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April 1996

Usin

aur head and

STIChI Q your PD praia

here to tell you something: These days everyone I speak to wants to
go somewhere this summer, but working, lack of money, practicums,
and lack of time, all conspire against this. It may not be possible to
go anywhere for very long. For your consideration, I present some
details on the ultimate budget adventure — Hitchhiking.

Have you ever considered it ? You may have been told that its
illegal, impractical, it’s dangerous, whatever... but instead of
spending money that you may not have on air fare or on a bus
ticket (shudder), travel for free with your thumb instead. Think of
it. | appeal to your bravery, stupidity and curiosity.

What Sou Need

I suggest you bring lots of stuff. Gear. Tent or tarp. Sleeping
bag. Smokes are very handy, and a bit of cash too. Also, good boots,
a warm sweater, raincoat, hat, bug juice, sun screen, anything else
you may need to survive camping. Face it, it’s camping. Perhaps
consider carrying some mace or pepper spray, but never take a lethal
weapon. )What are you going to do, use it ?)

Have food, because you may find yourself in the middle of
nowhere after you have forgotten to eat and there is no Husky or
Wayfarer nearby. Truck stops and diners are expensive anyway.
Cookies are even better. Cheese. Peanut butter. Have lots of water
— I carry about 4 litres with me, two empty plastic coke bottles
that I never forget to fill when I have a chance. Oh yes, and pack a
towel, too.

“The bus came by and I got on and thats where it all began”
Robert Hunter

Where to

Anywhere in Canada. The Trans-Canada Highway is a dream.
This is one of the safest countries in the world, patrolled by curious
and harmless Mounties and unarmed, polite citizenry. America is a
sharper, meaner place; the only rides I’ve gotten in the States have
been by cops... anyhow, BC has the climate and the attitude to
support legions of mendicant travelers.

Tactics

Try this: find a nice stretch of road, a straight-away with enough
space for a car to a) see you, and b) slow down. Most likely, the
driver will make the decision to stop after passing you, so calculate
on the driver having second thoughts when seeing you in their rear
view mirror. A good idea is to park your bags about 100 ft down the
road, so the car will stop in front of them nicely.

Some folk swear by truckers, but they never stop, and aren’t likely
to give you a ride because it violates the terms of their insurance. If
you want to ride big, hang out in a truck stop, drink lots of bad
coffee, and maybe some lonely trucker will give you a lift across
country. Maybe. Its your call here.

What about destination signs? Some folk swear by them, but
they can work against you. It might discourage drivers who are
only traveling a short way. On your journey you will want every
ride, even by the locals. A suggestion?
mercenary, and sell yourself, .

your destination. Try Will L GD
? 2

   
 
   
   

  

pay Coquihalla” or “Free
cookies.”

 

“Fhe Worst
Place in the

World

The worst place to be
in all of Canada is Wawa 2
On., an hour’s drive north of
Sault Ste. Marie. Smack dab on
flank of cold, cold Lake Superior, i
country. Once you get there you may never leave, as there are very
few rides, and not much past here except Yellow Brick Road (I kid
you not!). There are legends of people being stranded here'for weeks,
waiting for that elusive ride, spectral thumbs sticking out in the
cold fog, and that the town is populated by broke hitchhikers who
are forced to find work, and do, and then get married and then never
ever get back on the road again. Very scary. You may want to have
some extra cash just to take a bus twenty miles out of here.

 

“Jesus rides beside me, but he doesnt have any smokes...”

— Paul Westerberg. -

Who Uyou Will ueet

You will get rides from many people on your travels: Indians,
Christians, rednecks, greens, sportsmen, salesmen, greasers, stoners,
teachers, farmers, teenagers, and parents(!). The variety of people
that could give you rides is astounding and the appeal to meeting

‘Rape and
~ Prostitution

them is that most are all people who you may never talk to under
normal circumstances. They will be strangers forever after, but for
how ever long you ride with them, they become intimate. Be polite
and listen! They will tell you anything: a bit of wisdom, a
problem, a life story, advice or a free-ranging
conversational patter. There will be some heavy and
awkward moments. Life is a stranger who feeds you
stories while pouring coffee down your

throat. Welcome to the human
condition. Listen, and you will max
out your rides and people will go
out of their way to help you.

