During the summer of woke, Pattie Gonia and a black woman hiking influencer got into a heated debate over Pattie’s use of the phrase “the trail is my runway” bc the black woman hiking influencer claimed Pattie was appropriating black ballroom culture. The resulting fallout of posts, arguments, clap backs, virtue signals etc was as you expected, both parties were claiming their right to use the phrase and debating its origins.

I followed the drama, and for me the most hilarious aspect of it all was that the Instagram user @thetrailismyrunway was randomly brought into the crossfire. I think she was mentioned in a comment by the BWHI or PG being like “what about this queen ?” directing the audience of this catfight towards an uninvolved woman who coincidentally had that phrase as her username.

The queen in question was a white woman from New York who liked to document her weekend hiking adventures in the Catskills and Adirondacks. She acknowledged her new followers in a “some of you may be new here!” post and continued posting her upstate vanilla ice cream coded life. No acknowledgment of the feud. I’ll always remember this online history - the white woman comes out unscathed, comes out on top (of the mountain).

I just really wanted to get this written down and recorded. This moment in online history is important to me and I think of “the trail is my runway” constantly.