FC's Journal #20 - July 18, 2003 - 2:29 am
Howdy y'all. Sorry I don't have anything too crazy to report this time... I've been back home in Minneapolis for almost two weeks now. I'm ready to get out of dodge and start trampin' some more... If Bart would ever get his sorry ass up here (heh)... Yeah, so, Bart has had some trouble getting here from Chicago, but that's gonna' change now. He's coming up here and then next weekend Bart, Axel, and I are gonna' try to tramp to Superior (think Duluth) for the weekend. It will be a little bit of a scouting trip for Trampfest... In fact, we might try to meet up with Brakeshoe while we are there (he's supposedly gonna' be in town about the same time) and hang out with him. I called Portland and Klamath Falls the other day... No warrants for me in either place. That rocks, 'cause if ya' remember, I thought for sure I had one after the second time I got ticketed on UP property.

Axel and I drove all over today checking out a few places to catch out... We went to 23rd and Jefferson, a spot that is supposed to be good for catching northbound (or westbound) trains entering the northtown BN yard... It's all of about a block away from a spot where I got caught by a special agent a few years back (that's a hella' long story... Suffice it to say, I'm so cool I managed to get caught by a CP SA on BN property. It sucked.) The trains usually stop about there for clearance before entering the yard. Then we went to St. Paul to check out the so called 'Diamond'... It's just a wye (think triangle where three different train lines meet). Anyway, we should be able to catch a UP train headed north out of the South St. Paul yard on the fly about here... The problem being that we would have to just hope that it goes to Superior... It should, I mean, I think that after the wye you are on the BN mainline and that all UP traffic should be going to Superior (I hope). We also checked out the South St. Paul UP yard as well... It's a bit bigger a yard than I remember. Hopefully we'll be able to enter the yard on the north end and just wait there for something to be built up, and then we'll jump on before it leaves the yard. It seems like trains sometimes get put on the north end of the yard for a while before they actually leave the yard. That's what happened last summer when Arky and I went up to Superior, and that's what Brakeshoe said happened to him earlier this summer. Hopefully we have a decent idea for a catch out spot now... Now if we can stay sane until our train shows up (the bugs are really bad there and it might be a while wait before something departs...), we should be good to go.

After checking train yards, we spent the next several hours dumpstering all over the place. I've never seen so much junk food. Axel and I make a pretty good pair for dumpstering... He's vegan and I'm freegan, so anything that's vegan he gets and anything that's vegetarian I get. I got about fifty little bags of chips, a couple boxes of donuts, some candy bars, and some cookies... Ugh... Yeah! All junk-food diet! In the middle of the dumpstering marathon we went to Fazoli’s to try Axel's dream of the bread stick scam... This fast food restaurant chain serves breadsticks for free to their patrons as they dine. So we went in and got a couple plates out of the garbage and sat down and waited... Before too long the lady came by and asked if we wanted a couple more bread sticks... We did. We repeated this for a good hour or so before the lady just gave us a pile of them... Ugh... Anyway, we can safely say that the scam worked fairly well. I almost wonder if they knew what was up from the get go and just didn't care, but whatever... I did feel a little guilty, but whatever... We were hungry and the bread sticks that were in their dumpster had been burned to a crisp. I think that's about all that's new for now. I know, pretty lame update, but hopefully soon I'll have more adventures to report. After we get back from Superior, Bart and I are gonna' try and tramp around some before Trampfest. We haven't really decided where to go yet, but are thinkin' maybe the east coast. That would be new for me... Or maybe stay local to the midwest, or maybe the south again, or maybe Canada, or maybe Sturgis (if it hasn't happened yet...). All equally good possibilities... Okay, well, I hope all is well out there. ---FC

FC's Journal #21 - July 21, 2003 - 6:14 pm
Okay, finally I have a real adventure to report. Bart, Axel, and I managed to hop up to Superior and back again... Last week Bart finally managed to make it to town. He had had outside 'difficulties' that were limiting his tramping abilities, but they have since been removed. So he caught the BN highline out of Chicago to minneapolis. We spent the next week doing very little of anything. One night the three of us were hanging out downtown. I ran into my old buddy Ivaylo, and while I was talking to him this woman walked up to us and asked if any of us were fans of hip-hop. She was selling albums of some new band. When I told her I was traveling around and had no money, she commented on my Public Enemy t-shirt. Anyway, she went away but came back a few minutes later with a free CD for me... Wow, the new ‘Diligence’ CD, just what I wanted... The truly hilarious thing was the name of the album, ‘My Word and My Nuts from the Heart’. Uh, okay... It's horrible.

