Tracing Chris's journey

[pezar]

There are a LOT of questions here about what roads Chris took, etc, and I've been trying to match up the info in the book with a Rand McNally The Road Atlas, and here's what I've got:

After leaving the Lake Mead area, he took either US 95 or US 395 through Nevada to Lake Tahoe, and then walked north on the Pacific Crest Trail until he reached Interstate 80. He took 80 to Sacramento, CA, and then took California 99 north past Yuba City, CA. Crazy Ernie's ranch was likely in Butte County, CA, which has any number of offbeat characters on isolated parcels of land.

Then he went to Chico, CA, and took 99 to Red Bluff, at which point he took Interstate 5 to Redding. Then he turned west on California 299 through Weaverville. He was ticketed for hitchhiking at Willow Creek-the area has any number of small, unmarked creeks. 299 ends at Arcata, so he turned north on US 101. Orick, where he met Jan Burres, is about 20 miles north of Arcata on 101.

After leaving Jan and Bob, he hitched north on 101 along the Pacific coast through Oregon and Washington, ending up at the northern terminus of Seattle. Then he took US 2 through the deserts of eastern Washington, through Spokane, WA, Bonners Ferry, ID, and Libby and Kalispell, MT to Cut Bank, MT where he was picked up by Wayne Westerberg. Sunburst is about 40 miles to the NE of Cut Bank. Carthage is in eastern SD, and the post office he used is in Madison.

Then he took the interstates to Needles, CA, walked to Topock, and bought the canoe and paddled it to Mexico. (That area is full of heavily armed drug runners today, by the way. The same journey will probably get you killed today.) Then he tramped around the deserts, going to Bullhead City, AZ, Salton City, CA, and Niland, CA. He at one point apparently went back up US 101 to Astoria, OR. There is only one paved route between southern British Columbia and Fairbanks.