[pct-l] Trail names!

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

Trail names are a little silly in some ways.

My first trail name was "Little Albino Girl." This is because the  
first time I led a Sierra Club Hike I was trying to impress upon the  
large group of obviously out-of-shape beginner hikers that this was a  
very strenuous hike, probably the hardest one in the area. I'm only  
5'3" tall, blond hair, female and I have a body more advantageous for  
long distance hiking and weight lifting, not running, ballet or  
gymnastics. Anyway, as I was really trying to make the hike sound  
scary, these two women were overheard say "If that little albino girl  
can do it, how hard can it be?" 50% of the hikers on that hike turned  
around in the first hour or so and I was teased forever for what  
those two women called me. They were among the 50%.

For the PCT I didn't know what to do. I met people at first when  
nobody had trail names yet and said that my trail name at home was  
Little Albino Girl. Nobody wanted to use that name and I didn't sound  
all that fond of it anyway. To avoid getting a name that might  
embarrass me, I decided I would just call myself Piper because I play  
an Irish whistle and I like birds and a Piper is both. So I started  
telling people that was my name.

On my 2nd PCT hike, I hiked way in front of the pack. I started to  
not like having a trail name. Real life is out on the trail. Why  
can't the real me be there too? I should have a fake work name instead.

These days I'm more likely to just tell people my real name,  
especially after spending some time on the CDT and getting used to  
how most people don't use trail names there. Makes more sense to me.

Diane