Come Thursday night we packed up our gear and drove to the Lowry catchout spot. It's a couple of blocks south of the signals that many trains stop at before entering the Northtown BN yard. The thing is that we were waiting on CP and UP trains, not BN... So anything may happen. Considering they were reputed to have only one or two trains going north each day, and they may not even stop at the signals, we figured we may be waiting a long time. In fact, I figured it was wholly likely that we may not even successfully catchout from this point, but I thought it was still a good place to try. We needn't have worried. We waited all of about two hours before a UP train slowly rolled past us. After seeing an open boxcar roll past, we hopped on some cars ladders. We rode them 'til the train stopped and then ran down the train to our boxcar. The train was stopped at the signals. After getting comfortable and finding a spike for the door, I decided I would walk up to the units to ask the engineers if we were headed to Superior. They were super nice and offered me a ride on the last unit, but I figured they would change their story if I came up front with two other folks... Anyway, they confirmed we were going to Superior. I asked them about the fact that the units on this train were both UP and CP. They said that UP and CP have an agreement to share power, and that besides, they are probably going to merge soon enough anyway. After chatting for a minute, I ran back to our boxcar.

We rode without incident all morning. At one point we passed a Norfolk Southern train... What the hell is NS doing this far north? It was a fairly quick trip: about six hours up to Superior. When we rolled in, we were all crashed out. I knew we were backing into a train yard, but I was too tired to care. We stayed rolled out for a moment. Bart decided to get up and check... And just then we cut power. We rolled up our gear and jumped off. We were not in the yard proper, but a holding area. We walked a ways down and saw a sign for 'Itasca yard'... Oh shit, we aren't in Superior! We sat down for a minute to try and figure out just where in hell we were... Before long we realized that the UP yard in Superior is known as the Itasca yard, and therefore we were in Superior. So we started walking towards the city.

We stood thumbing for a ride in front of the same gas station I stood in front of last summer with Arky. Before very long a nice, but slightly kooky, guy with a big head picked us up. We talked about Republicans and Democrats. He dropped us off on the other side of Superior. Now all we had to do was cross a bridge and we'd be in Duluth. He advised us that the only bridge with walk path was another two or three miles down the road and that it would put us way out of the city. We tried our luck hitching from a gas station. Axel managed to get us a ride across the bridge, but not before we enjoyed a continental breakfast at the hotel across the street. Our new ride drove us right up to in front of the Duluth rail museum, a place where would try unsuccessfully to get into for the next two days.

The rest of the day we mostly wandered around Duluth, hung out at Canal Park, slept behind a parking garage, dumpstered food, and the like. That night we went to a show at a Christian skate park. It was lame. Were by far the oldest people there, not including parents. I felt like a pedaphile, heh. Anyway, we got out of there before long and went to a punk show down the street. As soon as we showed up a girl asked us if we had taken the train. Enthralled, we talked about freights for some time. She had never really ridden before, but had tried to hop out of Superior once and failed. I gave her my crew change guide so she could copy it and return it to me. I didn't see it again. I should have figured but I always act like an ass around girls. Turns out she was a lesbian anyway... Just my luck. Before long the cops showed up and asked us to leave. They were being really nice, as cops go, but the Duluth punk population acted like Hitler had arrived. They walked around yelling things about facism and the 'Duluth Police State' and the like. Punks (and most anarchists) are so funny...

