2008-08-23-0835 Perfect--that's how things are. Here to play. I was, earlier, wandering into great thoughts. I could follow the culture channeled by others in the afternoons; I could see where my being wanders--what passes through this undirected node--before then. G. Ann: "As I say: I don't turn on the TV before noon."
I am near a deserted creek crossing. The washed-out bridge has been rebuilt downstream. The only sounds: creek--Granite Creek--, wind, birds, bugs, and the munch of ants' jaws as I am tested for edibility.
Looking down to shallow pools, little trout; pools in the worn granite.
Conceptions, billions of them, walking around. Looking deeply (a Thich Nhat Hanh phrase) at a being, I see the moment of origination. The initiation of mixing and copying.
Looking deeply, also, I see human minds-- my own, this afternoon--seeking direction. The mind reading this.
We're more than seeking mind?
Benjamin Franklin, for him, once, access to information was the good.
Now: access to from where info--conception.
The novel, easy on the mind, because, till novel ends, mind need not wonder, can rush on, rush on. Not always easy though to find reading mind is happy to follow.
The novel suits the onrushing, ever-twitching, ant-like & bear-like (when they seek food), behavior of the loosed mind. Follow me!
Or, reading, more generally.
No answers here, other than give mind hours per day to wander, not immediately directed, affected by others. Does this require isolation? If others are around, reflexively, I react, unless, perhaps, through meditation I have made them "ripples on the surface of being" (Eckhart Tolle phrase).
May be time to walk on. Mind is empty as the blue sky, as the breeze, templado, temperate as it is.
Seekers, questioners, choosers! From where comes seeking?
From where, choosing?
From where, the question?
From where the conception
that it is time to walk on?
Can you live if you ask?
Can you not ask?
And what is good? --As B. Franklin prayed to be guided toward. And what is the good of _our_ time? Where and to what actions are we now guided if we stop and listen, follow?
I am not guided toward the roads that cars drive down. I am not guided to where mind-numbing, preoccupying food is always too easily got. I am guided to where ants nibble nipples near ripples.
Aha! Something cries: "The future! What about the future?"
"Great action! What about action?"
"Contentment. What about that?"
What about this culture flow? Could it be that more and more will live with less because less is all needed, wanted?
Oh, we each serve/perform our function, I suppose. Given the variables encountered.
Oh Culture, flow from me! Reproduce through me! Grow by my life. Be freed by me.
Mind, you seek guidance, occupation? You seek something to devote yourself to? Love, union, joy?
I leave you with nothing but the seeking and old Wilber's remark that we're both ever seeking and ever whole and we can switch--and I guess shimmer--between the two.
Same as for the future and as for being here now, I suppose.
If you want a solid course of action: arrange to spend more time with nothing to do (yet with access to what you might want to be content, relaxed, at peace).
The only solid possibility I see following is that that freedom becomes recognized, valued, understood, cultivated. Not all that different from how freedom and time to meditate are cultivated by some.
--to the extent that that freedom is seen as as necessary as nutrition, warmth, freedom from physical, emotional violence.
In other words: a cultural transition from: "Idle hands do the Devil's work." to "Minds never idle do no real work."
They avoid the work of our time.
Not Franklin's time. Not the time after ours. When more of the world is free to let mind wander, when that ability is regarded as as necessary as sleep? to our purpose here, then that may be the time after ours.
Humanity something different then.
Is this a vision of cultural imperialism?
Is this a vision of cultural liberation, diversity, multiplicity, indigenization, freedom?
A vision of liberation of the origin of culture, of conception.
Culture comes not from the land alone (minus "alone", perhaps a Quail Springs phrase), but from the interaction of freed, seeking mind with what it finds itself in. A mind, active, is always channeled and limited, but, in general, humanity? culturemind? would benefit from minds given more freedom, less channel. And this means freedom likewise from drives, addictions, compulsions, fears.
There is always unknown. Rather than attempting to fill limited minds with limited facts, encourage minds to play with moment conception.
1501
Peace,
Saturday, August 23, 2008
TheBroaderCulturalSignificanceOfBeing
[2008-08-21-1900] Letting mind run, wander, a half practice of stillness, a bit of despair: I want to die. That old thought. Came of the old tiredness: you can sit, enjoy peace, choicelessness, but as long as you live, must come out to choose again. And it came of feeling no great flow, no cultural significance then.
I followed: well, nothing? Then perhaps play the game, attract attention, imagining the creation of myths, spectacle. That falls flat though.
