North Carolina / Tennessee
"Celebrate we will, cause life is short but sweet for certain.."
Trail Names.
There are some interesting tales behind how some thru-hikers got their trail names. Makeshift, for example, got his name because in the first week of hiking his pack frame broke and he found a piece of a lawn chair and stuck it in the pack as a "makeshift" fix. Well, he never fixed the pack and carried the piece of chair with him all the way to Maine. No Whey got her name while eating breakfast with other hikers one day. They discovered she was a vegan and didn't eat whey, so they decided to called her "No Whey". At first you might think someone named "Two-Stepper" is into country in-line dancing... Well in fact he spent many years dreaming and planning a thru-hike with his close friend from home. They always said that when they retired they were going to hike the AT together. Unfortunately his friend got cancer and died just before retirement. So Two-Stepper named himself, saying that he takes two steps for every step on the trail, one for him and one for his friend. That way he never forgets that he is still, in spirit, hiking the trail with his friend.
By now you may be wondering what's the deal with people having trail names... Well I don't really know how or why it started, but it's some kind of tradition on the trail to have a trail name when you are thru-hiking. Sometimes people give you a name and you're stuck with it, other times people come to the trail with a name that somehow represents the inspiration or motivation behind their hike. With all the foot pain I was having and the hobbling I was doing around camp and on the trail it was pretty easy to start calling me "Gimpy". My name transformed, however, to "WonderGimp" further up the trail when I managed to overcome my pain and deal with my injury in a somewhat unconventional way. Everyone still called me Gimpy though, despite me signing my name as "WonderGimp" in all the registers. For awhile, in between the official name transition, I became "The hiker formerly known as Gimpy" and I had a symbol, just like Prince (we're allowed to call him Prince again in case you didn't know).
Journal Entry 4.3.00
"5pm at the Jerry Cabin Shelter. 15.3 miles today - oh yeah, the feet are a-throbbin'. It rained last night and continued lightly throughout the day. Lots of mist and fog all days - no views whatsoever. There was a huge climb after lunch, 1400' in 1.3 miles, and lots of rocks after that. My foot was killing me at the end but I made it through another day."
Journal Entry 4.4.00
"7:50pm at the Hogback Ridge Shelter. 14.6 miles today. It rained ALL DAY. I woke up at 7am to rain and decided to go back to bed until 9am. As I was getting ready to head out it started to snow. Unbelievable. It was beautiful hiking, but too cold to stop and enjoy. What a great feeling to know that I got my miles in for the day. The motivation was so low this morning, yet I pressed on. Even when I got here it was STILL snowing. I am freezing but happy that the hiking is over for today. Oh no, gotta get out of my sleeping bag to pee - TORTURE! I hope all the shelter mice freeze to death tonight!"
Journal Entry 4.5.00
"9pm at our campsite at Spivey Gap. 15.8 miles today. It was a freezing, cold, brutal night in the shelter, going down to 20ºF. We shared the shelter space with Jimmy B, 'da Bobs, Zoom, and his dog Bishop. This morning we were frozen - literally (water and all), so we delayed the inevitable as long as possible and finally peeled out of our sleeping bags and began hiking at 10am. Once we got moving it was fine - the skies were blue and the sun was out, even though it was still cold. By the time we set up camp it was 7pm. Had falafel and bean curd for dinner. Tomorrow we may go to the hostel at the Nolichucky Gorge and catch a ride into town for Pizza Hut or burritos. The tent is much warmer than last night and no mice in here either!!"
Journal Entry 4.6.00
"4pm at Uncle Johnny's Hostel. Hard to believe I'm sitting here in a tank top and shorts after having been in a blizzard 2 days ago. A tough day of hiking for me - almost at my breaking point with the foot pain. There's only so much I can take, and then it just gets to me. When I got to the top of the gorge and looked down over 1000' to the river below, knowing that I had to endure the pain of every step down, I almost couldn't do it. I had to take my pack off, sit for a few minutes, and pull myself together to continue on. But I made it. And tomorrow I will face it again, hopefully stronger. I am looking forward to dinner in town."
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