• Home
• Intro
• About
• Planning
• Journal
• Contact

Appalachian Trail – North Carolina / Tennessee & Trail Names

North Carolina / Tennessee

“Celebrate we will, cause life is short but sweet for certain..”

- Dave Matthews

Trail Names.
By now you may be wondering what’s the deal with people having trail names… Well I don’t really know how or why it started, but it’s some kind of tradition on the trail to have a trail name when you are thru-hiking. Sometimes people give you a name and you’re stuck with it, other times people come to the trail with a name that somehow represents the inspiration or motivation behind their hike. With all the foot pain I was having and the hobbling I was doing around camp and on the trail it was pretty easy to start calling me “Gimpy”. My name transformed, however, to “WonderGimp” further up the trail when I managed to overcome my pain and deal with my injury in a somewhat unconventional way. Everyone still called me Gimpy though, despite me signing my name as “WonderGimp” in all the registers. For awhile, in between the official name transition, I became “The hiker formerly known as Gimpy” and I had a symbol, just like Prince (we’re allowed to call him Prince again in case you didn’t know).

There are some interesting tales behind how some thru-hikers got their trail names. Makeshift, for example, got his name because in the first week of hiking his pack frame broke and he found a piece of a lawn chair and stuck it in the pack as a “makeshift” fix. Well, he never fixed the pack and carried the piece of chair with him all the way to Maine. No Whey got her name while eating breakfast with other hikers one day. They discovered she was a vegan and didn’t eat whey, so they decided to called her “No Whey”. At first you might think someone named “Two-Stepper” is into country in-line dancing… Well in fact he spent many years dreaming and planning a thru-hike with his close friend from home. They always said that when they retired they were going to hike the AT together. Unfortunately his friend got cancer and died just before retirement. So Two-Stepper named himself, saying that he takes two steps for every step on the trail, one for him and one for his friend. That way he never forgets that he is still, in spirit, hiking the trail with his friend.

Journal Entry 4.3.00
“5pm at the Jerry Cabin Shelter. 15.3 miles today – oh yeah, the feet are a-throbbin’. It rained last night and continued lightly throughout the day. Lots of mist and fog all days – no views whatsoever. There was a huge climb after lunch, 1400′ in 1.3 miles, and lots of rocks after that. My foot was killing me at the end but I made it through another day.”

Journal Entry 4.4.00
“7:50pm at the Hogback Ridge Shelter. 14.6 miles today. It rained ALL DAY. I woke up at 7am to rain and decided to go back to bed until 9am. As I was getting ready to head out it started to snow. Unbelievable. It was beautiful hiking, but too cold to stop and enjoy. What a great feeling to know that I got my miles in for the day. The motivation was so low this morning, yet I pressed on. Even when I got here it was STILL snowing. I am freezing but happy that the hiking is over for today. Oh no, gotta get out of my sleeping bag to pee – TORTURE! I hope all the shelter mice freeze to death tonight!”

Journal Entry 4.5.00
“9pm at our campsite at Spivey Gap. 15.8 miles today. It was a freezing, cold, brutal night in the shelter, going down to 20F. We shared the shelter space with Jimmy B, ‘da Bobs, Zoom, and his dog Bishop. This morning we were frozen – literally (water and all), so we delayed the inevitable as long as possible and finally peeled out of our sleeping bags and began hiking at 10am. Once we got moving it was fine – the skies were blue and the sun was out, even though it was still cold. By the time we set up camp it was 7pm. Had falafel and bean curd for dinner. Tomorrow we may go to the hostel at the Nolichucky Gorge and catch a ride into town for Pizza Hut or burritos. The tent is much warmer than last night and no mice in here either!!”

Journal Entry 4.6.00
“4pm at Uncle Johnny’s Hostel. Hard to believe I’m sitting here in a tank top and shorts after having been in a blizzard 2 days ago. A tough day of hiking for me – almost at my breaking point with the foot pain. There’s only so much I can take, and then it just gets to me. When I got to the top of the gorge and looked down over 1000′ to the river below, knowing that I had to endure the pain of every step down, I almost couldn’t do it. I had to take my pack off, sit for a few minutes, and pull myself together to continue on. But I made it. And tomorrow I will face it again, hopefully stronger. I am looking forward to dinner in town.”

Journal Index

Georgia – Overview And the poop on the Trail Divorce

0 (miles from Georgia) – Springer Mountain, Georgia Whose idea was this again??
87.7 – Georgia / North Carolina Aint no all-inclusive package vacation story…
161.7 – Fontana Dam, North Carolina No Rain, No Pain, No Maine
204.6 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park I My deodorant gets the heave-ho!
268.7 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park II The Food Appreciation Trail
336.5 – North Carolina / Tennessee & Trail Names How the Gimp got her name
390.7 – North Carolina / Tennessee The famous Roan Mountain hitch
452.9 – Crossing into Damascus, Virginia 3 states down, 11 to go!
516.7 – Grayson Highlands State Park Roughin it at Partnership Shelter
573.3 – Bland, Virginia My wonderful trail angels!
665.3 – Pearisburg, Virginia The switch from boots to sandals
767.4 – Catawba / Troutville, Virginia Heat wave in Virginia
839.4 – Montebello / Rockfish Gap, Virginia ‘Hiking with Gimpy Sr.
920.0 – Shenandoah National Park Rattlesnakes, Jack Daniels, and bears – oh my!
988.3 – Front Royal, Virginia Invasion of the Boy Scouts
1001.1 – Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia The mental half-way point
1061.4 – Maryland / Pennsyltucky Y’all done drank enough beer!
1123.8 – Duncannon, Pennsylvania The Half-Gallon Challenge
1208.9 – Port Clinton, Pennsylvania $1 Yuengling drafts and the rocks of PA
1283.9 – Pennsylvania / New Jersey Friends and family visit WonderGimp
1334.2 – High Point, New Jersey Rain, rain, rain, trail magic, and more rain
1440.7 – Bear Mountain, New York Hike Naked Day!
1486.1 – Kent, Connecticut Gimpy Sr. and Barkeater hike with W.Gimp
1543.8 – Great Barrington, MassachusettsWelcome to Mosquito Hell
1618.0 – Massachusetts / VermontPhoton and strobe lights for the 4th of July
1687.3 – Killington, Vermont The Inn at the Long Trail
1738.1 – New Hampshire Live Free or Die!
1794.4 – North Woodstock, New Hampshire Gettin’ above treeline
1814.4 – AMC-land, New Hampshire Entering the White Mountains!
1854.0 – Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire Mooning the tourists on Mt. Washington
1869.2 – Gorham, New Hampshire My first Moose sighting!
1920.7 – Andover, Maine The way Life should be…
1979.3 – Rangeley, Maine Closing in on the end
2015.6 – Kennebec River, Maine Eye of the Tiger!
2095.7 – Monson, Maine 100-mile Wilderness
2152.0 – Abol Bridge, Maine Katahdin is in sight!
2167.1 – Baxter Peak, Mount Katahdin, Maine Goodbye Capilene – Hello Cotton!!

Other Pages:
Map – Yep, 14 states
Gear – What to Bring
FAQs – See for yourself
Glossary (learn the AT lingo)
Links to Additional Info
Trail Injuries Everything from blisters to swampfoot
Trail Privies Bring your own TP
Class of 2000 Katahdin Thru-Hiker Pictures