Date: 2004-02-01
To: Trail Definitions
Miles today: 0.0

When the actual hike gets under way, any reader not exposed to hiker-culture will run into some weird lingo. To help sort it all out, here¢s a list I lifted from www.WhiteBlaze.net which should be useful.Here's a list of terms and commonly used words, phrases, abbreviations, and slang used in the Appalachian Trail community.2,000-Miler is a person who has hiked the entire distance between termini of the official (white-blazed) A.T., either by thru-hiking or by section hikingBlazes are painted, 2-inch by 6-inch, vertical white rectangles that are placed at eye height on trees and other objects, in both directions, to mark the official route of the Trail. Side trails are marked with blue blazes.Blowdown is a tree or shrub that has fallen across the Trail.Blue-blazer is a long-distance hiker who substitutes a section of blue-blazed trail for a white-blazed section between two points on the Trail.Cache is a supply of food and/or supplies hidden for later retrieval.Cairn is a heap of stones, set up to look artificial, that serves to mark the Trail route in dense vegetation or above treeline.Cowboy camping or cowboying is where one camps without any shelter - just spread one's pad and bag out under the stars and putting one's faith in their opinion about the weather staying dry.Dodgeways are V-shaped stilesDouble blaze refers to two blazes, one placed two inches above the other, at places requiring hiker alertness and usually just before a turn in the Trail. In some areas, the top blaze is offset in the direction of the turn.End-to-ender is an alternative term for 2,000-Miler.Flip-flop a term used to signify a hiker that starts hiking in one direction then at some point decides to jump ahead and hike back in the opposite direction. Some hikers on the AT will start hiking northbound from Springer Mt. and usually at Harpers Ferry they may decide to go to Katahdin and hike back down to Harpers Ferry, thus completing their thru-hike. This is a good way for someone to still get their hike completed if they are behind and their time is limited due to the oncoming winter.Food Bag a bag a hiker carries in their pack specifically for keeping all their food in. It is typically suspended from a tree at night so bears and varmints don't get into it.Freedom hiking is a term suggested by a shuttle provider as a replacement for the term "slackpacking", mainly as away of encouraging people to use the shuttle services.GAME or GA-ME Georgia to Maine.Giardia more properly known as giardiasis, an infection of the lower intestines cause by the amoebic cyst, giardia lamblia. Giardia resides in water so it is wise to always chemically treat or filter your water before drinking. Symptoms include stomach cramps, diarrhea, bloating, loss of appetite and vomiting. Also know as, a backpacker¢s worst nightmare.Gear head is a thru-hiker who has hiked over a thousand miles or so and still talks about nothing but gear.Lean-to is another word for shelter, used primarily in New England.GORP good ole raisins & peanuts, or some other variation thereof.Grey Water : Dirty dishwater. Some campsites will have designated spots to dump your gray water. Such designated spots may be provided with a strainer so that you can remove your food particles from the grey water and pack those out.Ground Control : that special someone that stays behind to take care of the house and mail you packages while you are out lost in the woods.HYOH : Hike your own hike. A statement usually intended to give other hikers the latitude to hike in their own way. But the meaning is often debated. Long-distance hiker is a somewhat indeterminate term applied to anyone who is hiking more than a few weeks, and who usually has to resupply at least once during his or her hike; often used interchangeably with the term thru-hiker.Mail Drop a method of re-supply while hiking. A mail drop is usually made ahead of time, before the hike starts, and a person not hiking (usually a spouse or relative, but it can be a friend) mails the package acording to a pre-arranged schdule so that it arrives on time for the hiker to recive it at the post office.Maintainer is a volunteer who participates in the organized Trail-maintenance programs of the ATC and its member clubs.MEGA or ME-GA Maine to Georgia, direction of hike.National scenic trail is the official designation for one type of trail protected by the National Scenic Trails Syst Act of 1968.NOBO North Bound.NPS is the abbreviation for National Park Service.Posthole to hike in deep snow without