Insight came as: look for the broader cultural significance of each action.
That took care of my aimlessness, and, later: If no significance in broader action, none in smaller.
Where to find culturally significant action? Where is there fear?
On top of that, seeing then all the surrogates, substitutes for such significance, or I'm not sure exactly what I was up to in this chart:
Look for broader cultural significance of each action--
vs. channel culture
vs. gatha [a saying used to keep mind focused on present action]
vs. control of mind [self-control?]
go to where most significance
vs. personal interest, personal attraction
vs. meditation-peace
I was probably just comparing modes of operating.
Considering this, I saw every cultural Movement as seeking to provide a broader cultural significance to the individual actions of its adherents: the Integral movement, evangelical/born again Christianity, whatever. Veganism.
Helping to narrow the possibility of choice? (we do this because . . .) Integral: ~ do & develop your personal practice to aid the evolution of culture. Frank Cook: eat a wild plant every day (broader significance: making self, others aware we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity, if we cultivate and do not lose the relevant knowledge).
Looking at the culture as a being, if one doesn't have compelling personal interests and desires, looking for areas of fear, in one's self, in the broader culture, may be an approach to finding a culturally significant path.
Culture-wide fear. In my case: wandering around Mexico (yet for me to challenge much). Also: living in the forest, drinking the water, eating the food there, dealing with one's self out there, no insurance, no career, no family, no lover, no car, no house, etc. (yet with multiples of all of these).
Going to these areas, these edges, we "express & illumine the field of choice" (Danby wrote of Shakespeare). The culture-mind values this exercise and expansion. It enjoys overcoming fear-limits, e.g. "this is not a good time to go to the Middle East." On the contrary, if you go when people say that, your actions will be far more culturally significant than otherwise.
Just as a guess (and cliché): cultural significance comes from crossing edges, boundaries. First, perhaps, the personal ones, then those of the broader culture (or both at the same time).
So, now can I rest a bit and go back to reading Pynchon?
The main cultural significance things are leading up to for me may be wandering Mexico, may be something else. But, at least, as I defecate--relaxing, releasing, returning--in the woods, as I read Pynchon, as I nab, pinch, and eat the fat sierra ants that crawl all over me wherever I lay, even in the middle of an expanse of bare granite (nutritious snack comes to me!), as I cook my pot of food (as now, at this moment), I can wonder what broader significance that action might have, or what more significant broader action it could be a part of (people learning to be content in the forest? something else?)
Peace,
I followed: well, nothing? Then perhaps play the game, attract attention, imagining the creation of myths, spectacle. That falls flat though.
Insight came as: look for the broader cultural significance of each action.
That took care of my aimlessness, and, later: If no significance in broader action, none in smaller.
Where to find culturally significant action? Where is there fear?
On top of that, seeing then all the surrogates, substitutes for such significance, or I'm not sure exactly what I was up to in this chart:
Look for broader cultural significance of each action--
vs. channel culture
vs. gatha [a saying used to keep mind focused on present action]
vs. control of mind [self-control?]
go to where most significance
vs. personal interest, personal attraction
vs. meditation-peace
I was probably just comparing modes of operating.
Considering this, I saw every cultural Movement as seeking to provide a broader cultural significance to the individual actions of its adherents: the Integral movement, evangelical/born again Christianity, whatever. Veganism.
Helping to narrow the possibility of choice? (we do this because . . .) Integral: ~ do & develop your personal practice to aid the evolution of culture. Frank Cook: eat a wild plant every day (broader significance: making self, others aware we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity, if we cultivate and do not lose the relevant knowledge).
Looking at the culture as a being, if one doesn't have compelling personal interests and desires, looking for areas of fear, in one's self, in the broader culture, may be an approach to finding a culturally significant path.
Culture-wide fear. In my case: wandering around Mexico (yet for me to challenge much). Also: living in the forest, drinking the water, eating the food there, dealing with one's self out there, no insurance, no career, no family, no lover, no car, no house, etc. (yet with multiples of all of these).
Going to these areas, these edges, we "express & illumine the field of choice" (Danby wrote of Shakespeare). The culture-mind values this exercise and expansion. It enjoys overcoming fear-limits, e.g. "this is not a good time to go to the Middle East." On the contrary, if you go when people say that, your actions will be far more culturally significant than otherwise.
Just as a guess (and cliché): cultural significance comes from crossing edges, boundaries. First, perhaps, the personal ones, then those of the broader culture (or both at the same time).
So, now can I rest a bit and go back to reading Pynchon?
