Trail Names

The Appalachian Trail is known as a social trail, much more than it's counterparts the Pacific Crest Trail or the Continental Divide Trail. As a part of this culture, trail names are often adopted that highlight someone's personality, memorable event or quirk. They can be practical too, since there could be six people hiking all named Mike.

After 2 weeks of hiking Lauren and I were not sure we even wanted trail names, but if you don't have one you take your chances with someone else picking one for you, or you end up with a name like "Just Jeff." During the long hours of hiking we've been bouncing around some different ones, and on Sunday we settled on some.

After summiting the highest peak of the entire Trail (Clingmans Dome 6,643'), we decided to unveil our trail names to our hiking friends Nuclear and Amtrak. Drum roll... So now Lauren is known on the trail as "Figgy" which alludes to her blood sugar boosting power-food which she carries at all times. Ben is known as "Stitch" because the majority of the gear we carry was sewn at home: our backpacks, tarp, quilt, pants, jacket, insulating hats, fleece mittens, waterproof/breathable mitts.

Anyway, that's the latest news from the trail. We're doing well and having a fun time with our clean clothes, clean bodies, a pantry of junk food and hot coffee at Standing Bear Farm in Tennessee.