O'Brien, OR
Monday, January 27, 2003
Okay, I finally got a cassette. The time is now one fifty five. It's Monday, the twenty seventh of January. A lot of time has passed since I ran out of blank cassettes to make entries on. Let me tell you what happened.
Last place I told you I was at was Berkeley. I was flying my sign in Berkeley and this girl came up to me and talked to me for hours(I might have already told you about this so I might be wasting tape). Anyway, she talked to me for hours and invited me to go drink some beers with her friend at her apartment. I went with her and met her friend Kate. Kate was just awesome. She was the coolest chick in the world. I told Kate about my traveling and she said, "Oh, you want to go to Arcata? Company would be cool for the trip." I told her, "Umm, you mean Northern California, Humboldt County, where all the weed is Arcata?" She said yeah, that she was going in two days. Bam, I got a five hour free ride to Arcata. Humboldt County is known for weed.
Arcata was badass. It was almost a model for the utopia I envision, except money was still in control. Everybody was cool though. I just got stuff. Kate let me crash at her house the first night and then I crashed at the marsh the second night. Some big natural marsh thing out there.
Shit, I'm in the woods now and this big bee is buzzing around my head. I'm in the mountain and I'm not sure about mountain bees. If they're dangerous or not. It's a lot bigger than the bees I have seen before. I wish it would go away.
Okay, it went away. Anyway, shit. Let me rewind it and see where I left off.
Okay, Arcata was cool. It wasn't as cool as Berkeley. It was cool just because there weren't that many people and all beautiful in Northern California. Also, there are absolutely no ghettos in Arcata. It's just cool there.
They had only one meal a day at the Endeavor place there. It was at eleven thirty. I got bored of Arcata after a while. I couldn't really fly my sign because there weren't that many pedestrians. I got so bored.
I'm going back to Berkeley. Umm, I don't have a ride to Berkeley, but I sure as hell can walk back. Berkeley was like a little under three hundred miles away. I was almost positive someone would pick me up again. I wasn't going to stick out my thumb or nothing. I was just going to walk.
So, I caught the bus to Scotia. The Southernmost I could get from Arcata, about thirty miles South. I got off the bus and just starting walking 101 South. The first night I lucked out. Right when the sun came down I walked up to this RV park on Stafford Road. I walked up to the manager's trailer and through the sliding glass door saw him sitting down watching television with his kids. I knocked and said, "I noticed your sign said camping. I just need a place to rest my feet. Got any place I can crash for free?" He told me I couldn't, that it was too wet. I told him, "I don't see why that matters, but I guess I'll just go sleep under the bridge I just passed." He thought that was a good idea. Kind of pissed, I walked out of the RV park. I didn't walk too far before I turned around. The manager had sat back down and was paying attention to the television. I just walked past his house and into the RV park. I was going to walk around and see if there were any tenants outside that I could strike up a conversation with.
I saw this young guy maybe around my age talking to his father(I was guessing). I walked up to them and said hello. They said hi and I told them, "I don't suppose I would be fortunate enough for either of you to have a cigarette?" They told me, "No speak English." So, I talked to them in Spanish, which I'm glad I know. I told them how I left walking from San Antonio. I told them how the manager said it was too wet for any campers and that I was going to have to sleep under the bridge. The younger Mexican guy told me that I could sleep in the back in this building. I told him the manager had already said I couldn't and he told me not to worry about it. It turns out the kid worked there. He told me to just go crash in this cool little covering that they were using for storage. Badass, huh? I am so glad I got the urge to walk back into the RV park. I got a roof over my head for tonight. Didn't cost me a damn thing either. Sleeping under the bridge under 101 would've sucked because I would have to sleep on the sidewalk right next to the road. There was this rolled up carpet in the place I was going to sleep. I unrolled it and it made a great bed. I unrolled my blanket and slept great. Well, except for in the middle of the night a skunk woke me up and stole all my food. In the morning, I went and took a shit and brushed my teeth in the restroom building where they had showers for campers.
I kept walking the next morning. Hmm, this story gets a little hard to tell right here. I was walking South on 101 over where Eel River runs past it. It was lightly raining. Now, on the last rest I took there wasn't anyone around to help me put my poncho over my rucksack. I can't do it myself because my arms can't reach. I saw the road exited to the left and I assumed there would be a cross street soon and a bridge under 101 where I could rest my feet and get out of the rain. Sure enough, there was. I went under the bridge and rested my feet. When cars stopped at the four-way stop intersection I would point to my poncho asking for help. The intersection was South Fork Eel River. No one stopped because they thought I was asking for a ride.
