Thumbing through life’s book

Feet on the ground, thumbs held high, hitchhikers are viewed as the mavericks of the open road, beholden to few conventions. So what is Morgan Strub doing organizing one?

“The idea of bringing together hitchhikers seems a little absurd to some people,” says Strub, founder of digihitch.com. “Hitchhikers are seen as very independent and rogue, so we are challenging that perception, reminding people that we are community-oriented.”

The call is out for that community to congregate beginning Sunday at the third annual New Year Hitchhiker Gathering in the desert about 60 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The event will be followed by a cross-country scavenger hunt from the Santa Monica Pier to Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia.

The gathering will be at a locale known as the Slab, near the small town of Niland. The site was suggested by amateur filmmaker Steve Aichele, who will be filming the gathering. It’s “the kind of place no one in their right mind would go,” says Aichele. “It’s a community of people who for one reason or another have dropped out of mainstream society.” The community has a Web site at www.slabcity.org.

Strub has no idea how many people will show up, as the concept of RSVP is foreign -- if not contrary -- to hitchhiking. He asks two things of participants: that they try not to get sloppy, fists-a-flyin’ drunk and that there be no elitist attitudes among what he sees as four general categories of the subculture -- the hippie, punk rocker, nomadic artist and great American drifter or hobo.

The intent is that participants focus on what they hold in common: a realization that the road itself, whether it leads to Topeka or Timbuktu, is the real destination, and that it never ends. Strub started hitchhiking at the age of 16 to get lost, he states on his website. “Now, at 30, I hitchhike to be found.”

He has learned that highways do not lead north, south, east or west as much as they lead inward, to a sense of self-discovery. “We choose our own reality,” he says. “If we want to worry ourselves to death, we can, or we can find out who we are and how to participate in what’s going on around us.”

With words of Jack Kerouac, Walt Whitman, Ken Kesey, John Steinbeck and Johnny Cash close to heart, the road somehow seems to provide to those with open minds, he says.

“I began to develop a life analogy based on hitchhiking and based on the highway that you have to put yourself out there,” he says. “There’s a little risk. You have to understand that it’s not easy, but you can make the connection that will get you maybe not where you thought you wanted to go, but to where it turns out you’re better off.”

For now -- winter -- that means Phoenix. Typical of the traveler’s life, Strub says he is between places, in “vagabond mode.” He was staying in Portland, Ore., for a while, and before that Austin, Texas.

Strub founded digihitch, a website for hitchhikers and other travelers, in 2001. Because many libraries offer free Internet access, it is a viable tool while on the road, Strub says. The site receives about 8,000 visits a month.

“Maybe turning 30 caused me to rethink who I am and what I’m doing,” he says. “I realize now that who I am is someone who wants to create a community, become involved with extraordinary people. It’s like Kerouac said in ‘On the Road’: ‘The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved

Strub acknowledges there are dangers involved in the lifestyle. When a car pulls over, he says, he stands outside the vehicle and looks the driver straight in the eyes and asks, “Where ya headin’?” In 10 seconds, he says, he has a chance to read the situation. If there are signs of drugs, drunkenness or other potential dangers, he says, instinct might cause him to politely turn down the ride.

To drivers, he suggests that if you have doubts, don’t stop. “I’m not going to advocate that people should pick up every hitchhiker they see, that they should feel obligated to pick up nice looking, clean hitchhikers. It should be a personal decision,” he says.

Some of those decisions might leave you alone with little more than your backpack, shadow and footsteps.

“The feeling of being stranded is actually a very beautiful solitude,” he says. “It may seem that I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere, but really I’m connected because soon a car is going to come, and I’m going to meet a new person with experiences to share, and I’ll be part of the American stream. It’s comforting.”

Among those intending to reach the Slab is Tarin Greco, who will be traveling from British Columbia, where he, too, is “between places.” He was in Los Angeles in September, then traveled to San Francisco, Minnesota, New York, Montreal, then the Pacific Northwest.

For Greco and other hitchhikers, there is adventure in the unknown.

“It’s the sense of greater significance that becomes apparent when you’re in a situation where things are less planned and organized and are, perhaps, a bit out of your control,” he says. “We throw things to the wind and see what happens. You discover that so much does happen.”

In hitchhiking as in all else, things are different now. Steinbeck characters had no Internet, fancy equipment, workshops. The gathering will reflect past, present and future, what has changed and what hasn’t.

Activities planned for the gathering include music, award presentations, speakers, workshops, carnival acts and whatever else might be “thrown to the wind.”

On Jan. 3, some of the gatherers will head to the Santa Monica Pier, where they will begin traveling in pairs across the country, documenting their trips with pen and camera while attempting to reach 25 checkpoints.

The journey could take a week, or a month. Or forever.

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New Year’s alternatives

For hitchhikers

What: New Year Hitchhiker Gathering, featuring speakers, awards, workshops, carnival acts, music

Where: Slab City, near Niland, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs

When: Sunday through Jan. 2, followed by a Jan. 3 departure for coast-to-coast scavenger hunt beginning at Santa Monica Pier

Price: Free

Info: ww.digihitch.com

For hikers

What: The 14th annual New Year Hike & Festival, including a hike into the Santa Monica Mountains, where participants will share food, music and midnight cheer

Where: Meet in Pacific Palisades area; call for directions

When: Wednesday, 10 p.m.

Price: $4-$9

Info: (310) 479-5717

For families

What: The 13th annual First Night Fullerton, an alcohol-free event for families, featuring bands, street performers, a petting zoo and midnight fireworks

Where: On Harbor Boulevard between Chapman and Commonwealth avenues

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Price: Free

Info: (714) 738-6545