Where's your Big Rock Candy Mountain (i.e. hobo paradise)?

loathsomeginger

loathsomeginger

New member
I'm riding the rails for about 6 months starting at the end of the week and I've been wondering lately what everyone considers the ultimate "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (meaning your ultimate hobo/vagabond-friendly paradise) in the US or Canada? Where do you like to go to kick back, relax and chill when you're not on the road or rails?
 
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I am a ole southern boy. My favorite places to hop trains and relax is all the states surrounding Tennessee. Will always be a Tennessean at heart and hopping through Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama and that general part of the united states is always my favorite.

Very beautiful country to ride through durning the spring and summer months. The fall months are breath taking. Well.... That is my two wheat pennies worth. Safe travels friend.
 
richmond mother fucking virginia man. it was where i spent the last 7 or 8 years on and off and the only place i can really say i could call a home. its really cheap to live if you wanted to rent a apt for a few months to save up some road steak too and not hard to find restaurant work. cops arnt horrible when it comes to being homeless, theres a feed almost every day (at least there was a year or so ago im outta the loop these days) at least 2 of which are vegan if you have a diet that doesnt include meat or dairy. theres a dozens of free stuff around in alley ways like furniture, tvs, kitchen stuff etc etc especially around college move in/out dates because most college kids just toss out their shit because "fuck it". the towns got alot of friendly college/grad student people an amazing punk music/bar scene. and if you have never been check out strange matter. its a vegan friendly (but they serve meat also) restaurant that has shows nearly every single night and the best part is theres working arcade games in the back!

plus i mean...avails from there and tim still lives and plays there...avail. nuff said.

oh man and the james river thats a hell of a beautiful dirty ass river.
 
@SlankyLanky Sweet, I'll definitely be making a pit stop there since I have family that lives close by in Charlottesville, VA.

@Hobo Mud I'm really looking forward to rolling through WV, TN, KT etc. I can't pass up the chance to get some great BBQ and music in Memphis and Nashville.
 
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So hard to pick a single spot. Think I'd just have to say "The West". Too many roads and fences on the Atlantic side for my taste.
Bozeman, Montana
Thermopolis, Wyoming
Goblin Valley, Utah
Redwoods NP, California
Central Oregon
Port Angeles, Washington
Black Rock City, Nevada
South Padre island, Texas....
 
My home town is actually one of my favorite places to be. Theres waterfalls, creeks with amazing swim spots, cliffs to jump from. a cool train tunnel i like to hike to and sit on. Only thing is its kinda far from hop out spots, but if you or anyone would be intrested in it, i could drive a little ways off to meet up! Im not sure if many people come out this way, but blount springs alabama has some amazing camp places. Id totally like to show some people this summer, i live with my grandparents for now, so i cant offer to let people stay in my house, but i know 5 or 6 great camp spots, and i want to make some traveling friends to possibly meet up with later on down the road.
 
Portland, Maine. (Bizzaro Portland) People are friendly and the town is beautiful, you can get a little cash and ride the mail boat out to the islands for like six bucks and have a beer or just hang out near old port. There's some good river's for swimming outside of the city to the west, the feed by the library is pretty good and not too busy, lots of AT hikers to talk with if you like that and you can always run to White Mountain national forest if your feeling city sick.
 
I dont think ive found it yet but i will probably retire on the west coast in canada. Unless i find somewhere else somewhere down the line.
 
been looking for 17 years, a few places have come close, but i haven't found that one place that was good enough i could retire from traveling at. i'd like to find it one day but who knows...

ideally id like something with a good punk / anarchist community, collective house or punk house living, somewhere the dumpsters are good...
 
It's New Mexico for me. When I hitched through there I was picked up by the most amazing people and was housed up for a few days by this lovely elderly couple who had a freaking guinea pig farm in the middle of absolutely no where. I hope I'll get to make my way through there again sometime soon
 
erinn, that sounds so cute not just because guinea pigs, but because i think old people are the cutest creatures on earth.
 
crisywantstorunaway said:
erinn, that sounds so cute not just because guinea pigs, but because i think old people are the cutest creatures on earth.
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Oh they were the cutest! They basically adopted me and my partner for like three days and treated us like we were their grandkids visiting on vacation. We helped them plant a field of garlic and some pecan trees and they named their new trees after me and my partner and I cried lol
 
It all depends on what you want. I like to be near really great library systems, so much of New England has got me. Western MA where I've spent a lot of time when not traveling offers an easy life. Connecticut River (with plenty of nice camp spots along it - even islands), five different colleges in which you can find the pleasure of reading rare books, scoring free food, and finding great, smart friends and lovers. In Northampton there are camp spots right downtown with no cops or homebums, and there's a super ritz foodbank. Getting EBT around there is a breeze and you can keep it for 6 months. The Public library is lit as well.

The only downsides to the area are the super out-of-touch liberals, who tend to be rich and think they're better than you (especially if you're a freethinker), and the absence of work. And winter, if you don't like cold.

But presently what I want as my pie-in-the-sky is a fucking hilltop castle in rural VT/NH/ME, situated on at least 20 acres, with a well / independent water source, semi-underground greenhouse, and a shitload of guns. Add a stone wall around everything and it's my own private citadel. Hopefully on a major river, not terribly far from a small town. Like the Totnes Castle:
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I am DEFINITELY not posting my "Big Rock Candy Mountain" on here.

Less it turn into another Eugene, OR or Arcata, CA.

Sorry to be the Debby downer, but some of these awesome areas are being completely overrun.

My one spot I love in Oregon is turing into a playground for Junkies and theives after everyone realized it's so damn easy to be homeless in.
 
Coywolf said:
I am DEFINITELY not posting my "Big Rock Candy Mountain" on here.

Less it turn into another Eugene, OR or Arcata, CA.

Sorry to be the Debby downer, but some of these awesome areas are being completely overrun.

My one spot I love in Oregon is turing into a playground for Junkies and theives after everyone realized it's so damn easy to be homeless in.
Click to expand...

I had resisted the urge to post a similar response, but since you went there; I agree. When I find a really great spot I tell people not to go there unless I know them and trust they're not gonna shit all over the place.

But there is a really fucking awesome town in the Blue Ridge mountains that I would nominate if I wasn't worried about fucking it up.

Rhymes with "wanna blow ya."
 
Coywolf said:
I am DEFINITELY not posting my "Big Rock Candy Mountain" on here.

Less it turn into another Eugene, OR or Arcata, CA.

Sorry to be the Debby downer, but some of these awesome areas are being completely overrun.

My one spot I love in Oregon is turing into a playground for Junkies and theives after everyone realized it's so damn easy to be homeless in.
Click to expand...

yep, i know exactly what you mean, it's too bad especially out that way. I get kinda angry when I'm in a great place and tweekers turn up asking for 'crystals' and i have to tell them something like..the only crystals i know come straight from the earth

I'd gambit i even know the spot you're talking about ;-)
 
Ive been western montana 10 years ,but traveled to 49 states.
Actually gonna finally hit the hi line this year since it runs through home and just well its there and ive never rode it.
Idk though riding through the nevada/utah desert on a train through a desert wasteland dont sound nice but it is lol
 
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