I promise not to go on and on about the Pacific Crest Trail this year, but today at least a few of the first hikers are starting out from Campo, California, to begin the long walk. They should have beautiful weather for it—mid-fifties to begin with, a little rain in the evening, then a week of 60's and 70's to get through that section of the desert.
Traditionally, hikers have started the trail in late April and early May. An earlier start might bring you to the Sierras while the snow pack was still quite deep; any later, and the desert would be so hot and dry that you'd not make it to the Sierras in the first place. However, the last few years have seen reduced Sierra snow, so more folks are setting out earlier in the year.
It's kind of a fun time to be reading online journals; many hikers keep their updated fairly regularly, e-mailing from towns along the trail, so I can kind of live vicariously through their experiences. You can check out the journals on the official Pacific Crest Trail Association web site, and a whole lot more over at Trail Journals (as well as journals from dozens of other long trails in the US).
On that note, I had a few ideas in my continued search for a trail name (Traditionally, you'd wait for other hikers to bestow you with a name, but then I'd end up with a moniker like "Two Buckets" or something ridiculous). Beowulf was already taken, and doesn't really fit me all that well. Something like "Aragorn" would be fun, but then people might expect a lot more of me than I can deliver ("Aragorn, eh? How many Hobbits have passed this way lately, huh?") and I'd be the biggest geek ever. I was also hoping for something with a spiritual connotation, since part of my PCT hike is about the spiritual journey. Other thoughts:
Grey Pilgrim: A bit unwieldy; I had thought of just "Pilgrim," but someone already had that one.
Templar: I would have loved this one before all of the Holy Grail conspiracy nuts got hold of it. Now I'd have to explain that I wasn't really part of the Prieure de Scion or seeking to keep the secret of the "true" bloodline of Jesus.
Errant: So far, this seems the most suitable. I'm hoping it conveys both the medieval sense of journeying or wandering, and also the idea that I'm usually wrong about most things.
I'm open for other suggestions, and though "El Mysterioso Blanco" is how I'm known in many South American countries, I can't use that because (a) la Policia are still looking for that man, and (b) it is too long.
4 comments:
It may be too simplistic, but I like Brother. Not just Kathie's, but you know, in a general Christian way.
Maybe I've been watching too much Lost?
I like Brother, too—can I make everyone say it with an Irish accent?
Aspirant is good, though I fear for explaining to some that it doesn't mean I sweat a lot. And while Way- and Pathfinder are very cool, they also convey a sense that is simply not true about me, as I can get lost inside a broom closet.
How about Brother Maynard?
If you are going to use Tolkien it's hard to beat "Strider", but that's probably already in use.
I like "Errant", but here are a couple other suggestions anyway:
Marmot
Thoreau (or Henry David)
Sir Robin
Solitaire
Sir Robin! Yes! You're a computer gaming man—do you remember Bard's Tale? Wherein your bard could play "Sir Robin's Song," which allowed you to run away from any monsters? And you could find the Holy Hand Grenade?
Good times. Good times.
Thoreau is probably far too cool for me. I'm thinking of combining to "Brother Errant," then letting people choose which they want to use if they want to shorten it...
Some of the trail names out there are things like these:
Frodo
Scout
Not-a-Moose
Yogi
Squatch
Disco Dan
Blue Butterfly
One Step
Slim
Ladybug
Voyageur
Teatree
Hyper
And so on. Though given that there have been folks named things like "Frisian Rhino, "Walking Carrot," and "Hidalgo the Infidel," I guess length isn't the biggest consideration (though I suspect those were probably shortened on the trail...).
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