Freight Trains & Wanderin' Around

Freight Trains & Wanderin' Around

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Deportado (2022)

Deportado (2022)

This is a very small excerpt from when I was held in Acayucan Detention Center for 2 weeks while hitchhiking and riding freight northbound to the USA. I am currently working on a more detailed story that I hope to put up on the blog in the future. The route from Minatitlán, Veracruz to Houston to Delaware was completely unexpected and not at all how I planned on ending up in the USA. I would

Karso and Aurora (2021)

Karso and Aurora (2021)

The hardest moments for me are goodbyes. Always. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy my solitude, but the goodbyes always tear me down like watchin' a building of emotions collapse as you push that tiny red button. Sometimes I'd rather just hit fast forward on life and skip ahead a day without havin' to say goodbye or cya later at all. I do love the freedom of

Wanderin' Through the Hundred Acre Woods (2019)

Wanderin' Through the Hundred Acre Woods (2019)

I remember my correspondence with Northbank Fred from over a year ago via email like it was just yesterday. I thanked him for his contributions to hobohemia and the many adventure stories and monikers plastered throughout his blog. They are all truly inspiring and preserve so much of the train culture; it’s unfathomable, with dissertations, short stories, and photography the symbol of freedom resonates through the bindle of the early American Hobo. The words

Jungle Night and a Cave to Swim in (2022)

Jungle Night and a Cave to Swim in (2022)

We waved down a bus on the outskirts of Belmopan heading towards St. Herman's Blue Hole National Park. It stopped. A skinny man with light, tan skin, and dark, wavy hair pointed to the tight luggage compartments under the bus where we squeezed our bulky packs, stuffing and punching the bottoms to slam the metal doors shut. I walked the aisle looking at a myriad of unfamiliar faces, strangers from different parts of

Ayoooooo Taco the Ankle Biter and the Roseville Crew (2021)

Ayoooooo Taco the Ankle Biter and the Roseville Crew (2021)

I woke up early that morning on a bed of mulch with limbs of pine drooping overhead and thick dew in the air. The clanking commotion from heavy equipment jostling stone boulders around bellowed over the sound of freight working in the train yard. For the most part, the yard looked pretty empty compared to the old Roseville I knew, once bustling with steady freight traffic, but now less trains "seemed" to run

NECR Outta Bratt (2020)

NECR Outta Bratt (2020)

I rolled over in the dirt this morning, poking my head out of my bivy, lying in viny tendrils of plants scattered along the river between remnants of dead birch and leaves. A garden of amanita virosa lingered in the shadows, hidden in the cracks of decayed earth, under a canopy of hardwoods. The only sign of autumn flowered from the rhus skirting the bank of the river, painting parts of the verdant mountains a

Shangri-La (2020)

Shangri-La (2020)

I splay out along a swimming hole where the cataracts flow, down the craggy chasms of rock, over the moss and through the riffs and ferns, swimming out to meet the St. John's. Beneath its glinting ripples the bass and the muskies roam free with the moose hidden in the deep green forests and lush meadows of the wilderness. I look beyond through the dark, slick passage where mountain water meets the river.

Dorset Peak (2022)

Dorset Peak (2022)

I finally hiked Dorset Peak after all these years of living pretty close to it. Somehow I missed getting to the old Tower and the East Ridge last time I hiked up here because I didn't have a map and I ended up somewhere near Emerald Lake, completely missing it. There isn't much of a view from the peak itself. If you hike to the old Tower you will see remnants

Belize & the Abandoned Boat Camp (2022)

Belize & the Abandoned Boat Camp (2022)

We woke up early in the morning in Bahia, packed our gear, cleaned, cooked breakfast, and bid farewell to Brindle, Mama, and Shaggy. They were the stray dogs we had befriended over the past week, who slept on the porch, or under the patio in beds dug out in the sand, or simply in the lawn by the banana trees. With no real plan other than to tramp further south, we set out by foot

Bike Hopping to Marble Canyon (2023)

Bike Hopping to Marble Canyon (2023)

Route 89A took me through Marble Canyon and the Vermillion Cliffs. It's a steep climb over 40 miles to Jacob Lake which chasms through the snowy glades of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Much like Vermont these roads aren't plowed frequently and I knew a storm was brewing in the clouds ready to dump another blanket of snow over the already glistening landscape. But at the time, I just

Herb on a Peak (2023)

Herb on a Peak (2023)

Oftentimes I need to push myself mentally to follow through with new opportunities whether it's starting them at all or sticking with them. It's the anxiety of change and transplanting myself into a group of completely new people that makes it difficult. For some reason this always psyches me out for days until I actually start work, and then I'm usually fine. Since we moved to Vermont I'

Ridin' Dirt Outta 'Kirk (2020)

Ridin' Dirt Outta 'Kirk (2020)

I zigzagged through the green maze, pushing my way through the thick vegetation, limbs and thorns clawing my bare arms and snagging my pants, as I hit walls of impenetrable forest. The faint trail left by other riders over the year had faded to muddy banks with a creek snaking through it. My feet sank into soupy earth as I hopped across the brook traversing the last stretch of woods to reach the hop out