Anyway, the show got moved to a place way across town. We got a ride there with a girl named R. It was a fun show. The first two bands were actually fairly good. The last band was horrible. After destroying their keyboard, they tried to make music out of power tools (a la Savage Aural Hotbed), but failed miserably. It was fun hanging out with folks there. A number of kidz had ridden trains before, including a guy named Tom who was really nice. About the time some kidz broke out kerosene and started spinning fire, we decided it was good time to be elsewhere. Drunk punks plus fire seemed like an easy way to watch someone get burned alive, or have the cops show up at the least. The kidz hosting the show offered their house to us to stay at, but it was something like sixty blocks out of downtown... Instead we got a ride back with R and stayed at her place.

The next morning we woke up and walked into the city. We spent the day much as we had the day before: walking around Canal Park and dumpstering. I managed to convince Axel and Bart to stop by my favorite art store in the whole world. Axel and I went in and spent some time looking the place over... Nothing in the store is cheap, but it's all worth what they ask. Now if I only had some money... Maybe someday. If any of y'all ever go through Duluth, try to make it by the Sivertson Gallery. After wandering around some more, we thought we'd give the rail museum another shot. We had been told we couldn't get in for free twice already. I asked this time, but to no avail. Afterwards we walked downstairs to see if someone cool was working the door and maybe they would just look the other way when we entered. No luck there either. The museum also runs a shortline train that visitors can pay to ride.

While we were hanging out, a conductor came up to us to ask if we were gonna' ride the train. We told him that we were hobos up from the cities and we plead our case. He said that we probably would be able to ride, but he would have to check. He ended up asking the museum director and got a thumbs up. The so-called Pizza Train runs about twenty miles out of the city and then comes back. It takes about two hours. While we rode we entertained folks with hobo stories and answered folks questions about trains. It was rather funny that we didn't have to introduce ourselves as hobos, most folks seemed to know what was up. They showered us with free pizza. At one point, I was walking down a car and a small boy asked his father, ‘Daddy, who's that guy?’ while pointing to me. His father responded, ‘That's a hobo…’ Awesome. After the train ride it was raining hard. We hung out under a bridge while getting out our rain gear and such... By the time we were ready, it had stopped raining. Figures...

We walked down the way to a bowling alley Axel had found free tickets to. It was free to bowl but we had to rent shoes. We had no money so we sat around and watched Jackass instead. We walked up the way to Pizza Luce and hung out with the bar bouncer. He wouldn't let us in without three dollars cover (there was a show), but he did let us hang out in front and hit folks up for a ride to Superior. We made a little sign, but weren't particularly proactive about trying to get a ride. The bouncer was a nice guy though and let Axel go in and ask if they were throwing out any food. He got a pizza that Axel and Bart couldn't/wouldn't eat, but I could and did. After a while we wandered back to the bridge to spend the night. We climbed up some signs to get under the bridge support columns. We were probably about ten feet up, so if we rolled off in our sleep it would hurt. No problems though.

The next morning we spent a little while waking up and then walked to the onramp to get a ride to Superior. After only an hour or so, we got a ride with a super nice guy who said he had just gotten off a sixteen hour shift and had another one coming up in just another six hours or so... And here he was driving us out of his way. Really nice guy. He dropped us off right at the UP yard and wished us luck. The only activity was going on in front of the yard office. Being day and all, we didn't want to talk to workers right by the yard dick, so we walked to the other side of the yard and hung out to see what was going on. A decent amount of activity was going on for such a small yard. There was a train that seemed to be built up and waiting for power on or near the mainline. We walked the train to the southern end to see if it had a FRED on it. Nope. Cool. At one point, a car drove up to a crossing near where we were standing. The driver pulled over to us and asked if we were there to catch a train. He looked oddly familiar. We said yes, and realized that he was the dude with the big head who had picked us up hitching a couple days before. Weird.

While we were here we saw a train leaving the yard further down. It had stacks on it (wtf?). We ran down to see that it was a Wisconsin Central train (now owned by Canadian National). The stack cars were only the first six cars or so. I asked where they were headed and the engineer said he was coming up from the cities and headed to the Pokegama CN yard, but would give us a ride to the BN yard if we wanted to. It seemed like a nice chance, so we rode the last unit. After swapping a few cars out we came under a bridge. The train stopped and the engineer came back to tell us we were here... Only here wasn't the BN yard. We were on some trackage a good six miles or so down from the BN yard (MP 10.2). He told us that it was a good place to catch trains southbound. We had our reservations, but got off. He told us coal trains and BN trains both came this way, and we could take either to the cities.