The main cultural significance things are leading up to for me may be wandering Mexico, may be something else. But, at least, as I defecate--relaxing, releasing, returning--in the woods, as I read Pynchon, as I nab, pinch, and eat the fat sierra ants that crawl all over me wherever I lay, even in the middle of an expanse of bare granite (nutritious snack comes to me!), as I cook my pot of food (as now, at this moment), I can wonder what broader significance that action might have, or what more significant broader action it could be a part of (people learning to be content in the forest? something else?)
Peace,
Monday, August 18, 2008
water in the desert [from ~8/08]
[Here's an old post and old foolishness that didn't get sent right away and that I'd like to have out of the queue. I ended up trashing all the dog food--I got sick. From it, I am not certain, but I associate it with that. I was carrying too much weight with it all at any rate. I have no plans to try any more of it.
Re: bear canisters: most of the less-traveled trails seem not to require them.
Re: fires: in many places out here fires are ok.
Re: other potential dietary foolishness: the large white shrooms that grow on dead foxtail pines maybe cause loose stool. I've followed the approach w/ shrooms of avoiding any that are somewhat like the deadly ones--but I definitely could stand to learn much more.
Re: not filtering the water--so far, so good, adding onto last year's five weeks, even after drinking from the cow sewer--it's been, well I guess it's only just been 14 days (giardia incubation period). I do have to endure some horror stories however when talk gets round to that. See earlier posts and Elpel's _Participating in Nature_ (hollowtop.com ?) for more on that. End note.]
I've walked my 3 am hrs & 3 pm. I've resupplied, some key decisions made. Got out of K-Mart minus $15 on nuts, prunes, pet food, all except the latter eaten soon. In Vons: $8 instant potatoes ~3.5 lbs. mustard, cabbage, 2 bananas, 1lb carrots, $12 on two 1+ lb salamis, $4 tub of butter, $12/10lbs dog biscuit, $14/7lbs iams dog food. Pet food taxed, total:~$60. $6 to mail cook pot, unneeded maps, misc to Tuolomne Meadows. $80. May do for two weeks. Goal: no-cook, no-binge food, with enough to keep me going for two weeks. It's about 160 miles from the trailhead near Independence to T-meadows. I want to be lazy and do non-hiking things--no strings of 20-mile days.
Made those decisions, (after/while) ate a bit too much salami, but not to the point it was a problem, looked at bear canisters, headnets, mailed pkg, walked around Bishop desert for miles eating apples, peaches from trees looking for community college. Found it at last, closed, but water available, lay down to rest and read Pynchon, the/a real goal all along.
I've done the sewing, walking, sitting,eating wild food, but not the reading yet these two weeks, except for audiobooks.
Tomorrow: walk back into Bishop (decent town!), find way to upload photos (public lib?), or at least get them off camera so I can take more. Go back to Independence (-$4.50) but could go into mts from here.
The main new experiment will be the no cooking and kind of food--many possibly nasty issues with chicken byproducts, from China, oxidized cholesterol, I really should learn to/practice catching fish. Cooking, a nice ritual, learned from Frank Cook. . . well, my pot should be in T-Mdws when I get there, or sent back to SD if I don't go there after all.
Concerned about over-acidification or whatever it is from eating that stuff--I'll keep eating greens I find, but won't have pot to cook them or shrooms these next 2 weeks. Maybe later I'll type in what the animal feed is reported to have in it. As noted before, it sounds better than most every kind of human neo-pemmican found in mainstream stores and costing less than $12/lb. I have a hard time spending $ on anything where some type of sugar is the main ingredient.
Descending further into odd personal experimental culture hobo-dom.
Precedents are the bigger-budgeted/better self-controlled no-cook, powerbar-, jerky-, pop-tart-, cheap 7-11 pastry-eating, small store-resupplying thru-hikers, and Muir, who self-reports bringing only bread and tea on mountaneering expeditions (but those lasting only a few days and carrying hardly anything).
You do need to prepare or catch your own food, as do the longer-term adventurers (Jardines, Billy Goat) I've heard of, or spend a lot on small-store fresh fruit, frozen blueberries (Crow, asthecrowflies.org?), to eat the large number of calories needed in a way that sounds healthy.
This should, at least, get me out there to experience some time of no cook, no binge--since I rarely practice self control, though I did successfully ration on my first trip last year. Bringing food requiring cooking prevented eating everything up.
