# Kids in the woods...pt1



## xRastaxRuggzx (Aug 14, 2011)

So this summer was spent in the beautiful woods that Sasquatch called home in Skamania, WA. It was my first gathering, and Nationals was a blast. Hitching up from Portland to the woods, I got a ride to Longview. Flying a sign that said "Need a sugah mamma", I was picked up by this nice girl by the name of Peyton. She stopped by Taco Bell then kicked down some molly and we hung out in a small park near the college. Using that time to relax and teach her to knit, the hours soared by quickly. As it was getting later, Peyton gave me a ride north a bit to Castle Rock and dropped me off at this gas station.
I practiced mandolin some there, when I saw two rainbow lookin kids walk up to me. They introduced theirselves as Tyler and Gerry. Tyler was about six foot, lanky, with mop top blonde hair and peircing blue eyes. Gerry reminded me of a cage fighter, he had a broad face, brown eyes, a buzz cut, and a stocky frame. They had just come from a seed camp in the vehicle they were rubber tramping in outside of Spokane. They had got word that there was a holding camp around Woodland, WA. I was relieved to hear this information as I didn't really want to make a trip up north for nothing. So we walk over to their rig, a green Pathfinder, and I introduce myself to the driver, a lovely Indigenous beauty by the name of Genevier. She offered me a seat in the back. I go get beers for the road and fill up their gas jug whilst Gen finished up this necklace she was making for Tyler. She was a very elaborate seed beed artist, but I kept getting the idea Tyler didn't care too much about the gift, as he kept rushing her to get a move on. Fuckin' A, I thought, if someone cared enough to do something nice like that for me, the least I would do is not rush them. The ride there was a blast, as I had found a very lively group to hang out with. I came to find out it was Gen's vehicle and she had been driving around from her native British Colombia to California on a leave of abscence with Canadian National where she was a conductor. She seemed rather intelligent, and I loved her little terrier, Buster. He would squirm around in the most awkward positions in the vehicle, and then just pop up waiting for some love.
We arrived at this one rock quarry that was nestled down in a gorge near Woodland, WA. There was a holding camp here and I immediately took off and went exploring. Overlooking the quarry was a forty foot incline that included a gravel path going up to a scenic view of Mt. St. Helens. I walked up there with my mandolin, sat on the side of this overturned log that was beginning to rot away, and gazed at the glory all around me. Directly infront, the luminous, snow capped peak rested about fifty or so miles away, with the multitudes of trees looking like blades of grass below the mountain and I. I sat there for a few hours and enjoyed a bit of isolation, then as it was getting dark, walked down toward the fire and enjoyed the company of all the newcomers.
The next morning, I awoke to a group of crusties jumpin' out of a car screaming "We're homeless as fuck, we need to get high, too!" I thought that shit was hillarious. Unfortunately, I was as dry as a cacti-less desert. So Gen, Gerry, Tyler and I get some coffee brewing then begin our excursion to where the main gathering was going to be. As soon as we pass front gate, going along the curve to the left, we saw a plethora of people, multiple buses, and I had the feeling this was home. That night we raged in the parking lot. Gen had a natural affinity with kids, and there were tons of little kids runnin' round and they all seemed to dig her. I thought that was hella chill.
That night (i think) we busted out whatever left over spraypaint I had in my pack, and tagged the fuck outta the pathfinder. There were peace signs, hearts, train tags, even instructions on the spare tire: "Tag Me". Our friend, Kingdom, who is a brilliant artist, she painted a really cool red and black wolf howling at the moon, and the vehicle was dubbed "The Wolf Pack."
The next morning, I woke up, and went over to Useless's kitchen to see if I could help him do anything. He said to go shovel snow so the buses can get through to main trail. So I walked a bit down the trail and got picked up withhin five minutes from this guy who was heading up there as well. We arrived to the dig spot, there was no one there, but about twenty shovels. The snow was about six feet high and packed in thick. Once we were there starting away, a couple kids walked up and gave us a hand. It was hella relaxing digging snow, as I'm from an area where if there are two snowflakes on the ground they cancel school/work for the day. Eventually a few more people kept showing up, and I met Circus who came and join us. He had brought along some really dank chow and a head change. I thought it was awesome, helping for the greater good and gettin fat. So once it gets darker, we call it a night and head back down the hill. That night I couldn't find Gen's rig and my pack, so I just ended up fallin' asleep on the side of the road. Was'nt too bad, a clear night and warm weather.
The next morning, I see the pathfinder a couple cars away from where I camped. I go to see Gen, who was distraught. I asked her what was wrong, and Tyler had been hitting on other girls blatantly in front of her and they were supposed to be together. So I sit and talk to her, tell her it's not too big of a deal, for he was probably just hoppin' on something shallow with no personality. Gen on the other hand, was extremely extroverted and an awesome gal. So she is heading in for a town run this day and invites me to go with her. We load in a few kids and go to a gas station in Cougar. There is not much there, and tons of kids and caravans pulling in all day anyways. We basically get enough for a couple beers then decided to go somewhere else. Head in closer to the woods and stop by a different gas station.
There we meet one of the attendants there, named JR. He is a really nice hardcore kid who is gettin mistreated by his employers. It's the Texaco in Carson. The owners are dicks to their customers and employees. JR tells us about his band, The See You In Tees, and gives me a demo. He is the vocalist in the band, a two peice with his friend. They play a great blend of psychedelia and hardcore. They have a myspace. Well yeah I'm digressing.
So later on that day whilst Gen and I are juggin' away with the mandolin, she gives me a hug and kisses me. Asking me to be hers. I thought this may work out, but I wasn't gonna count my chickens before they hatched. So we end up running into some homebums under this really grand tree near the gas station and talking to them a bit. They tell us there is a local Native American family from the Yaka Mah tribe that lives not too far away.
Gen's ears perk up instantly, as she is always stoked to meet new families. As we are walking back to the gas station this lady, Danielle, pulls up in the parking lot. Gen and her hit it off really well and she invites us over to her mother's place to see if we could help out with some stuff. We follow her over there, and it turns out this is the family that the homebums were talking about. The Elder, Lu, was a really groovy lady. She is a great jewelry maker, had cutting edge sense of style, which she used to make her daughter's powwow regalia; and she is a beautiful person on the inside and out. She needed some help working around the house/yard to get ready for a big move to Arizona. She had recently got over the passing of her husband, and had a buncha stuff that needed sorting out. Well, I figured, how could there be a more interesting job for me then going through trash... So for the next few days, Gen, Raffiki, and I were busting ass at Mamma Lu's house all day then coming back to the woods with all sorts of random stuff we had salvaged, pillaged, and discovered round there. There were tons of blankets, food boxes, and baby supplies that were probably just going to get thrown out anyways, so we found good uses for them. Gen found alot in common with Mamma Lu, they were very similar and it seems like Gen was just gazing into the future to see her later on, a serene, at peace woman who still had the flair and spice to rage it up right.


