Tuesday, April 23, 2013

AT Hiking Terms

Here are a few of the new words I've learned out here...

Blue Blazing:  The AT is marked by white blazes on trees and some rocks. Side trails (to water sources or shelters) and by-passes are marked by blue blazes. Sometimes, the blue blazed trail is a short-cut to the white-blazed trail. Taking shortcuts like that is known as "Blue Blazing." Some hikers are purists and look down upon "Blue Blazers"; their feeling is that you need to hike the entire trail for it to count. (This can get a little out of hand...)

Yellow Blazing: Taking a shortcut by a paved road or, even worse, hitch-hiking is known as "Yellow Blazing". Pretty much everyone looks down on hitch-hiking to shorten the trail!

Zero: A day when you do no hiking at all, usually in a town. I haven't taken a zero day yet, but I have had a Nero...

Nero: A Near Zero day. When we went into Hiawassee to avoid the freezing rain, I only hiked two miles that day, so that was a Nero.

1 comment:

  1. Rick,

    Did you hear the one about the dyslexic athiest? He just couldn't wrap his head around the concept of an Almighty Dog. Keep on walking. Think deep thoughts. Have great days.

    Jon W.

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