Star Trekking

Here is another example of the silly ideas thru-hikers come up with when they are given too much time to think.  Cascade, another hiker friend, has invented a new way of hiking the AT (to be added as an alternative to White Blazing, Blue Blazing, Yellow Blazing, etc).  It’s called “Star Trekking.” 

Let’s just review our AT Terms:

White Blaze: following the "official" Appalachian Trail as marked from start to finish. i.g. what Hansel and Gretel are doing.

Blue Blaze: hiking parts of the official AT but also taking some side trails, short cuts, or alternative routes. 

Yellow Blazing: Hitch hiking over parts of the Appalachian Trail to get further ahead.  aka skipping sections.

Night Hiking: hiking at night (duh).

Cascade invented “Star Trekking” after meeting some people who seemed to be covering a lot of ground in an unnaturally small amount of time.  When asked, they claimed they had been doing a lot of night hiking to get further ahead.  The truth is, they were most likely Yellow Blazing and skipping over parts of the Trail, but they didn’t want to admit that they weren’t pure White Blazers.  Therefore, Star Trekking refers to the hikers who say they have been night hiking, when in fact they have actually been hitching rides. 


Happy Trails!