We waited there all day long. I did something kinda' gross (nothing new). We spent the day killing flies and throwing rocks at a string that was sitting by. There was an old BN crew shed that had fallen into disrepair. We hung out in the shade by it for a while. Later in the afternoon, a BN coal train came by us southbound. We ran out to it, but it wasn't loaded, and therefore unrideable. Bart invented on the spot a good way to check and see if the hoppers are loaded: simply throw a rock over the side and if it isn't loaded, it will bang, if it is, you won't hear it land. The train was moving so it was a good way to check quickly to see if it was worth catching on the fly. I dropped my gear and jumped on three different cars to see if any of them had ladders or were partially filled. Nope. We watched the train leave... It was starting to get near dark and we considered walking up the way and trying to hitch back to a trainyard.

Before long another coal train came by. This time when we ran down to meet it and tried the rock trick we found that it was loaded. We caught it on the fly and jumped on different cars. We peered inside... It was loaded, but not with coal, but with taconite. Taconite is an impure form of iron. Anyway, this was even better than coal, as it's not as messy. I made my way down to where Axel was and Bart crossed over a couple cars so that we were all in the same hopper. This was a new experience for me, as was riding taconite. Interesting thing about taconite: it's made of iron. And iron conducts heat rather well. This car had been sitting in the sun all day and now the tac was rather warm. As the sun set and the surrounding ambient air cooled as well, we stayed nice and warm on our bed of taconite. The train left and proceeded to be rather slow for the first few hours, stopping every ten miles or so. Finally they opened it up and the train blasted along at a good speed the rest of the night. About one in the morning we got into the Northtown BN yard. We waited until we were past the northern yard office, but then got off as the train crawled through the yard. We sprinted for the bushes and fence gate. I crashed into a pile of railroad ties and cut up my leg, but it's okay now. We got out alright and made our way back to Axel's van. He drove us to his place and we spent the night.

All things considered, it was a great trip. We had good luck finding trains and the rides were fast. We got quick rides with folks when hitching. And there were a bunch of cool folks that helped us with food or places to stay... Not too shabby. Unlike my gear... I believe every piece of gear is now either torn, falling apart, or is broken in some way. My pants are threadbare and need to be patched. My boots now have a hole in the side of them, and have numerous holes in the soles. My gloves are torn, as are every pair of hiking socks I have. My backpack is gonna' burst before long, and my duffle bag is covered in holes. I had to retire my Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt as it is nearly torn apart. Ugh... Most of these things can be either patched or replaced rather easily, but I don't know what I'm gonna' do about my boots. I've been using 'em for nearly a decade now and I don't have the slightest idea how to replace them. Add to it that I have no money (this is a literal statement). Well, I'll make due somehow. I usually do. I'm not sure what my plans are before Trampfest now... I was gonna' tramp out east with Bart, but now I'm not so sure. I think I need to stop and rest and try to make some money and replace/fix gear before continuing on. Also, my Ma is having surgery later this week. I haven't even told him yet, but soon I'll have to as he gets these emails too... Okay, I hope all is well out there. ---FC

FC's Journal #22 - July 23, 2003 - 5:50 pm
Just a quick update... I've decided to go to Chicago with Bart after all. From there I'm not sure if we'll go east or not, but I'll at least hang out for a couple days there. I'm down to quite literally my last dollar, but I did manage to find a pair of replacement boots. Axel and I dumpstered them from REI a few months back. They just happened to be my size, and at the time I didn't think they were in very good repair... But compared to my current pair they look rather nice. So I made some cardboard insoles for them today, and now they fit pretty good. I'm gonna' have to spend some time patching my gear when I'm in Chicago, but that should be alright. I'll get to hang out with my buddy KC and see his new place. Axel's gonna' give Bart and I a ride to the CP yard in a few minutes... Hopefully this trip will go as easily as it has in the past. The 6:30pm CP train is amazingly accurate. Unlike nearly all other trains that seem to run at random times, this train always leaves at 6:30pm or shortly there after. But Axel just got here... So I gotta' go. Wish us luck. Hope all is well. ---FC

