Trips on Trips

  Back from NM backpack trip. Had a great time. I came back a couple of days early because I was tired of being cold and wet, but all in all had a terrific time.
  On Monday I did something...different. I got up early and hiked to a new spot. I got the hammock put up and got things settled about 12:45pm. Without anything to accomplish for the next few hours I decided to eat some magic mushrooms I had acquired. I didn't carry my phone with me, so I couldn't record the event. BUT...I did keep notes in the notepad I had in my bag. Allow me to share the experience with you;

As you can see, I started small. I ate half of a granola bar and chugged a couple of mouthfuls of water so I wouldn't feel sick. Now, half a gram of mushrooms isn't a big "dose." But, that doesn't mean it isn't a mouthful. It was. Doesn't taste like anything, but it requires some chewing to get down.
 I knew it would be thirty minutes or so before I felt anything. So, I milled around my camp spot, went through my pack, got out my tarp and paracord to put up some shade. As you'll see, the thirty minute window came and went. I began to wonder if anything was going to happen. I decided to go ahead and start tying up the cord between the trees that the hammock was attached to. Then...some wooziness. That was about 1:15p.
  A few minutes after that....the fun starts.

The 1:22p statement was meant to be "what a difference 7 minutes makes."  You can see that it got twisted between my brain and my hand.  I felt a little dizzy and wobbled, but not sleepy like when you're drunk.  As I was writing, I remember thinking "I'm supposed to be seeing different colors," so the pink around the shadows may have been more of an interpretation of expectation rather than an actual occurrence.  The color and pattern experience comes later.
  I sat in the hammock and would gently swing...and giggle. The pressure in my ears and into my jaw was odd.  And that odd feeling would come in pulses. It wasn't painful, just new and different.
  Now, clearly eating mushrooms makes your pen heavier, as you can tell by my handwriting in the last sentence.  At this point it's probably gained a pound and has become harder to control.
  If I wrote that I'm talking a lot, then I'm sure it was A LOT. And, as you'll see in the next pic, it was about something I apparently invented.

Conical sway. Here's what I decided that was; the wind was blowing through the trees making the tops away back and forth. The higher the tree, the more more leeway it has to move at the top.  If the very center of the lowest point of the trunk is the beginning point of a cone, then the radius at the top of the tree creates a realatively wide circle that it can sway. Thus giving us "conical sway," like an ice cream cone.  I googled that phrase when I got back to my phone. It doesn't exist in those words, although I'm sure the idea does.
  During rocking in the hammock and imaging myself talking to Landry or Ripley (NOT a hallucination of them, they're just who I was imagining I was talking to), the pen continued to get heavier. It has to be up to two pounds now. I'm not sure how the pen knew I ate mushrooms, but it did.  Apparently, I was amused by this and noted how my handwriting had begun to drift and told myself to do better.
  I can remember closing my eyes and talking about the patterns and colors I was seeing. Know how you can close your eyes and rub your eyelids and see colorful patterns?  Well do that on shrooms and those patterns start moving in three directions and have textures like lizard skin.  I can remember doing that and describing (to nobody in particular), what the images looked like and I just needed to let it happen.  All of this out loud, by the way...which I noted. Again.
  I guess I started watching clouds at this point. "Predator cloud"...I have no idea what that means.  I assume it means that one cloud looked like Predator, but I can't be sure.
  At this point, I saw heads walking by on the trail below where I was posted up.  Who knows what they heard me talking about, but I just waved as they went by and they waved back and carried on.
  I also don't recollect writing the last sentence. It's apparently an hour in and the pen hasn't gotten any lighter. I think that says, "still talking a lot/not as much visual trip."

 

I remember another person walking by.  Clearly I was annoyed by this. I don't think I said "go away" 

out loud, but I can't be sure.  And I wrote a little ode to Scrubs to go with that..."go a-shmay."  I can rhyme anything.  I remember being impressed that I was aware enough to put the tarp up so if anyone else walked by they could see where I was and not be surprised by the guy talking to himself a lot.  I also found it funny that I could still call people "dummies." (Side bar; my half-hitch ties were on point when I took the tarp down.)

  Pen was still heavy and awkward. I'll take a backup pen next time.  That feeling in my ears/jaw lasted for a while, even after the trip was mostly done.  When I ate the shrooms I wrote, "YOURE NOT GOING TO DIE/YOURE OK" in the back of my notebook, just in case. Didn't even need it. All in all it was a good time and I would for sure do it again.

  I'm aware that my teenagers might read this, and I'm ok with that. I did this for my own entertainment, in a safe space, with a safe substance, without putting anyone else in harm's way. I'm not encouraging them to do this at all. HOWEVER, I would hope that IF they decide to try this WHEN THEY ARE ADULTS, I hope they would feel comfortable asking or telling me about it.