Day 14 - November 14th

I woke up at 6:30 am and packed my gear up, then headed into the station for coffee and oatmeal. John offered to take me down the road a ways. Again, I almost refused, but I wanted to spend more time with these guys. I keep having to remind myself that walking is not my primary purpose. A guy name Lonny took over for Danny today and he was hilarious. I rode with him in the ambulance when we convoyed out of the station. Oh, I should also mention the guys helped with a last minute repair of my rig! Worked great all day! As I was leaving the guys gave me some granola bars and cash. Its strange to think that these are the guys who would have saved me in an accident or, alternatively, hosed me off the hood of a sedan and I might never have gotten to know such good people.

The rest of my day was a hot trek up Quatal Canyon Road, which should get me to Frazier Park eventually. I am presently camped out in the middle of Los Padres National Forest which is stunning to walk through even as I'm cursing the temperature. I can't tell you how beautiful it is out here. Hopefully, the videos can demonstrate better than my words can. Right now its pitch dark and dead quiet. Occasionally, a plane flies far overhead or a lonesome coyote yowls in the distance but otherwise I can detect no other presences. I am even starting to doubt my own presence, so invisible am I against the background of noiselessness, the original static state of the earth. It feels like this is how everything is supposed to be, quiet. And yet we ourselves are so loud with our machines and yammering TV's. I noticed that when I put in my earbuds to listen to music I became distracted, tuned out and it took awhile after I took them out to sink back into the silence. We have fall out of something basic, or so it seems to me. I will wait and see if this line of thought holds and come back to it again. This is a good hypothesis to mull over.

Videos of the Day 
Special Thanks to Fire Station 41 
Quatal Canyon
Never Turn The Sun Off!
Terrible, Just Terrible
Los Padres National Forest
King Grub