Glossary of Thru-Hike Terms

HYOH: A common saying among PCT thu-hikers meaning Hike Your Own Hike.  The point of it is to remind fellow hikers that hey, if I want to attempt to walk from Mexico to Canada wearing a pink spandex speedo and subsisting on nothing but tree moss and freeze-dried yak testicles that's my affair, as long as I'm not interfering with anyone else's hike.

Giardia:  See my previous post: Precious Little Giardia 

Leave No Trace:  A philosophy widely embraced by most thru-hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts that basically means that you attempt to leave nature as pristine as it was when you got there.  No gum wrappers please.  For example a number of years ago Mt Shasta Wilderness started requiring climbers to carry their own feces back down from the mountain.  The problem was that after many decades of traffic the peak was beginning to resemble a very tall outhouse, especially when it would freeze year-round creating a little monuments to eternally proclaim to the world that Frank Smith had a second helping of bran-flakes before his assent.  I'll spare you a picture this time.  :)   

Oh yeah, and just for the record that rule only applies to the mountain- I'm NOT CARRYING MY POOP.

Bear Can:  A container to keep your edibles in that's meant to be impervious to a bear's attempts to get at your food.  That doesn't mean they can't punt it off the nearest cliff like a football, however.  Some national parks in California, most notably Yosemite, require you by law to make use of one.  Here's a picture.

Pack-Sniffer:  A person who has all the fancy outdoor gear such as the $200 titanium cooking pot and $600 pull-over hand woven by blind Tibetan monks from the wool of virgin sheep.  They also regularly frequent online hiking forums and lurk around outdoor stores manfully proclaiming how they many miles they can walk in a day and yet in reality they never actually do any hiking with the exception of walking to the kitchen for another bag of pork rinds.

Ultralight:  A fairly recent movement among the backpacking community where, strangely, people got really tired of carrying so much heavy crap.   They starting seeking out lighter and less bulky gear, sometimes even crafting their own (see my DIY Gear post), and ultimately shaving many pounds off their loads.

Gram-Weenie:  Ultralight enthusiasts so obsessed with reducing the amount of weight they carry that they start counting grams and with a crazed gleam in their giardia-reddened eyes trim 3 inches off their toothbrush handles and shave their heads before a hike.   It's said that the truly mad Gram-Weenie slow down their breathing to only 2 or 3 breaths per minute in order to reduce the needless weight of so much extra oxygen in their lungs.

Trail Names: See my previous post: Trail Name

Zero Day:  A day on which you don't do any hiking but instead rest and/or resupply.

Triple-Crowner:  If backpacking has it's own Pantheon these are the Gods who stand at the crest of Olympus.  They are the handful of people who have hiked not only the PCT, but also the Continental Divide Trail and the Appalachian Trail.  Trail legend maintains that a couple of people have even completed all 7,900 miles back-to-back within the same year.

That's it so far.  I'll probably think of more or learn new ones so maybe I'll make another list later on.