FC's Journal #23 - July 23, 2003 - 11:06 pm
...Heh... Somebody do me a favor and stop me from ever saying anything train related is guaranteed. We got to the CP yard a little late at about 6:10pm. The train leaves usually right at 6:30, so we were kinda' pushing our luck. Anyway, when we got there nothing was going on in the yard except for a couple semi trucks and one container lifter driving around. There was no train built up the best we could see. We thought maybe the train had been early and we might have missed it, but we decided to wait and see what was going on. When we first got to the yard, we were gonna' enter from the golf course, as we usually do, but some golfer dude pulled up in a golf cart. I was already on CP property and fortunately the jackass didn't see me, but Axel and Bart got a bit of a talking to from the guy. He said stay off of their property.

Anyway, we went back to the jungle area next to the tracks to look into the yard. We finally saw a little bit of action and decided that they were building a string, but being a little pokey about it and doing so away from where they usually do. So we waited by the gas station for an hour or so before venturing back to the yard. As we did the string started to move a little... I racked myself in the jewels when crossing a fence (my boys are still complaining a bit), but I figure it was my payment for saying this train was a sure thing. We figured that it wasn't taking off as it still had yard units attached to the other end. Even so, we ran out to the train to get on a few wells that looked rideable. They weren't... And there was a SUV sitting on the other side of the train directly across from where we were gonna' get on. Shit... We ran for the woods and waited to see what it was gonna' do. It stopped again and must have cut the wrong end units off, but we didn't realize it from our vantage point. The train aired and took off. The train left without us on it due to the fact there were no rideable cars on that end of it, and there was the bull on the other side of the train... Or so we thought.

After the train left, a worker got out of the SUV and pulled a switch. It wasn't the bull after all. Shit... We had missed our train. Axel drove us down the line to see if the train was gonna' slow or stop for any signals, but it took off. He then drove us to the Midway BNSF yard... Right after he left we watched as the bull drove the yard. This time I'm sure it was the bull 'cause it was a white SUV with insignia up the wazoo all over the sides... This really sucks 'cause we've been really babied in the past with no real security in this yard. The last couple times I've been past the yard I've seen a bull patrolling... Grrr... We decided to chock this all up to bad luck and try our luck at CP again tomorrow. The CP ride would be a lot nicer for us 'cause it drops us off right near where Bart's car is. The BN Clyde yard in Cicero is way the heck away from his place... Add that to the fact that with CP it seems to usually be stacks, while BN is usually pigs. And most of us greatly prefer stacks to pigs, myself included... Okay, so we'll try our luck tomorrow. Now, to try and appease the train gods that I must have pissed off with my arrogance... Trains never run the way they are supposed to, and rarely run the way you expect them to. That having been said, I'm going to read some and go to sleep. Hope all is well. ---FC

FC's Journal #24 - August 1, 2003 - 12:07 pm
Howdy all. Gotta' keep this hella' short... I don't have much time to type, I'm afraid. Bart and I are in Philadelphia right now. The short recap is something of the following... Axel let us stay at his place for two weeks (Thanx Axel!), then drove us to various different train yards over a course of two days (Thanx Axel!)... We finally managed to catch the 6:30pm CP train to Chicago. We hung out in Chicago for a few days... I stayed at KC's new place (Thanx KC!) and his cousin drove us to the NS yard. We waited there for 14 hours, but finally managed to catch an eastbound NS stack train. We took it all the way to Harrisburg, PA, where it was block swapped and sent out to parts unknown. We eventually figured out that it was headed to Norwalk, NJ (basically NYC). We wanted to go to Philly, so we jumped ship the next time the train pulled into a siding. We crash-landed in a pissant Jersey town near the NJ/PA border. We slept, then hitched and finally got a ride over the border to a little town called Easton, PA. Bart bought us $10 Greyhound tickets (Thanx Bart!) to Philly, and we got in a little while ago. We plan on heading to the CSX yard tonight to get a westbound train back to Chicago, or possibly sticking around for a day or two. I'm totally out of money though, so my resources are limited. Anyway, Bart has been good enough to lend me a little cash for buses and such. Anyway, I gotta' go. Hope all is well out there. ---FC