Most thru-hikers resupply every week or more often. For whatever reason, I like shooting for two weeks. This last time, I was only a day or two short. But as a result, my pack is heavy now: ~22 lbs dry food, plus the wetter food, which will be gone soon. Maybe I'll collect some apples on the way in to Bishop to take up to mts, but there are gooseberries up there--
I've heard the estimate of 2lbs food/person/day on caloric-intensive trips.
Eventually, as long as I can learn to do it without spending all my time at it (unless I want to!), it would be good to select adventures or dwelling-places where nutrition and calories are more easily and not illegally found along the way.
That will be a good thing to think more carefully about--I've heard of fish in baja, seaweed and fish in most coastal areas, sierra trout, fruit & seafood in tropical areas, figs & other fruit in urban areas. Rabbits, other small game, once you have the knack, in many places. Snakes in SoCal wilderness. Animals in Sequoia/Kings Cyn don't fear people much--wild chickens and the groundhogs (?) [marmots] are easy to get close to.
[I agree with Mollison/Permaculture we can't be going to live off the wild lands, that we need to rehabilitate the places already paved/deforested/devastated--but I'm not doing this. I appreciate the intention and effect of the ban on hunting, grazing, fires (in many places) in these parks.]
If the animal feed / human feed (peculiar to my lack of desire to practice self-control perhaps) works for me, it could provide for two weeks of practice in the regions where better food could be gotten on site.
Of course, fires are not illegal in most places outside of CA's mountain museums / suburban sprawl estate borders. They are allowing stoves, but I don't (yet) want to carry one or burn imported fuel when so much is right around. . .
I am trying, as Tagore (_Sadhana Realisation_, librivox audiobook) presents as a possibility, to use (and appreciate) the restrictions and guidelines as a challenge or form for more creativity--to question my old habits, rituals.
I may still be an outlaw south of Sonora Pass, however. I'm now well educated about the purpose and use of the bear canister, but believe the Jardine/thru-hiker approach: don't camp where everyone camps, camp high, don't cook where you camp, sleep with your smelly feet on your food (never leave it alone)--should be fine.
Tomorrow I should be able to reexamine sierrawildbear.gov and the map there. Bears and rangers. My permit is ready to show them; I think they only go around checking for canisters in established campsites, but who knows. How much am I willing to pay for peace of mind? I've spent too much time already imagining what I might say in response to "do you have a canister?"
Enough--I doubt I'll have more to write before I head back to no-reception land. But commenting on the pictures could be fun if that works out. The community college in S. Lake Tahoe was ideal for that, and I thought this one here might be. Cerrocoso.edu (?) is much smaller though, and, closed, I cannot tell.
Peace,
coyotes-
water in the desert: multiple well-running rivers and streams right through town. Almost every third gutter is a running stream, and not, as in SoCal, because someone is overwatering. Residential ponds are common. Massive mts, clouds to east and west of desert valley.
Re: bear canisters: most of the less-traveled trails seem not to require them.
Re: fires: in many places out here fires are ok.
Re: other potential dietary foolishness: the large white shrooms that grow on dead foxtail pines maybe cause loose stool. I've followed the approach w/ shrooms of avoiding any that are somewhat like the deadly ones--but I definitely could stand to learn much more.
Re: not filtering the water--so far, so good, adding onto last year's five weeks, even after drinking from the cow sewer--it's been, well I guess it's only just been 14 days (giardia incubation period). I do have to endure some horror stories however when talk gets round to that. See earlier posts and Elpel's _Participating in Nature_ (hollowtop.com ?) for more on that. End note.]
I've walked my 3 am hrs & 3 pm. I've resupplied, some key decisions made. Got out of K-Mart minus $15 on nuts, prunes, pet food, all except the latter eaten soon. In Vons: $8 instant potatoes ~3.5 lbs. mustard, cabbage, 2 bananas, 1lb carrots, $12 on two 1+ lb salamis, $4 tub of butter, $12/10lbs dog biscuit, $14/7lbs iams dog food. Pet food taxed, total:~$60. $6 to mail cook pot, unneeded maps, misc to Tuolomne Meadows. $80. May do for two weeks. Goal: no-cook, no-binge food, with enough to keep me going for two weeks. It's about 160 miles from the trailhead near Independence to T-meadows. I want to be lazy and do non-hiking things--no strings of 20-mile days.
Made those decisions, (after/while) ate a bit too much salami, but not to the point it was a problem, looked at bear canisters, headnets, mailed pkg, walked around Bishop desert for miles eating apples, peaches from trees looking for community college. Found it at last, closed, but water available, lay down to rest and read Pynchon, the/a real goal all along.
