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Berlin is pretty cheap, hostels to be had for under 20 Euros a night. I’m sure there’s squats as well. I never paid for the train or bus while I was there, but do so at your own risk. Learn about the club scene there and do your research about it - it’s second to nowhere else in the world in my...

Do it and learn from experience. Hitchwiki has valuable info. Getting out of big cities is tricky. Good luck.

You have expressed a sentiment I've held for a long time but haven't quite been able to articulate

West Texas can be tough to hitch if you're in the wrong spot. It's where I had the most trouble when hitching the country this year. Lotta oil workers who are just driving locally. Not that they wouldn't help you if they could but they're on the clock and not going for more than a few miles...

I can arguably disagree

I second staying far away from Jacksonville. Worst major city in America with all the worst parts combined - crack epidemic, boring downtown, sprawl, the hood, open carry, mosquitoes, thunderstorms - truly hell on Earth. New England winter is rough if you’re trying to camp, even NY can get tough...

Winter gear. Like, stormproof matches/lighter, warm sleeping bag, hat, gloves, jacket (all things I bring while train hopping in the summer anyway), maybe a good tent. Water/food/water filter, knife - all the usual camping ish, just be prepared for brutal temperatures depending when you go.

Upstate NY?

I’m pretty sympathetic to this, having gone the teacher-turned-traveler route, now with 20,000 train miles and 44 states under my belt. Best advice here is wait until the weather warms before trying to hop anything. I’m working in the northeast through the winter (booo) to serve my long-term...

I’ve brought a small, cheaper laptop with me while traveling and lost two in Central Valley due to bad circumstances, but it was nothing I couldn’t replace. Stick to a cheap iPad (you can get em used for almost nothing) or phone. If your work is advanced enough that it requires a laptop, you can...

While I agree that you mostly won’t get in too much trouble, also depends on the location. If I get caught in some spots in Alabama, I know I might expect jail time, for instance.

Dreamt of biking down the West Coast. Did it. Then dreamt of train hopping from city to city, playing songs on my guitar as I went. Did that too. Then dreamt of hitching across the U.S. starting with $0. Did that as well. Now just looking to complete the handful of other challenges I have...

Around 4-6pm today (8/10), I saw and EBD as I was 50-ish miles outside of Yuma and could have SWORN I saw someone squatting down on an IM there. Was wondering if my eyes didn’t deceive me and if it was anyone on here haha

!! I’d like to know about this, as a Pittsburgh advocate lol

Under leaves, off-path in the woods somewhere NEVER in a dumpster haha 😅

Go to a church/Catholic resource center and tell them you’re homeless and stranded and they might work with an org to sponsor your trip North via subsidized Greyhound ticket.

How has it been getting rides?

Most important thing is get a comfy-ass seat. Also take breaks and don’t rush. V easy to burn yourself out bike touring.

Will be in LA area then, so correct Coast but a bit far from the Jambo and probably would wanna take it easy for a while, so more than likely I’ll only be there in spirit. Down to meet up with folks afterward and bum around the West Coast.

Haven't seen this uploaded yet and might be helpful to have here. Very high-quality map, easy to read pdf showing where CSX trains follow, as well as ports, terminals, and connecting rail lines.

This map shows freight, commuter, and even abandoned lines across the state of New Jersey

This map shows commuter, freight, and tourist railroads across the state of Pennsylvania and even shows the different counties. From the PA DOT, I believe.

Only shows operating lines as of 2013. Lots of helpful details here about short lines in the state. From the NYS DOT.

Multi track mainline map

All due respect, most travelers end up out West and the northeast is often too dense to have a chill get together in any easily accessible natural spot (which NYC decidedly is not).

August sounds like it would be good for me as well

Don't let the Idaho propganda fool you, Cali is dope. Downtown LA is pretty rough, and I would say Fresno and Bakersfield are cities best avoided. Stockton is just sad - the worst poverty I've seen in America there.

@Matt Derrick "Just got back from," I ain't there anymore. Not sure how much more I can tell beyond my experience without some more specific questions but I can go into specific sights and things to do I really liked. I made it a point not to really look up too much beforehand so that I could be...

Fellow Americans, what if I told you I discovered a place more beautiful than San Francisco, with better weather than LA, more drug legalization than Portland, a place where you can drink publicly like in New Orleans, and cheaper than Kansas City? Sounds too good to be true, right? Hey all, I...

I'm down, though will be holed up in NY for cold season

Ok y'all, I'm putting some feelers out on his early. I have this romantic Kerouac-esque plan to hitch across the country this spring, then set up home base in 4 cities I very much enjoy for a season each to experience something other than Brooklyn, where I've lived my whole life. Portland...

Florida sprawl is so horrid (though good for Dumpster diving) and Miami is a contrast to that when biking south so it's a welcome relief. Funny how we ended up biking the same place about a month apart! Currently planting some roots back at home for the winter months and then will be ready to...

I thought the towns around Okechobee would be like Tahoe, pretty and kinda boogie, but now I see actually some of the worst poverty in Florida is concentrated around there

The whole east coast is a swamp, so I'm over it. But I get that if you've never seen anything like it in your life before, it's pretty cool.

Absolutely not. My productivity is extremely high at night when it's quiet and there are no distractions. Morning when everyone is up and out, nothing gets done.

Also I have a normie sunrise to sunset schedule only while traveling. At home I'll be up til like 4 am usually

I sleep as much as I can these days. When bike touring it's like 10-11 hours, 8 is too little. When riding trains it fluctuates between many hours one night and very few the next. At home I'll sleep 8-9 hours but usually not interrupted by anything. I can maybe tolerate one day in the week with...

With dogs, I just either gun past them if I know I can go fast enough, or hop off my bike, use it as a barrier, and slowly walk away until I'm out of their "zone". Most dogs won't do shit to you. I've heard to carry a large stick to keep them distant.

To me, that is an absurd and dangerous line of thinking. It's on par with saying "I don't want the option to sleep in a bed when there are houseless people out there." Gluttony means overeating based on your physical expenditure of energy, which you wouldn't even be doing at that level. When you...

Sounds like you're definitely not eating enough. I was eating 4000 calories a day and biking less than you and still losing weight. These days I'm probably breaking even though. It's harder if your diet doesn't include meat

Tell me more about sleeping top of a tanker during your first train trip! That's def some funny greenhorn stuff haha. I also more or less figured it out myself my first couple of rides.

"Maybe Kansas will suck less" Famous last words for a traveler

Yo, any chance you're the South American cricket I met in Roseville?

First time biking somewhere and not ending up back home the same night, I rode out to Montauk at age 18. Slept on a boat dock with an annoying mosquito buzzing around me all night and hit 88 miles on day 2, sunburnt to all hell. Second bike trip was another two day jaunt through Long Island in...

Horrible place to squat imo. You're gonna have to deal with people coming in at all hours because everyone and their mom and their grandma is there all the time. Far from any resources, and when you're out you're on remote-ass Staten Island. A much better idea is to find an abandoned (but...

Go where the trees/mountains are lol. I've biked through, and the part I went through was surprisingly straight desert

Fresno is my personal hell, hot, rural/suburban, sus people, nothing interesting to do for a "city" of 500k. Jacksonville is cracked out and rainy, little to do for a "city" of 800k. Some dude pulled an AR on me here. Most other places I can find some redeeming quality for.

Hit the road, Jake!

From experience, at least in NY, they don't really check the requirements for what group you are because the thinking is better not to waste any doses

You look like you already hop trains lmao Just get on em and go