Ever hitch a ride, ever pick up hikers?

i've hitchiked, got a blow job once.

I predict this will be an interesting thread.

I hitched across Australia and New Zealand in my youth and a bit of the American Southwest. I wouldn’t do it in the US now. We do pick up some hitchers who are obviously hiking The Colorado Trail and are needing to get backto town and supplies, otherwise I almost never pick up hitchers anymore.

Not in a few decades.

Hitchhikers would do well to remember the Texas Slave Ranch case where hitchhikers were picked up, put into slavery and tortured and killed.

About a month ago I picked up a very drunk 40ish cowgirl stumbling up a winding canyon road with her thumb out. She got in reluctantly like she was going what the hell was I thinking. Asked her were she was going and she said the church. The church is not near any residential and no services at 2am..I thought ok and took her to the church a short way up the canyon/ Pulled in and she got out and says "at least neither of us died and closes the door"

In the 60’s we use to hitch hike very often.
It was pretty sure you’d get a ride, and yes fairly often a woman would stop.
Pretty much, everybody trusted everybody else.
I once got a ride from Willy Shoemaker (famous jocky back then)
He had a Huge Cadillac.....

once i was was hitching from SA back to Corpus and there was some bad ass storms, i was going to sleep in a culvert under the highway then decided not to and found me a place under a mesquite tree. That was the storm that a church bus was wept into a creek and a some of the people drowned. i was lucky i made that choice

I was working for the Kerr Co. Sheriff's Dept. when that happened.

Guadalupe river took a church bus down stream.

Worked for 27 hours straight pulling dead kids out of the river and searching for live ones.

Got out of law enforcement shortly after that.

No and never.

Not me

Ever look back in the rear view mirror when you pass a hiker?

I was at that church camp with those kids that week. We were in the bus in front of them.

Used to hitch a lot
Back then folks would pick up military boys in uniform
Oft time it was vet who liked to share stories

Wouldn't think of it now.

I've hitched a couple of dozen rides, and probably picked up half that many. Most of the folks who picked me up were great-- ranchers, families heading to the mountains, an Alaska court judge in a vintage Mercedes who took me all the way to Seward from Anchorage, prison guards, contractors, nurses, etc. Nice cross-section of America. Also had a fair number of drunk, high, weird, and f'd up rides. Those are less fun-- but memorable!

Best ride? Peru during a trip with my girlfriend (now my wife) back in 2001. Were trying to hitch back to town after spending the day at a wildlife refuge. An hour or two goes by with no luck, then a fire-engine red Landcruiser screams by, brakes hard and pulls over. We hustle up to the truck and notice the white cross against the red paint. I ask "Red Cross?" Yup. We hop in and the driver floors it again, passing everyone on the road. I ask, what's the emergency? Turns out we were delivering toilet paper to the next town! Sure enough, I look in the back and there's a small mountain of TP. Some emergency!

I hitched around Alaska for a while. Met some interesting people.

Picked up a older guy dressed in wool coat and jeans, looked like a rancher, one time in Idaho. Drove him all the way to Ohio. He told me he didn't take any backpack or extra supplies because he found he got rides easier without them. He was right.

Was fun 40 some years ago, good memories.
Had a almost new 350 HP El Camino, had a job was paying for it, and would get a ride down to the freeway on ramp with a buddy and play hippy.
Catch a flight, then hitch hike home.
Long time ago and far away, now I might pick up a guy that looks like his rig broke, but that is about it.

might do it again someday, just for the hell of it.

We still talking about hitching?

No and no......

I did some hitching back in the late 60's, when I was first in college. It was over 200 miles from the college to my folks home and sometimes I'd come back for the weekend, but then I had to get back. Nothing to exciting and most folks weren't going all the way and there were some desolate places along the way. Years ago I was driving through the mountains on the way back to my place and picked up a guy hitching on a night with some really bad weather. He had no place to stay so I let him throw his sleeping bag down on the floor at my place, wasn't sure how smart that was, but I was reminded about the scripture about "some folks have entertained angels" not sure he was one, but nothing came of it. In the morning he went on his way.