I've done the sewing, walking, sitting,eating wild food, but not the reading yet these two weeks, except for audiobooks.
Tomorrow: walk back into Bishop (decent town!), find way to upload photos (public lib?), or at least get them off camera so I can take more. Go back to Independence (-$4.50) but could go into mts from here.
The main new experiment will be the no cooking and kind of food--many possibly nasty issues with chicken byproducts, from China, oxidized cholesterol, I really should learn to/practice catching fish. Cooking, a nice ritual, learned from Frank Cook. . . well, my pot should be in T-Mdws when I get there, or sent back to SD if I don't go there after all.
Concerned about over-acidification or whatever it is from eating that stuff--I'll keep eating greens I find, but won't have pot to cook them or shrooms these next 2 weeks. Maybe later I'll type in what the animal feed is reported to have in it. As noted before, it sounds better than most every kind of human neo-pemmican found in mainstream stores and costing less than $12/lb. I have a hard time spending $ on anything where some type of sugar is the main ingredient.
Descending further into odd personal experimental culture hobo-dom.
Precedents are the bigger-budgeted/better self-controlled no-cook, powerbar-, jerky-, pop-tart-, cheap 7-11 pastry-eating, small store-resupplying thru-hikers, and Muir, who self-reports bringing only bread and tea on mountaneering expeditions (but those lasting only a few days and carrying hardly anything).
You do need to prepare or catch your own food, as do the longer-term adventurers (Jardines, Billy Goat) I've heard of, or spend a lot on small-store fresh fruit, frozen blueberries (Crow, asthecrowflies.org?), to eat the large number of calories needed in a way that sounds healthy.
This should, at least, get me out there to experience some time of no cook, no binge--since I rarely practice self control, though I did successfully ration on my first trip last year. Bringing food requiring cooking prevented eating everything up.
Most thru-hikers resupply every week or more often. For whatever reason, I like shooting for two weeks. This last time, I was only a day or two short. But as a result, my pack is heavy now: ~22 lbs dry food, plus the wetter food, which will be gone soon. Maybe I'll collect some apples on the way in to Bishop to take up to mts, but there are gooseberries up there--
I've heard the estimate of 2lbs food/person/day on caloric-intensive trips.
Eventually, as long as I can learn to do it without spending all my time at it (unless I want to!), it would be good to select adventures or dwelling-places where nutrition and calories are more easily and not illegally found along the way.
That will be a good thing to think more carefully about--I've heard of fish in baja, seaweed and fish in most coastal areas, sierra trout, fruit & seafood in tropical areas, figs & other fruit in urban areas. Rabbits, other small game, once you have the knack, in many places. Snakes in SoCal wilderness. Animals in Sequoia/Kings Cyn don't fear people much--wild chickens and the groundhogs (?) [marmots] are easy to get close to.
[I agree with Mollison/Permaculture we can't be going to live off the wild lands, that we need to rehabilitate the places already paved/deforested/devastated--but I'm not doing this. I appreciate the intention and effect of the ban on hunting, grazing, fires (in many places) in these parks.]
If the animal feed / human feed (peculiar to my lack of desire to practice self-control perhaps) works for me, it could provide for two weeks of practice in the regions where better food could be gotten on site.
Of course, fires are not illegal in most places outside of CA's mountain museums / suburban sprawl estate borders. They are allowing stoves, but I don't (yet) want to carry one or burn imported fuel when so much is right around. . .
I am trying, as Tagore (_Sadhana Realisation_, librivox audiobook) presents as a possibility, to use (and appreciate) the restrictions and guidelines as a challenge or form for more creativity--to question my old habits, rituals.
I may still be an outlaw south of Sonora Pass, however. I'm now well educated about the purpose and use of the bear canister, but believe the Jardine/thru-hiker approach: don't camp where everyone camps, camp high, don't cook where you camp, sleep with your smelly feet on your food (never leave it alone)--should be fine.
Tomorrow I should be able to reexamine sierrawildbear.gov and the map there. Bears and rangers. My permit is ready to show them; I think they only go around checking for canisters in established campsites, but who knows. How much am I willing to pay for peace of mind? I've spent too much time already imagining what I might say in response to "do you have a canister?"
Enough--I doubt I'll have more to write before I head back to no-reception land. But commenting on the pictures could be fun if that works out. The community college in S. Lake Tahoe was ideal for that, and I thought this one here might be. Cerrocoso.edu (?) is much smaller though, and, closed, I cannot tell.