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## xRastaxRuggzx (Aug 14, 2011)

I really enjoyed working this job, because not only did it keep my mind busy, but the people I was associated with were great. Genevier, I grew more fond of her every passing day. She was funny, quite the hard worker, and just an alround extraordinary person. Every night we would rage around a campfire and she would sing songs, ranging from Native powwow songs to Patsy Kline, to vancouver rock. She had a beautiful voice. Every morning we would wake up, and one person in particular would hop out in their birthday suit and scream "Naked as Fuck, can't even afford any fuckin' clothes." It was hillarious. The forest rangers even stopped us one day and were like hey your that naked girl, glad to see you found some clothes. So every day we would go work that job then pillage what we couldn't work for in town spanging and stuff. Then we came back to the woods with space bags and booze and all sorts of random goodies. We were chilling right outside of front gate pretty much the entire length of our stay. We befriended a guy, Jeff, who ran a kitchen in that lot. Jeff was interesting. He was ex Navy, a brilliant cook and bartender, who just headed out to the woods to have a good time and feed people. The only problem was he was having to do all the work. Alot of times, we would help him when we could, but there were usually a few able bodies around the campfire that could have at least made it easier for him with the dishes, firewood, or water runs. We could see this was starting to wear him down, so a few days Gen and I would go and take a break from going in to town ( if we had booze) and just let Jeff relax. We would go on the water runs, which was a fun task anyways, who doesn't like walkin through the woods to a river, ya know. Get firewood, relieve him on the dishes, and make sure his head was thouroughly changed. A couple days before the Fourth, we decided to go check out other parts of the woods. We got dosed on our way into Main Meadow and were carrying around this big "Red Vines" container full of rum and coke. We had wrote "homeless as fuck" on the jar in homage to those crusties from seed camp. We ended up gettin pretty fried and would stop at random spots along the trail and set up mini break stations, people would walk by, and we were too fucked up to roll right, or pack bowls and such, so we would share the supplies in exchange for steady hands. The break stations were awesome. After a couple days though, we were getting bored, so we headed out of the woods. I enjoyed my first Gathering, and I hope to experience them again. The sequel to this story is coming fairly soon, what happened on my first real journey rubber tramping and the adventure with Gen.


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## dprogram (Aug 16, 2011)

Nice read!


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## Waygook (Aug 17, 2011)

wow man, really well-written; and good story too.


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