“Dan” – no that’s not quite right. Everybody ends up with a trail name in some form or another. Some choose theirs, but most are appointed by others. ”Campchair” got his rather quickly for obvious reasons. In a group of people, among whom half own gram scales to compare weights of jackets, the idea of carrying a 10 oz. campchair 2,176 miles seems ridiculous. But I certainly had campchair envy when the only other places to sit were covered in snow.
“Red Ranger” I can only assume got his because he wears predominately red clothing. And “Tugger” did wood working on tug boats before setting out on the AT. I had tried for “Three Maestros” wanting to avoid a less-flattering name like “Brown Butt” or something of that nature, but it seemed forced and was difficult to explain that it was only my name, and had nothing to do with the two other people hiking with me.
But then it snowed. We marched on leaving boot prints for others to follow. “Tugger” was trying to reach the same shelter as us and was about an hour or two behind. I was pretty tired from back to back 10+ mile days and this one would be 13 in the snow and so I was at the back of our group of 3, dragging my body to the shelter. We arrived close to dusk and it was already 18 degrees and falling. We were all in our sleeping bags within a few minutes of finishing dinner and “Tugger” never showed.
The next day on top of Blood Mountain, “Tugger” came in as we were finishing brunch. Talking to him about the snow, he said he had been following “Two Rings” all day. “Two Rings” had almost led him to the shelter but his headlamp died and it was after sunset so he pitched his tent and called it a night. I wasn’t sure who “Two Rings” was so I asked him. Apparently the boot prints I had been leaving in the snow leave two large rings and is pretty unique among all the other prints.
So no more “Dan” for the rest of the trail, but “Two Rings” from now on. I might make up some story about how I was married twice before I was 18 or something like that in case I get bored with the boot print origin of the name.
