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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 5, 2007 - 01:19am PT
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Anything unusual happen to you while hitching to the crags?
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2007 - 01:32am PT
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Guess I'll go first. I used to hitch a bunch , so I got a few;......
While hitching in the Meadows;...I was in the back of a pick- up that hit a bear.....(He got tagged in the butt and survived...)
While hitching up to Idyllwild to climb at Tahquitz/Suicide.....I got a ride in a stolen car and we got pulled over.....the dude took off running, and the cop chased him down and eventually caught him.......
While driving back from climbing at J. Tree ( I was living in Nebraska at the time....), ...I picked up a girl hitching on the freeway in weather in the teens...snow and ice on the freeway...very cold......she asked me to follow a certain car;...when the car pulled over...the guy got out and had a huge butcher knife welded and was coming at me......
I hitched from SLO to the Valley in about 3 rides....no waiting....and all three drivers drove over 70 MPH most of the way......couldn't have made it faster if I had driven myself......
I used to hitch to J Tree from San Diego quite often;.....when I got home;...I had to soak my hand in warm water because it was so cold I couldn't sleep......
While hitching to Teluride to Ice climb.....I waited on the side of the road so long, that when I finally got a ride....the driver said he could barely see me for my pack and I had been covered up in snow.....
Got a ride once small sports car and the driver had a ferret loose in the car;...the ferret bit me on the foot......
Got a ride in the side car of a motorcycle.
Once hitching back to San Diego from Joshua Tree.....the driver seemed very nervous the whole way....finally he got up enough nerve to ask me a question....why my ankle was all bloody?....he thought I had be shot in a fight or a robbery......I just had a bad battle with a j. Tree Crack.......
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 5, 2007 - 01:51am PT
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I saw Karl with a K hitching in Yucca Valley with a huge potter's wheel, a typewriter, skiis, a wheel barrel, a huge pack of clothes and climbing gear.....
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James
climber
A tent in the redwoods
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I have to walk alot.
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brat
climber
it changes frequently (Reno, for now)
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I haven't hitched much in the U.S. and when I do, I usually end up getting picked up by people I know. I hitched a bunch in New Zealand but it was generally uneventful.
But... once I picked up a hitchhiker on the Eastside, and she was pretty nice, and so I let her crash in my tent cabin with me for the evening and tried to help her find a ride to the Valley the next morning. I found a ride for her, but then I couldn't find her.
A few days later I got called by the Mariposa County sheriff. The girl had disappeared, never made it to the Valley to meet her friends, and I was the last person to be seen with her. I think I was a suspect in her disappearance! They called me several times a day for the next few days.
Anyways, she turned up a few days later. I guess she'd run into some people she knew, and gone backpacking with them, and not told anyone.
The whole thing kinda sucked. But at least she was alright.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Radical - How do you know the people who always gave you rides didn;t say the same thing!!!???
hahahah
just kidding
I have only hitch-hiked about 8-10 times, between New Paltz and the cliffs. Pretty uneventful, except usually later that day at the cliffs a person passing by says "hey, yeah...sorry I drove past; I was in a hurry."
What? 30 seconds out of your day, to pick up a person you KNOW is going exactly where you are, on a ride that is 15 minutes long, is a time suck?
Once a girl was afraid to let me ride in the back of her pickup truck because it didn't seem safe.
The worst was when I walked from the Trapps to the Mohonk Mountain House one day when I didn't have a partner. I figured I could get a ride at the parking ,lot, same as at the cliffs.
Ummmm....No.
SUV after SUV drove passed me with vacant gazes focused dead ahead. I certainly could understand if they had kids in the vehicle. But otherwise? Geez.
Finally a guy who worked there stopped and gave me a ride. Thank god, because it had started raining.
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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Sean, Chris and I were sleeping off an all nighter in the red rocks overflow site out by the gypsum plant when this monstrous (6'4". 275 #) just released from prison aryan freak invaded our campground and told us a tale of woe and discontent.
Eager to be rid of him, we offer to take him to blue diamond and get him some gas for his car, which he has none of, so he can drive the f*#k out of our life. He's eyeballing us up one side and down the other, as men fresh from the joint tend to do, when he spies Sean's knife wedged under the drivers seat, pulls it out, eyeballs it appreciatively, and declares "this'd cut ya bloody" while stinkeyeing us all.
Little did he know that gripped tightly in my hand, in the arm he couldn't see from the front seat, was Sean's wall hammer. Everyone laughed it off as a joke and I didn't have to sink it into his head.
Haven't picked up a hitcher since. Sorry, highway travelers of goodwill co-dependance.
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Abercrombie
Trad climber
Ca
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On a trip from Palm Desert to Big Sur we got stuck in all kinds of towns. It was fun watching cars go by with the bumper sticker saying "Practice Random Acts Of Kindness And Senseless Acts OF Beauty"
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2007 - 04:08am PT
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2007 - 04:11am PT
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 7, 2007 - 04:15am PT
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Leroy
climber
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Sorry, If u want stories,buy my book "hitchiking to the crags".
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Michael Hjorth
Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
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It’s a dying art!
Had the same promise to myself always to pick up hitchhikers when I ”grew up”. But hardly see any these days.
