Outdoor enthusiasts divide the idea of fun into three categories: Type I fun is guaranteed to be pleasant, like get-togethers with good friends, Type II fun is miserable when you’re having it, but enjoyable in retrospect, and Type III fun is simply...
When James from Waco, Texas, was lost while hiking, he wondered Where in the blazes am I?, then wondered about the origin of that expression. It doesn’t derive from blaze meaning “to cut into a tree to mark a trail.” That term belongs to a family of...
Another hiking term from Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail (Bookshop|Amazon) by Barney Scout Mann is hiker’s midnight, which actually denotes a time closer to 9 p.m. After you’ve hiked a good 20 miles, you’ve set up came, and the sun has...
According to Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail (Bookshop|Amazon) by Barney Scout Mann, the term Hike Naked Day is rumored to have arisen among hikers along the Mexico-to-Canada route. It’s June 21, a day when many through-hikers literally...
As a Wyoming caller noted in an earlier episode, through-hikers on routes like the Appalachian Trail give each other trail names — jocular appellations that stick throughout their trek. The origin stories of several of these are told in the book...
Through-hikers, those intrepid souls who spend months hiking a long trail such as the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, acquire lots of colorful slang along the way. A NoBo is a northbound hiker; a SoBo is someone heading south, and Yo-Yo...
