Maine to Arizona Hitch

I had been hanging around the Jack Mountain Bushcraft school in Masardis Maine for several months and was getting a little bored. I had the itch to travel, so I packed my bag and hit the road at about 7 AM on the 10^th of September 2011. I walked the 1/2 mile from the field school to the road and stuck out my thumb……….

My first ride was with “Big Mike” who was heading to Boston after dropping off his nephew at a school in Maine, as luck wold have it Mike knew the area I was heading to in New Hampshire and offered to drop me off at my buddies house in Warner, NH. It was a good 7 hour ride , Mike is an interesting dude so the conversation was good and the scenery was pretty. I love the New England states but could never settle there due to the winter cold.

“Big Mike” dropped me off at my friend Sean’s place in Warner , NH. I reorganized my gear and spent a few days visiting Sean then hit the road one morning around 6 AM.

I shouldered my pack and walked down the driveway to the road, stuck out my thumb and caught a ride with Tom from Maine. He was on his way to Vermont . Tom dropped me off on the interstate ramp where I stood around for about 4 hours before getting my next ride about 12 miles down the road.

Vermont rides were not too good but I was lucky when a car pulled up with New York plates! This was my first long ride, the drivers name was Justin and he was a decent kid and very intelligent. Justin took me to the Connecticut/New York state line, Handed me $20.00 for the road and took off in a flash. I found a decent place to camp for the night and slung my hammock between 2 ash trees. 3 white tailed deer came to watch me and were so tame then didn’t balk at my quick movements as I set up my stealth camp.

In the morning I packed up, shouldered my pack and headed to the on ramp of the interstate. My 1^st ride into NY state was with Phil who worked as a garbage man. A cool guy but probably smoked too much weed back in the day. Phil was fun to talk to and as we were driving along he pulled $10.00 out of his shirt pocket and passed it to me saying “get some food and coffee on the road”. I thanked him for it and stuffed the money in my pocket.

My next ride in NY states was with Ann who is a dog groomer. She was also a very cute and vivacious “Hippy girl”. Ann took me across the Hudson river to a spot where I could catch a ride. It wasnt long before my next ride came along. Rich Gore was an interesting fellow , he took me about 20 miles or so down the road and dropped me off in one of the best locations I had on the trip so far.
I stood around for about 3 hours before John (my next ride) came along and took me into Pennsylvania. John dropped me off just across the NY/PA state line.

I hiked a bit down the road and found a decent place to hitch from. After about 20 minutes or so a guy named Brian pulled up and took me down the road to the Delaware state forest. Brian was a generous person and genuinely interested in adventure travel. He gave me $20.00 and a bag of food for the trail. At the Delaware forest location where Brian dropped me off to camp for the evening I encountered the fiersest mosquitos I have ever encountered anyplace in the world.

It took me a few minutes to locate a place to sling my hammock in the woods and the skeeters were tearing me up. I quickly threw all of my stuff in the hammock and crawled in. there must have been about 400 skeeters on the mosquito netting in less than a minute.

In the morning the situation had not improved any and I quickly packed up and hit the road. I had to walk about a mile down the road to get a decent place to stand and escape the skeeters. After about 2 hours of swatting mosquitos . I caught my next ride with an older couple named Josie and Donald. Nice folks, they were on their way to a doctors appointment in the town where I needed to got on the interstate.

As bad luck would have it at my next location the road and ramp to the interstate were under construction so I was forced to stand way up the road from the ramp and try to get lucky enough to catch a ride. And lucky I was. Jeffery pulled up and told me he could take me down the road to Bartonsville, Pa about 10 miles or so down the road. Cool! I hopped in and headed out. I was most grateful to Jeffery for getting me out of that spot.

In Bartonsville I had a nice shady spot on the interstate entry ramp to hitch from. I was there about 2 hours and finally caught a ride with a real character named Hector Martinez. Hector took me about 50 miles down the road to a truck stop which turned out to be a bad location but good in the sense that while I waited there a gentleman named Kip came up to shoot the shit with me and offered me a lift to the next ramp and then gave me $150.00 to spend on my travels. I will always be amazed at the generosity of this total stranger to another total stranger. From the ramp where Kip dropped me off I caught a ride with David for a few miles before catching a ride with a cool dude who went by the handle “UGG” . He told me it was his nick name from his Hippy days. “UGG” gave me a ride all the way across Pennsylvania to a town called Barkleysville(?). It was a great ride and took me several hours down the road .

