Washington (State)

Washington (WA for short) state is the North Western state of the United States. Be aware that unlike in Oregon it's not legal to walk on the freeway. It's probably not even legal on the on-ramp - some on-ramps even have no thumb signs.

It's pretty much a mean thick urban corridor from the north dregs of Seattle down 'allaway through to at least the south end of Olympia, a good 200 miles of city. That means buses - you can get all the way from Olympia to Bellingham for a relatively low fare, although several transfers are needed, typically in Lakewood, Downtown Seattle, Everett, and Mt Vernon. But the good news is that there's a funky little bus service called the CAP that runs two or three times daily from Tumwater outside Oly to Vancouver (WA), and it's only $1. Although, according to information on Digihitch, there are a lot of good rest stops in WA, especially heading North from Portland, Oregon, on I-5.

In the state of Washington the hitchability is very dependant on the area. Northwestern Washington (anything north of Everett) is, for example, extremely easy to hitchhike with waiting times averaging about 20 minutes on interstate on-ramps for a solo 6'6 tall slightly intimidating guy (and considerably less on small smaller roads). The Urban corridor that was mentioned before can however be problematic but it is nonetheless not exceedingly hard to find someone going past the corridor it in direction Oregon. Direction British Columbia might be harder though. Eastern Washington seems to be a little bit more tricky to call limit to a box as small as 'good' or 'bad' for hitchhiking, while the area in Spokane's vicinity is definitely not the most hitchfriendly certain parts, such as the area around Okanagen, is very easy to hitchhike. In other words; hitchhiking in Washington varies dramatically depending on which area you find yourself trying to thumb through.

Law

Title 46

Chapter 61

RCW 46.61.255 Pedestrians soliciting rides or business.

(1) No person shall stand in or on a public roadway or alongside thereof at any place where a motor vehicle cannot safely stop off the main traveled portion thereof for the purpose of soliciting a ride for himself or herself or for another from the occupant of any vehicle.

Chapter 4 Definitions

RCW 46.04.500 "Roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the sidewalk or shoulder even though such sidewalk or shoulder is used by persons riding bicycles.

Stay on the shoulder to hitchhike where there is a safe place for someone to stop for you and you should be alright.

Places to see

Washington's a treasury of raw, wild, gorgeous.

Have a look about the Sjrideshare on San Juan Islands in Washington State.

The Olympic Penninsula is exquisite and glorious, with the only certified rain forest in the contiguous states. If you take a ferry across the Puget Sound (a kind of mystical fjord that hosts the worlds biggest octopuses) hitching the Penninsula's a blast: bring hiking gear and head into the mountains for a few days. Bring a poncho. 220 inches of rain per year here.

Experiences

Pouring rain; dusk; we were almost there, but only had a weak tent for the night. Guy picked us up, brought us to his idyllic mountain lair/home & fed us crab soup & fresh roadkill venison, driving us to the trail-head in the morn. Best meat of my life. - User:Kalan

I have spent most my life in washington state and started hitching when i was 15, on backroads from town to town, from there i have hitched 101, and up and down i-5 many times, with many rides, and a high success rate, friendly people, but yes lots of rain, washington has always been my easiest hitching experience behind only oregon.... but yes of course for some lame reason no walking on the freeway, and i have been cited a few times, but if you think you can get a ride before a $60 bill, its worth it - j-rod

Cities

• Bellingham
• Olympia
• Redmond
• Seattle
• San Juan Islands

External Links

• Digithitch Washington

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Wikipedia:Washington

trash:Washington (State)