Date: 2013-02-22
To: From Night Terrors to Trail Names
Miles today: 0.0

After posting the entry on night terrors a couple of days ago, I¢ve received a few emails from other members of the hiking community. Some were merely amused at my declaration, while a couple even went so far as to offer advice on how to deal with the affliction. In all sincerity I appreciate each response and also continue to feel humbled that so many are reading my journal. As I have asserted in previous entries, I¢ve been section hiking the AT for a number of years and have never experienced an ¢episode¢ in a shelter. Perhaps I should pause here and knock on the oak library table on which this laptop is sitting. After some of the comments at whiteblaze, I suppose a fair warning will be in order for those sheltering or camping with or near me.One of the emails put forth the suggestion that I use Night Terror as a trail name. I¢m hoping I can avoid that. In fact, I met Night Terror on a section hike of Pennsylvania. At the time I was hiking alone and stopped to talk with a youthful thru hiker. When I asked his trail name, he stated ¢Night Terror.¢ My immediate response was, ¢Oh, so you have them too?¢ We briefly discussed the commonality before he headed on up the trail. So I wouldn¢t want to take this young man¢s trail name. Instead I want one that suits me for this hike, and I sincerely hope others will understand.Over my years of section hiking the AT, I must confess that I¢ve used more than one trail name. In the beginning I didn¢t have one at all. Then in 2004 when Alton and I planned our section hike of Connecticut and Massachusetts, I decided that I needed one. After all if we were going to be real hikers we had to follow the rules of the trail, and those unwritten rules established that we needed trail names.Since I was a runner long before I became a hiker, I decided to use an adaptation of my running name. Having run in a hat for many years as somewhat of a tribute to my long time running idol, Dave Wottle, I had acquired the nickname ¢Hatman¢ in the running community. After a brief investigation, however, I discovered that there had been other hatmen out on the trail. So when a fellow hiker I met along the trail suggested that I add my home state to my previous name, I became Georgia Hatman. I¢m still registered at whiteblaze that way even though I rarely post there. For a couple of years I used this trail name but never really embraced it. I always vacillated between telling people that I was GA Hatman or ¢the¢ GA Hatman. Neither ever really seemed to fit.Then in the middle of a hike through the Shenandoah¢s in 2006 I started wondering, and I really don¢t remember why, if anyone had ever used the trail name ¢Trail Name.¢ It seemed like a novel idea, so I decided for the remainder of that year¢s section hike that I would be Trail Name. I must admit that my newly acquired trail name drew some interesting reactions when I engaged other hikers in conversation.When stopping to chat with a fellow hiker, I¢m asked, ¢What¢s your trail name?¢¢Trail Name.¢¢Yeah, what is it?¢¢That¢s it.¢¢What is?¢¢My trail name¢¢Yes, your trail name?¢¢That¢s it, Trail Name.¢¢Trail Name is your trail name?¢ I¢m asked with some degree of incredulity.¢Yep, I¢m Trail Name.¢Well after this exchange, (that brought to mind the classic Abbot and Costello routine, ¢Who¢s on First,¢) the next response differed, oftentimes depending on the age of the hiker with whom I was conversing. Thru hikers (especially the older ones) usually kind of sneered or shook their heads in disbelief. Younger folks out for a day hike sometimes actually thought my trail name was ¢cool.¢ Needless to say, I discontinued using Trail Name the next summer.On the past couple of hikes I¢ve been Hip. Back in 1996 I fell while running and broke my hip. Occasionally I still have issues with stiffness surrounding the area. Therefore, after being asked about my hip and relating the broken hip story, I got another trail name. I could then tell people, ¢I¢m Hip.¢ This newly acquired name also complemented Alton¢s trail name for a few years, Hop. So for a while there, we were Hip and Hop.What would the hike be like without trail names, I wonder. There actually seems to be a bit of comfort in the knowledge that you can become somewhat anonymous for a few months. After all, for many, the hike may represent a sort of catharsis in life. What better way to identify with the new you than by assuming a new identity. So for my special attempt at a 2013 thru hike, I¢ll adopt another and final trail name that I plan to use for as long as I hike. When I arrive on Springer in March to begin the journey that I hope will take me to Katahdin, I will be Don¢s Brother. In my next entry, which I plan to post in a few days, I¢ll explain why.