I rested for about half an hour, then I got up. I saw an arrow pointing "freeway south." That's where I need to go. All of a sudden, I walk into a forest! Avenue of the Giants, I later found out it was called. All these big tall redwood trees. The road that I was walking on in the forest seemed to run parallel to 101. I passed up the Freeway South on-ramp and kept walking straight on the access road.
About a quarter mile into the forest the road turns to the left and barely touches 101. I saw that I could just hop over the railing to get on the highway there.
At that spot, I saw a truck pulled over. I thought, "Cool, somebody can help me with my poncho. It's starting to rain a little harder." I wasn't going to ask for a ride. They were going North. I walked up to the truck and saw this young couple, about my age. I asked the guy if he could help me put my rain poncho over my bag. He told me sure and seemed very nice. His name was Tony and was riding with his girlfriend Molly. I had asked Tony if he could give me a ride to Weott, the next town South. Tony said sure, that when his friend got there with gas he would be glad to.
Now check this out. Tony hadn't run out of gas yet. Tony had noticed that he was about to run out of gas and knew he didn't have enough to make it to the next town. So he chose that random spot to stop and call someone on his cellphone to come bring him gas.
Now just think of all the factors involved in our meeting. If it hadn't been raining, if I hadn't been tired and rested my feet, if I would've taken the access road to the highway, I would never have ended up going through that forest and would've walked way past the point that Tony chose to stop. Crazy huh? Oh yeah, wait until I explain to you the great importance of our meeting.
I hung out with Tony and Molly. They let me set my big rucksack down in the bed of the truck, which was filled with lumber. They were both cool as shit. I stood at the truck by my rucksack and told them about my travels. Molly told me to come over by her window, that she couldn't hear me well. I walked over to Molly's door and talked with her and Tony. I pulled out my pipe and asked them if they burned. I told them that I was on my last hit but they were welcome to it if they wanted. Tony told me not to worry about it, that they had it covered and handed me a loaded pipe! Badass. I stumbled onto stoners that are my age. Shweet.
I told them about my mission objectives and Tony said, "Wow, that sounds pretty much like what we are working for too." Dude, what great luck, huh? Tony then told me that they were on their way to Oregon. That in a town called O'Brien, that was about six miles North of the California border, that there was a healing camp run by Vietnam vets with a medicine woman and everything. They were a self-sustaining community that lived without money. Exactly how I want the whole world to be! Tony asked me if I wanted to go. I thought about it for a second. I really felt like I should be getting back to Berkeley and back to work. Ahh, screw it. I can go back to Berkeley after I see Oregon. I'm not about to pass up such an excellent opportunity.
When the gas finally got there we drove back up to Arcata and crashed at Tony's friend Jesse's apartment. The next day they drove me up to Oregon. Oregon! I had always wanted to see Oregon. Chasity and I used to talk about moving to Portland all the time.
I'm at this healing camp now. I just took a hike up into the mountains right now. Real mountains. This sure as hell isn't San Antonio. This camp is like a dream come true. This little community out here lives without money. They are all minimalists like me. They're survivors. They don't play the game. About seven or eight people live here. Let me give you a cast of residents. Shadow is the property owner. I'm not sure how old he is. I'm guessing around fifty or so. He is a Vietnam veteran. Shadow owns forty acres on Lone Mountain Road. He lives in a huge old barn. It's surprisingly nice and comfortable in there. He only lives on the top floor of the barn. You go inside and up the stairs up to the kitchen. Past the kitchen you can enter the den. The den is the hangout room. They got satellite TV, a CD player, Playstation 2 and a lot of other cool shit. Rooms are divided by blankets nailed to the ceilings.
One of the coolest things about this place is that everybody smokes. I don't mean just tobacco either. They are always passing around some weed, especially when they're chilling out in the den watching TV or something. Wow, what an awesome dream I'm living. I feel so accepted and comfortable here. When I first got to the camp I was supposed to be helping build the kitchen that was in front of Shadow's barn. The first day I did help and I hammered some nails that were too tall for the others. At times when I offered help they made it seem like it would only slow them down, because of the rhythm they had set up. The kitchen was Kyle's project. Well, not really. It was everyone's. After completion it would serve as kitchen for the whole camp. Months had gone by and no progress had been made. They already had built the floor, deck, roof, put in a ceiling and that's about it. With the wood Tony brought down they were able to make some walls and put up a little siding. Like I said, I helped as much as I could.
