Featured In time of plague; riding freight and roaming

[Joey Garbanzo]

These are great pics man, can't wait to see what's next!

 

[ZIGER]

очень интересная поездка

 

[peterb]

Spectacular combination of pics, videos and writing. Amazing. Felt like we all were riding with you!

 

[staywild92]

Enjoyed the story. I was curious to hear about what a ramble is like during all this pandemonium.

 

[Aaron Adonis]

I love these pictures so much! Hope you're doing well now, and sorry to hear about the feral dogs lol.

 

[Deleted member 26355]

Love these pictures. Hope we get to see more soon!

 

[Melkordoom]

I'd like to share some photos of my travels this spring. I'm not usually one to post stories of what I'm up to but feel this can be some contribution considering the forums here have aided me in my travels. After spending a week in Salt Lake city Utah going to strange dystopic hotsprings, a beautiful shadowy show and getting stoned before seeing space jesus at the Mormon temple, I continued East, away from the familiar cascade mountains and into the sprawl, as the manufactured crisis spread. I trekked to Provo wading thru fields of dry rattling thistle stalks to the hopout (where I spotted @Coywolf's tag)

View attachment 54825

I caught a grainer with a modest porch and very little as far as a hidey hole and took off into the night. The full moon illuminated the beautiful desert canyon and I gazed at her thru the brisk wind before settling into my bed as we grew closer to colorado. Dawn broke as we sided out in glenwood springs and as that liminal night faded we continued into the heart of the rockies.

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It took about 15min to burrow through the heart of the continental divide, to pierce the void via the moffet tunnel. I breathed through my shirt and thought about the air pollution and clouds of smog the future generations will inherit. I thought about climate chaos and how we stand In the middle of those who came before and those who will come after.

The descent through the flat irons and into the front range was swift and gorgeous.

View attachment 54830

I rolled into denver just as d the sun was slipping behind the mountains. I slept by the river and found the bridge I would wait for my southbound coal at.

View attachment 54831

Everybody in denver was buzzing about the pandemic and the little store by the hopout was cleared out of many things (I was forced to get a pop top gallon of water, oh no!).

My southbound coal pulled up quickly and I threw myself in, in plain view of the McDonald's drivethru line.

A gorgeous warm day riding loaded coal for the first time.

View attachment 54832

Thru strange industrial fringes parallel to the snaking spine of mountains.

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The ride to Amarillo took much longer than I thought, I slept a rough grimy night in the coal, as it ground into my clothes hair, grooves in my fingers and palms. The raw guts ripped from the earth to be devoured by the leviathan. I woke feeling aged older as the sun rose over the texas desert lands.

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I looked haggard as fuck walking Into an amarillo coffeeshop to take a sink shower, but the barista was very kind. I sat around the very busy yard trying to use the cc's outdated ID siggestion to decipher which IM was headed to Memphis rather than KCMO. After a day by the tracks I got a hot tip from a very kind member of stp and caught my Mem/Atl bound hotshot the following morning.

I though I was going to outrun the storm rolling in from the west but it caught us in Oklahoma and thrashed me in my mini well. I got completely soaked overnight thru my bivy sack (the seems are as all worn out). Lightning flashed all night and I made nocturnal pacts with the train gods in order to ensure my survival. All the next day I cowered in my wet sleeping bag thru more rain and whimpered and ate sauerkraut (the only food I had left)

It stopped raining just outside memphis, I got to see the Mississippi in its grand entirety and hopped off on the fly as my train slowed, cause I was too damn wet and hungry to make it all the way to Atl.

All the stores were empty shelves and everyone was talking about the latest federal response to the virus. The talking heads leered at me as I ate at mcfucks, and I dried off at probably the coolest laundromat I've ever been to. It had soul.

I squatted an old industrial building as another storm rolled in, and got to explore it a bit more in the morning before feral dogs chased me out

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I've been hitching thru Tennessee the past few days and it has been really slow. Fear and paranoia are in the air and public discourse is centered around the virus, potential lockdowns, lack of supplies. It's hard to convey how it feels to be travelling while the dominant culture realizes how fragile and vulnerable it is. Excited to get into the mountains and off the highways. I hope those on the road and rails stay safe in these coming days. The real sickness is the state. The real crisis is this capitalist system.

Takes balls to do what your doing, however it’s wise to stay put during these uncertain times.

