Hitchhiking?

[Coffee]

The way I see it, the risks of hitch hiking should be weighed against the risks of road walking, assuming that the hiker still intends to go to the town in question. Road walking on many mountain highways is dangerous and definitely unpleasant.

The other trade off might be to carry more food and resupply less in order to minimize or eliminate hitch hiking. This is what I'm tempted to do because I generally don't like asking people for favors (not just hitch hiking but in general) but I'm going to make an effort to get more comfortable with hitching this year. I see it as more of a mental block on my part than a real risk. If hitch hiking was really high risk, there would be many more people kidnapped or killed each year and we really don't hear very much about that kind of thing happening, at least when it comes to hitching from trailheads as opposed to the interstate.

[LIhikers]

Since my wife and I have started section hiking the AT we've done everything we told our children to never do, when they were growing up.

[oldwetherman]

To me hitching is one of the things about hiking that gets us "out of our box." How often in our "civilized" lives do we sleep outside in a cold, pouring rain or in the snow....cook over a little gas or alcohol stove.... filter or otherwise purify every drop of water we drink...know the joys of using an outdoor privy (sometimes with only three sides)....wear the same smelly damp clothes for days at a time....hang out with "sleazy" characters....and smell worse than our dogs!

[johnnyjohnson2043]

The most dangerous person that I ran into was the one who picked me up outside of Bryson City and tried to sell me something. Most people are really nice but just use common sense.

[Lucy Lulu]

I've hitched hundreds of times over the past 20 years, and some of the best experiences with people I've met on the trails, have been on those rides. That said, you have to trust your instincts. I've turned down many rides, not hesitating to say I forgot something or am waiting on friends, when necessary.

[Starchild]

Along with many other safe hitches I got 2 from police officers, One going to Lincoln NH (the officer even knew where I was headed, Chet's place), and the other in Stratton ME. It is legal on most of the AT, areas where it is not there are usually plenty of other ways to get rides such as working the crowd at the parking lots.

[SunnyWalker]

Uhhhhhh . . . use your head.

[garlic08]

...The other trade off might be to carry more food and resupply less in order to minimize or eliminate hitch hiking....

This worked for me on my AT hike. I hitched a total of two times, once in VT and once in ME. That meant a couple of long food carries and bypassing towns that were more than a couple of miles off trail. I didn't stay away from hitching--I stayed away from towns to save time and money.

I got (yogied) rides from day hikers I met on trail, I arranged to meet friends/family a couple of times, I was with someone who used a cell phone to call for a paid ride and I chipped in...there are options.

[Almost There]

My hiking partner for two years got the trail name, "Magic Thumb" from me because whenever we wanted to hitch she put out her thumb, and like clockwork the first vehicle would stop for us...it was wild. As a former college football player weighing in at 6ft, 250lbs I don't worry about much, and everyone who has given me a ride has been decent. The only sketchy ride I ever got was from a guy near Erwin who had been ditching stolen railroad ties after he tried to sell them. I came down off a blue blaze, and there he was. Had a couple beers with him while he finished unloading his trailer, and then he gave me a ride over to Johnny's. If I had been a gal he might have scared me, but he was just a good ole' boy, and a little buzzed from the beer he had been drinking.