# Where the Hell is Klickitat? Train Travels & Jail Fails



## Charlie Brown (Feb 5, 2014)

It was about four days after going to Barter Faire in eastern washington. Which was consisted of four days of LSD and Moonshine fueled mountain climbing, dancing, singing and music making into the early hours of every night. Being just passed the one year mark of being (mostly) free from Washington State Penitentiary, I guess it wasn’t the the time I’d pick to go have to go to jail.


Barter Faire was just a few days after the final meeting with my parole officer. It was time to hit the road again. My friend Jody and I hitched a ride with someone from there to Spokane. We bummed around town for a few days before we ran into Scooter. We were walking down a busy street near a bridge that crossed to the other side of the river when he came running up to us. At first sight I never would have guessed he rode trains but that’s exactly what he asked us, in an excited eager voice he said “Are you guys riding the trains outta town?” I immediately said yes. He told us he was heading to Boise, Idaho but he wanted to stop in Portland first. We were heading to Portland as well and figured one more person wouldn’t hurt. We agreed to ride with him. He wanted to buy a box of wine and some cigarettes before we headed out to the tracks. I wasn’t gonna argue with the wine so we went straight to the store.


After settling in at a good spot just down a gravel embankment from the tracks we started drinking from the now boxless bag of wine and eating some dry top ramen. A couple hours and a few trains that were moving too fast to jump on passed before we decided to walk further up the tracks to find trains moving slower. We found two guys about a mile from where we had been, they were sleeping behind a box hidden from train view waiting on a train heading to Portland also. They told us the trains had been stopping right in front of their spot all day and were ready to hop on something since it was finally dark. One was from Montana and had just finished riding the Hi-line from there. The other man was from Spokane and just wanted out of the city, he drank with us a bit while the other guy tried to rest. They both didn’t talk much. three were a bit buzzed, we laughed and joked as we waited. Two trains had passed us moving too fast before we decided to migrate again.


After saying goodbye to the guys sleeping behind the box we made our way to the side of the train bridge going over a street in the middle of town. Less than five minutes passed before I started to hear the growl of the roaring train engine. We peaked our head above the bridge to see the blinding headlight of the unit. It couldn’t have been moving faster that 8-10 MPH, we all put our packs on silently agree that we were getting on it. We ran up to the track looking for a suitable car to ride but could only find lumber-less Skeleton Backs. I eventually obliged to the wide open flat bed of the Skeleton Back by climbing on, the others followed my lead. At that point it was late so after taking a couple drinks from the wine I pulled out my sleeping bag. The nights were below freezing in the area, I knew it was gonna be cold, I wanted to be as ready for the wind chill as possible. I watched the city lights fade, eventually becoming a huge orb of light enveloping the city, then slowly the blackness creeped in as we headed through the forest. I wondered if the guys behind the box made it on or not.


I awoke in the morning to the sunlight coming over the train. It took me a few minutes to gather my things, as Jody and Scooter finished I jumped down to the ground to pee. Just as I noticed there wasn’t a unit on the front of our train another one passed. I knew we weren’t in a Portland yard so I ran back and yelled, “Our unit’s gone, lets get on that!” They hopped down and we all headed for the moving train. This train was had all sorts of cars, including boxcars and grainers (my favorite). We found a suitable grainer and all climbed onto the back porch of it. There was a fox-hole in the center but none of us got in it although it would have been near wind free. We sat up and talked for a bit smoking cigarettes and weed, chugging off the wine which had been transferred to and empty gallon jug while I was asleep. I layed back down for another nap. I was woken about two hours later to the train stopping. The train began to move forward some then stop again quickly, this continued for about thirty minutes so I fell back to sleep.


