[pct-l] Trail Names

[Gary Swing]

In response to my first post on this forum (different thread), I have had a dispute with someone who labels me an "impostor" for proposing to use the trail name "Pack Rat" on the PCT in 2011. My girlfriend, Rachel, wants to use the trail name "Spill," which is also apparently not unique and original. Rachel and I had extensive discussions this summer about possible new trail names while we hiked the Glacier NP section of the CDT with a friend. It's taken a lot of discussion for us to come to mutually agreeable trail names, until we settled on "Pack Rat" and "Spill." 
 
(Brief aside -- for the Glacier hike we named our friend "Bob McGuire" because he asked Rachel if I'd told her about his "barbed wire" incident in New Mexico. She thought he said "Bob McGuire" and asked who "Bob McGuire" was.)
 
Thousands of people have completed thru hikes of long distance trails while using trail names. Many of these trail names are obvious, common, and simple. When I thru hiked the AT in 2008, I met plenty of people with duplicated trail names. I personally don't know anybody who has used the trail names "Pack Rat" or "Spill." They are both fairly obvious trail names and fitting descriptions of habits that Rachel and I have demonstrated while doing long distance walks.
 
"Pack Rat" may be "a well known and popular accomplished hiker," but I don't know him. I searched Trail Journals and found one listing for a "Packrat" (one word) who hiked the AT in 2004 and the Long Trail in 2005. I didn't find any listings for anybody named "Spill." I am not "pretending" to be a guy I never met who hiked the AT in 2004. 
 
Like birth names, trail names don't have to be unique names that nobody has ever used before. I'm not the only person who has ever been named Gary. That doesn't mean I'm "pretending" to be somebody else named Gary. How would somebody even know if they've come up with a unique, totally original trail name? Is there some searchable registry of every trail name any hiker has ever used? Is there a specific list of prohibited trail names that have been officially reserved for "well known and popular accomplished hikers?" 
  
I don't really care what name I use on the PCT, or if I use a trail name at all. Like anyone else, I don't want to be stuck with a dumb name like "Halitosis" or "Stinky Feet." However, my girlfriend *insists* that we both must have trail names, and wants us to start out on the PCT with them. 
 
Here are some pros and cons of trail names that I've considered:
 
Thought Criminal: I used this trail name on the AT in 2008, the Colorado Trail and in the Chihuahuan Desert in 2009, and on the CDT between Canada and Butte in 2010. I have used this as a nickname in various contexts since 2002 -- on mountaineering forums, for a personal website that I had from 2003 to 2009, on a personal profile that I had for five years, and for a "Thought Criminal Test" that I wrote. The term is taken from George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" about a totalitarian society in which anyone who thinks for oneself is branded a "Thought Criminal." On the AT, I found that most people didn't get the reference; the name was too long and people shortened it to "TC;" and I often had to spell out the word "Thought" when I met people who couldn't understand my pronunciation of the word. I prefer to replace this name on the PCT in favor of something less political and more light-hearted. I don't want to feel that I must live up to this name.
 
Pack Rat: Rachel and my friend Barrett ("Bob McGuire") have made fun of my tendency to pick up and carry useless and generally unwanted items and carry them long distances before eventually using them, sending them home, or leaving them somewhere else. I tend to do this particularly with hiker boxes, picking up something nobody else wants and carrying it a long way until I eventually leave it in another hiker box, or consuming it (if it's food) when I have nothing else left to eat. Also, I do promotional work for the Colorado Ballet, sometimes in costume. I wear a rat costume for promotions of "The Nutcracker." Drawbacks: "Pack Rat" is a common, unoriginal name. It has been objected that a "well known and popular accomplished hiker" uses the name Pack Rat.
 
Alien: Expresses my deep feelings of alienation from American society. I was also amused by the "No Alien" stickers I saw posted on the Colorado Trail. I wrote a satirical commentary about this. In 2010, Denver (where I live) had a local initiative on the ballot to create an "Extra-Terrestrial Affairs Commission" to study evidence of alleged extra-terrestrial visitation on Earth. I wrote some satirical commentaries about this proposal and used an "Extraterrestrial Affairs" themed costume for Halloween. Drawback: Folks might assume that I'm a UFO buff, which I'm not.
 
Peakbagger: My hobby from 1990 to 2007 was climbing Colorado's 637 mountains over 13,000 feet. Drawback: I don't plan to divert from the PCT to bag peaks, except for Whitney and Muir.
 
13er: See Peakbagger.
 
Winston Smith: Lead character from George Orwell's novel "1984." The original "Thought Criminal." Less obvious trail name than "Thought Criminal," sounds like a real name. Most people probably wouldn't get the reference.
 
Crestone: The name of my favorite Colorado 14ers (Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle).
 
Green: I was a Green Party candidate for Congress in 2010. Rachel was "Red" on the AT in 2008. Could be part of a "couples' name -- except Rachel doesn't want to be "Red" again.
 
Sequoia: I have a Specialized Sequoia road bike. Rachel briefly considered being "Redwood" on the PCT before rejecting it. Possible couples' name.
 
Ecotopian: Obscure literary reference to Ernest Callenbach's novel "Ecotopia" in which northern California, Oregon, and Washington secede from the United States to build a new society based on principles of ecological sustainability. Seems appropriate to me since we'll be walking the length of "Ecotopia." Drawbacks: Most people won't get the reference, and it's too many syllables. 
 
Swingman: This was my nickname in high school, but I haven't used it since 1985. Doesn't seem meaningful to me anymore.
 
Rachel used the name "Red" on the AT. We met in North Carolina and walked to Maine together. Red was her nickname from trail crew in the White Mountains (NH) for her hair color. I thought it was a boring, unoriginal name, so I tried to give her a different name. She rejected my proposals. I suggested "Lumber Jill" because she was a competitive Lumberjack. I later proposed "Redblaze" because she kept falling and blazing the trail with her own blood. For our Glacier National Park hike, I proposed to name her "Pandemic" because she works in a medical laboratory at a hospital. At the time, the people in her lab were playing a fantasy game called "Pandemic" in which they try to design a highly contagious disease capable of wiping out the entire human race. On the AT, we also debated the idea of calling ourselves "Misery" and "Company" -- with some uncertainty as to who would get which name. For the PCT, she considered switching to "Redwood" with me as
 "Sequoia." I proposed the name "Spill" for her on the PCT because she always seem to spill her food, and often spills herself as well. She tumbled down a rock stairway on the AT. Another time, she tripped over her own feet, stumbled a few paces, and fell on the only stickerbush in the area.
 
So... in non-conclusion, I don't really care what name I use on the PCT, as long as it's not "Halitosis" or "Stinky Feet." Rachel thinks we should stick with "Pack Rat" and "Spill" -- even though other people have used those names.
 
Cheers,
 
Gary