n. A person who leaves food and performs other acts of kindness for hikers.
2004
Wren experiences awesome vistas and starry skies, pelting rain, sore knees and a night in the hospital with a possible tick bite. And he witnesses miracles: a woman who bakes chocolate-chip cookies just for hikers, a shop that offers hikers free milkshakes and — most wondrous of all — "trail magic": the rare sighting of a can of beer left chilling in a stream by a "trail angel."
2003
From Springer Mountain in Georgia to Maine's Mount Katahdin, Pegg enjoys a rock star's renown. The 59-year-old retired prison guard from Sussex County … is a "trail angel."
During the nine-month hiking season, he distributes "trail magic" — free water, food, and other goodies - just about every day to through-hikers traversing New Jersey as they attempt to walk the entire 2,172-mile Appalachian Trail.
During the nine-month hiking season, he distributes "trail magic" — free water, food, and other goodies - just about every day to through-hikers traversing New Jersey as they attempt to walk the entire 2,172-mile Appalachian Trail.
1994 (earliest)
Trail Angels and Trail Magic (chapter title)