Tramily
Noun. Tram-i-ly
1 – Abbreviation for trail family
2 – A group of thru-hikers that tends to hike and/or camp together, usually forming because the group finds they’re about the same pace. The group forms norms such as cowboy camping and waking up at 5am
3 – Friends who make quick work of Chipotle, spaghetti, lentils, beans and hummus, Subway footlongs, scavenged bloody bags of mango and crushed oreos, salad, and anything edible except bagged peanut butter or Walmart instant potatoes
4 – Socks, hashbrown hipsters, bush people
Before I left, a common question I received was, “Who are you going with?” and I responded by pointing at myself. I wanted the agency and freedom to choose my own adventure and not be tied down to anyone else’s pace. I usually also followed up by saying that I hope to meet people on trail.
In fact, I didn’t just hope to meet on trail; I hoped for a tramily. I wasn’t going into this trail to run away from people nor for 5 months of intense introspection and solitude. I wanted to meet cool new people.
Going into the trail, I was nervous that I wouldn’t find anyone my same pace or that I wouldn’t fit into a group. This was heightened on day 1 when I felt like I was passing hiker after hiker who was planning for 10-15 miles per day, a pace slower than I had intended. As happens so often, I was being incredibly impatient and unnecessarily anxious.
The Formation
On day 2, I met Raccoon, at the time known as Olivia, camping by a creek prolific in caterpillars. When I heard that she did trail crew, I knew right away that she would be tough as nails and incredibly cool. I also met Arthur that night and remember laughing at his facetious conclusions that you can find the wild PCT hiker by their lavender scent (from Bonner’s lavender soap) at creeks drinking from life straws. I wondered if his British-Ness made him more funny.
Raccoon and I left the next morning together then leapfrogged each other until catching each other before heading into Julian and deciding to book a hotel together.
In Julian, I scored a bag of free chicken sandwiches at the supermarket and went into Mom’s Pie Shop to give Arthur one. I found Arthur at a table with a lean, weathered guy in a bright Hawaiian button-down filled with oranges on a blue background. I offered Walrus a sandwich, but he was, “living that vegetarian life.”
Leaving our ride with The Professor out of Julian at Scissors Crossing, Walrus, Arthur and I stumbled into Olivia, freshly named Raccoon for her Julian bread dumpster diving feats. The namer, a muscular guy with bright eyes and a mini purple pack, joined us for the climb out of the pass, and I remember overhearing him tell Walrus about his gym experience in Julian.
A few days later, the five of us were lounging at the Warner Springs Community Center. I sat down next to a hiker with a white mustache and ball cap to poach some community jelly into my makeshift travel jar (a pill bottle). Patrick, dabbling with the name Hotrod, which he later accepted, shared with me how he makes “grilled cheese ” by putting cheese slices in a tortilla in the morning and leaving them in a baggy until lunch. He’d arrived there with Dennis (soon to be known as Hindsight), who was quickly christened in our cowboy camping ways when his tarp blew over camping with us that night.
The Value
For the past two weeks, my tramily has been four strong: Walrus, Raccoon, Hindsight, and myself (Mother Teresa, aka Mama T). Every day I’m inspired by their positivity, gratitude, empathy, and adaptibility. Every day, they challenge me to go further than I would on my own, and we’re making amazing progress. One of my lessons from 2025 (mostly from running) was that I shoot below my potential. This hike is an answer to that lesson, and my tramily is helping me get there. What I learned veggie I got on the trail is that “it’s about the people,” and that’s what I’m trying to savor.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to travel far, go together.
-Mother Teresa (Annie)
Deuteronomy 14b-16a
“Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers.”
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