What's In A Name?

As a person with chronic heartburn, I try to avoid hot, spicy, acidic foods. Rarely do I eat anything with hot sauce; the exception would be hot wings but I drown the chicken in blue cheese before I eat it!  Unlike me, I have friends who enjoy dousing  hot sauce on everything! One such friend is Carolina, aka Hot Sauce.

Hot Sauce and Catfish: One can only eat so many corn tortillas before they start tasting bad. Roasting tortillas over the fire to make them taste better. Even after dropping mine in the ash, it still tasted better than an non-roasted tortilla.

When hiking, people introduce themselves as an alias, otherwise known as a trail name. Some hikers choose their own trail names before they even step foot on the trail. Those who do not have trail names will eventually receive one. The theory is a trail name picks you. A trail name can describe your personality, your physical appearance, your traits, or it can be something completely random that simply sounds cool.

Spring 2013, I went by the trail name Leap Frog. This name was given to me by another hiker, Cinderella.  For a two day stretch, Cinderella and her crew would wake up at the crack of dawn, pack up and hike out, all while I was still nestled in my warm sleeping bag. A few hours after hitting the trail, I would catch up with her crew and pass them. 30 minutes after passing Cinerealla, I would stop for lunch. Since they already had lunch, they would find me relaxing on the side of the trail eating my pepperoni and cheese tortilla wrap (this was my favorite lunch until the grease in the pepperoni started causing heartburn issues). After a lunch, a bathroom break, and filtering 2 liters of water I would step back onto the trail to finish the last 6-7 mile stretch before I ended the day. As I made my way to the shelter, guess who I passed on the trail…Cinderella. Given that we would repeatedly pass each other on the trail, she dubbed me the name “Leap Frog”.

Cinderella, Nightingale, Leap Frog: getting ready for bed and its not even dusk out. It was cold this evening so going to bed early keeps you warm. This is when most of my reading and journal entries get accomplished. 

Trail names I remember from Spring 2013 are: Hot Sauce, Catfish, Happy-Grumpy, Thor, Wake-N-Bake, Cinderella, Nightingale, Red Specs (A German friend who wore red glasses), Jolly Rancher, Hawaii, Surfer Dude (a guy from WI who has never been surfing but he had flowing blond hair and a tan), Stoopid, Thistle, Turtle (turtle was a very common name), Caboose, Sassafras (another common name),  Daypack, Sugar Buns, Sky, Boomerang, Teach.

A group of hungry hikers at the Pancake Breakfast in Franklin, NC.

Surfer Dude (on the left) and Hawaii (on the right) enjoying an afternoon lunch break.

 Daypack (I think), Thor, and Catfish riding in the back of the van while Happy-Grumpy, Hot Sauce, and I sit on the bench seat as we Yellow Blaze it back to the trail. Happy to be leaving Gatlinburg, TN! 

Thor and Happy-Grumpy: A hardcore hiking duel from NC. If they aren't hiking, they are surfing in the Outer Banks. 

Ending with a picture of Catfish and Hot Sauce freezing their bums off in the shelter (She probably won't be happy with me posting this picture).