Back around 1980 I had worked a long day and was having to drive to a church camp to speak to some young people. I was tired and had a long way to drive. I dozed off and when I woke up had moved to the shoulder and was aimed at a hitchhiker, who was running for his life. I jerked the wheel and missed him but was too embarrassed to even stop since I hadn't hit him. But that adrenalin surge kept me awake for a long time. I don't know who was the most concerned over that. Probably him, but I couldn't imagine if I had hit him.

I used to back when I was in high school in Oklahoma. Haven't done it since and probably never will.

NFW I'd pick up a hitcher today.


Okie John

yes

No, what do you see when you do?

at a river put in, or take out, or in between, when someone has a life jacket or a paddle.

Other than that, not in a long time

Sycamore

A young friend told of looking, and seeing the infamous finger , he said, he turned back at the first drive, and drove straight at him. Over the fence, into the cornfield he went, the hiker.

Uncle told me he could start hitching in San Antonio and beat the train to San Diego in the late 40's early 50's when he was in the Marines.

Sorry, but i can not believe a driver would cross more than 6 inches of flowing water with a bus of kids. Truly unbelievable and afaic inexcusable.

one of my buddy's has hitched all over the country. once gave him 5 bucks and left him north of Alice on 281, called me 3 days later from San Fransisco.

A hitchiker.

Sorry Sycamore. I couldnt help it.

No and no, not in the last 50 years.

And by the time he hit Frisco he’d turned that $5 into $500,000....😉

Gas, grass or ass..

I hitched rides once in a while when I was in college when I had problems with my old car, but haven't done so in over 50 years. I often picked up other college students, too, traveling back and forth between my home and Austin. These days I almost never pick up anyone that clearly is not in some kind of distress. The last time was a few years ago when I saw an old man walking on the other side of I-25, between T or C and Socorro, collapse and roll down into the median. I hooked an illegal u-turn, got him and his pack out and into the pickup and took him back to north exit at T or C where I met EMTs.

the other side of the hitch hiker!

I hitched a lot in college. Like military, folks would pick up a relatively clean cut college boy...I even got T-shirts with the college name in big letters for whichever way I was heading

I've both hitched and picked up hitchers. In fact I will still do both if running a particular section of the South Fork American. Boaters are good people.

Only picked up one hitcher. Near my house is a several thousand acre park that has trails and a few roads but is mostly wooded. On a road bordering the park about 3:00pm I come up on a very distressed young 20's female urgently flagging me down. As I suspected, she was from out of town and had gone for a quick hike in the park and had gotten lost. Had been walking for six hours without water trying to get back to her car. She described where she parked and it was on the exact opposite side of the park. She said she had let several cars pass before she flagged me down because I "looked safe". Gave her a bottle of water and dropped her at her vehicle.

I only hitched a couple of times and that was on Greek islands in the northern Aegean Sea. That was standard operational procedure in those places.

RS

Most of my hitchhiking was done in 1970- 71 when stationed at Camp LeJuene NC. Hitched up to the Rochester NY area from DC a few times and from central PA home a few times. In those days it was easy for a serviceman to get a ride as all the WWII and Korea vets were still in the work force and driving everything from cars to big rigs. They knew you were military by your haircut and it was never a problem getting a ride. Once in 1971 I got dropped off on the DC beltway north of the city at midnight where the road leads up into Maryland ( Rte. 70S ?) and walked in my parents front door outside of Rochester NY near Lake Ontario by 8 a.m. Got several long rides and every guy that picked me up was a vet.

Last time I picked up a stranger was about 10 years ago. 6:00am. Maybe 6" of snow already on the ground. Snow still coming down hard for our area. Stiff wind on the ridge tops. Passed an older disabled truck on side of road. 1/4 mile further older woman walking along side of road, totally NOT dressed to be out walking in the snow. Picked her up and took her a couple miles up the road to her house. She was not hitch hiking. But, was not going to drive by and leave her walking out in the middle of nowhere...

Normal conditions, do not pick anyone up unless I know them...

Yep. Or on a dirt road out hunting when some one with a rifle is obviously walking back to a rig. They usually aren't hitching, but I offer a ride nonetheless.

