Red River Gorge

This trip occured during spring break of this year. I was (and still am) 18 years old and was 3/4 of the way through my first year of college. I went through high school in the western suburbs of chicago and decided to attend Florida State U. The move the Tallahasse was pretty rough on me. I had a hard time adjusting to being on my own in a completely alien town. I tried acid two times at school and both times where very unpleasent. I had once held mushrooms and the psychedelic experience very sacred and dear to me but this environment change and negative experiences with acid had changed me in a way. I refrained from all psychedelics throughout the remainder of the year. When spring break came I had finally began to pull myself out of the depression caused by my move. I had planned a spring break reunion with two of my best friends from chicago. we planned a camping trip to the Red River Gorge in kentucky. If you are unfamiliar it is a very beautiful area that is basically a heavily wooded valley with marvelous natural rock formations and caves. I took a 22 hour greyhound bus ride up and met my friends. To my surprise my friend Mike had invited two of his friends from school. this kinda bothered me because it was unexpected. I was still kinda nervous that my bad experiences with acid might repeat themselfs in the mushroom trip we had planned. And the introduction of unfamiliar faces mad me more mervous. Anyway, we arrived at the park and got our packs set. We where now ready to leave all of civilisations influences behind us. We began what was to be a two day expedition into the middle of the gorge. We had brought along about 3/4 ounce of mushrooms and plenty of weed. We planned to save the shrooms for the third and final night. The first two days where pure hiking and sight seeing. We brought everything we needed on our backs and followed a rough hiking path. Keep in mind that this was not an easy hike. The path was often hard to follow as a fairly large section of the forest had been recently ravaged by fire. We had to back track and got lost a few times. It was a great experience though. We eventually got so far away from civilisation that there was almost no sign of human existance. No sounds of traffic in the distance. no light from the city, no trash, no people. We ran into maybe two hikers the whole trip. We enjoyed the herb, nature, and each other company. It was hard, but it filled me with a sense of accomplishment to be able to go with out the conviences of technology for a while. By the second night we set up our permanent camp sight along a small creek. After a long rest we awake to rainy weather. This was discourageing but by midday it had cleared up. We divided up the shrooms and did a pretrip meditation of sorts. It was intended to release any negative feelings and tensions from our minds and bodies. I no longer had any nervous feelings about the two kids that I didnt expect to be with us on the trip. They turned out to be very cool guys. We each at about 3 grams each. We had planned to leave everything but the a bare essentials at camp and hace a day full of hiking and tripping in this beautiful area. I honestly hadnt hadnt had a decent trip off of mushrooms in at least a year. We started off and the shrooms began to hit. We just hiked and when we found an area that seemed extraordinary we stopped and explored it for a while. We found some incredible caves and rocks formations that just blew us away. We stopped to rest and smoke a bowl at one point and myself feeling giddy proceeded to yell the phrase "Dank nuggets!!" into the gorge. It echoed back about three for for times and then we heard another voice yell from the other side of the vally..." you guys got some nugs?!" "Hell yes!!" we replied. "come over here we'll match you!" the voice answered. So we started off in the direction of the voice. The four of us tripping nuts, start heading directly down into the gorge. Keep in mind that the walls of the valley are like 45 degree slopes. We soon get halfway down and realize that we have no idea what we are doing or where we are going. we yelled somke more to try and find the people but no reply was heard. We found ourselfs in the middle of the gorge wondering what the hell to do. It was to steep to go back up the gorge and it was to wooded to navigate to the other side. We wandered hopelessly for what seemed like hours trying to find our way out of this mess. I could feel the nervousness and tensions rising in the group as we all got a little on edge. I was starting to have negative vibes that reminded me of my acid trips creeping up my spine. But after much trouble we finally found the trail again. It was such a relief. All that tension melted away wand wa replaced by laughter and joy. We thought about how funny we must have looked plunging into the gorge aimlessly in hopes of finding some smoking partners. The trip was very intense. The air seemed to have a certain ether about it. I felt so connected to everything around me. I felt so primal and instictive being so far away from all of mans inventions and technology that are supposedly making our lives better. This feeling hit its peak when we came upon this calm little meadow. It was lightly littered with trees but the sun still came through strongly. There was a small creek running near by. It was a very beautiful and peacful day. We stopped to smoke and just relax for about 45 mins. We took our shoes off and walked through the water. This felt incredible on our bare skin. Also during this time I layed down in the grass and looked upward. I was soon just engulfed by the mushroom sprit. I was visited by a soothing and majestic creature that showed me wonderful visions of the unseen world that surrounds us. I went into a trance like state. During which I was reminded of the sacredness of the mushrooms and many of the lessons I had learned from my previous trips that had fallen into my subconcious over time. At one point I stood up and placed my hands on top of my head and closed my eyes. I was transformed into a mushroom that had no logic and thought. For that brief moment of time I merely existed...completely content and connected to this amazing earth we call home. It was utterly amazing. It is almost impossible to do the experince justice with words. The things I saw and the emotions I experienced where so pure and wonderful that I could hardly belive it myself. I had lost my way in the last year in all the transition, uncertainty, and change. I had become paranoid and frail. I was very unsure of myself all the time. This experience helped me to regain my direction and vision. It helped me to remember the state of mind that I had once held so close to my heart. The mushrooms had shown me the light once again. The rest of the day we shared and reflected upon our experiences and smoked the rest of our herb. It was a great reunion with old friends(some human and others spiritual). I have yet to trip on mushrooms since but plan to do so soon when I visit chicago in about a week. I dont know, something about being with my old friends seems to make me want to trip again. Well thank you for reading my report and sharing in my experience. I wish you happy tripping and happy living. Dont ever lose sight of what you learn from these wonderful gifts from god. They will lead you down the true path if you treat them with respect. Peace and love to you all.