Trailname “Trudge”

Most hikers have a trail name, a nickname.  On the trail I’m known as “Trudge”.   Hiking on the Appalachian Trail in October 2016 I played leap frog with a very nice young couple, Snacks and Temper, for several days.  We camped together one night just south of Roan Mountain.   I left really early that morning and they caught up to me just where the steep ascent begins.  Temper, a very sweet young woman, said they would wait for me to finish my break and then we could all “power up this mountain together”.  I had to explain that I don’t “power up” mountains, I trudge up mountains.  I do get there eventually.   They left me in the dust going up that mountain.   I hiked on, didn’t see them again that day and hiked until almost dark before camping.  The next morning while I was still making breakfast they appeared on the trail. Seems they had camped a short distance off the trail and I had trudged past them in the early evening.   They left me in the dust again going up Hump Mtn but again later that day I trudged past them.  Anyway, since then my trail name has been Trudge.

Back in 1979 my trail name was TMI Refugee.  I lost my job because I evacuated during the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident.  Shortly after that I decided to start hiking.   These days, so few people know what TMI stands for that I stopped using that trail name.  No, it is not “too much information”.  I am not explaining that again.