FC's Journal #25 - August 12, 2003 - 8:10 pm
Howdy y'all. Well, we are finally back in Minneapolis. I don't have a lot of time to type this time either, so I've gotta' keep this fairly short... When we got into Philly we managed to bump into a rad kid named D, who put us up for the night. We hung out with a bunch of punks (including two that were at Dunsmuir) for a day or so and then went to the CSX yard. After a couple misadventures we caught a westbound stack train back to Chicago. We hung out there for a little less than a week... KC was nice enough to put me up again (thanx KC!). Last night Bart and I caught a westbound stack train out of the BNSF Clyde yard back to here. Next up is Trampfest, which we are planning on leaving for shortly. We would like to leave tonight, but I think we are gonna' try and wait one more day to see if Axel gets back to town. Then if he ain't back by midday tomorrow, we might just leave anyway (sorry dood)... Turns out that Trampfest starts on Thursday, not Friday, as we had thought. It sounds like fun. Oh, a bit of humor... I was thinking of heading west after TF to try and take care of my warrant. Heh... No warrant. When I missed my court date (I had tried to reschedule it) they just simply found me guilty of Criminal Trespassing and assigned a nice reasonable fine of $700. Heh. Suffice it to say, I can't pay it. Hell, I couldn't pay it if it was one percent of that. I don't know what I'll do, but I'm starting to think that this might be the last leg of my journey for a while... After TF, I might try to settle down for a while and work some... Yuck. Okay, well, like I said, I gotta' keep this short. I hope all is well out there... ---FC

FC's Journal #26 - August 22, 2003 - 10:43 am
Howdy y'all. I'm back in Minneapolis. I gotta' keep this email short, just like all the others... As my friend Ari just posted in her most recent journal update, it's getting to be rather ridiculous to even try to write all the things that have happened as of late. There may come a time when I stop doing these updates... So enjoy them while you can. Bart and I are headed back out to the west coast again tonight. We're gonna' take the highline out to Seattle, hang out there with a few cool kidz we know, and then hop down the coast to Santa Cruz. I might end up staying somewhere out there for the winter, but I don't really know yet. Anyway, quick update about Trampfest...

Bart and I caught a UP/Soo train up to Superior with little problem. We waited by the signals on the south side of the North Town BNSF yard. A ton of folks waited at the South St. Paul UP yard though, and had all kinds of problems catching out. We made it up to TF by Thursday morning. The next four days were spent drinking, smoking, bullshiting, laughing, yelling, swimming, resting, and telling tramp stories. There were many drunk oogles (think gutter punks without brains) this year. Two folks were forcibly removed from camp for being disruptive. We had very little problems with the cops. The camp was on a peninsula on the edge of norther Superior. It was beautiful to say the least. Anyway, I could go on and on, but I don't have time for it... On the way back, Bart, Arky, a girl named K, and I all hopped a gondola from the UP Itasca yard. Heh... Wrong train. It was a UP running on the old Wisconsin Central (now CN) line to Milwaukee. We stopped in Marshfield and all got pulled off the train by the local cops. There were a grand total of 13 of us on it. Anyway, we were all cited tiny tickets and told not to come back. We all ended up hitch-hiking back to where-ever we were headed. Bart and I got a fairly quick ride the next morning back to the cities. Well, apparently there wasn't much going on in Marshfield that day, 'cause we made the front page news the next day. We even heard it over the radio when we got a ride... [2022 note:There was a newspaper write up about it, but the original story is long gone. But Northbank Fred has a write up of it - see below.] Okay... I gotta' go. Wish me luck with my travels and deciding what I wanna' do with the rest of the year. Hope all is well. ---FC

Northbank Fred write up re Marshfield