Trail Names

When you are on the Appalachian Trail hiking and meeting new people, the first thing everyone asks is, “what’s your trail name?.”

Here’s the story of how we got our tail names.

Welcome to the story of how we get our trail names, Skippy and Slinky.

Back when we hiked our first multiple overnight on the Appalachian Trail we couldn’t wait to get our trail names. We heard so much about how you have to be given your trail name by other hikers. To us as new hikers it sounded like a badge of honor. As we met other hikers on the trail we asked everyone their trail names and how they got them. Everyone seems eager to tell you the story that brought them to their trail names. We had so much fun learning about the hikers we met. The stories hikers shared were always so interesting and intriguing.

Our hike that year came and went, but no trail names were given to us.

Next year on the trail we did a little more research about these infamous trail names. We read on many hiker sites that even though most trail names are given by other hikers there were many hikers that hiked with trail names given by themselves. So we pondered this notion. Hmm…maybe not the badge of honor we were hoping for, but we could give each other our trail names.

We set off on our second multiple night hike on the Appalachian Trail with this heavy on our minds.

This year my foolish husband had a painful toe from kicking the base of our fish tank weeks prior. The tough guy he is, of course, refused to see the doctor about this before our hike. He’s just going to tough it out on the trail. Well, he did and somehow the trail fixed his toe for him.

We were at our first night campsite, at the base of White Cap Mountain and while setting up camp for the night, I look over and see Ben skipping about. What on earth is he doing? When he stopped doing this funny little jig, he tells me “wow, it’s better.” He somehow got his toe to go back into place. All this time he’s been walking around in pain with a toe that the doctors could have put back in place for him.

Thank goodness he can walk again without pain and luckily at the beginning of our hike.

As we hiked the next day I told him he should consider being called skippy. Then he told me about how his late father used to call him that when he was a kid. So that sealed the deal, Skippy it was and it would be perfect!

We hiked on.

Skippy and me. Still no name for me.

The hiking this year was a bigger challenge than the last year we hiked. The mountains and terrain in general were far more challenging. The mountains were huge and we had days of hiking peak after peak between campsites. My hiking legs eluded me. I would hike just past a stump or a rock that I would see ahead on the trail and HAVE to stop. Doing this over and over, Ben told me that I hiked like a slinky. Go stop, go stop. Yup, kinda like a slinky.

Slinky. That’s it!

Okay, he’s right, a slinky I am and a slinky I will be.

Even though we weren’t given our trail names by other hikers. We were given our trail names by the most important hikers.

We’re a team when we hike. A team in life itself.

Follow our blog and keep up with our stories. The hike has yet to begin. You won’t want to miss it.

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