Trail family. Tramily. Trail fam. Crew. Bubble. Hiker fam. Trail Pals. All words to describe the people you meet on trail and naturally gravitate towards, pace with, and start to plan your next steps with. My trail fams started forming organically within the first 300 miles of my PCT thru hikes- some cuties even made their debut at the Mexican border. You don’t always realize that’s what’s happening, that a fam and intense bond is beginning, until a few hundred miles later… just like any important relationship I suppose.
PCT 2015 Trail family
This hike was a partner hike, and while Tom and I met wonderful people along the way, we were pretty focused on taking care of and having fun with one another the first month. We really started to bond with a crew about 300 miles into our hike.
Tom
Tom, The Deadly Amoeba, my hiking partner and one of the great loves of my life!
m/o: getting hurt. Falling on flat ground. being sassy as fuck. making everyone laugh.
Met: Hiking in Guatemala, years prior to the PCT
Hiked together: We were cutest and most fun hiking duo on the trail that year. We hiked together from start to finish save a quick trip Tom made to San Fran for a big gay party on his birthday, a few days when I needed an extra rest day in town and he was antsy to move forward, and for a week in Washington when he was injured and resting up his shins for the final push. The first month we walked with one another, talking and singing the majority of the day. As time went on, we would walk at our own pace for a big portion of the day and meet at set break spots to relax together and eat.
Risky Biscuit and Cold Bear
You going to Risk it Biscuit? Risky Biscuit was hiking with her partner at the time, Cold Bear. Tom and I took an instant liking to the pair.
M/O: Biscuit: Having a little smoke before bed and eating candy in the middle of the night. Waking up with all of her snacks gone. Made many jokes- most ending with murder. Rock fights.
Cold Bear: went to bed with a clean face, woke up with it smeared with dirt and chocolate every day.
Met: Wrightwood, CA- mile 360
Hiked Together: Throughout California and again in Northern Washington. Reached the Canadian border together. Biscuits parents picked us up and drove us back to Portland when the trail was done.
TJ Beaver
Beaver: Started his hike partnered, ended his hike with Tom and me.
M/O: He could build any dam anywhere, proving very handy for hard to collect water sources. Could turn wet wood into a blazing fire. Always laughing at Tom. Always ready to share whiskey on a cold night.
Met: Somewhere on trail around mile 150, more officially on Mt. San Jacinto. Beaver named me Moonshine. I later named him Beaver.
Hiked together: In the same bubble after mile 210 and began more intentionally hiking together in NorCal when he started flying solo all the way to the Canadian border.
Kettles. Kett. Coyote to Bear Bait
You can call him Kett. He likes his name.
M/O: burying his face in streams and drinking directly from the source. being the dirtiest hiker in our bubble. Coming into contact with the most bears, one having hung out in his camp all night, using Kett’s food sack as a chew toy.
met: on the cold wet snowy trail heading up San Jacinto. Kett was passing whiskey around to warm up. I was instantly smitten and thought he might just be the second most beautiful man I’d met (Tom being the first).
hiked together: In the same bubble from San Jacinto all the way to the Canadian Border. Enjoyed a little trailmance and trailtail along the way and formed a strong friendship.
Judd Step
M/O: having a mid day smoke and napping in the sun in the most odd and inopportune places. hiked in chacos with toe socks.
met: somewhere in California
hiked together: California and the northern half of Washington to the canadian border.
Jim and Richard
Jim had a trail name but we called him Terry because it annoyed him. Richard was Richard. They met out on the trail and became a team- a hilarious dirty mouthed duo representing the few hikers on trail over 40
m/o: Terry: opinionated Brit with sarcastic wit. Richard: bearded Aussie photgrapher in a kilt with a lot to say. Both: brought the party to trail towns and closed down every bar.
met: dodging poodle dog bush in SoCal.
hiked: in the same bubble in SoCal and a small section in Washington.
So Many Trail Pals!
Ben and Sally, Saranade, Wonder Women, Pie, Nightwalker, Eugene, Pumpkin, Just Keep Walking, and so many others making an impact, sharing a hug, encouraging you to keep moving forward.
PCT 2016 Trail Family
While I’d say I made amazing trail pals on both PCT hikes, I found hiking solo brought friendships on a little faster. Solo but never really alone- if that makes any sense. I made trail pals that became a huge part of my hike the first day of the trail and very organically moved along the trail forming bonds with different hikers along the way.
Cheesy Momma Bear
Answers to Cheesy. Will eat a block of cheese in a day. Will momma bear you. Will love you hard.
m/o: thinking she packed way too much food and cheese and then eating most of it by the end of the first day out. Pushing her body to the limit and hiking no matter how much pain she is in. tequila in town. jumping naked into all of the pretty lakes and screaming.
met: on trail around Mojave. Up until then, a few hikers had mistaken me as Cheesy. A fast and easy friendship formed as she merged in with our bubble.
hiked together: The last 200 miles of SoCal and all of the Sierra forming the “tricycle” with me and Snacks (because 3 wheels were better than 2). We left Tahoe on different days and I never caught back up with her on trail- but we have had plenty of post trail hikes to make up for it.
