A Trip Among the Trees

Recently, those of us at Mystical Moxie went to a music/holistic wellness festival in honor of the solar eclipse. (You can read Heaven’s post about that here.) We spent a full four days meditating, learning about different plant medicines, and immersing ourselves in nature. We also took some acid, because what better to do on a camping vacation than take a trip in the woods?

The Come-up

I had a bunch of workshops I wanted to attend earlier in the day, so J.R. and I each took one tab at around 3 pm. I hadn’t had lunch yet, so I warmed a burrito over the fire while we waited for our trip to start.

The first few hours were rather uneventful. Everything was sparkly and the colors were a little brighter. We migrated back and forth between sitting around the fire and hanging out in the tent, just laughing and having a good time.

Things didn’t really pick up until the sun started to go down. The first DJ of the night was supposed to start around this time, so we moved back outside. We were only a couple hundred feet from the stage, so we were able to watch from the warmth of our own fire. The music was good, and we were having a great time.

Then it started to get dark. Like really dark. We were twenty miles from the nearest town and there was a new moon. If you’ve ever tripped in the woods before, you know how fast the change in lighting can affect a trip. And it was dark enough to be a little disorienting while completely sober. But we were starting to peak, so J.R. decided it would be a good time to smoke some weed.

The Peak

I’d no sooner taken my first hit off the joint he’d rolled, than he looked at me and said, “So what do you think about spoon rings?” We’d never discussed spoon rings before. He’d never even mentioned them.

I stared at him like a deer in headlights for what must have been a solid minute before asking, “Was that gibberish?”

He laughed at me and explained that he was thinking about getting into making spoon rings. He’d read about it and wanted to know what I thought. I don’t know why he waited until we were tripping to bring it up, but he’s like that sometimes.

We passed the joint back and forth a few more times while he told me some story about a group home he’d worked at. I was trying really hard to follow it, but all I could process was blinding yellow.

I was also starting to get stuck in some sort of time loop with the fire. I’d watch him talk for a minute and then look back at the fire. It just kept looping, and I still couldn’t process anything other than yellow.

I told him this, and he offered me the joint again. I was past the point where I’d normally stop, but we were on vacation. There was nothing that I was currently responsible for, and I had nowhere else to be. “Fuck it,” I thought, and I took another hit. I’d wanted to trip in the woods, so that’s what I was going to do.

We Smoked Too Much

Right as I did, a small child in a Pikachu costume walked by. My brain was already doing that strobe light thing where objects seemed to move in chunks instead of fluidly, so I never saw the child appear on the other side of our tent. Was there really a kid dressed as Pikachu or did I just hallucinate a whole Pokemon?

I suddenly realized that I no longer had any concept of what reality currently was. The other festival attendees seemed to be cool with plant-based substances. Many of them had been smoking weed themselves all day. However, they didn’t know that I’d taken drugs, and some of them had their kids with them. I needed to be somewhere more private.

I told J.R. that I needed to go to the tent, but wasn’t sure I could get there. He said he was going to use the bathroom first but would meet me there.

I got up and discovered that my legs were working much better than I anticipated. I was able to make it inside the tent without a problem. It felt like ages before J.R. came back, but I kept telling myself it was just the acid distorting time. Turns out he actually was gone for a while. I guess the outhouses we were using swayed a bit. Between that, the acid, and the light show from the stage, he had a bit of a funhouse experience while trying to pee.

The next DJ came on around this time. It sounds cliched, but I swear the music was designed to trip to. At one point, it sounded like there was a spaceship landing right outside of our tent. Our tent also briefly morphed into a circus tent. I don’t remember much else about this part of the trip, but J.R. and I both commented several times that it was a weird one. It was probably the most interesting trip I’ve ever been on.

The Comedown

By about midnight, the visuals had subsided. I’m not quite sure when they stopped. The weirdness was just gradually less overwhelming until it stopped altogether.

I thought I might be able to get some sleep, but it was freezing. We knew it was going to be chilly the first night, but the forecast had predicted low 40s. Instead, it was 33ºF. We weren’t prepared for that.

I lay there listening to music, trying to fall asleep. The DJ’s set was over, but the speakers set up through camp played music most of the night. J.R. hadn’t moved in several hours, so I thought he was asleep. He finally rolled over around 2 and mentioned that he needed to use the restroom again. I also needed to go, but neither of us was willing to venture out into the cold just yet.

We finally fell asleep around 4:30, but were awake again by 6:30. Despite the limited sleep, we felt great. The afterglow carried us through the whole next day. I also found out that the kid in the Pikachu costume was real. He also had a little brother who was dressed as a turtle. Apparently, wearing character onesies at festivals is kind of a thing. I might have to invest in one before my next festival.

All in all, I rate our acid trip in the woods 9.5/10. I’d have preferred it to be a little warmer, but I had a fantastic time.

What do you think? Would you trip in the woods? If you’ve done it, drop a comment and tell us how it went.