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--Shannon: In SoCal, one just has to transit as far from the city as possible before attempting to hitch. Northbound, take the commuter bus from downtown LA Union Station to Valencia and hitch I-5 from there. Eastbound, Metrolink (~$13 from Union Station) to the truck stops along Fontana, Rialto, San Bernadino, etc. Hitching will get easier once you hit the desert in Indio, home to better truck stops, and a departure point for Niland/Slab City. Ontario is known for "lot lizards" and other urban truck-stop crime. It takes a long time, but one can transit through Los Angeles to Orange and San Diego Counties, all the way down to Mexico. See also Nick Cophee's excellent thread on "hitching in SoCal" on Squat the Planet.
Northern California: If hitching north or east out of the Bay, the University Ave onramp in Berkeley is GOLD. The Octavia Ave onramp for the 101 south and 80 east seems to the best in SF. In Sacramento, the 16th St onramp is alright for commuting to the Bay (just stand on the left side of the road, not by the onramp post, and hold your sign high), but hitching north or south will take a long long while to happen--if you can get rides from friends in the area, go to Lodi if heading further south, the Dunnigan truck stop if northbound, but otherwise consider Megabus, Union Pacific, or hitching from the Bay. If you're in the Shasta area, check out the regional bus system--you're more likely to get a quick ride from hippie-friendly towns like Mt Shasta and Weed than more conservative places such as Dunsmuir.
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'''North Coast''' [[Arcata]] | [[Eureka (California)|Eureka]] | [[Mendocino]]
'''Central California''' ''Valley'' | [[Redding]] | [[Chico]] | [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] | [[Stockton]] | [[Modesto]] | [[Merced]] | [[Fresno]] | [[Visalia]] | [[Bakersfield]] | ''Central Coast'' | [[Bay Area]] | [[Bay Area|San Francisco]] | [[Oakland]] | [[San Jose]] | [[Santa Cruz]] | [[MonterreyMonterey]] | [[Big Sur]] |'''Southern California''' [[Los Angeles]] | [[Santa Barbara]] | [[San Diego]] | [[Barstow]] | [[Inland Empire]]
'''Sierra Nevada''' [[Mammoth]] | [[Yosemite]] | [[Bishop]] | [[Tahoe]]
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I-5 and CA-99 both run up and down the middle of California in the Central Valley, from Los Angeles up through Sacramento, Redding, and into [[Oregon]]. I-5 is a long-distance freeway; stick to truck stops. CA-99 is a more urban route, connecting towns and cities.
(anywhere south of modesto on ca-99 is a pain to hitch, with many mexican immigrants, who wont give you the time of day, and many suburbanites, north of modesto the going gets much easier, and from yuba city north we got ride after ride). - J-rod [[User: Jaredjestes22]])
Route 1 goes up and down the Coast, with beautiful scenery, but not the easiest to hitch on for the most part. North of Sonoma is beautiful...that is to say, if you have time to spare at all, do take the 1! Hitchhiking along the 1 north of San Francisco is not easy as there is little traffic, no on-ramps, no service stations, and very few stop lights. If you're lucky, you might find a construction site where all traffic has to stop and wait for five or ten minutes.
US-101 from San Francisco up through Marin (San Rafael), Sonoma (Santa Rosa), Mendocino (Mendocino) and Humboldt (Arcata, Eureka) Counties is arguably the easiest hitching in the US. ''Ollie Monaghan'' I would like to reiterate hitching on the 101, particulary for the stunning scenery, redwood groves laced in white mist rolling down from the mountains on side with the crash of the pacific tide on the other ... also the route has a history of being used for hitch-hiking, was a very common route taken in the 50s, 60s & 70s up and down the west coast, most of these people now have cars and will pick you up !
== Various ==
In SoCal, one just has to transit as far from the city as possible before attempting to hitch. Northbound, take the commuter bus from downtown LA Union Station to Valencia and hitch I-5 from there. Eastbound, Metrolink (~$13 from Union Station) to the truck stops along Fontana, Rialto, San Bernadino, etc. Hitching will get easier once you hit the desert in Indio, home to better truck stops, and a departure point for Niland/Slab City. Ontario is known for "lot lizards" and other urban truck-stop crime. It takes a long time, but one can transit through Los Angeles to Orange and San Diego Counties, all the way down to Mexico. See also Nick Cophee's excellent thread on "hitching in SoCal" on Squat the Planet.
Northern California: If hitching north or east out of the Bay, the University Ave onramp in Berkeley is GOLD. The Octavia Ave onramp for the 101 south and 80 east seems to the best in SF. In Sacramento, the 16th St onramp is alright for commuting to the Bay (just stand on the left side of the road, not by the onramp post, and hold your sign high), but hitching north or south will take a long long while to happen--if you can get rides from friends in the area, go to Lodi if heading further south, the Dunnigan truck stop if northbound, but otherwise consider Megabus, Union Pacific, or hitching from the Bay. If you're in the Shasta area, check out the regional bus system--you're more likely to get a quick ride from hippie-friendly towns like Mt Shasta and Weed than more conservative places such as Dunsmuir.
