Opinion: Trail Families Are Getting Out of Control

BY ASH CZARNOTA

On many long-distance trails, it’s not uncommon for thru-hikers to team up with one another, forming tight-knit groups known as “trail families” or “tramilies.” When the trail threatens to break you, trail families help you find the strength to persevere. 

Most trail families are small—usually consisting of three to six hikers—but they can get big, so big in fact that they earn their own trail names like “The Blob” or “The Human Centipede.” 

Beyond hogging campsites and cleaning out every convenience store of ramen and Tuna Creations, their growing prevalence on trail is a symptom of a concerning trend: the progressive infantilization of thru-hiking.

Thanks in large part to social media, YouTube hiking vlogs, and best-selling trail memoirs like Wild and A Walk In The Woods, thru-hiking has exploded in popularity over the last decade, attracting adventurers from all walks of life, many with little to no backpacking experience. For an anxious newbie, falling in with a trail family can ease the steep learning curve that comes with long-distance hiking. 

But as small groups swell into large 10-plus-person tramilies, concessions override individual autonomy and give way to a herd mentality. Afraid of being left behind or ousted from their trail family, hikers disregard their intuition, desires, and limitations, even at the expense of their happiness and safety. I know because I’ve seen it.

During my PCT thru-hike, I consoled a hiker in the throes of a panic attack because she was left behind by her trail family, tried and failed to convince another hiker not to quit just because their tramily broke up, and heard from several other hikers who admitted to being miserable in their trail family but didn’t feel like they could hack it on their own. Avoiding discomfort at all costs sort of defeats the whole point of thru-hiking. 

I’ve always interpreted the thru-hiker mantra of “hike your own hike” as a reminder to trust your instincts and follow your inner compass. But when the people you’re hiking with are constantly at odds with your needs and desires, when the hard choices are always made for you rather than by you, whose hike is it, really?