What's in a name?

There are many things to think about and consider when planning a hike on the AT. What to bring, how much everything weighs, what to eat etc. But I didn't realize until recently that I also needed to think about an appropriate trail name. After reading a few books I realized that part of the adventure of the AT is leaving your urban life behind. So hikers generally come up with a trail name that they go by while on the trail. These names usually reflect some part of their personality or life situations. Some examples: AWOL, Pepsi, Gotta Go, Chuckles...

On our last hike we spent quite a bit of time discussing appropriate trail names for the four of us. With my real name being Sheila I thought an interesting name would be Aussie Girl since that is what Sheila means in Australia. I also thought that if I could manage to develop an accent people would think I was from Australia. But I can't do accents to save my life!

Now David, has developed a nickname among our family and friends. Anyone who has had the pleasure of my husband coming and fixing something at their house knows that he is quite adept at fixing most anything. Computer not working, no problem. Electrical issues, they are his speciality. Car or lawnmower broke, he can help. Sprinkler system need repair, he is there. So we affectionately call him our Frickin Genius. We all decided that this should be his trail name and we will call him FG for short.

Janice is our fun loving friend who is a bit obsessed with food. She doesn't ever want to be hungry so she always has food with her and she wants to know what time it is while we are hiking so she can know if it is time to have another snack. 1 snack per hour is her rule! So we are going to call her Nibbles since she loves to nibble her way through a hike. Of course her husband Ray thought we said Nipples and he liked that idea much better! Which leads us to Ray's name.

Ray, bless his heart, has a one track mind and it is always going down the dirt track. You can't say anything around Ray without him turning it into something sexual. He isn't usually offensive about it but there is always a sexual undertone that just makes you chuckle! Dirt Track is definately an appropriate name for Ray.

So now that we have picked some names we are going to try them out while we are hiking this year and just make sure they feel right for us. We can always change our mind before we start the AT next year!

Please Don't Shoot Us!

With the beginning of the fall season and the cooler weather we have become very excited about hiking and have added camping to our hikes. The next to the last week of October we went camping at Karik Lake and couldn't help but notice the influx of camoflaged tents, campers, trucks and people. I ask David "is it hunting season yet?" "No, not til November" he replies. Okay. There were people all over the campground with bows and arrows doing practice shooting. Now these aren"t your typical cowboy and indian style bow and arrows...these are very, very large and scary bow and arrows. So I decide that we are going to have to invest in some "Please Don't Shoot Us!" hiking attire before November rolls around. Off into the woods we go a hiking and everything is fine. A few days later I discover that it is actually bow hunting season and we were traipsing around in the woods with deer crazed hunters. YIKES! Of course we didn't see any hunters or deer for that matter.

On the last day of October we headed out to Hurricane Lake for a halloween hike and we all had on our "Please Don't Shoot Us!" hiking attire. We were very bright and visible. This will continue to be our hiking outfit through hunting season. Honestly, I don't worry about the bow hunters too much because they have to be fairly close to achieve a hit. But those guys with the guns...now that is another story!