“Wake up! Wake up!”, I lifted my head and turned my body over to find a Sheriff pointing a gun at me shouting. The dumpy cop moved toward me, “Get up and don’t try to run.” I jammed stuff into my pack, after lifting it I said, “You really think I’m going anywhere with this thing?” Apparently a worker on the tracks spotted us and called it in. I had no idea where we were so I asked the cop from the back seat. “This is Klickitat county.” I’d never even heard of it. “So we’re going to jail then?” He told me yes we were heading to jail in Goldendale about 150 miles from Tri-cities which is the last yard we hopped out of. I told him I’m heading to Portland, Trying to be funny he said, “Well you’ll be about thirty miles closer now.”


We were booked into the jail and placed in a holding tank with bunk beds and a toiled on the side of the room. There was some issue about whether or not I was still on active DOC parole and talk about a parole violation for the wine. I protested, telling them to call the DOC office in Bellingham and it sorted itself out. Jody and Scooter were put in General Population a couple hours after arriving. I sat in that little cell with five other people for over 24 more hours with no Insulin. Being Type 1 Diabetic I need Insulin, the symptoms of high blood glucose begin to set in quickly after not taking the medicine. The whole time I was in there I couldn’t eat more than a couple bites of food before becoming nauseous and vomiting. I couldn’t even drink water without getting sick, I was miserable. It wasn’t until an hour before moving me to General Population before I received a dose of it. I began to feel better almost immediately. It’s kind of ironic in my eyes. I’ve was a major Heroin/Opiate addict for many years and the best way I can describe it is the same for when you’re dopesick. As soon as you get that shot you begin to feel well. Basically being deeply sick with the Flu and getting better from it instantly.


On the way back to my more permanent housing unit the CO told me my buddy was back here too. Sweet, I’d have a friend from the streets with me here, that always makes the time easier. I asked about Scooter and was told he was downstairs in another tank. I put my paperwork and other things on my bunk and headed straight for the shower. The CO’s had forgotten to take my longjohns from me, nice. I got in and heard The other guys talking to Jody about me, they were asking if I was the one who got arrested with him. They were laughing and trying to yell over the blaring television while they played cards. I got out of the shower and joined the card game, we started out playing Spades, eventually we’d played half the games I know before they started to teach me how to play Pinocle. Pinocle is one of the most notorious prison/jail card games but after about three years of prison and jail I’d still never learned. Who knew I’d learn in little ol’ Goldendale jail?


We spent 9 days in there before finally going to court on the day of Halloween. They Agreed to stick us with a second degree trespassing charge as well as time served and a $1,000 fine. We’d be released that day! Why wasn’t Scooter there with us? Had he already gone to court and gotten released? After returning to the tank I began to dwell on the fact that I had three year old felony warrants out of three different counties in Oregon, Portland being one of them. I was hoping those weren’t going to finally catch up with me. I was close enough for them to want to extradite me. I sat anxiously waiting for only Jodys name to be called for release thinking about where Scooter might be.


“Griffin, Hunt roll your stuff up for release!” came over the intercom just after lunch. I grabbed my stuff and shook everyone's hand and gave out some hugs wishing everyone luck, some needed it more than others. One man, Marcos, a middle 30’s hispanic man was facing forty years for gun charges. He might die in prison if he got that much time.


It took about an hour after release before we were able to pick up our packs from the property room. When the flat car came out of the elevator with our packs on top I could see the purple liquid in my jug. The wine! We took our stuff down the road and began to look through it. I still had my pipe, weed brownies, cigarettes, and the wine. The $20 dollars worth of pot I had was gone though. We started drinking the wine as we hiked out to the highway so we could hitchhike. It took about an hour to get picked up, the ride was only to the Oregon side of the Columbia river but that was just what I wanted, to get out of the damned town of Goldendale.


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## Dmac (Feb 5, 2014)

nice story, whatever happened to scooter?


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## Tude (Feb 5, 2014)

Dam dude - awesome story. I was drawn to this site from stories like you. Be safe and find your friend!


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## Charlie Brown (Feb 5, 2014)

Thanks guys. I hope Scooter made it out of that jail quickly. I'll find him again some place random I'm sure.


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## imahippy91 (Feb 25, 2014)

Is it normal to get in that much trouble if you get caught?


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