Trail Jargon

As we talk with, well, whoever will listen with some enthusiasm to our endless jabber about the trail, we have discovered that a great many people do not know the jargon of the trail! Since we have been immersed in trail talk lo these many years, we forget that this is all new to the majority of those we converse with.

So here is our encyclopedia of ...... TRAIL JARGON!!!

PCT - The Pacific Crest Trail

HYOH - This stands for Hike Your Own Hike. Basically this reminds all of us that everyones journey on the trail is their own. It is neither good nor bad, it is your unique style of hiking. You and only you get to decide how you hike and how far you hike.

Base Pack Weight - This is the weight of a hikers pack that consist of the non consumables we are carrying along the trail. This does not include food and water, as the weight of these items go down each day. Most hikers aim for a base weight between 12 and 20 lbs, then the amount of food and water will bring that weight up at the start of each section, then we should be back to our base weight as we near town again.

Thru Hike - A backpacking trip on a long trail (generally consisting of a few hundred miles to a few thousand miles) in a continuous trip in one season. It could be as short as the John Muir Trail, or as long as the PCT. A person who does this is called a thru hiker.

Section Hiker - These people eventually complete a long trail by hiking when they have spare time from their jobs by doing smaller sections of the trail at any one time. Their accomplishment is no less than a thru hikers, they just take a little longer.

The Herd - This is a reference to all the hikers starting out at the same time which creates quite "the herd" in Southern California. We are hoping to get somewhat of a jump on the herd by starting a couple weeks ahead of the Kickoff. (See meaning below at AZDPCTKO)

Nobo - A Northbound thru hiker, one going from Mexico to Canada. This is us!

Sobo - A Southbound thru hiker, one going from Canada to Mexico.

Connecting your Steps - All thru hikers need to get off the trail at various points for resupplies or to rest. This phrase refers to hikers getting back on the trail at the point where they got off for refreshment and continuing that all the way to the end of the journey, not skipping any miles in between.

Zero Day - What else could this be but zero miles hiked in a day. This is typically at town stops, though it could also be at a really beautiful spot along the trail. Just don't forget to add extra food for that kind of zero day.

Nearo Day - A very short hiking day, usually less than 10 miles. We may take a nearo day as we near a trail angel's house or a town or as we are leaving either of these places. Of course, if we find a cool trail magic spot to hang out at that has lots of soda, we could be tempted to take a nearo right there.

Trail Angel - We already did a post on the trail angels, See Gotta Love those Angels!

Trail Magic - This is mostly what trail angels perform, though it could also be the serendipitous coming togther of us and the thing we have been most craving for the past however many miles, such as a resturant appearing out of nowhere when we didn't know it was there.

Vitamin I - Ibuprofen: a thru hiker downs it like you wouldn't believe.

Hiker Hobble - This refers to the way a hiker walks for a few minutes after a brief rest period. It never seems to go away.

AZDPCTKO - All these letters stand for Annual Zero Day Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off. This little get together usually happens the last weekend of April at Lake Morena, 20 miles from the Mexican Border. There are wonderful PCT volunteers who help to get the hikers off to a great start by providing classes on how much water is along the Southern California Desert, how to deal with bears and mountain lions, providing a snow report, and generally just helping anyone who needs a little extra TLC in figuring out a plan of attack for a successful thru hike. The first such campout occurred in 1999, the same year we attempted our first thru hike. We had no idea it was there, it wasn't nearly the size it is now. Here is a link to the website: http://pct77.org/adz/ for more information.

We'll be adding on to this list as we talk to people and get the blank stare and realize we are talking trail jargon again, and they just don't know what we're talking about.