From International Falls Mn. to Sarasota Florida.Got robbed in Griffin Georgia..Sawed of twenty gauge gets your attention.Anybody know Tommy Lee Allen license number BUA986.Slight delay and made it to Orlando Fl.Got a room at the Holiday Inn in ,opened the door and heard,One more step and you are a dead man.The room was already rented and he was not happy.They gave me a new room.Met some real nice people.Dabble.

Not since1968. No way would I do it today.

It's easy to hitch rides if you wear a hat, and carry a gear bag and bronc saddle......

People in distress, broke down, trying to walk out in a snowstorm, always. Others, never.

My daughter was a Professors Assistant for a year for the now retired lead Detective in the I-5 Strangler Case. Detective Bertocchini took her along once when he went back to interview Roger Kibbie as they are still finding bodies 30+ years after his killings.

It’s the main reason her major in college now is criminal psychology.

So far he has admitted to and has been convicted of raping and killing 7 woman during the late 70’s and 80’s. The most recent body was found in 2011. Almost 20 years after he was convicted.

According to my daughter Bertocchini believes that there are many more victims that are still missing persons from that time frame. He maintains a relationship with Kibbie, visits and corresponds with him as he has no relatives that contact him. All in the hopes that he’ll lead them to more bodies.

Like Steve, only way I have ever picked one up or been picked up is in the mountains, with a gun and a long walk.

When I was 19, I picked up a rodeo rider in northern, MI. His Jeep broke down. You should have seen the look on the local's faces when we got lost in Detroit. Their faces would go from shock and awe, to indignant, to head on a swivel and looking for hidden TV cameras. Two white guys, a cowboy and a hippy looking college kid, in a two door hatchback asking for directions back to the highway in bombed out Detroit. It was a sight to see.

I've done both. This year I picked up a guy walking a gravel road along the W Rosebud, turns out he was doing a weed survey. I also picked up a family this summer that was touring on bicycle. It was during fire season and they were riding from WA to the Continental Divide Trail, where they were going to ride S to NM or some such thing. They were Australian and were about to set out on a section of road that would be primarily freeway. I was de-mobbing from a site with equipment and tied their bikes to a skid steer on a trailer and loaded them up. They were very grateful to get past this bad section (St Regis to Missoula). The youngest was an 11 yr old daughter, setting out to ride something like 2,000 mi of mostly dirt trail! I've picked up many others, and passed up far more.

I've hitch hiked in the US, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras as I recall. Never had an overly exciting experience. I've passed on rides and riders, though. These days I only pick up someone in obvious need or with an obvious reason (broken car, shuttle needed, etc). I would never have my wife or a daughter pick up a hitch hiker--their safety weighed against their exposure is too great to risk for another's need.

no but he could write a book about his life, i couldn't of survived it. you could call him a modern day hobo. i'm amazed he's lived this long. he's my friend and can always get a meal and shower in my home.

Never hitchhiked. Only picked up local people that I knew. Just too dangerous these days.

As a cadet I hitched a number of rides to a girls school close by. Usually there two of us and never had a problem.

That ranch was directly upstream from a State fish hatchery and the state bought it after all this went down. I was working for a Professor at A&M and was sent there to do a bird/habitat inventory. As I recall they would find their victims at a nearby rest area on I 10 and make them chop cedar. When I went there you could see the metal shed with the tape crosses on the window that served as the "church" and on the shore of the nearby water tank there was still bars of soap and wash rags where they made them bathe.

Piles of cut cedar all over and creepiest of all, a couple of grave-size sunken rectangles in the dirt out on the property. I'm pretty sure the Cops would have located and removed any actual bodies by that time though.

Hitched 300 miles to college a couple of times in the 70's without serious incident or blow jobs.

In the early 80's I was driving in my pickup to Upstate New York from Texas one February when, getting back on the Interstate at first light somewhere in Arkansas I passed a neatly dressed gentleman in his 60's standing by the on ramp carrying a suitcase. Didn't have time to react, but I thought about it and got off at the next exit a few miles down the road and came back around. He was still there.

He was coming from California, had no children. His wife had recently died after a long illness, the costs of her treatment having left him bankrupt and without a home. He was headed for his elderly mom's house in Philadelphia . We ended up having the best friggin' day, detoured out of my way and we took the scenic route, I was able to bring some light into the life of a heartbroken man enduring tragedy. He was good company and I remember how much he enjoyed the meals we ate, I picked up the tab of course.