snowshoes or skis, leaving large holes in the trail. Postholing is considered bad form and makes subsequent snowshoeing or skiing unpleasant and hazardous.Power hiker is a hiker who habitually chooses to cover very long distances each day, often hiking late into the evening.PUDS is thru-hiker shorthand for "pointless ups and downs", referring to the less interesting sections of mountains thru-hikers encounter from time to time; several PUDS in a row are MUDS, which is shorthand for "mindless ups and downs". Also used: FPUD's.Purist the style of thru-hiking that requires you to pass by every white blaze (or whatever color for that trail) without taking shortcuts or loop trails that lead back to the main trail unless you go back to where you left the main trail to get that missed section. Also know as Pointless Ups and Downs.Puncheon (also called a bog bridge) is a wooden walkway built to provide a stable, hardened treadway across bogs, mud flats, and marshy areas.Section hiker is a person who is attempting to become a 2,000-Miler by doing a series of section hikes over a period of time.Slabbing is a hiking term that refers to going around a mountain on a moderately graded footpath, as opposed to going straight up and over the mountain.Slackpacking is a hiking term coined in 1980 to describe an unhurried and non-goal-oriented manner of long-distance hiking (i.e., slack: "not taut or tense, loose"), but in recent years has been used to refer simply to thru-hiking without a backpack.SOBO : Southbounder on the trail. Usually starts later than NOBO's in late May/early June.Springer fever is the almost uncontrollable urge to be back on the Trail that hits thru-hikers of past years each spring.Stile is a construction, usually wooden steps or a ladder, that allows easy passage over a fence or other obstacle.Thru-hiker is traditionally a person who is attempting to become a 2,000-Miler in a single, continuous journey by putting on a backpack, leaving from one terminus of the Trail, and hiking essentially unassisted to the other terminus.Switchback a method of building a trail that forms a zig-zag of trails up a mountain. The strategy is to prevent erosion and to make the climb easier. Switchbacks are not made to be short cutted although some people do, which damages trail. Switchbacks are often appreciated by hikers.Thru-hiking is the act of attempting to become a 2,000-Miler in a single, continuous journey.Tour-hiker is a person who pretends to be hiking the entire A.T. as a thru-hiker, but instead skips sections and always looks for the easy way, and generally looks forward to spending time in town more than spending time on the A.T.; usually fails to understand the traditions of thru-hiking and cares little about the Trail.Trail Angel is someone who goes out of their way to help a hiker in need.Trail magic is the term used to describe all the wonderful, unexpected things that happen to thru-hikers during their hike.Trail Name trail names can come from a variety of sources. Sometimes trail names are a name people pick like "Stryder" when they are in a Tolkien like mood, or "Soaring Eagle" when they want to express some sort of pseudo native American/Hippy outlook. Others get their name from some part of their past, like a job or place like "Indiana Hiker" or "SAR Boy". And the most common and probably the truest trail name is one you get while on the trail for some reason, like an embarrassing moment in the case of "Hog On Ice" or for some idiosyncrasy like "Bag Lady".USFS is the abbreviation for United States Forest Service.Vitamin I is Ibuprofen which is an anti-inflammatory drug that hikers eat like candy.Volunteer is a person who works for the ATC, one of the local A.T. clubs, or other organizations without pay, usually a maintainer, but not necessarily so.Waterbar is a log or rock barrier that diverts water off the Trail to prevent erosion.Whiteblazer A term from the Appalachian Trail to describe a person hiking pure (see purist), that is, hiking past every white blaze - which are the standard trail markers on the AT.Yogi-ing is the good-natured art of "letting" food be offered cheerfully by strangers without actually asking them directly (If you ask, it's begging!).Yo-yo-ing is the act of completing one A.T. thru-hike, then immediately turning around to begin another in the opposite direction.Zero day is a day in which no miles are hiked, usually because the hiker is stopping in a town to resupply and/or rest.A related term is Near-o day ,which means spending only part of a day in town after hiking in, or before moving on.