DOSE:

10 g

oral

Mushrooms

BODY WEIGHT:

250 lb

The story begins early in the summer of 2003. The idea was to go to Buffalo, NY and eat buffalo wings, see Niagara Falls, and trip out in the woods of upstate New York. Pure gold. I was always down for a good trip, especially out in the glory of nature.

So the last weekend of July would be the date. 5 of us set out for the Buffalo/Niagara area, and only 3 of us had plans for tripping. The first full day was spent in Buffalo, at the birthplace of the wing- the Anchor Bar. Then we proceeded to 'Wingstock' a festival where wing vendors from the area peddled their wares for the benefit of local charities. The next day was spent at Niagara Falls and Canada, taking in all the typical tourists attractions (Maid of the Mist, etc). This takes us to the last, and most intense day of the vacation. It had started off gloomy. The skies were overcast, and rain poured down on us as we attempted to cook breakfast over an open flame. After the rain let up, some people headed back into Buffalo for more wings and beer, but I and my friend 'McFly' preferred to stick around the campsite. We spent most of the time reading and listening to 'Psychedelic Sundays' on the local classic rock station on the radio. I was reading my copy of 'People's History' and McFly had his copy of 'Catch-22' (which will become an integral part of the experience later on).

When the others had returned, we decided it was high time to follow through on the final objective of the trip: Massive consumption of mushrooms in nature. By this time, conditions had improved vastly- skies were clear and sunny, the weather was warm and provided an excellent enviorment for shrooming. Me, McFly, and 'Raides' went on to split an ounce of shrooms between three of us- the most I've ever ingested at once.

We waited patiently for the mushrooms to kick in, and while we were waiting, threw the frisbee around. Almost an hour had passed, and I started to worry that I wasn't going to trip (for some strange reason). But eventually (apx 70 min) the body trip started to take effect, and playing frisbee had started to become more difficult. Raides had already been tripping for about 15 minutes, and was quietly bugging out in a lawn chair. The three of us concurred that we were all now feeling the effects of what we had eaten and proceeded down to the shore of Lake Ontario. The scene was very idyllic. There were rolling green hills, which ended abruptly in a 4-6 foot dropoff and a small shoreline of rocks and sand. We had all sat down at the foot of the hill to take in the view of the lake and enjoy the gorgeous weather. It had now been about 90 or so minutes since ingestion, and the experience was extremely strong. I looked down at my legs, and it seemed as if I could make out every individual pore on my skin, all of which appeared to be breathing. That image creeped me out a little, so I laid back and looked up at the sky.

The thin, wispy clouds above started to form fractal like patterns and expand across the sky, which was an awesome sight. These patterns constantly morphed and swirled, providing some of the most vivid visuals I have encountered to date. I then closed my eyes, just to see even more. I envisoned a wireframe of a double vortex, which was spinning furiously, with a carousel type device encircling it. I heard a tribal like drumbeat at the same time, which increased in tempo as the wireframe vortex spun faster. Meanwhile, I could feel the sun beating down on me, warming my face to the point it was almost unbearable- but the visual and aural hallucinations were so good that I couldn't snap out of it. Eventually, I opened my eyes and sat up. I looked over at Raides, who then looked back at me, and simply said 'I get it now.... I get it.' My sentiments exactly. 'I get it.' It's simply the way I felt. I don't know what or how, but it was true. He summed it up perfectly with those three words.

At this point, McFly got up and started to make his way back towards the campsite, which made me realize my thirst which I had ignored until now. So a few minutes later, I went up to the campsite as well. I grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and sat down at the picnic table, where McFly also sat. I sat there quietly, looking at my surroundings, and how peaceful they seemed. All of a sudden, I heard a thud.

McFly had fallen off the bench and onto the ground. I asked him if he was alright. He looked back up at me and seemed as if his eyes were bugging out of his head. His pupils were enormous. He pulled himself up off the ground, and got some of his stuff together to go to the shower. Meanwhile I sat at the picnic table and pondered, watching children play and a light breeze sway the branches. After about 15-20 minutes, I saw McFly making his way back from the bathhouse.
'How you feeling?' I asked as he approached.
'Oh Im GREAT...' he replied. And this marked the beginning of the end.

He went on to explain to me about what a Catch 22 was. In the book, the main character, Yossarian, is a pilot who tries to get out of flying missions by claiming he is crazy and therefore unsuitable to fly. But the catch is, if he's crazy then he wouldn't acknowledge that to get out of flying. So McFly goes on about his life is filled with Catch 22's and he is therefore, the living embodiment of Yossarian. He began yelling at passers-by about how everything is a Catch 22. I tried to get him to quiet down and avoid the authorities being called. 'It doesn't matter!' he would say. 'Cause it's all going to be OK tomorrow and it's just a Catch 22.'

By now everyone was back at the campsite. Raides was inside the tent, attempting in vain to escape the ranting and raving of McFly, who was now causing a scene in a public park. McFly then laid down on top of the tent, causing it to collapse underneath him, with Raides stil inside. All you could hear from Raides is, 'I get it man, I get it!' The mantra from back by the lake was encouraging McFly to continue his tirade. 'See, he gets it!' So now I'm freaking out that something will go seriously wrong and I go back down by the lake. This time I went down to below the dropoff and onto the shoreline below the hill. I was instantly whisked back to the serenity of the quiet lake. By now the peaking had ended and I started to come down. I spent quite some time down there, skipping stones and forgetting about the chaos that might be taking place still. When I finally went back to the campsite, it was a little after sunset. McFly and the 2 others he had gone camping with where there, but Raides wasn't. Nobody was sure what happened to him. What happened while I was gone was explained to me.

In short, McFly eventually shed his clothes in his coup de grace. He at one point was kneeing the back section of Raides car, where there was now a dent. Raides was in the drivers seat at this time exclaiming that he wanted to 'drive to California' to start a new life. His keys were taken away from him and he left the campgrounds, which was the last time he was seen.
So eventually Raides was found stumbling alongside the nearest highway soaking wet. When he was returned the police were waiting for him at the campsite. Apparently, he had jumped into some guy's pool during a private party- who then called the cops- explaining why he was soaking wet. Raides had stumbled across the man's backyard after frolicking in a peach orchid (not sure if it was real or hallucinatory). He talked to the man, who was probably confused and startled, telling him something along the lines of 'If I don't get a drink i'm gonna kill myself.' (this is all hearsay afterall) and then jumped in the pool. The owner called the cops telling them he saw a guy in his yard who claimed he would kill himself, which is what got the police so involved.

So now we were all being questioned by the police, our tents raided, our drugs confiscated, awaiting out verdict. I envisioned jailtime in upstate NY, with my mom to (possibly) bail me out though she was several hundred miles away. The cops broke it down to us like this: We were getting off scot-free. Not a fine, not one charge. We were bewildered. They claimed there was a deadly car accident a few miles away and 'Some poor bastard died for you guys tonight.' Basically they had more important things to take care of. One cop noted that he was 'choking' over what we were getting away with. They did tell us we were banned from all NY state parks however, though I'm sure that's not set in stone. Before they left however, one cop asked 'By the way, did someone here get naked before?'

Exp Year: 2003	ExpID: 31065
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 27, 2004	Views: 13,921
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Mushrooms (39), Police / Customs (60) : Second Hand Report (42), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Small Group (2-9) (17)