I detoured out of my way and finally dropped him that night at a truck stop outside of Philly. I dunno at this distance why I didn't drive him all the way to his mom's house, I guess it didn't seem appropriate at the time. I recall he was a quiet, good natured man wearing a charm depicting a pair of praying hands on a chain around his neck. I think I recall him saying that his wife had given it to him.

With any luck he was really an angel in case I need to cash in that chip on Judgement Day

Do not do it here, and do not pick anyone up either.

I used to hitch hike on and off when I was between 17 and 21 in the late 70's and early 80's when I was in between cars or they were broken down or wrecked. I would always try to pick people up when I was driving because I knew what a pain in the ass it was.

I'll never pick up anyone now. Too dangerous.

Birdy/Barry,

What that site downriver for the fish hatchery at Staples Tx? Further Downriver from San Marcos?

That's not the site now used as the TSU "death farm" is it? Where they study forensic stuff like human remains decomposition?

I had a roommate in college that hitched across the country several times. He even crossed the border and went into Mexico. This ol boy had a pile of stories as a result of his adventures. He reported almost freezing to death on two different occasions. He was a free spirited guy, to say the least.

The place I refer to was a small ranch in Mountain Home, TX. Remote area in West Kerr County.

Did it a few times as a teenager and the last time I remember was election day November 3, 1972, I was away at my first year at college and hitched hiked home to vote for in my first Presidential election.

I planned to hitch hike back to school but my mom was PO that I did it in the first place and drove me back.

Thanks. Heck I barely remember that. Couldnt place it.

I did quite a bit of hitchiking back in the seventies. Once, I took two weeks off of work, and hitchiked from Atlanta to Boulder Colorado.
From there, back east to Minnesota, went north and crossed into Canada, crossed Canada north of the Great Lakes and down to Vermont to visit my brother for a few days, and then hitchiked back to Atlanta. Pretty good for 16 days.

Also hitchiked all across Europe in 1973, from the southern tip of Italy to Denmark, and then to England.

I figure I have hitchiked farther than the circumference of the earth, 25,000 miles. Did get lucky one time, a gal picked me up in Nebraska and we wound up spending the night at her apartment.
Now, I would have gotten real lucky had I been a gay boy.

Also crossed the continent hopping freight trains but that is another story.

As a general rule, I don't pick up hitch hikers.

Made an exception several years back.

Was driving south past Summer lake Or. and passed a van setting on a jack with a missing tire, and a Woman inside.

We pulled in to Paisley, and there was an old guy with a tire & wheel with his thumb out, heading back toward the van.

So we turned around and gave him a ride back to the van.

Turned out he was the local Preacher in Silver Lake, and owned an alfalfa field.

We were hunting sage rats, and he invited us to hunt his property.

Our good dead was repaid many times over.

Virgil B.

Picked up an old couple broke down with their old Ford Courier pickup, broken fan belt. Gave them a ride to my folks who put them up for the night. Went back the next day and fixed their truck and sent them on their way. Not hitchhiking, but in obvious distress.

Thumbed a ride -- out of gas, etc. = yes for me, both giving and receiving. Never have I actually "hitchicked".
A buddy team hitch hiked one Fourth of July weekend from Black Hills to Seattle and back. On a dare.
He said everyone who picked them up was either high or crazy.

This isn't hitching, this is common courtesy and part of who we are.

We meet again, eh?

(My last ride was nearly 40 years ago with some young dude in an El Camino....made me sit in back....he didn't want to share his 2nd-hand weed smoke with me while he tooled down the freeway 20 MPH over the limit. The ride previous to that was from a guy in a big Caddy....driving with his metal crab-hands. And before that some weird gay dude who hitched his pants down after he got the car up to the speed limit and began yanking his crank; he insisted on sucking mine. I had my Opinel primed for turning him into pepperoni if he didn't abbreviate the ride quickly.)

Not a big fan of 'hiking since then.

