">
Seeking New Trail Name
Featured Image: North Carolina Piedmont from the top of Pilot Mountain, May 2024
Second Time Thruhiker in Search of New Trail Name: All Inquiries Considered
The Trail Name has got to be one of the most written about aspects of thru hiking out there. That all important nickname that your fellow hikers know you by. It’s so all encompassing as an identity that using someone’s “legal” name almost feels wrong after a certain point. When you are dubbed with one from your fellow hikers, it’s a badge of honor that you carry for the rest of the trail. And yet here I am, a thruhike notched in my belt, about to leave my first trail name behind.
Changing Names, Changing People
I know I’m hardly the first to change a trail name out there. One of my favorite memories from the Appalachian Trail was eating with a section hiker who had a rather raunchy trail name. When my tramily inevitably asked for the story of how he got such a title, we came to learn that he had in fact done two thirds of the triple crown carrying one of the best trail names I had ever heard, only to switch to the one that had almost caused me to spit my drink out on his last leg.
At the time, I had never even considered why someone would do that. To me, his first trail name was the kind that you hold tight for getting lucky enough to have it without giving it to yourself, not one that you leave behind for a name that might make someone uncomfortable to give you a hitch into town. Being perfectly honest, I still don’t think I’d take that swap in particular, but I do think that I understand the reasons behind it much better than I did with less than half of a thruhike under my belt more focused on the pizza in front of me.
The trail name is so much more than a nickname in the hiking world. It’s an identity. It is who you are to the rest of the trail. For some people, there’s no difference between that and who they are off trail, and they might not even take up a trail name. For others, it supersedes their previous life and becomes who they are both on and off trail. This is a little dramatic, but in my opinion it’s part of what makes hiking culture and thruhiking culture so interesting. So what if a person changes?
Age Ain’t Just a Number
Me three weeks into the AT in 2021
Me training for the PCT in 2024
Now I’m not going to pretend that I know a lot about age sitting at 24 years old, but what I do know is that people change a lot in the time between 18 and where I am now. When you add a thruhike into that mix, which will have an effect on anyone who undertakes one, and I think I’m a very different person from where I was a week into the AT when I got my trail name.
Barely 20 years old and coming off of a freshman year of college that had left me pretty damn beat, my early days on the AT were defined by me falling back into the old book of boy scout tactics to try and tackle the trail. Overpacking because I might need something in a niche situation. Planning the entire trail on a itinerary so people I knew could come hike with me. Most relevant to this story, studying Farout (then Guthooks) religiously each night so I knew exactly what I was trying to tackle the next day.
This isn’t to knock people who still might swear by doing similar things on the trail, but for me I found that when I finally let go of that old scout mindset for good a thousand miles north in Virginia, my thruhike got far more fun. This wasn’t an overnight change, but that was when I came to terms with it and told myself exactly what happened. The only problem was my trail name was already staked on that mindset. Then the gulf between that freshly 20 me and me now only grew wider and wider.
A Fresh Start
Ultimately, by the end of the AT, I was carrying a name that while I liked no longer fit who I was. Compound this with it’s basis in internet memes, which caused the eyes of anyone older than 25 to glaze over when I explained it’s origins, and the fact that even people I hiked hundreds of miles with had no idea how to spell it at times. It’s a part of those memories that I’m always going to cherish.
At the same time though, I had a revelation come to me on a few section hikes since the AT. Without the nostalgia or sentimentality of being on that thruhike, my trail name had become annoying for me more often than a point of pride. I had taken to shortening it, or just using my real name. This only made the explanations more complicated of course. So I finally faced the inevitable. It’s time for something new.
I’m saying goodbye to “Kowalski” as a name, not as who I was and still am. It’s always going to be a deep seated part of who I am as a person, as a hiker, and who I was to my friends on the AT. But now, for the PCT, I’m looking forward to whatever name comes next. Hopefully it’s one I can continue to grow into over the coming years. Or maybe it’ll be some raunchy one that makes people uncomfortable to give me hitches.
This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any product or service you purchase using the links in the articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price as they would otherwise, and your purchase helps to support The Trek's ongoing goal to serve you quality backpacking advice and information. Thanks for your support!
To learn more, please visit the About This Site page.
Comments 12
Not knowing you or anything about yoou but this post, my suggestion would be Seconds. It’s your second thruhike and second trail name. Hope you have a fun and safe hike.
I don’t know man, I’m old but I got kids so I know exactly what Kowalski means. Better than Private! Looking forward to hear what your new iteration is called! Though I’d be proud to carry Kowalski up another trail myself. Still looking forward to my first trail name!
I’m an older woman that decided to dye her hair bright pink before going on the trail.So people kind of knew me more than i knew them. Well i was cowboy camping a few miles shy of Paradise valley Cafe when a couple i met at Mike’s Place zoomed by and with out stopping asked if i had a trail name yet. I didn’t. He said just one word “ Highlighter”. It stuck
Since you have apparently grown as a person and embraced the changes that new experiences bring, what about “Fresh Start”
When I saw this article, I thought you had already chosen and was intrigued and delighted by your choice — Seeking.
Our posts appeared simultaneously – even more evidence that “Seeking” is the answer.
I think your choice is obvious: “Seeking.”
As soon as I read “Kowalski” what came to mind was Clint Eastwoods role as Walt Kowalski in the movie, Gran Torino. There you go…
Ever see Clint Eastwood in the movie Gran Torino. His role: Walt Kowalski. There you go. Good luck
GorgeUsGeorge!
Thanks for all the great suggestions folks! I’m gonna hopefully pick one up on trail but if not I’ve got a great selection to choose from!
Love Gran Torino! Kowalski is a great name that’s served me well but just doesn’t fit anymore and takes too long to explain if people even get it at all. The nice thing about trail names though is that I’m sure someone else will get good miles using it in the future!