I like to keep a ride log
and I account for all my
rides, who
they were,
what they
were @
saying to
me, and
where
they took
mes lve
got a stack
of journals
at home that
go way back.

“I’m going
to follow that
girl around the
Weer 1? ad
... hitchhike!”
Marvin Gaye

Now that I have your
attention, I have some
warnings. Yes there are evil
people out there who will
want to pluck your daisy chain.

Be able and willing to defend yourself with that

mace you brought along. Much more common is the

older creep, who figures you to be a perfect mark. If you are
polite and refuse, you'll be ok. No doubt some people pick up hikers
because they have hopes ofa score. If you are fearful of your personal
safety, never get into a car with someone you do not trust. Feel free
to trust your instincts, and decline a ride because you have a feeling
that something is wrong.

 
 

Traveling conpanions and safety

_ Yes, it is safer to travel in groups, and you should if you are
worried about it. It sucks because a) cars don’t have a lot of space
and b) you and your friend(s) will scare a single driver. No one likes
to be outnumbered and that goes for picking rides too. Two guys
should never travel as partners (it’s the hard luck story of the road).

,Guy/girl looks good for rides and will probably be the clincher for

your relationship too. (Big date.) Girl/girl is just as good. Dogs are

 verboten.

Big Thunybs and All

L. is a friend who has traveled for thousands of miles on the road
by herself. She has done Ontario to BC in December, and gone on to
Alaska and across the Northwest on her own. She’s survived with
dignity intact. Hitchhiking is just a matter of self reliance. Naiveté
and maybe a certain amount of faith are helpful too.

Memories

I remember being pulled up alongside on a snowy highway outside
of Thunder Bay, and the police man wanted to see my ID. I showed
it to him, and I checked out okay. He asked me where I was going
and I said I was going to BC, and he shook his head, and murmured
it wasn’t safe, and I said, well I believe that people are basically
good, and I have had no real problems so far and didn’t expect any,
and he shook his head, because he didn’t want to believe it, and left,
leaving me to camp over night in the woods.

The big payoff

The big payoff is the land. One thing I’ve gained from hitchhiking
is how big this tiny planet really is. In an era where travel is speed,
and dreams are of teleportation, hitchhiking has a way of reducing
the human animal back to a natural scale. When you are sick of
parking your ass on the hardtop waiting for that ride which never

  
  
   
  
 
  
  
  
       
 
    

seems to come, try this
experiment. Walk. See how long it
takes to get anywhere, and then imagine
how it must have been traveling through this country when there
were no roads. This is a sobering experience, realizing how tiny you
are next to that river, that mountain, that huge sky overhead. Driving
can never reach this, and so, sometimes you might not want a ride.
Take your time and breathe with the world.

TY you go

Consider some books by the following authors: Kerouac, Pirsig,
Lao-Tzu, Douglas Adams, Tom Robbins (I'll leave it to you to
discover which ones to read, so no titles). You’! need the company.
There’s a legend that Jim Morrison used to read and scream Goethe,
Nietzche and Blake into the desert wind while thumbing his way to
California. Any poetry is good. Whitman recommended that you
read poetry by a river, and its not much of a conceptual twist to
think of the road as a river of people. Bring a walkman for your
own roadside orchestra. And try, for yourself, to keep a journal for
your thoughts, scraps, scribbles, haikus, dreams and recollections.

Epilogue :

Please indulge me in a bit of mythology. Hitchhiking as I have
come to see it, is a journey, and not just a physical trip, but an inward
one as well. It is a quest where the destination is not as important as
is the process of getting there. Getting inside comes while you are
traveling elsewhere. The lesson that is offered is recognitio , the
recognition of who you are, who you really are, and the world that
you are a part of. And that esoteric secret is the great gift of the
road. It sneaks up on you, unbidden, brushing you softly like the
touch of a secret lover. This sustains you in bad times. I think back
to times when my only company was a hawk circling above my
head, and I could hear the quiet breathing of the trees as they stood
over me, and a car comes, and it passes and it matters not that it
doesn’t stop. Let it. It’s ok because there will always be another ride
soon. I know a secret. There will be another ride, if not right away.
Maybe the next one. A person can always get to the desired
destination, and in the meantime Il] talk to the road, and wonder if
it has anything else to tell me...