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Walking South to O'Brien to Takilma, OR

Tuesday July 21, 2003

     7:10am  I just woke up in this forest here. I found a place in the woods to crash. Man, this place is just beautiful. All these trees and plants around me. It's like a rainforest. Anyway, I found a place to take a shit. It's a good thing I always have that roll of toilet paper on me. I got all my stuff loaded up and I'm walking now.

                   Jebediah Smith Redwood State Park. That's where I am. Campground four miles. Hmm, there's going to be some civilization soon. Water. Dude, I am completely out of food.

     7:20am  I just passed a mile marker, I think. It said 157 on it.

     7:24am  Mile marker 172. Damn, this forest is damn beautiful.

     7:30am  Passing the Emilia Earhart Memorial Grove. Jebediah Smith State Park.

     7:38am  I was just walking and Moses stopped his truck and picked me up on 199. It's a pretty dangerous road to be walking on. Cars were whizzing right next to me.

     8:30am  I'm in O'Brien!

     8:31am  I'm in front of the post office here in O'Brien. Oh yeah, Moses hooked me up with a huge vegetarian lasagna. Awesome, I'm hungry.

     8:54am  I am walking down Lone Mountain Road looking for 1760, I think. I hope I'm remembering the right address. I never wrote it down or anything. I'm just remembering from memory. It's been about five months since I came out here. I doubt that's the right address, but for some reason that's what's sticking out in my head. Hopefully I am remembering right and I'll recognize the entrance.

     9:15am  I just got done changing my clothes and taking my army pants off.

     9:44am  I just came across 1760. I think this is it. How awesome. I never thought my memory would serve me this well. I'm going to rest, eat and smoke right here.

     10:00am  I was just sitting here brushing my teeth and Shadow pulls by in his truck! Hey! Shadow! I talked to him and he told me everybody had left. That Fawn, the medicine woman is up in Saskatchewan, Canada. Out of all the people that were there, only him and his girl Jean were left. Everybody else was gone. Weird. Shadow kept going though.

     10:10am  Shadow pulls back up and gives me a ride to the camp. I told him I was going to see if I could use his place as a pit stop. He said sure, that I could stay for three or four days to rest. He told me to go move into the same trailer I was in last time. I walked over to it and it's still here, just as I left it. I put my stuff down and I'm going to go talk to Jean and tell her my stories. I hope she'll smoke me out. I don't know.

                      I walked up to the big barn and talked to Jean. She listened and seemed impressed. I like Jean, she's really cool. I asked her if she, by any chance, had any marijuana and she quickly passed me a loaded pipe. How cool. The story-telling got a lot better after that and I almost talked her ear off. Shadow came back and told me I should check out Takilma, a town nearby. I had vaguely remembered seeing signs about the Takilma Happy Camp and had wondered what that was about. He told me about some place called The Green Bridge where there were tons of hippies in the creek always. Usually naked. He said people would love my stories there. He offered to give me a ride to Takilma and I said ok.

                      Oh yeah, Shadow just tells me that the guy I had asked directions from at the gas station was blind. But, he was right! That's funny.

     12:08pm  Takilma here I come.

     1:49pm  I went to the watering hole in Takilma and got naked like everyone else. The water was exhilarating. I had a bar of soap with me so I bathed. It felt really free being naked in the stream. After I bathed, I got out and let the sun dry me off. I put my clothes back on and just sat there in the shade smoking cigarettes.

                    I met this dude named Tinker. I told Tinker some of my stuff and he ended up offering me a place to stay for the night. Later on, we drove off to where he lived.

Next day..