Signpost

I am currently immersed in a fascinating book by Jennifer Pharr Davis titled Becoming Odyssa:  Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail.  It’s the true story of Ms. Davis’s solo hike at the age of twenty-one across the 2175-mile Appalachian Trail.

A term that appears often in the work is thru-hiker — defined as someone who hikes a long-distance trek, end-to-end, within one hiking season.  I had never heard the expression before reading the book.  Since then, I’ve seen it several times, including on an entire wall at a local outdoor recreational shop dedicated to their clients who have walked the trail.