I hitched though Germany quite a few times. The prime focus in Germay is SPEED!
Once I got a ride with two old ladies (65-75 yrs). There was a slight problem pulling out from the gaz station due to all the highspeed BMWs and Porches. So to start conversation somewhere I said (in hobbling german), that germans sure drive very fast.
”Jah-jah, viel zu snell!” the ladies said. And 1 minute later we were cruising at 110 mph!
There was allways a queue of hitchers outside all german gazstations, and rules dictated that you queued up behind! So I did. Huge pack, iceaxes, rope, helmet, all on the outside to get attention. And it worked. Several drives said that it was the first time they picked anyone up. But I looked interesting, travelling with a purpose.
These two guys pointed me out in the middle of the queue and said: ”Mitkomme!” So I did, squeezed my pack onto the tiny backseat and we took off. Not much traffic that day, and we could hold 145-155 mph for several periods of 10-15 minutes before some idiot in the horizon pulled out to overtake a truck without realizing that the small spot in the rearmirror would be on his tail in a few seconds!
North of Basel they had to turn left toward Stuttgart, but at the same time we overtook a minibus with some of their friends, and they gave me a ride to France. Showed up that they were the driver’s mechanics and that he was a professionel racer…!
Michael
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Abercrombie
Trad climber
Ca
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I posted this on another thread.
Back in 91 a work buddy and I had a four day weekend and decided to hitch from Palm Desert to Big Sur with $20 each. At one point in Santa Barbara a little sports car rolls up at the onramp and the 90210 25 year old driver asks if one of us would help him move some boxes into a moving van. At the time the cast on his arm and his clean cut nature gave his story some legitimacy so we thought easy money.
Not enough room for the both of us so I take one for the team and jump in with visions of a pack of cigs and a meal other than Oodles of Noodles for the night. As we were driving into his posh neiborhood out of his glovebox came that months issue of Playboy. He offers me to thumb through, and that is when the red flags started waving.
When we got to his nice apartment building he started his story about how sorry he was that his friend was not there yet with the van and that he would be there any moment, he even made a fake phonecall and I decided to go take a piss.I remember looking at myself in the mirror thinking now what mess have got yourself into? and decided to tell him its time to hit the rode.
Upon my return to the living room I glance at the TV and now we got some porn going. I look at him sitting in his chair and he puts all his cards on the table. "How about $200 bucks for me to watch you masturbate" he says.(cheap bastard I think) and out comes my mace that my Mom made me promise to bring. (fu**en A mommy knows best) And begin my reasoning that he either give me a ride back, or my buddy and I will be driving to Big Sur in a Miata.
Needless to say he drove me back handed me $20 and we had taylor made smokes and opted for beer instead of a good meal.
Not the only weirdo I have been picked up by but a standout for sure.Him and the guy wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a cowboy hat.
There some strange folks out there but for every weirdo there are plenty of damn good people out there.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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...oh crap. I forgot what I was going to post.
Carry on.
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Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
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I used to hitch a lot! One time however when I was 16 I was hitching on the east side and had gotten dropped off in the middle of nowhere...I was there for what seemed like an eternity. Finally a decrepit old pick-up stopped, the driver was this humongous indian dude. While we were heading south this guy didn't say a word...I was getting a little nervous as he was cracking beers as we drove and I had eyed a rifle in his gun rack. He finally pulled off onto a dirt rode and said "You're gonna earn your ride boy" Sheez I was now sweating for sure, and he was hauling ass so I couldn't bail. We travelled for maybe 5 miles and stopped..."Get out," He told me and I was gripped! He then told me to follow him. After about 100 yards he stopped and looked down at something. It turned out to be an ancient indian Metate, (grinding stone.) He told me that it was way to heavy to lift into his truck by himself and he just never seemed to have anyone with him this far out to help him take it home. The thing was really heavy but we got it on board and then the guy finally offered me a beer for my trouble. We returned to the highway without further stops and he got me to a place where I could easily get another ride. The guy actually was pretty cool, but I definitely was scared for a bit there!
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Domingo
Trad climber
Ann Arbor, MI
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You see some weird stuff hitch-hiking through the U.P.
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euro-brief-guy
climber
mountain view, ca
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I heard a couple of hitchhiking stories involving Russ that had me in stitches. One involving a short bus, and the other involving a frightened salesman.
C'mon Russ, Post up.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
New York, NY
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Oh, the U.P.! I lived there for 4 months, back in 1990 or so. Was at my parents house in Marquette.
My younger brother had this friend who lived waaaaaay off some side road, miles off another side road, miles of of HWY 41.
I offered him a ride home form night school once and when we turned off the first side road he said I could let him off and he'd hitch. being the good girl, I offered to take him on further. When he finally got home, it was SO in the middle of the woods I couldn't imagine how on earth he could have suggested he'd get a ride. It was the middle of winter too.
weird....
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DonC
climber
CA
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On the way back from the eastside of the Sierra, south of Lone Pine in the middle of the desert, there was a guy hitching.
He was only wearing a loin cloth, had a crooked cane, and a white goat. Would have picked him up of I had room. Sure there was a great story there.
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