 

[SammiePa]

I'd like to share some photos of my travels this spring. I'm not usually one to post stories of what I'm up to but feel this can be some contribution considering the forums here have aided me in my travels. After spending a week in Salt Lake city Utah going to strange dystopic hotsprings, a beautiful shadowy show and getting stoned before seeing space jesus at the Mormon temple, I continued East, away from the familiar cascade mountains and into the sprawl, as the manufactured crisis spread. I trekked to Provo wading thru fields of dry rattling thistle stalks to the hopout (where I spotted @Coywolf's tag)

View attachment 54825

I caught a grainer with a modest porch and very little as far as a hidey hole and took off into the night. The full moon illuminated the beautiful desert canyon and I gazed at her thru the brisk wind before settling into my bed as we grew closer to colorado. Dawn broke as we sided out in glenwood springs and as that liminal night faded we continued into the heart of the rockies.

View attachment 54826

View attachment 54827

View attachment 54828

View attachment 54829

It took about 15min to burrow through the heart of the continental divide, to pierce the void via the moffet tunnel. I breathed through my shirt and thought about the air pollution and clouds of smog the future generations will inherit. I thought about climate chaos and how we stand In the middle of those who came before and those who will come after.

The descent through the flat irons and into the front range was swift and gorgeous.

View attachment 54830

I rolled into denver just as d the sun was slipping behind the mountains. I slept by the river and found the bridge I would wait for my southbound coal at.

View attachment 54831

Everybody in denver was buzzing about the pandemic and the little store by the hopout was cleared out of many things (I was forced to get a pop top gallon of water, oh no!).

My southbound coal pulled up quickly and I threw myself in, in plain view of the McDonald's drivethru line.

A gorgeous warm day riding loaded coal for the first time.

View attachment 54832

Thru strange industrial fringes parallel to the snaking spine of mountains.

View attachment 54833

The ride to Amarillo took much longer than I thought, I slept a rough grimy night in the coal, as it ground into my clothes hair, grooves in my fingers and palms. The raw guts ripped from the earth to be devoured by the leviathan. I woke feeling aged older as the sun rose over the texas desert lands.

View attachment 54834

View attachment 54835

I looked haggard as fuck walking Into an amarillo coffeeshop to take a sink shower, but the barista was very kind. I sat around the very busy yard trying to use the cc's outdated ID siggestion to decipher which IM was headed to Memphis rather than KCMO. After a day by the tracks I got a hot tip from a very kind member of stp and caught my Mem/Atl bound hotshot the following morning.

I though I was going to outrun the storm rolling in from the west but it caught us in Oklahoma and thrashed me in my mini well. I got completely soaked overnight thru my bivy sack (the seems are as all worn out). Lightning flashed all night and I made nocturnal pacts with the train gods in order to ensure my survival. All the next day I cowered in my wet sleeping bag thru more rain and whimpered and ate sauerkraut (the only food I had left)

It stopped raining just outside memphis, I got to see the Mississippi in its grand entirety and hopped off on the fly as my train slowed, cause I was too damn wet and hungry to make it all the way to Atl.

All the stores were empty shelves and everyone was talking about the latest federal response to the virus. The talking heads leered at me as I ate at mcfucks, and I dried off at probably the coolest laundromat I've ever been to. It had soul.

I squatted an old industrial building as another storm rolled in, and got to explore it a bit more in the morning before feral dogs chased me out

View attachment 54836

View attachment 54837

View attachment 54838

View attachment 54839

View attachment 54840

I've been hitching thru Tennessee the past few days and it has been really slow. Fear and paranoia are in the air and public discourse is centered around the virus, potential lockdowns, lack of supplies. It's hard to convey how it feels to be travelling while the dominant culture realizes how fragile and vulnerable it is. Excited to get into the mountains and off the highways. I hope those on the road and rails stay safe in these coming days. The real sickness is the state. The real crisis is this capitalist system.

Beautiful pics and story! Thanks for sharing

 

[Rizzla]

Very well written post, I really like your writing! Beautiful pics/viceos too. Thanks a lot for sharing!

 

[Ceed]

Nice story thanks for sharing

 

[biffula]

A coal train. I spent a week on one of those one night.

 

[starpurple]

wow this was a great read. the photos and video compliments your writing. thanks for sharing i think your writing is nice

 

[yungsloth]

Beauitful photos and stories.

 

[watermelonsugar]

looks beautiful thanks for sharing, has the pandemic changed how you travel?

 

[SWAMPxASSx420]

Excellent writing + media! Hopefully all this pandemic shit burns out sooner than later.

 

[Ozzi]

Greay read my friend! I am hitting road when i get out of hospital. Trying ti get to seattle from florida so i think im gonna hitch most of the way

 

[Purplegem]

Wow! Thanks for the journey🚖💚💙

 

[Deleted member 29411]

This post is honestly one of the most beautiful things that I've seen, thank you so much for posting your stories and photos : )

 

[Pixelhopper]

Thanks for sharing. It looked really cold in the photos and video. Beautiful area of the mountains.

 

[HopScotch]

Great story, your writing is top notch. The ride looked gorgeous and those mountains are sublime. Can’t wait for part two.