I came back in a few hours ago under the cover of darkness. I was going to stay out for another night but I wanted a shower and some ice creme. I shouldn't have smoked a joint after I finished eating supper. I just left my tent and some other things to have an excuse to go back out tomorrow morning. I'm going to go rabbit hunting in the morning and decide if I want to spend a couple of more nights.
I had a really fun time. I love taking LSD way out in the woods and in those hidden open areas (old farms) you can only find on foot. If you stay mostly still and quiet for long enough everything comes back to life. It goes from dead silence to a symphony. If you're really good at it animals will just walk straight up to you. They'll even hang out as long as you're patient and give them time to get used to you.
First day/night I spent the first few hours setting up, clearing an area, and collecting firewood. This went by surprisingly fast. Once I got a good fire going I ate most of the food I brought and just sat around camp. I've been practicing meditation hoping to get back into a state I did by accident about a year ago. It was the most content and happy I've ever felt. No drugs involved. I didn't manage to do it but I got close enough. I did this for many hours until late into the night then crawled into my tent to sleep. Phenibut always makes me sleep like a log so I didn't have much trouble.
I got up late in the next day and had to get the fire going again. Had the last of my food/water and went out to collect more. I filled up my water bottles from a spring on my way to the fields. I did some rabbit hunting and had some good luck. Once I got done with all of them it was late in the day. When I got back to camp I ate and passed out. Third day was more of the same but I got up early.
I've always enjoyed camping and I really love stealth camping. I make a game out of not being seen. I figure if you can avoid people you don't have any problems finding animals. I don't go off the deep end though. You won't find me camping without a .22lr, an axe, and a good knife. I'm not interested in making fire with wet rocks. I just carry a zippo, matches, and a bic lighter.
I want to try hunting small game and maybe deer while on LSD. As odd at it sounds because I hate killing anything. It's the stalking part of it I like so much. Being able to get close to an animal that bolts at the first hint things aren't chill. I like the stalking aspect of it so much I do it even when I'm not hunting. If I spot a deer, rabbit, stray cat/dog, or anything else fearful of people sometimes I'll just track it for fun. I've always been able to get very close to animals like that. A lot of times I can coax them into trusting me. It's harder with wild animals but cats/dogs are easy. You just have to be careful you don't corner the animal and get the claws.
Lots of people will disagree with what I'm about to say but I have a goal this hunting season. My goal is to only hunt and take game with a .22lr this season. I'm also restricting myself to standard round nose lead projectiles. The bargain bin stuff everyone says you should only use for plinking. All the modern hunters and tacticool people will tell you I'm wrong and I should be using "hunting bullets". The thing is back in the day all the old timers hunted with worse ammo than I'm using right now. No one told them it wasn't good enough. My goal is to take a deer clean from less than 25 yards with my .22lr before the end of the season.
The reason I'm doing this is I want to experience how my Great-Grandparents lived during the Great Depression. They had this wealth of knowledge I wish I would have asked more about when they were still alive. They fed themselves with a combination of wild game and farming during the bad years. They told me the first winter wasn't that bad. They ate really good because of the abundance of wild deer and rabbit in our area. The second year was when things started to get tough. All the easy game had been hunted already. They started resorting to eating other game like Groundhogs. It wasn't long before there was no more Groundhog to eat.
Anyway. My Grandparents and Great Grandparents were all expert shots with .22lr. They took everything including deer with them. They always used round nose bullets and headshots to avoid damaging the meat. I'd wager a .22 rifle is the cheapest way to eat even today if you're willing to hunt wild game. It costs about 2-9cents per round. I don't know of any other way to fill a freezer with meat for less than 10 cents.
I'm going to camp and hunt as much as possible over the course of 2022. Trying to disconnect myself from the constant news and social media cycle. I figure by 2023 I'll have shaken down my equipment enough to try a long thru-hike. I still want to do the AT but I'm thinking I may want to save it for last. I want to do the PCT and CDT first. Then finish the triple crown with the AT. Party the entire walk and hit every festival. Really take my time.