Peace,
coyotes-
water in the desert: multiple well-running rivers and streams right through town. Almost every third gutter is a running stream, and not, as in SoCal, because someone is overwatering. Residential ponds are common. Massive mts, clouds to east and west of desert valley.
water in the desert [from ~8/08]
[Here's an old post and old foolishness that didn't get sent right away and that I'd like to have out of the queue. I ended up trashing all the dog food--I got sick. From it, I am not certain, but I associate it with that. I was carrying too much weight with it all at any rate. I have no plans to try any more of it.
Re: bear canisters: most of the less-traveled trails seem not to require them.
Re: fires: in many places out here fires are ok.
Re: other potential dietary foolishness: the large white shrooms that grow on dead foxtail pines maybe cause loose stool. I've followed the approach w/ shrooms of avoiding any that are somewhat like the deadly ones--but I definitely could stand to learn much more.
Re: not filtering the water--so far, so good, adding onto last year's five weeks, even after drinking from the cow sewer--it's been, well I guess it's only just been 14 days (giardia incubation period). I do have to endure some horror stories however when talk gets round to that. See earlier posts and Elpel's _Participating in Nature_ (hollowtop.com ?) for more on that. End note.]
I've walked my 3 am hrs & 3 pm. I've resupplied, some key decisions made. Got out of K-Mart minus $15 on nuts, prunes, pet food, all except the latter eaten soon. In Vons: $8 instant potatoes ~3.5 lbs. mustard, cabbage, 2 bananas, 1lb carrots, $12 on two 1+ lb salamis, $4 tub of butter, $12/10lbs dog biscuit, $14/7lbs iams dog food. Pet food taxed, total:~$60. $6 to mail cook pot, unneeded maps, misc to Tuolomne Meadows. $80. May do for two weeks. Goal: no-cook, no-binge food, with enough to keep me going for two weeks. It's about 160 miles from the trailhead near Independence to T-meadows. I want to be lazy and do non-hiking things--no strings of 20-mile days.
Made those decisions, (after/while) ate a bit too much salami, but not to the point it was a problem, looked at bear canisters, headnets, mailed pkg, walked around Bishop desert for miles eating apples, peaches from trees looking for community college. Found it at last, closed, but water available, lay down to rest and read Pynchon, the/a real goal all along.
I've done the sewing, walking, sitting,eating wild food, but not the reading yet these two weeks, except for audiobooks.
Tomorrow: walk back into Bishop (decent town!), find way to upload photos (public lib?), or at least get them off camera so I can take more. Go back to Independence (-$4.50) but could go into mts from here.
The main new experiment will be the no cooking and kind of food--many possibly nasty issues with chicken byproducts, from China, oxidized cholesterol, I really should learn to/practice catching fish. Cooking, a nice ritual, learned from Frank Cook. . . well, my pot should be in T-Mdws when I get there, or sent back to SD if I don't go there after all.
Concerned about over-acidification or whatever it is from eating that stuff--I'll keep eating greens I find, but won't have pot to cook them or shrooms these next 2 weeks. Maybe later I'll type in what the animal feed is reported to have in it. As noted before, it sounds better than most every kind of human neo-pemmican found in mainstream stores and costing less than $12/lb. I have a hard time spending $ on anything where some type of sugar is the main ingredient.
Descending further into odd personal experimental culture hobo-dom.
Precedents are the bigger-budgeted/better self-controlled no-cook, powerbar-, jerky-, pop-tart-, cheap 7-11 pastry-eating, small store-resupplying thru-hikers, and Muir, who self-reports bringing only bread and tea on mountaneering expeditions (but those lasting only a few days and carrying hardly anything).
You do need to prepare or catch your own food, as do the longer-term adventurers (Jardines, Billy Goat) I've heard of, or spend a lot on small-store fresh fruit, frozen blueberries (Crow, asthecrowflies.org?), to eat the large number of calories needed in a way that sounds healthy.
This should, at least, get me out there to experience some time of no cook, no binge--since I rarely practice self control, though I did successfully ration on my first trip last year. Bringing food requiring cooking prevented eating everything up.
Most thru-hikers resupply every week or more often. For whatever reason, I like shooting for two weeks. This last time, I was only a day or two short. But as a result, my pack is heavy now: ~22 lbs dry food, plus the wetter food, which will be gone soon. Maybe I'll collect some apples on the way in to Bishop to take up to mts, but there are gooseberries up there--
I've heard the estimate of 2lbs food/person/day on caloric-intensive trips.
