What do we call ourselves?

imported
#1

In James Lipton’s classic book ‘An Exaltation of Larks’ we learn of a ‘pod of whales’, a 'murder of crows’, an ‘unkindness of ravens’ and even the joyous ‘raft of sea otters’.

So, what do we call a gathering of through hikers?

Some of the suggestions gathered from random thru hikers: a pack, a filth [my fav], a bunch, a blister, a feeding trough, a hunger, a soreness, a tread, a sole [a clever pun that one but maybe too obscure], a starving, an exhaustion and a stench.

I tried to set up a fund raiser with the PCT through Facebook where hikers could vote by paying in a dollar for their favorite descriptive term. I fear that I am not computer/internet savvy enough to do this.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how we could choose how we describe ourselves?

Acorn 2011

#2

Thats an easy one… a ruck.

fern

#3

A ‘Ruck of thru hikers’. That is a good one!

Acorn

#4

No… really… a Ruck!

www.paruck.com
www.soruck.net
www.trailforums.com/detail.cfm?PostNum=6323

fern

#5

I thought “herd” was already in common usage for a group of PCT hikers. At least it was a couple years ago.

markv

#6

Mark is correct. “Herd” is used to describe the random group dynamics of thru-hikers as pertains to where most of the hikers happen to be “bottlenecked” along the trail at a given time. Usage: The herd seems to be in Agua Dulce right now, with more hikers arriving every day. This is primarily a PCT term, though it could apply to the CDT at a “busy” time of year, but not usually the AT since that trail tends to be one big herd of hikers with lots of different start dates and hiking paces.

But Fern is also correct that “ruck” is a common term for an informal gathering of long-distance hikers, usually veteran hikers meeting at a planned event sometime during the off-season. This is a more of an east coast thing, generally.

So it would really depend on what the OP’s intent really is, whether it’s a serious inquiry or just a fun diversion to invent some new slang fashioned around some sort of Olde English-themed meme.

hoch

#7

Herd is what I use. Pack would also work as in “a pack of back-packers”. Maybe not ha ha.

bowlegs

#8

I prefer, a “Slop” of hikers.

Guino

#9

How about a Journey of hikers

frank