Pepe
More formally known as “The very Tall and Handsome Pepe Lepew” because he is tall and handsome, French, and saw a skunk on the second day when looking for a place to camp.
m/o: happy, positive, playful.
met: at trail angels Scout and Frodo’s house the day before the Mexican Border.
hiked together: Frist steps from the Mexican Border together with Snacks. We called ourselves the mighty ducks for the first two hundred mile- seeing as our butts were quackin their way up the trail (there was a lot of farting). hiked SoCal and Sierra in the same bubble but left Tahoe on different days and that was that!
Rambler
m/o: one liners: That’s pretty neat. Would ya look at that. I’ve done more for less. Bum a boil?
met: At the Mexican border. He was wearing that ugly sand colored hiking garb from head to toe and proceeded to make me laugh all summer.
hiked together: Socal, The Sierra, and then again Washington to the border, having met on the first day and ending on the same day. Hiking with Rambler was constant laughter- he couldn’t balance on a log to cross a stream to save his life, so he was always wet in the Sierra. He once agreed to carry my backpack for a mile in exchange for a snickers and a boil.
General Burnsides
Often shortened to Burns.
m/o: one liners: that’s pretty neat, would ya look at that, you can tell it’s a ___ by the way it is. Fast hiker with a tiny pack, lived off of hardly any food, and was always down to play on trail.
met: in SoCal, more officially Augua Dulce when I was dancing to Beyonce in the street in a pair of wranglers while waiting for our shuttle. Had a big crush and probably said a few inappropriate things that made him blush. Sorry?
hiked together: From Casa De Luna (mile 500ish) through the Sierra.
Burrito
Burrito may have made me laugh just as much and as hard as Tom did. I would hike any trail with him any day just to watch him try to set up his tent while drunk one more time.
m/o: not getting mad when we shared a puff at night and I ate all of his sour patch kids. Sweating all of his water out. Finding bushes and napping for 4 hours to escape the mid day heat. Always showing up to camp, even if it meant hiking alone in the dark in the woods in bear and cat country to get there.
met: During the 40 mile dry stretch of desert after Mojave while sweating and struggling up a climb in the heat of the day. Met again in the Sierra, less than a quarter mile from a momma bear and cubs sighting. He was camped alone on top of a pile of trail mix.
hiked together: Parts of the Sierra in a bubble together. NorCal. From Echo Lake to the Oregon border we were a team. We were both hiking solo having left Tahoe at different times than our other trail pals when I found Burrito hung over crawling out of his tent at 10am. That night we camped together, and the next morning we were a “we” plotting and planning the timing of our next burgers. Parted ways in Oregon and reunited in Washington, walking to the border together along with some of our dearest trail pals.
Dude Man, Danger Noodle
m/o: short shorts. The dudemanrita.
met: met these two early on in SoCal and noticed I was objectifying their legs.
hiked together: SoCal and the Sierra. Had many drinks together in towns, slayed some karaoke, did our fair share of cowboy camping as a crew, and were naked any time there was water around. Pools. Hot tubs. Rivers. Lakes.
so many trail pals:
Roo, Golden Boy, Clock Work, Squirrel, Tarzan, Big Hunk, Garfield, Shep, Trigger, Cherry Coke, Great White Turtle, Jet Fighter, Rat, Ant, Tumbleweed, and so many other wonderful people to share the night sky with, share a cheap motel, some shade, a meal, or a joke.
AZT 2019 Trail Pals
The Arizona Trail started off as a very solitary experience for me, but I still managed to walk away with a few good hiker pals to add to the long list of amazing folks I’ve bonded with on a trail.
Bear Box
m/o: hiking for margs.
met: We met in Patagonia at the Gathering Grounds Cafe, 3 days into my hike. I was injured and holed up and he was about to hop back on trail after nursing a shin splint.
hiked together: Kept tabs on each other’s hikes on instagram, and our hikes finally synced up in Paysen- mile 380ish. I was THRILLED! The AZT had been a very solitary trail up until that point. Hiked about 100 miles together and then he, being a local with limited time off, had to get off trail to go back to work. Bear drove up to trail towns twice to meet up when he wasn’t working.
Mean Spaghetti
m/o: had a knack for missing trail intersections and blazing forward in the wrong direction for a few miles before noticing he was off trail. Was able to kick it into high gear to get into town before everyone and then welcome you in with a cold beer.
met: the cookie cabin on Mt. Lemmon during my flip flop sobo.
hiked together: Met back up in Pine, AZ and party hiked our way to Flagstaff.
Ben
m/o: being cute and sitting in poop during snack breaks.
met: charging our phones in the bitter cold public bathroom hallway in Summerhaven on top of Mt. Lemmon during my sobo flip flop.
hiked together: We synced back up in Pine AZ and party hiked our way to Flagstaff.
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