[pct-l] small, blonde, young and hitching

[goforth at cio.net (Joanne Lennox)]

Put your mind at ease. There are lots of things you can do to minimize your
risks, and there will be very few, if any, times that you will actually be
hitchhiking if you plan it right.

Plan to arrive at a trailhead when another thruhiker does.

I had your same concerns and there have been a lot of posts on the matter
over the years.  I think different things work for different people. You
will project the image that you want to project, and a  competent,
assured,organized personel image suggests other things than a helpless,
flustered, upset, weak image conveys.  Keep your clothing functional and
clean, and your pack organized and streamlined.  Don't have a bunch of
things dangling, don't ask for a ride if you have your pack all strewn
about. Have a blank piece of paper and a marking pen and make a simple
sign( clear, large letters)

I also found it easiest to approach fellow hikers or persons at a
trailhead, and simplysay"I am trying to hike from Mexico to Canada, and
right now I am trying to get to----- to get some more food, if you have
room and are going that way , I would really appreciate a lift.".  Use your
intuition, keep your antennae out there.  If for any reason you feel
uneasy, simply say"Oh, I forgot something back there , and I need to go
back and get it, thank you very much for your offer".

You might be surprised at the number of times you get a ride with a friend
of a thruhiker who is coming to see  and help his friend.  Make friends
with everybody.  I was hiking alone and generally anxious to talk with
anybody I met.  It was part of the fun to get a life story; it enriches the
hike immensely, and these will often be your strongest memories of the
hike. The human elements is a landscape unto itself.

You will not really be hitchhiking for the most part, but expressing a real
need.  I have found that if you state your needs clearly and quietly,
people are willing to help.  Part of the Oddessey of a thruhike is learning
to ask and accept help, to continue to appreciate it when it comes, to
remain optimistic when it doesn't, to participate in the great experiment
of the needy finding those angels that appear  suddenly and do help.

I found on the Continental Divide that the smaller the road the better, the
less traffic the better. On a large road, nobody would stop, on a smaller
road, everybody did.  One hiker described a technique he called "fishing
for water" in New Mexico.  As he was walking and a car was approaching, he
simply looked at the occupants, inverted an empty water bottle, shaking it
to show that there was no water in it.  They usually stopped.  This is not
what I would do, but shows that if a real need is conveyed, people will
stop.

You might look over the resupply places, see which involve hitching on real
highways. try to be near another thruhiker, explain to them your
concerns(Thruhikers can be angles too), and  they may benefit from having a
small blonde in tow.  Many of these highways have trail angels so you are
covered there. Tehachapi, Onynx, sonora Pass, Chester,Etna and Ashland are
the only ones I can think of where you may be right on a highway and many
peole do not use these resupply(I only used three of these and a hikers
parents conveyed me to town at Ashland; Sonora Pass was the most memorable
hitch of the trip, when a russian couple picked me up)  If you are
concerned, then I would definitely send all your resupply packages and not
hitch at every highway to get to a real grocery store.

Joanne