your trailname?

[Magnet_]

What's the story behind your trailname?

Here's mine:
I hiked the AT in 2004. During the first night, I was trying to sleep in my hammock atop Springer Mountain when I was roused by a noise underneath me. As I tried to peak out and catch a glimpse of the culprit, a startled bear ran off, with a mouthful of backpack. As I lay there trying to determine what I should do, the bear came back. I watched as the bear tiptoed up to the hammock. There I am thinking, " Um, i'm hanging in a huge bear bag. The bear already took my pack, there's nothing to come back for but the huge food bag hanging between the two trees." The bear was underneath me now. A gust of wind came and my rainfly made a loud flapping noise. The bear freaked, grabbed a sheet of Tyvek that I had the pack sitting on, and ran off. Phew! Wait, what would a bear want with Tyvek?? I remained in the hammock until the sun came up. Then I followed a trail of debris (pack contents) to my pack. Everything was recovered with only minor damage. And now I have a data book with bear tooth holes in it! So that was the first night. Oh, by the way... yes, my food was hanging from the bear lines. The third night I was spent alone in Blood Mountain Shelter. I woke to a rustling in my pack. Again, my food was in the trees. I began swatting at my pack trying to scare away the mouse as I located my headlamp. I turned on my headlamp. I was face to face with a skunk! The skunk ran around in a couple circles then left the shelter. I became known as Magnet, as in an animal magnet. I'm glad my name wasn't Bear Pinata.

[footslogger]

I gave myself the trail name FOOTSLOGGER. Did a web search on the words Walking, Marching, Hiking and the word "Footslogger" was one of many common descriptors ...albeit somewhat obscure.

I liked the sound of the word and decided to do some research on its origin. Found out that the word "Footslogger" was used in medevil times to describe a foot soldier. In addition, the word "Footslog" is in the Austrailian dictionary and describes "a long difficult hike".

Long story short ...I'm an old paratrooper/infantryman so the word seemed to fit plus, it has a certain European/German ring to it (guess that might be how you pronounce it). Being of German heritage that factoid pretty much made it "stick".

Within a few days on the trail my friends began calling me 'Slogger and the rest is history.

[geek]

What's the story behind your trailname?

I am an avid whitewarer canoeist in an informal club called the Geek Creek Canoe Club. My 1990 thru of the AT was the first summer in 13 years that I hadn't spent the summer canoeing and I missed the canoeing. Gave myself the name Geek to feel closer to the canoeing that I was missing. No I don't hike with horn rim glasses and a pocket protecter!:D

geek

[Ender]

My trail name comes from the book "Ender's Game", which was one of my favorite books as a kid. I initially used it only as a temporary trailname until I picked up a name on the trail, but that never happened, so I stuck with Ender.

[girlscout]

I sort of walked right into this one. 2nd day out on the PCT in 2005, at Fred Canyon, there were a bunch of hikers hanging around and one of them was Skittles, and we were all introducing ourselves. Without thinking about it, I said "I hope I don't get named for what i'm eating, because I've got Girl Scout cookies!" Immediately everyone laughed and called me Girl Scout, much to my chagrin. But the next day I made my peace with it- I figured I'd been accused of much worse things than scouting for girls! When I think of it that way, it's not so bad...

(oh yeah, ps, for those who don't know, i'm not a girl)

[Mags]

My "trailname" is not really a trailname. It is a family nickname I happen to use on the trail.

My full last name is Magnanti.

Mags is a family nick name that goes back to at least my grandfather. Having an unusual last name of Italian origin leaves many English speakers stumped. Easier to say "Mags" than trying to pronounce the last name. (In Italian is is pronounced Mon-nyan-tee, like lasagna. "Americanized", we pronounce it Mag-nan-tee. Rhymes with bag-fan-tea).

In the "real world", many people call me Paul Mags or just Mags. At my last job, there were two Pauls...guess what I was called. :)

Since the "real world" and my "outdoor life" overlap quite a bit, being called by my nick name works out well. And how many people can say they use an 80+ yr old nickname? :)

[chai guy]

I wanted to be "named" on the trail, but since everyone already calls me "Chai Guy" (or usually just chai for short), I already had my blog and other stuff set up to use that. I figured another nick name would just be too confusing.

They call me chai guy because I always bring chai to gatherings and parties. People would forget my name but remember the chai, saying "Hey you're the Chai Guy right?"

Eventually, people just started calling me Chai.

[girlscout]

i go by my nickname in real life too, so i was pretty eager to get ANY trailname, because if i kept introducing myself as "pea" or "peanut," obviously folks would think it was my trailname... but that's no fun... to me, that's just my normal name. everyone calls me that, and it's not a novelty to me at all, so i wanted something special and unexpected for the pct... which i think i managed quite well! ;)

[Snap]

I was headed out from Hikertown with some other hikers. We were looking at a long night's hike over the Aquaduct and to pass some time the group decided to think up a trailname for me. While coming into Hikertown earlier that day I was crossing a washout and fell on my trecking pole, snapping it in two. So there it was, Snap.
Chai Guy can verify this, he helped name me.
Apparently it isn't a very unique trailname. There was a Snapp working at VVR and I've seen the name Snappy in some trail journals.

[AlohaTink]

AlohaTink is my handle or nickname from the Disney Pins Group. I live in the islands of Aloha and I collect Tinker Bell Disney Pins.

I do wear a Tinker Bell pin each time I hike... so who knows maybe it would become officially my trailname anyways.

I also go by Hana Hanger and MangoTrees...maybe one day I will get given a true trail name.

I'll probably get stuck with something like
Too Slow but Still Goes! Or Hangin' Heavy!!:eek: :D