After hiking through the desert for a week, I was standing on the American side of the Mexican border. I was dusty, tired, needed a change of clothes and above all, a ride. There weren’t many cars passing on the small road where the trail ended. The first one to slow down when I extended my thumb and gave what I hoped was a friendly wave turned out to be a border patrol car. The agents looked at me grimly from inside their car but didn’t stop. No illegal immigrants would be stupid enough to ask for a ride from border patrol, they must’ve been reasoning, so it was okay to ignore me. Which, if you think about it, makes being a hitchhiker the perfect disguise for illegal immigrants.
After another twenty minutes a girl in an old sedan stopped and asked where I wanted to go. She was going to San Diego, which suited me fine. Her, a girl in her early twenties, picking up me, a guy ten years older than her, but also dusty and probably slightly smelly, was brave. I like to think that I don’t look entirely harmless, but maybe I’m flattering myself. I’ve been told by women that I have a friendly smile several times before, which isn’t really what any man really wants to hear. We want to be told we look dashing and a little dangerous. In any case, I got into the girl’s car and we found plenty to talk about during the two hour ride to the city.
I’ve also picked up hitchhikers, ignoring the warnings of my American friends to never, ever do that. Doing so always makes for interesting conversations, both with the people I pick up and with the people I tell about it afterwards. I’ve mostly picked up Pacific Crest Trail through-hikers while driving past trail junctions in the Sierra Nevada. It’s a crowd I know and trust. I’ve also picked up old an old man living in a remote cabin whose only way to get groceries was to get a ride into town. I’ve picked up a young man who had probably run away from home and was now traveling around the country. There were several European hitchhikers who thought this was a great way to explore the world. I agree, and I believe the only reason why we don’t see more hitchhiking is that there are now easier ways to get around.
Nehaveigur 