[pct-l] Hitchhiking Hints

[Mary Kwart]

	I second Diane's analysis of hitchhiking. I have met some great and
interesting people that way. I have been hitchhiking since the 70's to
get to trails and have only had one bad experience near the Emigrant
Wilderness in the 70's when two guys picked me up  and put my pack in
their camper shell, then quickly started detouring on dirt roads--not
going to the destination. They asked me if I wanted to "party". I said
no and after a few moments they decided I wasn't worth the trouble and
took me back down to the road. But this was when I was young and cute.
Nothing remotely close has happened to me since then. It helps to be
older now because people feel sorry for you and their sense of
curiosity is aroused about why someone of that age is out and about.
You can really get picked up fast when there are two older people
hitching together--I hitched into Lake City with an older male
Colorado Trail hiker I met a few days earlier. We played the older
couple card-- We got picked up by a young couple who were intrigued
about us and since it was starting to hail, felt sorry for us being in
the bad weather. They said they never picked up hitchhikers.

	--Fireweed