That night after “UGG” dropped me off I decided to get a hotel room because it was well after dark by then and I could not locate a decent place to sling my hammock.

In the morning I headed out about 8 AM and got a ride fairly quickly with a decent fella named “Butch” who was heading south near the West Virginia state line. Another great long distance ride!
“Butch” dropped me off at the interstate ramp in the blazing sun and I was lucky enough to catch a ride after only a few mins with  “Pearl” who was a ww2 Vet and served in the Army air corps as a combat weatherman from 45 to 48. He was an interesting old guy to talk to and had a funny story as to why his name was Pearl. Once Pearl dropped me off about 30 miles or so down the road ,I stood under the over pass near the entry ramp for the interstate to catch some shade.

After about an hour or so a couple of nice young guys gave me a ride about 40 miles down the road, their names escape me now but as I recall they too were very friendly and  courteous to a total stranger.

And so it went through the entire state of West Virginia, My rides came in a series of short hops down the interstate. I ended up staying in a cheap hotel my 1^st night in WV due to not being able to catch a ride before dark, and due to the location – there was absolutely no where to sling my Hennessey hammock.

The following morning I was lucky enough to catch a series of rides that got me all the way through “The mountain state” and into Kentucky.

The folks that gave me my last ride out of WV were pretty generous as well, they went out of their way to drop me off at a good hitching spot , gave me a sandwich from subway and $30.00 in one dollar bills.

After they dropped me off it wasn’t long before I got me next ride into Kentucky.  This gentleman was a minister and pretty interesting to talk too, I rode with him for about an hour, and when we reached his destination it was full dark so I asked him to drop me off at the cheapest hotel in town.
With the cash I had on hand and that given to me by the folks on the WV/KY state line, I was able to get a room and buy a decent dinner. In my hotel room that night I fired up my laptop and checked my email – as luck would have it my good friend and fellow wilderness Bum “Pog” sent me $150.00 via Western union, all I had to do was find a WU office and go pick it up.

Pretty cool!,  Knowing that there is a WU in every K-mart in the USA, I headed over to the local K-mart the following AM around 10. On my way to the WU office I was lucky enough to find a $10.00 bill laying in the grass along the side of the road. I was surprised! and picked up the damp bill and shoved into my pocket.

After picking up my $$ at the Kmart WU office, I headed  over to the on ramp for the interstate and stuck out my thumb. It wasnt long before and old guy pulled up and offered me a ride. He offered to drive me by the Mcdonalds en route and buy me breakfast. I agreed and thanked him for his generosity.

I had a series of rides from great and generous folks over the next few days. My longest ride came from a trucker named Chris, who carted me from somewhere in Kentucky to just south of Little Rock Arkansas.

From there I worked my way across Arkansas into Texas where I got my 2nd long distance ride. A guy named Robert stopped and asked me if I needed a lift. He said he was driving to Nevada and wanted some company to keep him awake. Later in the evening He decided to stop for the night and got a hotel. He also got me a room with his “points” then bought me dinner. He was sure a nice guy. In the Am , after the hotel  breakfast we headed out. Several hours down the road. Robert dropped me off in Sanders, Arizona right on highway 191 south.

I hiked about 3 or 4 miles out of town and set up my hammock in the juniper tree for the night. I was a good camp and I was rewarded with a great Arizona sunset. Early the next morning I was on the road heading south. I caught a series of short rides all the way to alpine.  At about dark, I was on 191 south looking around for a place to set up camp. Just then a truck full of hunters driving home to Tucson pulled up and offered me a ride to Benson, Az. Perfect!

It took about 3 hours to get to Benson,once there, I called my other friend “Homie Matt” in Sierra Vista. Matt drove over and picked me up. It took me a total of 16 days to hitch hike from Aroostook , county Maine to Sierra vista , Arizona. The distance according to Google maps was 3,900 miles. It was a long haul, but It was a good trip. I was amazed and impressed by the generosity of people toward me (a stranger) and have since paid forward that generosity whenever possible.