DOSE:	89 g	oral	Mushrooms - G. spectabilis	(fresh)
		insufflated	Tobacco	(ground / crushed)
		vaporized	Cannabis	(tar / resin)
		buccal	Tobacco	(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

215 lb

A Ride With Gymn, Approx89 Fresh Grams Gymnopilus subspectabilis [synonyms: G. spectabilis, G. junonius]

This is the story of my first experience with mushrooms, my first psychedelic experience actually. Three attempts at psychedelia fell short, twice with Trichocereus cacti and once with morning glory seeds. Each try wielded more knowledge than I had before and I always took something positive away from them, I don’t consider them failures.

I’ve developed a pre trip ritual due to my attempts with Trichocereus - completely cutting out all processed, high fat content, high tyramine (aged or cured) foods. Pretty much just lean meats, rice or pasta and veggies for a solid 5 days beforehand. Some leeway for a PBJ or bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, But I’ve really been digging a sweet potato instead. Initially it was just about keeping difficult physical side effects of the cactus to a minimum, but I soon realized just how much it also helped hone my mind into the coming experience and set my intentions.

This time around I also made a small batch of Rapéh from my homegrown rustica tobacco, locally foraged mugwort and sacred lotus stamens, both great local allies. The mugwort for calmness and the lotus for a meditative state. I can’t really compare my Rapéh blend with others you read about as it was made from local plants I saw fit. It’s a work in progress.

I self administered the Rapéh with my homemade kuripe on the first morning of the dietary restriction, halfway through it, the night before the trip and about 20~30 minutes preceding.

Excursion

The lean to I had planned on spending the night in was occupied when I rolled through around 11:00pm. Having worked a 12 hour day and driving an hour and a half to get here on top of the hike in, I decided to keep on down the trail instead of heading off for another shelter. I needed to hunker down and get some fucking shuteye asap haha.

Shortly down the trail I came upon a small grassy clearing under a maple tree. The slight slope down the mountain top was a perfect spot for the contour of my back. This was it. I stashed my ruck alongside some exposed bedrock with my trekking poles laid awkwardly on top just in case a black bear decided to fuck with my gear, at least I would be woken up by the noise and could scare it off. That’s my fucking tea haha. I Threw down my bivvy/sleeping bag combo and tried to crack off into lala land the best I could. Of course the blasting Spanish band at 12:30 am from somewhere down in the valley didn’t help…

The trip

I woke up out of my slumber roughly a half hour after sunrise I’m guessing , surprised I had slept so deeply after a rough start of the night. Straight to business. It was time for Rapéh and a few small tokes of cannabis to get things in motion. The time was 8:04 am as the tea that had been warmed moments before on my backpacking stove crossed my lips for the first time. -It’s nice to have a hot cuppa something to drink after a long night of sleeping like shit on the ground- In contrast to all the other reports I’ve read, the flavor was not offensive or bitter at all, actually it was pretty enjoyable. -Albeit the combination of mushroom and lime was a little weird. I drank the 400ml (roughly a pint) of tea rather quickly, within 3 to 4 minutes . Guess I was thirsty haha. The last mouthful or two I could see how drinking a larger portion could potentially be a task.

..The deed is done, come whatever may...

I got up to take in more of my gorgeous surroundings, take a leak and button up some of my gear to keep dry from the rain.

Within 20 minutes I started to see the long grass under the tree start to fluctuate and get wavy, it’s hard to describe but it was almost as if you could imagine an invisible grid across your field of vision, the fluctuation emanating from each individual cross point. No color distortion was noticed however.

Within 10 more minutes ~T minus 30 from consumption, shit started to get intense. The mushroom really started taking me and taking me fast..

Pressure. An unexpected well of anxiety like pressure rose rapidly upon my chest, haha, there you are my old friend….breathe. Juuust breathe. No worries I got this. I stood there for a few moments with my arm outstretched and leaning against the maple, my companion and protector from the rain on this trip. Soon after I became aware of an intense nausea that had taken over my gut. This was like no nausea I’ve ever experienced in my life however… There was nothing *uncomfortable about it* None of the usual sick, pukey or disgusting feeling traveling into my head that I would normally associate with a bout of nausea. It was just, there, sitting. I knew then that this was my signal to lie down, so back into my sleeping bag I went. I kicked off my boots and socks into the bottom of my bag and zipped my bivvy closed, leaving the sleeping bag open so I could at least have some air.

Bye Bye

Behind closed eyes there were these two dimensional shapes shifting around. Almost like the profile of a vase is the best way I can describe it. Flat topped with a sharp downturn in and rounding back out into a bulbous base. They were overlapping each other in hues of reds blues and purples. I can’t say how long I was in that state, but at some point I opened my eyes and unzipped my bivvy to grab some of the water I had laying on the ground next to me. Looking out into the seemingly normal world- “Holy shit!” I exclaimed audibly, “ I’m going back in there!!!” A short burst of laughter came over, the comedy of finally making it into this place was to much to contain.. And back in I went. This time the CEVs were different, brighter, vivid, 3 dimensional and textured. Reds oranges purples and bright beaming white. It was almost like a futuristic laser show. Thick linear bands of dual colors with sharp, but rounded angles set against a black background. Beautiful and entrancing. Somewhere around here I also noticed an intense electric hum coursing through my body, not uncomfortable or concerning in the slightest. Again like the nausea, it was just there. -Also, I don’t recall anymore about the nausea after the initial moment when I realized it. It was just gone, or completely unnoticeable. Perhaps this was the serotonin overload I’ve read about?

