Hungry Heart," off "The River" double album. In my house, along with Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Emmylou Harris, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, U2, and maybe one or two others I can't remember right now, Springsteen is pretty much all that gets played.

I almost changed the name once---my legs were all smashed up in '97 and I spent about two hours a day wrapping them up in various ways. A friend started calling me "Pair of Aces" which was and is an excellent trail name. Regrettably, tho, it appears I'm stuck with Baltimore Jack for life.

And, no, I'm not from Maryland.

[stranger]

In 1995 I left Springer with one of my life-long friends Pete. He liked to sleep in real late, I like to get up early. He carried a heavy pack, I was a little lighter, so basically we didn't see each other at all during the day. So when he strolled into camp later that evening he would always say "hey stranger" so it kind of stuck after a while. That's my boring story. But my friend Pete's trail name was "Mother", and I forget how he got it, but deep down know it was a tribute to his own mother which he lost to cancer when he was a child...I think that's a better story. Mrs. Gallo RIP.

[Bandana Man]

In July 1994, I took my wife and two daughters, ages 12 and 9, on a three-day canoe trip down the Suwannee River in Florida. It was our first family overnight camping trip. Around my head I wore a new, bright-red bandana, which I often removed to dip into the cool river water and wash the sweat from my face. Anna, my wife, playfully and teasingly referred to me as "Bandana Man." After the canoe trip, I continued using the same bandana when doing yardwork at home and she continued calling me Bandana Man. When I started my solo AT section hike in 2001, I had no trail name and was going to let circumstance choose whatever that name would be. But on the fourth night I stayed in Blood Mountain shelter. I was cold, wet, and missed my family. The same red bandana that I wore on the Suwannee trip, now faded and worn, was around my neck. Fingering the threadbare, tattered cloth of that cotton bandana brought back comforting thoughts of our first family outing and reminded me of the support from my family on this solo AT hike of mine. It was then I knew I would always be Bandana Man.

[Waterbuffalo]

I got mine while on my first trip hiking the Springer Approach Trail in Mid August of 1997 it was about 95 degrees out and I was sweating pretty bad and drank my Platupus bag and 2 Nalgene's dry before Springer. Since I am a big guy and I drank a lot of water my pals just came up with Waterbuffalo
I also Sign it H20Buffalo in Shelter registers.


WB

[Amtrak]

It was my second day on the trail, and I was walking along with Slow-Poke (Hope he made it), who later changed his own name to Doggie-Bag. I was trucking along, in a rather slow way starting hikers do (Doing 5m on that day, I think..), when during one stop Slow-Pole said "AMTRAK - now that's a good trail name for you!" at around 14:00 on that day, when I stumbeled into the freezing shelter and started defrosting, Rebel came along, and when he asked me my name all I had to say was "AMTRAK", and it stuck ever since...

[Bad Ass Turtle]

Well, ok, I've been lurking, but I had to chime in on this one. I gave myself the name Turtle at the beginning of my hike in 2001. A dear friend had given me a jade turtle on a cord that I wore as a necklace throughout my hike, and along with it came a card that talked about the turtle as a symbol of closeness to the earth, persistence, etc. I also hike slow, so I thought it fits.

Then about 26 miles south of Damascus I woke up in Iron Mountain shelter and couldn't sit up -- I had extreme pain in my rear and down my right leg. Turned out I had seriously injured my piriformis (big muscle in the butt that connects hip and si joint). I got a ride into Damascus and spent a couple of days at the Place before giving up (temporarily) and going home. The day my ride (Toot, my husband, who was then my fiance) came to get me, a couple of guys bought me a stuffed donkey at the drug store and gave me the addition to my name, so that I became "Bad Ass Turtle".