I knew an old farmer who picked up a hitchhiker, and the man pulled a gun on him and told the farmer to take him up Hwy 41 to Evansville, IN. Old farmer got to driving really fast on that crooked road, and the hitchhiker began telling him to slow down, or he was going to kill them. Farmer said, I have to hurry, if I'm going to get home in time to milk tonite.. Hitchhiker said slow down and I'll get out......and he did. Old man would tell that story, then say that what the hitchhiker didn't know, was that he had his pistol under his leg, just in case it was needed.

My uncle made a habit of picking up hitchhikers. Back in 67 or 68 he picked up 2 ex-cons. They put a gun to his head and told him they were going to kill him. After allowing him to drive slowly past his home and see his 2 kids playing in the yard, they executed him and stole his fishing gear before pushing his car into the river. They were later caught while fishing and tried for murder.

wabigoon;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the weather has warmed up in your part of the world as it has here today. That said, the warm weather did make chasing whitetail on the mountain behind the house a bit too interesting for my eldest daughter and I this morning - a foot of melting snow/ice on off camber skidder roads was a bit more than we'd bargained for. Maybe it'll either melt off or freeze by next weekend.

Anyway barring picking up obviously stranded folks, the last time I picked up a hitch hiker was the summer of 1980.

I was at the wheel of a heavily modified '71 T37 Pontiac - jacked up, bright red, low Mopar style hood scoop, rear spoiler, headers and large diameter exhaust.....

Anyway I was with two female friends from high school and as we passed this chap on the side of Highway 16 in rural Saskatchewan, one of the girls - I want to say the one that's now the principal at the same high school - said something like he looked cute so I should pick him up.

Being as we had nowhere in particular to be, I skidded to a halt about 1/8 mile past this young man, did a tire smoking U-turn in the middle of the highway and then passed him and did another so we were pointing back in the right direction.

He was a few years older than us and paused for a good while when they asked if he wanted a ride. Good call on his part in retrospect wabigoon.

If memory serves he was either going to be a teacher or was one already so they girls and he had a lively discussion while I drove him to whichever town he was headed to. Likely at a rate exceeding the posted limit, but keeping it more or less in the correct lanes of travel.

That's it for me as far as I recall wabigoon.

All the best to you as the winter rolls up on us wabigoon.

Dwayne

Never had serious problems back when I did most of my thumbing. Other than getting picked up by some drunk who was driving so bad I was ready to jump out if he slowed down enough. There were stories of guys hitchhiking and getting robbed at gun or knife point by those that picked them up. I learned that I should fold up most of my cash and stick it in my sock by my ankle and only carry a few bucks in my wallet so that's what I did on those long hitchhikes. Luckily I never got robbed.

No and No. And going to stay that way.

And I am real careful about stopping to help a motorist on the side of the road (especially if I'm not alone and there are kids / women in the truck). I will call someone for them, but if there is no obvious accident and potential injury, they'll get a phone call made for them. Out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere out hunting, and I'll stop. Short of a serious accident or being out in the sticks, who doesn't have a cell phone to call for help these days?

Google "Tison escape / murder / Arizona" from back in the 70's. I was classmates and friends with his nephew at the time (12 yrs old). The memories of that whole series of events are forever burned in, and offer a good lesson about stopping to help people "stranded" on the side of the road on some semi-desolate stretch of road. A phone call cures that problem much better than any assistance I'm likely going to be able to offer will, and far less risky.

If there's not carnage or if anything looks remotely fishy, I'm not stopping. Even back in the 70's it wasn't a great idea. And now, far less so.

In the early seventies my car broke down and I hitched to work for about two weeks. This was in Fairbanks Alaska. I was never late for work and finally got the car fixed. No drunks or queers or whatever. Just nice people giving a young man a hand. I repaid that help several times for other hitchers. Ed k

Along the lines of hitchhiking, I saw an attractive but somewhat spacey looking girl in a parking lot the other night at a big shopping center. She was talking loudly on her phone and wandering around like she was lost. I was walking my daughter to my truck, as we were out for dinner together and my first impulse was to ask the girl if she needed help, but something told me that there was something fishy going on. She was too done-up, with skin-tight leggings and a top that barely covered her rear, and at the same time, she looked a kind of tired and worn down. Too worn down for a girl in her mid 20's. Combined with the loud conversation she was having and her obvious wandering and gesturing, it made me think there was a slight chance it was some kind of baited set-up to catch an unsuspecting guy somehow. Perhaps I was paranoid, but it seemed "off".