After some time I came to and fumbled out of my bag to sip some water again. I looked around for a moment and noticed that the visual distortion was almost like the first time, this time however the points of fluctuation were way closer, much smaller and much much more intense. I remember seeing the the low hanging branches, sky, and bedrock, almost vibrating with intense electrical excitement.. I’m thinking it was related to the electrical hum from the deep dive I had just come out of.

…I didn’t know it at the moment, but it was time to do what I came here to do….

My intentions

~Over the week preceding this trip, my intentions had had come to light and solidified - I have had a complex relationship with a coworker for the last few years, we were super close for quite some time, and I kinda always sensed that she had a thing for me. To be honest she was one of those “if I was single I would definitely go for it”-but, respectfully. For the last year however, after some BS on her part and finding out she was a pathological liar, I have cut her away from any personal interaction. I don’t deal well with shady, and, being a Scorpio, my ability to sever ties is vicious. She still tries. The Rapéh, cannabis, and week of strict diet restrictions really brought up to the surface just how much the physical attraction had taken a foothold without me truly realizing it. I don’t like that shit. I’m 25 years deep into a committed relationship with an amazing woman, truly my best friend. She is my world. But monkey brain just wouldn’t shut the fuck up.~

Back in I go.

Once zipped in and cozy I take a puff from my blue cookies live resin vape, closed my eyes and exhaled.

Before this moment in the trip the intentions I had set were nowhere present, I was just along for the ride with Gymn.

This time the visuals were not like before. It was just me and my mind. I immediately started gathering up all of those welled up toxic feelings into one central mass. Visually they were condensing into a dark red malignant storm sphere in the center of my visual field, backdropped by almost a classic stormy sky. “What are you doing?!, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!” I remember saying shakily.

Once I felt I had gathered up all I could, I pushed it all away letting out a guttural “FUCK YOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!!”, tensing up my entire body as I did so. Afterword, there were a few brief moments where bits of that energy that I had missed surfaced, quietly muttering something along the lines of “You again? Ugh”, I calmly jettisoned those last unwanted crumbs. If there were any visions at all in these last moments, I can’t recollect.

-Somewhere around T-minus 2 to 2.5hrs -

Unzipping my way out and sitting up, collecting myself for a few minutes..”well, this part is over” ..it was time to get out of this half rain soaked cocoon of mine.

I remember standing up and looking down at myself and chuckling, I was a hot fucking mess! My fly was undone, pants sagging, sweater pulled up to mid torso on one side and my Tee shirt hanging awkwardly in an almost but not quite normal position. The mushroom had had its way with me.

Still quite intoxicated, the visual distortions had passed and I felt pretty stoned. Not a cannabis high though, different. The one toke I had taken before was definitely not enough to be feeling like this. I rifled through my pack and grabbed some dried green rustica tobacco to chew. Time to stretch these legs and explore a little. Gorgeous round topped mountain peaks carved by the last glaciation..(more like big hills than mountains haha) Peering off over random steppes & plateaus of erratics and exposed bedrock -gently working their way down the grassy slopes, littered with Sweet fern, one of my all time favorite plants. The beauty of this place. The beauty of her. I can’t wait to get her out out here, hiking with me. It’s been so long. We have so much fun together. She needs to see this place. Standing on an outcrop at the edge of my clearing, I see an another tent a few hundred feet away, in a gorgeous nook overlooking the descent before me. In awe of their site and wondering how they got to it, I realize they were close enough to hear me, and that I had made camp and tripped way too close to the trail. Next time I’ll choose a spot where nobody will stumble across a lone crazy man burrito screaming obscenities into the ether. That could have been reeaaal awkward.

For the next hour or so I keep going back and forth between how beautiful this place is, how much she means to me, and trying to pack up my gear -which always seems to get interrupted by my distraction of the other two. “I’m such a mess!” I say to myself as I’m trying to pack. For a moment I start to feel like I really mean the rest of my life is a mess… “That’s okay, it’s only here”[on this mountain]. I realize this and laugh, knowing that I’m doing it. Making it. Life is hard but for fucks sake I got this shit. Probably the first time in my 42 years that I’ve truly felt that deep down.

Have you ever packed up your car or your luggage for a trip and something didn’t quite fit right? Having to take it all apart, remove that item and pack it all back up again? That’s what this experience felt like. Exactly. I feel like I unpacked a lot of shit and packed it all back in. Only in a much better way.

I found exactly what I was looking for. What I’ve come to learn is that for me, cannabis and Tobacco are the way to understand the mushroom. Beforehand to figure out what my intentions are, And afterward to make sense of it. The mushroom has shown me that it can be the vessel to “get you there”, to the place to learn how to fix deep things. Cannabis and Tobacco are knowledge, wisdom. Deep confidence. I have to make note as well that I suffered not one ounce of physical discomfort or body load. I felt absolutely great from start to finish. There were also no color distortions at all.

I button up my things and get ready to head out. Before I ruck up, I remove the spent tobacco from my lip and place it gently in the nook of the tree, resting my hand softly on its weathered trunk. “Thank you for the knowledge of this place”. Time to get moving. Deeply content and basking in the experience the mushroom had given me, I stop briefly to send off a few texts to let her know that I was slowly making my way back and everything out here went absolutely perfect.

“You are seriously the reason I breathe” T-minus 4hr 33min.

Exp Year: 2023	ExpID: 117613
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 42
Published: Jan 17, 2025	Views: Not Supported
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Cannabis (1), Tobacco (47), Mushrooms - G. spectabilis (118) : Alone (16), Personal Preparation (45), Nature / Outdoors (23), Glowing Experiences (4), General (1)