Thru Hiker Dictionary

10 Before 10 – hiking 10 miles before 10am

Banana Blazing – when you hike faster to keep up with a male love interest on the trail.

Blue Blazing – when you take alternate routes instead of the official PCT.

Blowdown – a fallen over tree. Usually fallen over the trail in a really annoying way that you have to awkwardly climb over.

Bounce Box – a box that you keep sending up along the trail ahead of you with items you can swap in and out of your pack.

Bubble / The Bubble – a large group of hikers on the trail, where the most hikers are at any given point in time. The bubble moves.

Cameling – when you drink a bunch of water at a water source so you don’t have to carry so many liters in your backpack.

Cathole – a hole 6-8 inches deep that you poop into. When you’re done pooping, burg the poop and stick a stick into the hole so other people know not to dig in that exact spot.

Cold soaking – some insane people don’t cook their food on the trail, they just soak it in jars, usually a Talenti jar.

Continuous Footpath – hiking the trail and not missing any sections. Making a continuous Footpath between Mexico and Canada.

Cowboy camping – sleeping straight on the ground with no tent.

FarOut (formerly known as Guthook) – an app hikers use to post comments and look at the trail map to find water sources, campsites etc

Flip Flop – when you start the trail going one way, and then skip somewhere else and change directions.

Hiker Box – boxes usually at post offices, hotels, restaurants and other places hikers frequent that serve as a free store and lost and found. You can leave or take things in the box. It’s usually junk but sometimes you find complete gems.

Hiker Hunger – the kind of hunger that happens after a few hundred miles on the trail when you start hiking 20 miles a day and are in a caloric deficit almost all the time.

Hiker Midnight – 9pm.

Hiker Trash – someone on a thru hike. Once you get dirty and hungry enough, you lose your normal decorum and become hiker trash.

LASH – long ass section hike. These are hikers who hike about 500 miles of the trail at a time but are not doing a full thru hike.

Laundry Clothes – clothes you wear while doing laundry. This usually includes a rain jacket and rain pants, clothes from a hiker box, or a towel.

Leapfrogging – when you pass people on the trail but then they pass you later and you just keep passing each other. Forever.

Luxury item – a heavy item you don’t need but want to carry anyway.

Nearo Day – day you hike nearly zero miles. A quasi rest day.

NOBO/SOBO – Northbound or Southbound. Hikers either go from Mexico to Canada or Canada to Mexico. Most people go North, but some people who want to avoid the bubble go South.

Posthole – when you walk through deep snow, often times you will sink down through the snow creating deep holes. “Postholing” is the verb.

Pre-dig (a cathole) – when you dig a cathole at camp before you think you’ll need one. Especially useful for emergency poops or in cold weather when the ground gets hard overnight.

PUDS – Pointless ups and downs.

Ramen Bomb – a packet of ramen mixed with instant mashed potatoes, and probably other things.

Ride bride / hitch bitch – it’s easier to hitchhike when there is a woman present. The custom is to put the woman up front on the road so cars will stop, and then buy her a beer or dinner once in town as a thank you.

Side Quest – an extra adventure off trail. Hiking an extra trail, seeing an extra sight somewhere else, with the intention to return to the trail later.

Silk blazing – the first person on the trail who walks through all the cobwebs.

Slackpacking – when someone else carries all or some of your gear for part of a section.

The Trail Provides – a saying that hikers say which means basically that things will work out. The trail will provide you the things that you need, usually when you least expect them in the way that you least expect them.

Trail Legs – when your legs finally let you start hiking big mile days consistently. Like sea legs, but on the land.

Tramily – trail family. A group of people hiking together.

Triple Crown – someone who has thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail and Appalachian Trail.

Turtle Blazing – hiking slower to stay with a slower love interest.

Vitamin I – Ibuprofen.

Vortex – to get stuck in a town. To be vortexed. When your friends try to get yuh to stay longer.

Water Cache – water that is left somewhere usually by trail angels in a section of the trail where there’s no water. The water is usually left in water jugs or tanks.

Widowmaker – a tree branch that is hanging precariously and could fall and kill you. Always look up before setting up your campsite.

Yellow Blazing – when you hitch hike and skip sections of the trail.

Yogi-ing (verb) – to beg for food or rides. Usually from non hikers.

Zero day – day you hike zero miles. Also known as a rest day.

Terms Coming Soon:

PCT Permit –

Start Date –

Trail angel –

Trail magic –

Trail Name –

Trail register –

Resupply –