I never made it a habit, but several years ago I was on my way to go fishing at a lake about 70 miles east of here. A pretty little young woman was standing with a big backpack on the I-65 ramp.

She was from Oregon and going to West Virginia.

Other than the fact she was risking her life for the price of a bus ticket, she seemed like a fairly reasonable person. I tried to impress on her that she was entering a part of the country where some fairly rough characters reside. I was tempted to take her on to West Virginia. But I figured she had made it from Oregon. She could make it from Cave Run Lake Kentucky.

Me too ^^^^

35 plus years ago at about 11PM , somewhere between Beatty and Tonopah Nevada, dark night not a light in sight in any direction, I picked up a gal who later told me she was 17 lived in Jerome Idaho, and was on her way home.
Seems some older guy was giving her a ride, and in the middle of absolutely nowhere had told her to f**k or get out, That's when i came along, took her all the way to Caldwell Idaho, let her out on a freeway on ramp and continued on my way.
Have often wondered how many young girls like her met the wrong guy and are buried in the desert somewhere never to be heard from again

Highway Of Tears. Many missing girls still unaccounted for.

http://www.highwayoftears.ca/

When I was stationed in FT Bliss, TX in the late 80s, me and a guy in my platoon were driving somewhere and stopped at stop sign. A young hispanic man stuck his head in the driver side window and asked Steve if he could get a ride.
Steve told him yeah get in. Spooked me bad, but it wasnt my car, he drove the guy a couple miles and dropped him off. After the guy got out I turned to Steve and said WTF did you do that?

This. Also if someone was in obvious trouble or something.

Started when I was 12 years old. At that time my buddies and I would hitch from our small (pop 576) town to the nearby (12 miles) city (pop 11,000) for whatever attractions small cities held for small-town boys. Usually it was to go to the movies, visit someone's cousin, get a pizza.... We never went alone and we always got picked up by someone we knew...in those days, living in a small border town, everybody knew everybody anyway. Before I went in the Navy at 19 I never had a vehicle of my own. I went to college 100 miles away, hitched back and forth. That ended first semester and I went to work in Syracuse, 120 miles away...hitched back and forth weekends. Hitched a couple hundred miles to my uncle's place to go deer hunting with the family....often had a cased long gun with me, no problem. Once, heading home from Syracuse an early '50's Ford came screeching to a stop, I went running up to jump in just as a cop pulled up behind them. Two guys in the front, six pack between them, open beers all around....like a lot of guys from Northern New York they worked in Syracuse during the week, went home weekends, drinking all the way....the way it was in those days. Cop took one look, asked all the pertinent questions, said to the guys in the car, "You're all too drunk to drive." Looked a me, said, "You got a license?" "Yep" "Okay," pointed a me, "I'll let you guys go, but he drives." I drove them a couple hours north until , got out at a fork in the road where our ways parted. Great trip...

I've picked up a lot of hitchhikers over the years, never had any problems, but I don't any more. Most of them you see look like they'd just reek of cigarette smoke, makes my nose run just to look at them....don't need it stinking up my truck. Also, today people have it pretty good someone who hasn't got a vehicle of their own.....wellllll.......hmmmmm......you know what I mean?

I hitched a few times in the 60's and 70's. Mostly in Colorado and New Mexico. Never had a problem or impression that I remember.

I would pick up hitchhikers in those days too but kind of got selective about it unless they were obviously stranded and then only a family group with small kids.

A friend of mine picked up a guy when he was going to a place during the Sturgis Rally a few years ago. They guy stabbed him. He came out okay because there were people close enough to call 911 and get him to the hospital but that incident cured me of being a good samaritan for just about anybody.

Birds!

Lot's of birds. !

Geno

Second hand story....

...had a coworker about my same age, she grew up on a farm up on the Texas Panhandle. Told the story of a young woman hitchhiker passing through back in the '70's raped by a local Sheriff's Deputy, said he always was a rotten sumbitch, got away with the rape, and never expressed remorse, saying the girl shoulda expected that when she went hitchhiking in the first place.

Same happened to one of my best friends!

Done it a lot in the past, both. Some interesting situations but nothing "scary".