The Hitchhike Diary

Anyone can hitchhike, but who picks them up? Our guess was old men and young women. Let's see!

1) Young girl taking care of her grandmother for the state; turned around to come get us when I shrugged defeated (which I don't remember) 2) Old guy who worked as the pit boss at Capitol Speeday; told us about guiding at Denali and hunting fox with shotguns attached to the wings of an airplane 3) Faye the firedancer-- picked us up a total of three times due to an accident on the highway that literally stopped all trafffic from Anchorage to Denali; we got to see her and Carly perform at the Brown Chicken Brown Cow show 4) Molly, who works at a nonprofit educating old folks about Denali; invited us to the Greensky show, and a week later we closed down the Spike 5) Caroline-- Molly's neighbor who always picks up hitchhikers and inspired Molly to make room for us; we camped on the beach in Talkeetna and feasted at the Roadhouse before her yoga retreat 6) An older native woman who drives her grandson to work on the weekends, when the spur bus doesn't run 7) James and his girlfriend; the first couple to pick us up. Gave me ice cream and called Faye about any upcoming bluegrass festivals-- small world! 8) Brian, who owned land in four states and was actively searching for the link between Anchorage's missing people (four women at last count-- I saw a woman on the city bus stopped by police because someone thought she was one) 9) DJ and Jolene who shared their Red Hook IPAs with me and let me ride a $2000 bicycle for the first time 10) Animal, guy with mustache, Dylan and the girl; this group shared their PBR on the way to Whittier and lived to fish 11) Lyndsy and Kelly, seasonal workers from Gird who had already worked, picked up a hitchhiker, delivered gas to a friend, found me and now were ready for a drink! 12) Guy who owned three sub shops (gave me a free day-old) who liked the west but not Colorado 13) Mike, who loved Colorado and restored the airplane hanging in the Anchorage airport; he both drives and flies without a license 14) Will Davis, who was part of the second group to ever complete the Traverse summit of Denali back in '79. A fellow English major who was sailing around the world until he met a Brazilian in Panama, and made me think maybe that degree isn't so useless after all.