Train Hopping with Stxs, Episode 4: Laramie, Wyoming to San Francisco

I felt it was time to leave Laramie, Wyoming... It was amazing to me over there, I felt so accepted and well-fed. We were eating steak every single day, with some of @kennyskitchen's vegan food too, at the peace house. It was so good out there, but what I was really craving at the time was beaches, sunshine, the sound of the ocean, and to chill out for a few weeks.

So I packed up my gear and headed to the local catch-out spot, which I thought was the right direction. You can usually tell what direction you're going to go by the graffiti at the local catch-out spot. I didn't see any westbound departure graffiti under the bridge, which surprised me a little bit, but I waited there all day none the less. In the end, I did not catch out from there, I found out that I was in the wrong spot, as they were doing track maintenance in the yard while I was there. They were basically replacing all the railway ties in the whole yard, so I figured I had some time (as when they do that they reroute traffic) so I made my way over to the local thrift store to get some new shoes, because mine were wearing out (train hopping and traveling does a number to your shoes, they will only last a few months unless you have a really good quality pair of boots). I hate Goodwill, but it was the only option near me, so what are you gonna do? I ended up getting a new pair of sneakers for $1 and started walking in the direction of the train yard; I had to walk all the way across town back to where I came from. I felt really silly, but these things happen when you're train hopping (and a stoner).

So I walked all the way across town again and made it to the bridge, which had tons of westbound departure graffiti, so I knew I was in the right spot. I ended up seeing a tag from the person who taught me how to hop trains, which was a really cool thing because I hadn't seen his tag in years. I found myself wondering what happened to him while waiting. I decided that I needed some beer and whiskey on my way to California, so I headed over to the local liquor store and picked up a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red and some beer, then headed back to the catch-out spot and waited for a little bit while the trains arrived. Over the years, I've become really picky of what I will ride and what I won't, and as I wanted to get to California I was only going to ride double stack Intermodal container trains. As I waited for one to arrive, which took a few hours, I ended up realizing that under the bridge was a good place to wait, but the trains end up parking about a half a mile in front of me, so with no cover you have to sneak around the whole train to board. It would have been a better idea to catch out at night, but as I wanted to get out of town as fast as possible I caught out in the middle of the day. Looking back at it, that was probably not a great idea, but I did it anyway. When the next Intermodal stopped for a crew change, I decided it was my time to shine and get on it. It was the middle of summer, and it was incredibly hot; luckily I bought a gallon of water at the local gas station after I stopped at the liquor store, as always I carry at least a gallon with me.

The train took off in the middle of the heat of the day, and I was well on my way, so I cracked open the Johnnie Walker and started enjoying my journey. We were cruising through the Flatlands of Wyoming, with mountains on each side, at sundown. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen, yellow-orange-red-blue and wispy white clouds were everywhere and were changing color with the sunset. It was soon dark, and I decided it was time to go to sleep for the night. I woke up early the next morning, around 4am, in Reno. I was so tempted to get off the train as it was sitting there for about 5 hours. but I did not know how to get into town and I only wanted to get to California. Also, Nevada is notoriously bad for their treatment of travelers, specifically the popo. I also did not want to get caught in Nevada hopping on a train, as I had a perfectly rideable car and all the supplies that I would ever need. Luckily I didn't get off because as soon as I convinced myself that it was a good idea to go into Reno and explore the town, the Intermodal train aired up again and it was time to go. That's where everything got even more amazing, the scenery just kept growing. We ended up cruising through the mountains of the Nevada/California border area, and I knew I was going the right direction, and this must be an Oakland bound train. As we were crossing the border into California, I realized that I had some weed in my backpack and decided there would be no better opportunity to smoke a joint, so I lit it up and enjoyed the scenery cruising by me at 60 mph.

Looking at all the little towns and the people going about their business, not even noticing that I was cruising along, riding this train. As we were coming out of the mountains, I noticed the city was coming up, and decided that this would be my opportunity to get off in Sacramento and get some good weed, food, and supplies, check out some of the craft breweries around town, and have a really good craft IPA. Once all of that was accomplished, I decided I was going to walk around and check out Sacramento . Other notable experiences were the Jesus guy on a bullhorn screaming "everyone's going to hell" and another guy staring at me for about an hour trying to figure out where I came from, because I was covered in train grease, who after an hour came and talked to me for a bit very awkwardly. After that experience I decided that Sacramento was getting pretty old, and wanted to get into San Francisco so I looked on the internet and found a bus ticket that was $12 (!) so I booked it and headed over to the bus stop smoking a big fat joint and drinking some local craft-brewed IPA.

I boarded the bus and it took a little bit of time for it to depart because they had to find another bus because the bus broke down in the bus station apparently so while we were waiting for another bus I lit up another joint and started conversing with some of the other passengers none of which were that interesting so we got into San Francisco San Francisco bus terminal for Megabus ends up being way out of the way and I was I was short on funds I decided that I was going to walk around San Francisco for a few days and go to the Golden Gate Bridge I ended up camping outside Chinatown in a park and woke up the next morning to some guy saying hey do you want to smoke some weed and giving me an ounce of chronic that made my day even that much better as I was walking through the Mission District where are all the homeless shelters are located I ended up throwing a couple of joints had some the durty kids telling them to "put it in there neck hole" and wlak away getting to see them smile that's always a fun rewarding experience

Outside of the Mission District, I ended up taking out the GPS and figuring out the best way to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. Upon arriving at the Golden Gate Bridge, I ended up finding out that there were World War 2 Siege bunkers out there. They are all along the Hills on each side of the bridge. I thought that was really cool because there's tunnels all around those Hills, so I decided that would be a perfect place to camp, since you can see the whole city from there.

I got a 6-pack of good beer & a pint of whiskey, and decided to call it a night. With a good sandwich I sat on top of the hill laughing at everybody that pays so much to live there, as I have the best view in town for free. The next day I woke up and decided it was time to hike the whole Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. I spent all day hiking around Sausalito and meeting people, talking to artists and eating really good sandwiches from the local Deli. It was getting dark and the town was dying down for the night, so it was time to go get a nice bottle of red wine and go up on top of the hill, back to one of the bunkers on the Sausalito side. It turned out to be even more beautiful scenery for my dinner and wine. As the fog rolled in over the bay, San Francisco became like a little twinkling solar system with the sound of fog horns going off; it sort of looked like an epic space battle. Wish I had a pic of the fog solar system... But this was camp

As always thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this :-)
Hobo STXS

Follow me to catch the next episode: San Diego to Portland

And check out previous episodes here: 1, 2, 3