Trail Names: A Brief History
Why we have funny names...
How Thru-Hiking Trail Names Work
In their simplest form, a trail name is just a novel way to identify a fellow hiker on thru-hike. They're often "awarded" to one another based on personality traits, behaviors, the color of your clothing, or some other more or less arbitrary reason. We once heard of another hiker named Scoops. Why? Because he had a strong suspicion that when Kellogg's added a second scoop of raisins to Raisin Bran cereal they actually just shrunk the size of the scoop.
Our closest hiking friends go by names like Cookie Monster, Morning Star, Exxon and Seth. I go by Moose, a name I liked, but only "earned" after photographing a moose in a lake in northern Idaho on the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT). My life partner and hiking partner extraordinaire, Samantha, goes by Bugs, because she wore a giant mosquito net bug suite on the early parts of the PNT in Montana.
They can be easier to remember than ordinary names and provide a unique sense of comradery and inclusion in the long distance hiking community. You can refuse one, change it, or make up your own if you really want. The only real piece of advice I ever heard was, no matter how deep you fall into the thru-hiking culture, remember to put your real name on any packages you plan to pick up at a post office later, unless your trail name appears on your government issued ID.
What other quirky things do we do on thru-hikes? Keep reading and you may find out.
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