[at-l] TRAIL NAME

[brian.schweikert at navy.mil (Schweikert, Brian CONT)]

Back in 78', when I did my thru (I also have since done it again by sections) the use of trail names was basicly non-existent. I called myself the Klondike explorer after my love of the Pac-NW ((it was also my cb radio handle).

In a section hike in 82 I was in a shelter one night that was pretty beat-up. Anyway there was 3 of us there already and at about 11:30 another hiker came in. He hung a coat or something from one of the beams of the rafter. This action made a foot long piece of 2X4 fall that apparently was just placed on top o that beam. It missed my head- sleeping head by like a half inch (it had a nail sticking out o it too).

Then a couple days later at sunfish pond two guys were trying to hit this stick in the water with small rocks. I wasnt partaking in the game and just lobbed on at it and hit the thing. Several other things were construed by them as being lucky so they started calling me LUCKY7s, this evolved into HIKER777.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim and/or Ginny Owen [mailto:spiriteagle99@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 21:16
To: at-l@backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [at-l] (Guest Post) Trail Name



Shane  wrote:
>>Personally, I never have and never will allow others to
>>decide who I am or what I should be called.
>
>Well, except for the time your parents wrote 'Jim' on your birth
>certificate...

Not really - I didn't "allow" that.  And if I objected to it, I'd have 
changed my name long ago.  Actually, I did - no one who knows me calls me 
James anymore.  And those who've called me Jimmy are a dying breed.  
Literally - but not by my choice or desire.

>>Walk softly - wearing your own identity, not someone
>>else's,
>
>Agreed.  That's why I've actively shrugged off all the trail names people 
>try to hang on me.

Yeah - the names others would hang on you usually have nothing to do with 
who you really are.  Only with their limited perception.

Ginny reminded me that some people pick trail names that indicate who they 
WANT to be.  And that's as valid a reason as any.  Allowing others to name 
you would short-circuit the possibility of "becoming" who you want to be.   
Not acceptable.

>I've always been Shane.  Seems good enough...
>

Then it's good enough for me, too.   <VBG>

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