Eventually, as long as I can learn to do it without spending all my time at it (unless I want to!), it would be good to select adventures or dwelling-places where nutrition and calories are more easily and not illegally found along the way.
That will be a good thing to think more carefully about--I've heard of fish in baja, seaweed and fish in most coastal areas, sierra trout, fruit & seafood in tropical areas, figs & other fruit in urban areas. Rabbits, other small game, once you have the knack, in many places. Snakes in SoCal wilderness. Animals in Sequoia/Kings Cyn don't fear people much--wild chickens and the groundhogs (?) [marmots] are easy to get close to.
[I agree with Mollison/Permaculture we can't be going to live off the wild lands, that we need to rehabilitate the places already paved/deforested/devastated--but I'm not doing this. I appreciate the intention and effect of the ban on hunting, grazing, fires (in many places) in these parks.]
If the animal feed / human feed (peculiar to my lack of desire to practice self-control perhaps) works for me, it could provide for two weeks of practice in the regions where better food could be gotten on site.
Of course, fires are not illegal in most places outside of CA's mountain museums / suburban sprawl estate borders. They are allowing stoves, but I don't (yet) want to carry one or burn imported fuel when so much is right around. . .
I am trying, as Tagore (_Sadhana Realisation_, librivox audiobook) presents as a possibility, to use (and appreciate) the restrictions and guidelines as a challenge or form for more creativity--to question my old habits, rituals.
I may still be an outlaw south of Sonora Pass, however. I'm now well educated about the purpose and use of the bear canister, but believe the Jardine/thru-hiker approach: don't camp where everyone camps, camp high, don't cook where you camp, sleep with your smelly feet on your food (never leave it alone)--should be fine.
Tomorrow I should be able to reexamine sierrawildbear.gov and the map there. Bears and rangers. My permit is ready to show them; I think they only go around checking for canisters in established campsites, but who knows. How much am I willing to pay for peace of mind? I've spent too much time already imagining what I might say in response to "do you have a canister?"
Enough--I doubt I'll have more to write before I head back to no-reception land. But commenting on the pictures could be fun if that works out. The community college in S. Lake Tahoe was ideal for that, and I thought this one here might be. Cerrocoso.edu (?) is much smaller though, and, closed, I cannot tell.
Peace,
coyotes-
water in the desert: multiple well-running rivers and streams right through town. Almost every third gutter is a running stream, and not, as in SoCal, because someone is overwatering. Residential ponds are common. Massive mts, clouds to east and west of desert valley.
Re: bear canisters: most of the less-traveled trails seem not to require them.
Re: fires: in many places out here fires are ok.
Re: other potential dietary foolishness: the large white shrooms that grow on dead foxtail pines maybe cause loose stool. I've followed the approach w/ shrooms of avoiding any that are somewhat like the deadly ones--but I definitely could stand to learn much more.
Re: not filtering the water--so far, so good, adding onto last year's five weeks, even after drinking from the cow sewer--it's been, well I guess it's only just been 14 days (giardia incubation period). I do have to endure some horror stories however when talk gets round to that. See earlier posts and Elpel's _Participating in Nature_ (hollowtop.com ?) for more on that. End note.]
I've walked my 3 am hrs & 3 pm. I've resupplied, some key decisions made. Got out of K-Mart minus $15 on nuts, prunes, pet food, all except the latter eaten soon. In Vons: $8 instant potatoes ~3.5 lbs. mustard, cabbage, 2 bananas, 1lb carrots, $12 on two 1+ lb salamis, $4 tub of butter, $12/10lbs dog biscuit, $14/7lbs iams dog food. Pet food taxed, total:~$60. $6 to mail cook pot, unneeded maps, misc to Tuolomne Meadows. $80. May do for two weeks. Goal: no-cook, no-binge food, with enough to keep me going for two weeks. It's about 160 miles from the trailhead near Independence to T-meadows. I want to be lazy and do non-hiking things--no strings of 20-mile days.
Made those decisions, (after/while) ate a bit too much salami, but not to the point it was a problem, looked at bear canisters, headnets, mailed pkg, walked around Bishop desert for miles eating apples, peaches from trees looking for community college. Found it at last, closed, but water available, lay down to rest and read Pynchon, the/a real goal all along.
I've done the sewing, walking, sitting,eating wild food, but not the reading yet these two weeks, except for audiobooks.
Tomorrow: walk back into Bishop (decent town!), find way to upload photos (public lib?), or at least get them off camera so I can take more. Go back to Independence (-$4.50) but could go into mts from here.