Vallejo seems pretty ghetto, though the rest stop in [[Vallejo]] is really good. It's full of Urban Sprawl.
I Byron Motley tried to hitchhike from Ontario California on the on ramp but I was HARASSED by the police until I gave up trying! A close friend to which I will testify to his integrity told me he tried to hitchhike from the outskirts on on ramps of San Diego from 2 different locations and he was HARASSED at BOTH locations by the police until he gave up trying to hitch a ride! Southern California is a VERY DIFFICULT area to attempt hitching from!
:"Born and raised in North Cali - if you can, take Highway 1. Everyone who takes their time to enjoy life and see cool stuff is on Highway 1, where the party's at haha. I met this amazing acidhead couple who took me to Swanson Berry Farms between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz, where we sampled weird sacred Native American jams and sat around the barn on picnic tables talkin to wild westerners. Don't get stuck in So Cal. I was tryna get out of LA for about a week. When I finally got to Barstow, I hung out under the bridge on the freeway with other vagabonds, and like 3 of us were hitchhiking - I got picked up first by this awesome woman from Arkansas who lived in Baker, drove me there and we hung out with her neighborhood, getting drunk and having a good ol' fashioned fish fry. Bring loads and loads of water to So Cal, it gets hot, especially on your way out of state on I-15."
Experience Nov. 2012
:I hitched from southern Oregon to Texas without any problems except one in Westmorland, CA. I was standing on the edge of the shoulder of highway 86 on the south end of this rural small community when approached by two aggrevated and aggressive Imperial County sheriffs. They asked if i knew that it was [[illegal]] to hitchhike in California. I told them it was not. Minutes of arguing later they retrieved their citation book and showed me the law shown above that you can not hitch on roadway. I asked them to show me the state definition of a roadway. This upset them. Veins bulging and spit spewing, they pointed to a business wall 40 feet away and said that's where the roadway ends. They then grabbed their [[pepper spray]] and asked if I'd be walking back to town. I complied and spent $1 for a bus to El Centro and continued on my way. Pick your battles wisely and be safe out there. ~nomadinexile
Experience Sept. 2014
DAY 1 --- I hitched from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo in one-and-half days. Took the BART from Mission St to Daly City, then the 110 bus to Pacifica. Waited about 15 minutes for a ride down Highway 1 to a beach just north of Santa Cruz. I stood in the beach parking lot for 5 minutes before getting a ride into Santa Cruz, then waited 10 minutes near the onramp to Highway 1 before I got a ride to Carmel. Carmel was a bit tricky. I waited about 2 hours before a guy told me told me it was a bad hitching spot and took me down to the gas station junction where the 1 leads to Big Sur, I waited about 45 minutes for a ride. Got to Big Sur about seven and met some surfers who showed me a safe place to hide my sleeping bag and rest for the night. All four of my rides were solo men between 25 - 60.
DAY 2 --- Quiet in the morning, but by 10am I had a ride from Big Sur to Lucia. Walked 10 mins to the next good lay-by and got a ride from a German tourist couple who were driving all the way to San Luis Obispo (we stopped off and looked at the elephants seals, and then the sea lioons in Morro Bay). I arrived in SLO by 2.30pm
A week later I hitched from Highway 1 near Lompoc to L.A. in about 5 hours. The 1 looked tough heading south, but waited about 90 mins for a young elementary school teacher who took to me to Santa Barbara. Waited on the 101 onramp at a tricky multi-lane junction, waited about 90 mins for these two Nepalese guys to take me right into downtown L.A. I set off about 4pm and arrived about 9pm.
TIPS: Always carry a big cardboard sign of your destination. Smile infectiously, and even dance (though not too much to make you look mentally ill). STAY POSITIVE - it always works out some way or the other.
Experience March 2016:
''Hitched into Cali from Southern Oregon on the I-5, and stopped in Redding for the night. The next day was the weirdest day of hitchhiking I ever had. We were headed toward San Fran, which proved difficult . We got a lift from a trucker out of Redding, he was headed to Sacramento, but we'd heard lots of bad stuff about Sac so he offered to drop us somewhere before. We got dropped at the truck stop in Dunnigan, CA which had very little traffic on the on ramp. People often waved but no one ever stopped. We started walking on the highway, the 505 towards San Fran, even though we knew it was illegal. We made it a few miles before highway patrol pulled over. Showing IDs from New York and Florida, he let us off pretty easy and ended up taking us 20 miles down the road to Winters, CA where we got a ride in 5 minutes. Oh, and before dropping us the cop joked "If you want some real good Mexican food, there's a Taco Bell here for ya. Ha ha!". Lots of nice people willing to pick us up after that, after a ride with a restaurant owner and then a construction worker who dropped us at the transit station in San Rafael, we took the bus into San Fran. '' [[User:Koalajuj|Koalajuj]]
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