If you’ve hiked along Maine’s Appalachian Trail this summer, you probably have seen a “thru hiker” or two. These northward traveling hikers left Georgia in March and started arriving as soon as July. But, some leave later and arrive as late as October. They are easily recognizable at lean-tos and mountaintops.

They usually just look like they’ve been on the trail a long time. Sort of tattered or bearded or both. Southbound hikers, leaving from Katahdin, are a little harder to tell apart because they’re just starting their trek and look as green and new as anyone might, out for a weekend.

If the gaiters and beat up trekking poles don’t convince you of how far they’ve hiked, when they talk to each other you’ll definitely realize that they have indeed walked the walk. Their language is full of short cuts, turns of phrases, and trail expressions.

Here’s how a typical conversation might go.

First hiker: “Hey, Firewalker, I thought you were behind me. I haven’t read your entries in the register. I figured I passed you. What are you doing going SoBo? Is there water at the next shelter? How bad are the puds up ahead?”

Second hiker: “The weather got bad and I wanted to be further north than I was. So, I flip-flopped to Katahdin from Harrisburg. The puds are more like muds. Did you find the trail magic in the spring up ahead? I read about it in the register at the last lean-to.”

Soon you realize you need a key to understanding just what they are talking about. So, what follows is a guide to translating thru-hiker terms and phrases.

SoBo: A southbound thru hiker, plans to hike from Katahdin to Georgia. Typically signs the register with ME>GA and the year of their hike. One in 10 of the number of people who hike the trail hike south.

NoBo: A northbound thru hiker, left Georgia in spring and followed it north. Signs the register GA>ME.

Lean-to: Three-sided log structures for overnight shelter, spaced about a day’s hike apart along the entire trail. In the north there’s usually no picnic table.

Shelter: The southern and mid-Atlantic’s version of a lean-to. Some are elaborate, with three-tiered sleeping decks.

The Register: A spiral-bound, ruled notebook in the lean-tos for leaving messages to hikers known to be behind you on the trail and others. Always interesting reading.

Flip-Flop: To start hiking in one direction, then by either taking a bus, plane, or train to the other end, hiking back in the other direction. For example, a hiker starts in May in Georgia, which is late. By the time he gets out of Virginia he’s less than halfway and it’s the first of August. He catches a bus out of Washington, D.C., to Bangor and hitches a ride to Millinocket to head south on the trail from Katahdin. That way he’s sure he can beat the snows and Baxter State Park’s Oct. 15 closing date.

Puds: Pointless ups and downs. The trail, when it goes up ridges with no views.

Muds: Mindless up and downs. A series of endless puds.

Slack Pack: Having your big pack hauled to the next road crossing typically by pickup, so you can do a 20-mile day carrying a fanny pack.

Purist: A hiker devoted to passing every white blaze on the Appalachian Trail, the AT.

White blaze: The only color blaze that denotes the AT.

Blue blaze: All the other side trails that connect, cross, or intersect with the AT.

Blue blazer: Not what you wear to dinner. A blue blazer takes side trails to avoid, for whatever reason, the AT.

Yellow blaze: The yellow line in the center of the road. A yellow blazer skips the trail altogether by taking a ride in a car. The lowest of the low.

Turtling: Taking a fall and landing on your pack, unable to get up, like a turtle would if flipped on its back.

Trail Magic: A pleasant, rewarding and unexpected turn of events in a hiker’s favor, usually involving something like someone leaving sodas in a spring for the next person to come along.

Trail Angel: Someone who performs trail magic, like the person who left the sodas.

End to Ender: Another phrase for thru-hiker, someone who hikes the entire trail in one season, end to end.

Yo-Yo: A thru hiker who hikes from Georgia to Maine, then turns around and hikes back to Georgia.

Yogiing: Freeloading without appearing to. The term comes from Yogi Bear, a cartoon freeloading bear. An example would be “Hey, that sub sandwich you got in town sure looks good. Are you sure you can eat it all?” Hikers can yogi a ride to town as well.

Section hiker: Someone who hikes the AT one section at a time, the way most people hike the trail.

Now for the translation of the hikers’ conversation at the beginning of this story. The first hiker thought the second hiker was behind him because the second hiker’s entries stopped appearing in the notebook in the lean-tos. Hiker one thinks he passed hiker two when the second hiker was off the trail, maybe in town. The northbound hiker calls the lean-tos shelters because that’s what he’s been calling them traveling from the south. Then, lastly, he wants to know from the south-bounder how pointless are the upcoming ridges’ ups and downs.

The second hiker explains that he’s caught a ride to the northern end of the trail to start hiking in the opposite direction from where he started. He was NoBo, but now he’s SoBo because he flip-flopped. Simple, huh.

He explains that the pointless up and downs are endless. Lastly, he wants to know from the first hiker if he drank all the sodas left in the spring up ahead that he read about in the last lean-to notebook.

Brad Viles is an avid hiker who has logged some 8,000 lifetime miles, including the Appalachian Trail. A trail maintainer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, he has climbed Mount Katahdin more than 75 times. He can be reached at sball1@ prexar. com</story>