The main new experiment will be the no cooking and kind of food--many possibly nasty issues with chicken byproducts, from China, oxidized cholesterol, I really should learn to/practice catching fish. Cooking, a nice ritual, learned from Frank Cook. . . well, my pot should be in T-Mdws when I get there, or sent back to SD if I don't go there after all.
Concerned about over-acidification or whatever it is from eating that stuff--I'll keep eating greens I find, but won't have pot to cook them or shrooms these next 2 weeks. Maybe later I'll type in what the animal feed is reported to have in it. As noted before, it sounds better than most every kind of human neo-pemmican found in mainstream stores and costing less than $12/lb. I have a hard time spending $ on anything where some type of sugar is the main ingredient.
Descending further into odd personal experimental culture hobo-dom.
Precedents are the bigger-budgeted/better self-controlled no-cook, powerbar-, jerky-, pop-tart-, cheap 7-11 pastry-eating, small store-resupplying thru-hikers, and Muir, who self-reports bringing only bread and tea on mountaneering expeditions (but those lasting only a few days and carrying hardly anything).
You do need to prepare or catch your own food, as do the longer-term adventurers (Jardines, Billy Goat) I've heard of, or spend a lot on small-store fresh fruit, frozen blueberries (Crow, asthecrowflies.org?), to eat the large number of calories needed in a way that sounds healthy.
This should, at least, get me out there to experience some time of no cook, no binge--since I rarely practice self control, though I did successfully ration on my first trip last year. Bringing food requiring cooking prevented eating everything up.
Most thru-hikers resupply every week or more often. For whatever reason, I like shooting for two weeks. This last time, I was only a day or two short. But as a result, my pack is heavy now: ~22 lbs dry food, plus the wetter food, which will be gone soon. Maybe I'll collect some apples on the way in to Bishop to take up to mts, but there are gooseberries up there--
I've heard the estimate of 2lbs food/person/day on caloric-intensive trips.
Eventually, as long as I can learn to do it without spending all my time at it (unless I want to!), it would be good to select adventures or dwelling-places where nutrition and calories are more easily and not illegally found along the way.
That will be a good thing to think more carefully about--I've heard of fish in baja, seaweed and fish in most coastal areas, sierra trout, fruit & seafood in tropical areas, figs & other fruit in urban areas. Rabbits, other small game, once you have the knack, in many places. Snakes in SoCal wilderness. Animals in Sequoia/Kings Cyn don't fear people much--wild chickens and the groundhogs (?) [marmots] are easy to get close to.
[I agree with Mollison/Permaculture we can't be going to live off the wild lands, that we need to rehabilitate the places already paved/deforested/devastated--but I'm not doing this. I appreciate the intention and effect of the ban on hunting, grazing, fires (in many places) in these parks.]
If the animal feed / human feed (peculiar to my lack of desire to practice self-control perhaps) works for me, it could provide for two weeks of practice in the regions where better food could be gotten on site.
Of course, fires are not illegal in most places outside of CA's mountain museums / suburban sprawl estate borders. They are allowing stoves, but I don't (yet) want to carry one or burn imported fuel when so much is right around. . .
I am trying, as Tagore (_Sadhana Realisation_, librivox audiobook) presents as a possibility, to use (and appreciate) the restrictions and guidelines as a challenge or form for more creativity--to question my old habits, rituals.
I may still be an outlaw south of Sonora Pass, however. I'm now well educated about the purpose and use of the bear canister, but believe the Jardine/thru-hiker approach: don't camp where everyone camps, camp high, don't cook where you camp, sleep with your smelly feet on your food (never leave it alone)--should be fine.
Tomorrow I should be able to reexamine sierrawildbear.gov and the map there. Bears and rangers. My permit is ready to show them; I think they only go around checking for canisters in established campsites, but who knows. How much am I willing to pay for peace of mind? I've spent too much time already imagining what I might say in response to "do you have a canister?"
Enough--I doubt I'll have more to write before I head back to no-reception land. But commenting on the pictures could be fun if that works out. The community college in S. Lake Tahoe was ideal for that, and I thought this one here might be. Cerrocoso.edu (?) is much smaller though, and, closed, I cannot tell.
Peace,
coyotes-
water in the desert: multiple well-running rivers and streams right through town. Almost every third gutter is a running stream, and not, as in SoCal, because someone is overwatering. Residential ponds are common. Massive mts, clouds to east and west of desert valley.
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