How I Earned My Trail Name

I know you are all dying to know about Snuffy. Who’s Snuffy? What’s a Snuffy?

A person is not likely to make it to their mid-forties without a least one nickname. I don’t remember having one as a child (though my 5 younger siblings may have had one for me I don’t know about) but in high school my given name was sometimes shortened to Shan (Thanks, Di!) and for a year I tried to go by Lee (my middle name).

If I had a nickname at summer camp I don’t remember it but when I started working for the YMCA as a summer camp director I chose M&M which I carried for 8 years. Apart from being my favorite candy then, it stood for Mitchell’s Mom, who was just a few months old at the time. Soon, if you ask my coworkers, it came to stand for Mario & Martha. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions but I really am a very good driver. And I would have chosen M for MacGyver but Martha would do.

Fast forward to 2013 when I walked 500+ miles of the PCT (Washington) and I hadn’t acquired a trail name yet when I arrived in Stehekin about 4 weeks into the trip. A trail name is a nickname you receive from the hiking community, usually based on something that happens to you on the trail. Well, sitting at a table in Stehekin with several thru hikers (those that start at the Mexico border) I had to admit I was just Shannon. It didn’t take long before Snuffy entered my life.

One of the hikers (Charlie Dayhiker AKA Kurt) was talking about a video from the internet from Shark Week, a sad little tale about Snuffy the Seal. It goes something like this:

As soon as the story was told, another hiker (Lint AKA Clint) points at me and says, “You are Snuffy the Seal!”. Are you kidding me? A helpless seal who gets eaten just as he’s are being released into the wild? What kind of karma is that? I so wanted to take the name, I mean how often does a two time triple crowner give you your trail name? But, really? So I left the name on the table, and kept on with Shannon for the rest of my hike, certain I would eventually acquire a more dignified trail name.

That was two years ago and it would appear that circumstances have conspired for me to take up the badge of Snuffy and wear it proudly. How can this be, you might say? Well, more than once in the last year, my friends have been endeared to the name and tried to make it stick. I resisted, until now. One of them, Gary, shared this video with me:

What?!? How did I not know this (maybe because I don’t have cable)??? How can I NOT be Snuffy now? Snuffy has been redeemed! Snuffy is BADASS! You will now find Snuffy traveling with me on all my hikes.