[pct-l] Trail names!

[Wayne Smith]

When I hiked the PCT the first time back in 1997 I didn't know about trail
names when I started.  It was weird to me at first but I eventually figured
out why it happens.  When you are out on the trail and you are talking with
some hikers and you want to talk about some other hiker who you met, it can
sometimes be hard to match a name with a person unless that name is somehow
descriptive of the person you are talking about or just really memorable.
Say the name "Mike" and people might not know exactly who you are talking
about.  Say the name "Forest Fire" and they are more likely to know you are
talking about that guy who almost started a forest fire one day.  It makes
trail gossip a lot easier.
>From what I have been told, trail names should be earned or given to you by
others.  You can choose not to acknowledge a trail name if you don't like
it though.
>From the second day on the trail I had people wanting to give me a trail
name.  Many were suggested but it seemed that none would stick.  People
just kept coming up with another one and that would replace the previous
one and some people fought hard to get their suggestion accepted by the
others.  There seemed to be plenty of things about me that could give
people ideas for trail names.  Finally one day about two weeks in, one of
the guys I was hiking with called me "Gretzky."  My first name is Wayne and
I'm from Canada and Wayne Gretzky was probably one of the most famous
Canadians any American could name at the time so it just seemed like a
casual thing, not really a suggestion for a trail name.  But somehow that
name was the one that stuck.  Someone else called me Gretzky again later
that day and it seemed to catch on without anyone really noticing.
So it is not a very interesting story how I got my trail name, other than
the fact that it was the name no one really intended to be a trail
name that eventually stuck.

Gretzky