the last week:

i left the coffee shop where my last entry was written and went to hangout with ryan and teri. i showed up with a preponderance of food, what we call 'roadkill', from my last gig; laid out a few bins and a big ass cooler on the sidewalk and invited roommates and neighbors to pillage the mountain of assorted goods.

hiked a short jaunt through the hsu campus forest with the melo kids. the place is without doubt magical. ancient, virgin woods rife with the chaos of nature - a sacred place for earth-worshipers. i journeyed deep into the spirit world and once again discover the interconnectedness of all things.

a drive around town depositing my last parcels of food amongst a few freight-train riding hobo kids who had just gotten into town... they were grateful for every last thing (including 5 dozen uncooked eggs) even though they had nothing to cook on or with.

again, northward bound. headed right up to the spot where the moon of endor was filmed. running a bit late for work, but then i get the call, my boss is even more late than i am... (SCORE!) so i have time to smoke one then take a few pics of the herd of elk on the side of the highway.

roll into camp, and make a quick dinner - stuffed portobello. we go through some paperwork for the week's job, then are off for the night..

beers cracked and doobers fired.

as the last bits of sunlight are snuffed out, i light my firestaff and let rip with a tribute to darkness. some local hippies camped down a small hill behind us lay down a drumbeat to liven up the whole show.

i dance for a while longer, then decide it's time to meet these mysterious drummers, so i grab my staff and fuel can and start off down the hill... i can see the hippies, they're about 30 feet away. none of my co-workers are down to make friends with the neighbors, so i'm off on my own.

thing is... the forest is super dense and there is no trail down this hill. vines pull my feet back, ferns slap my face. the hippies see i'm coming and jump up to spotlight me with all their flashlights since i wasn't smart enough to bring my own lightsource. after fighting the forest gods to get to the base of the hill, there is a medium sized creek standing between me and the hippies. they're encouraging me, i'm laughing at how dumb i was just to take off into the dense foliage with no light or clue what i was doing. finally i just walk through the water, up into their campsite to be greeted with dank beer and bongrips.

they play music and i spin fire for a while until a couple on vacation from texas come to say hello from a neighboring campsite.

"so.... are you guys.... hippies?" asks the middle aged lady.

"yes, ma'am"

"ooooh that's soooo cool" she replies.

her b/f works for an airline and gets free flights so he is showing her all the coolest places in the country... she had never been outside of texas before meeting him.

they heard the music and wanted to know if they could come see what it was all about. they drank some beer and took their first bongrips. grooving to the drums and entranced by the firedancing. they left and came back with wine which we passed around the campfire, per usual.
she was positive that as soon as she got back to texas, she wanted them to pack up and move to arcata so she could become a hippie.

the night wore down, i got tired and headed back to camp for a bit of stargazing before drifting to sleep.

wake up, grab some coffee and grub and hit the trail.

a half mile away from camp, we see a stream that we want to inspect just off of the trail. we climb atop a downed redwood which was between the trail and the shore of the stream, and as i'm coming down off of it, my foot catches on the gnarled bark. i trip and fall forward, coming down a few feet off the tree directly onto my knee that i just had massive surgery on last year.

i miss landing directly on rocks by about 4 inches and luck out by landing on wet sand.

nothing hurts when i land.

but when i get up, i can't put any weight on my leg. it's immediatly swollen and i can barely walk.

i hobble back to the road, a coworker goes to get my car and i drive myself back to camp. i put a 5-pound block of ice on my knee and keep it there until there is nothing left in the bag.

the next day, leg's still bad and my bosses tell me i have to go get checked out at the nearest doctor. turns out the first place i can find is an hour drive away in eureka.

after 6 hours in the urgent care clinic, i'm the last person there for the day... finally my xrays come back - probably not broken, but it could be. they say i need to be seen by someone else who knows what my mangled knee should really look like. they give me pain pills and send me on my way.

drive back out to camp and crash out for the night.

the next day, i have some breakfast and go up to the payphone to make a call to the bosses, let them know i'm not supposed to work for the rest of the week.

i see some more elk and go take some pictures of them.

while i'm shooting, i meet an timer, john hamilton, who has just retired from a life of being a brick layer and has taken up his boyhood passion of being a photographer. he is travelling the country in his RV, taking scenic nature photography and doing his own printing, matting, and framing and selling his work at festivals and fairs.

we get to talking, i tell him about an amazing area nearby that unfortunatly his RV wont be able to get to because of the sketchy road. he seems nice enough, so i offer him a ride with me, as i'm headed down there as soon as i pack up my campsite, before i head home.

we spent most of the day exploring from my car and taking pictures... got about 5 feet away from a massive elk... went to fern canyon, one of the most beautiful places i've ever been.

finally it's getting late, i take john back to his RV where he prints out a number of my pictures for me. it's great, i've never printed pictures... i always just look at them from a moniter, but i'm glad i have these. i'd like to frame them and maybe start printing more,

finally, i was on the road, headed southbound, for sacramento.
just north of willits, i see two cute hippie girls hitchhiking and am compelled to pull over for them.

they're fun, similar interests in life, on their way to a permaculture farm. we swap hitch hiking stories and smoke bowls... form a good connection.

they invite me to stay with them out on their farm, at least for the night.

it's been getting late, i've had 4 hours on the road plus my whole day's adventure with john, so i take them up on the offer and drive them straight to their house.

which is, of course, a big hippie commune farm- we are greeted with open arms, a quick quote from a book by a noted anarchist author, a polyamorous cuddle puddle and delicious tea. a little one on one quality time snuggled on the couch with a cutie and finally i'm asleep.

i wake up early, as normal, and everyone still sleeping. i leave a short good bye note and take off while their still slumbering.

i liked the girl, we had a great connection. we didn't swap contact information and i dont even remember her name, but it was perfect.

make it back to sac. see a doc, who says my leg is not broken, or the surgery screwed up, it's just a bad bruise... and now i'm ready to be back at work with "light" duty.

two more weeks left.

who knows what adventure the summer will bring?