Now Kyle was this dude who lived in this cool house he made for himself out of two trailers. He had a long trailer, that he used as a kitchen and stuff, then he had a smaller travel trailer attached to the other one which he used as a bedroom. He built a room connecting the two trailers and in it he had a wood-burning stove and a small black and white TV. He lived there with Angela, his girlfriend. It was a really comfortable spot.
Sometimes I would feel uncomfortable here. I felt like I should be helping more to "pay my rent." Although, when I brought that concern up to mom(Fawn), she told me I had nothing to worry about. She told me that she had spoken to the spirits about me. They told her that I was a child of love, a beam of light for others to follow. They said I was the one that was going to bring balance to this the world. Fawn told me not to worry, that they were there for people who really were on a mission, not just wasting time. She said not to worry about anything. That I would leave when the time was right.
Umm, I could end up writing so much stuff about all the people right now, but I'm not going to. I'll just describe people as I talk about them.
There's a medicine woman here named Fawn which everyone calls mom. She's the nicest lady in the world. She's always feeding me. Oh yeah, the first night when they were deciding where I should sleep I got my own travel trailer! It's like a little civilized room out here in the wilderness. A mattress and blankets and everything. I can even stretch out on the bed in there. I'm six foot six. This is so badass. None of the utilities work inside. There's no power or water. But hey, it's a roof over my head and a warm place to sleep.
The first day I was here I woke up early and started walking around and I met this guy named Wolfsong. This guy Jody who had just gotten out of prison for "something he didn't do." He lives in a bus. Some of the people out here live in old buses. Originally, when Tony invited me up here I was supposed to be help for a kitchen they're building on the camp. That's what all the wood in the back of Tony's truck was for. They want to make a public kitchen with a shower even. Oh yeah. There is no running water at the camp either...yet.
So I'm helping them build this kitchen. Today I asked for a day off so I could climb up the mountain. The camp is at the base of a mountain. I want to climb it to the top.
This is so awesome. In all the woods I walked through in San Antonio I have never come across nature as beautiful as here. It just rained yesterday so everything's all wet. My army boots fit in perfectly. I'm so glad I found these before I left. They've kept my feet dry the whole time. Damn, there is so much I left out of the experience getting here. I haven't had a tape. Hopefully I'll remember it when I go to type it up.
I came into town with Dave, one of the guy's from the camp. He was nice enough to bring me to the Radio Shack in Cave Junction where he bought me a blank mini-cassette. Cool, so I'm taping stuff again. They were three dollars for one 90 minute tape. In Berkeley I was paying one dollar per sixty minute tape at Eid's. What a rip-off. Shit's expensive up here.
Well anyway, I'm climbing up the hill right now. I went to Fawn's first and asked her if she had any gasoline for my stomach, hehe. She gave me some bagels and I refilled my water. Man, this place is just awesome. I can't believe I ended up here. I'm going to tell everyone about this place. My book is going to be the coolest in the world. Okay, I'm going to keep hiking up this mountain. I just stopped to smoke a cigarette and eat. Umm, and to record this, of course.
Okay, the time is about three thirty right now. I didn't go all the way to the top. The more I kept climbing the more I saw how big a bitch it would be to come down. Plus, it was getting late and it would take me like five hours to climb up and down that thing. I ate all my food. I was hungry. I might as well head back down. But, to the left of me I can hear running water. I hear like a river flowing or something. Before I climbed up here Shadow warned me not to get lost. The whole time I was thinking, "Couldn't I just look back and see the camp?" All the way up to where I have climbed I can see the roof to shadow's barn, just as I suspected. I came up about a fourth of the way up the hill. Probably a little more. I sat down and decided I should head back. It has been an adventure coming down though. I'm not following any trail. I'm just going down the mountain.
I made it to the stream though. I thought, "I'm going to find the stream and then follow it back to the camp." I got to the stream and it's a really nice stream. It's nice and pretty. This is where all the water comes together and down the hill. Man, I'm really glad I have these boots. I got to this part where the stream splits up like a little delta. It's not really a stream. Well, it is, but there's not like a riverbed or anything. It's just water running down. That's awesome. Hmm, I see a deer blind or something over there. I'm going to go check it out.
Cool, I found a little shelter back here. There's a little platform here with a mattress and a roof. There's a blanket in it. Oh cool, I hear another stream this way. I'm going to walk until I find it. I can still see the roof of Shadow's barn.
Okay, this looks like a river. It's got banks and the water is flowing good. Actually, I don't know if it's big enough to call a river. I say it's more like a stream. Maybe a creek. I don't know. I'm going to follow the river. Umm, the stream I mean.
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