A match made in heaven… I don’t know Mongy, she is a little big for you but then again, how do we get a mix of a corgi and a golden lab? They made it work somehow, so who am I to judge? I think they make a wonderful couple, don’t you? They definitely match in a weird sort of way…

So the swelling of my foot went down quite a bit… It still hurts like a Mother $%#@@$ when I walk on it but I think I will be o.k. No #exploring today, just doing things that don’t take a lot of walking… I definitely did some damage this time. Hopefully I won’t be battling this injury for long… It could really put a damper on this trip…

So I threw on some #boots and headed outside to enjoy a nice, breezy 70 degree day…

Right when I got outside I was greeted by this little fella… He was about the size of my thumb and so cute. I almost stepped on the little buggar… Lucky for him I was looking for #firewood… I gently shooed him back into the #woods… Where else do you get such receptions?

Since I was pretty much limited on what I could do today, I started reading a book called #TheDharmaBums written by #JackKerouac… Someone gave me this book in #NYC in 2004… I’m pretty sure it was an ex-girlfriend or some sort of a #love interest at the time… I can’t remember for the life of me who it was though… I keep on trying to retrace my #memories for some hints. That was the year the Sox won the World Series after 86 years, so I remember that year well… Well, kind of actually, considering I was drunk half of the time…

The note says “To Dan, I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. May it lead you to the hills of your #dreams…s. (P.S. could I be any cheesier..?)”

I can’t recognize the hand writing and in 2004, I was dating off and on, I didn’t really have a steady girlfriend at the time… Anyway, I do love this book and I couldn’t have chosen a better time to start reading it considering the #journey in this book is similar to mine in many ways… So, for the person who gave me this book, if you happen to read this blog, first of all, let me know who you are, I am extremely curious and also I would like to thank you for such a wonderful book. I am already 1/4 of the way through it and I don’t want it to end. Absolutely inspiring and completely out there, which I like. I’m glad I could finally get to it 11 years later… lol…

After reading I decided to finish my #walkingstick project. I carved the last three letters and now I have nature’s permanent business card with me. I thought of a name for the walking stick while I was on the big #hike up into the #mountains. I decided to name her #Milene… Her middle name is “ing” and her last name is “post.” To form the full name Milene ing post! lol…

After my relaxing #afternoon, it was time to start the #campfire. Now it had been #raining for the last couple of days, off and on. So the ground was quite moist and my #firewood was damp… This dampness explains why my little #toad friend was so far from the stream… So starting a fire was not going to be that easy.

Now, I could just grab some of my candle fuel out of #TheMillenniumFalcon and start that fire without any trouble but where is the fun in that? It took me a good 1/2 hour but I got that fire #roaring eventually… By that time my stomach was #growling and I needed to get a #cooking…

Tonight it was bacon, beans, left over rice from last night and two eggs… And boy was it delicious. #Bacon is a great #meat to bring with you camping, for a few reasons… First and most important of all, it has a longer shelf life than other meats… I believe you can get bacon that will survive in your #fridge for more than two months sometimes… All you need is a cold place to store it and you are good for at least a month.

Also, not only does it cook easily on any heat source, it also produces a lot of it’s own #grease, so you don’t have to worry about it sticking to the #fryingpan. Then the biggest benefit is that grease it leaves behind for you to cook in. #Eggs would be a lot harder to cook on a campfire if it wasn’t for #bacongrease. Not only does it keep the eggs from sticking to the pan, it also flavors them and cooks them fast, without much additional heat. So when you are done cooking that bacon, you just crack two eggs into the grease bath, let them sit for a minute and then remove them from the heat. They will continue cooking in the bacon grease and you don’t have to worry about over cooking your eggs. Plus, if you are good as I am, you can get away without even breaking any #yolks… and yes, I flip my eggs over to make them #over-easy… You know how I love my runny yolks, folks!

After a delicious meal, I decided to heat up the old blade and start #woodburning the letters on #Milene… This #knife I bought with a duplicate from the Dollar store when I first moved to L.A. I had written a script called “PROTECT(h)ER” and was shooting a teaser for it. Well, the villain in the script killed his victims with two, large, kitchen knife blades, like you would see in the movie #Halloween. I still have them both and still use them for odd things, like wood burning and such. I guess I definitely got my dollars worth out of these bargains.

I have to say, I felt really connected with the #wild today. I woke up, wrote in my #blog, headed outside, saw that little #critter, started a great book and did some good old #carving. It was not a spectacular day, but would soon become a very memorable one… when the night fell upon my camp…

First of all, I started noticing little flashes of light. I thought it was the other campsite, which is quite a distance away. So far away, when my neighbor has a campfire burning, I only see a finger nail sized bit of light.

I would locate this mysterious light, then it would quickly disappear. It continued doing this all around me until finally I realized my stupid ass was being visited by #lightningbugs… They were everywhere… I tried my hardest to get a picture but nothing would show on the #camera… It was magical… Like little #fairies flying around me and my campfire. There were so many of them!

Then, to top it off,  I noticed this huge beam of light come down on my campsite. There were rays of light scattering all around and into the woods. I thought I was being visited by an #angel or something. It was so #magical, like something you would see in a #biblical film, you know when the angel visits the poor, distraught man… where there are all these beams of #celestial light and then an angel appears amongst them? You following me here?

I followed the mysterious lights into the woods, with my eyes only… I couldn’t take a chance walking down to the stream with my bad foot.. That would be just plain old reckless… But I did see where the light was the most intense… It was right over the stream, like it was #beckoning me to follow.

Then I looked up and saw this… This picture does it no justice at all… The #moon was so bright #lastnight, it was beaming through the #trees which was creating these beams of light in the pitch black #forest #dark… It was lighting up the area around me like it was early evening and the #sun was just going down… I tried taking pictures but it was still too dark for my camera to pick anything up…

I tell you folks, I really felt like someone or something was trying to tell me something… Now, I am a very practical, #scientific being. I believe in #energies that are supported by scientific #theories but that is really as far as my spirituality goes… So for me to experience this and talk about it means a lot… It was like nothing I had ever experienced before… Absolutely #beautiful… I sat literally for 2 hours, until the light dissipated, then I stumbled into The Millennium Falcon…

Now, I’m not getting delusions of celestial grandeur here… My practical mind feels it was nature doing her thing but my heart says otherwise… Something is trying to tell me something on this trip… I don’t know what it is and I really don’t care what or who it is… I just want it to know, I am listening! There is no reason to be cynical here, so I will just go with the flow… But please, please, if there is anything out there, visit me… I don’t care if you kill me, just knowing something exists other than this life is worth my own life, to say the least…

Everyone thinks the #atheist or the #agnostic, as I like to call myself, is rejecting the possibility of #God at every chance possible… I don’t agree… Us agnostics want there to be something after life just like all of you, we just don’t choose to spend our lives trying to explain it or justify it with parables and tales…

So folks, if for some reason I mysteriously disappear… just remember this occurrence and hope that I was given the wish I just requested… As for the rest of the night, all I did was ponder my #existence as I took advantage of shower night… It was a  very emotional, amazing, #peaceful night… I don’t see it getting any better than this at this location, so I will be heading out tomorrow, hopefully…

Thank you #WhiteMountains for a great week of absolute #solitude, #soulsearching and nature’s miracles… I couldn’t have started this trip any better… I can’t see how it can get much better than this but this trip has already surprised me in so many ways… Goodnight… see you in the morning…