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a witch hikes the PCT in 2017 & this is her story

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Witch Wandering

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  • OCT '16
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Day 5 // Medicine root & hectic hiker haunts

May 11, 2017 Pitch

The wind whips up and dies down, whips up and dies down. It rattles the scrubby shrubs and it sounds like bones rattling through the night. It is eerie, but beautiful. The moon light is so bright, it is like an otherworldly day. I slip in and out of good R.E.M. sleep. I am woke by the scent of rain on the air and the temperature shifting. A jolt of fear pulses through me. I peek my head out of my vestibule. Towards the east a mountain top is being coated and covered in fog, it slips and curls down its slopes. Like claws reaching up into the sky. The sky is clear though. But I smell the dampening air all around me. I tremble a little. What if it rains? Will I need to leave since I'm in this wash? I curl back into my quilt.

I'll wait till the patter of rain on my tent. I can hear a nearby tent collapse and the hiker gets out to fix it. 

I slip back into sleep.

I'm looking at my phone. It's a video of my father doing something while he is drunk and it's embarrassing. I start to cry and a person next me to me laughs and asks why I'm sad. Another hiker is there, Evan and he defends me. I get angry and I grab a shovel and hit the person who laughed at me with it. They fall to the ground and as I go in for the killing blow, they turn into a plant and my strike chops off a rootball.

Medicine.

Laughter jolts me out of very deep sleep. The others have woken and are laughing. I was in such deep sleep and the dream so lucid reconnecting with my reality was like walking back into another dream. My face is almost in the dirt and it's 4:30am. I slept in. 

I pack up very fast and for some reason, I'm angry. I'm sad. I'm... in a very weird headspace. The bones in the hills rattle at me. The wind whooshes. 

I pop a caffeine pill. I force myself to eat a bar of nuts and meat stick. I walk out of camp and up a dirt road to the trail. I poop, and then get to the real business: I hike. 

I think about the dream. The obvious symbolism. The root of our problems is also our medicine, we can utilize it and transform it into something that heals us. 

This is the work of a witch. Transmutation. Making the medicine. Healing. To heal isn't easy. It is painful, it is ordeal.

My father is alcoholic and has been battling with it for some time. Over this past year, I too have recognized my susceptibility to alcoholism. My relationship to it is something I still am working out.

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I turn over a few other things dwelling on my mind. I'm only 60+ miles in and my future after this tugs at me. Not now, I think. 

Right now it's this mountain side and making 13 miles to Sissors crossing to take shelter from the incoming storm growing on the mountains east of me. 

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My right foot hurts pretty badly. The blister on the ball of my foot is angry and it makes walking challenging. My water is low and my food too, so I am light and fast. I walk as mindfully as possible.

I approach a gate, but something white flashes to my left. Datura wrightii! The vespertine queen of the desert. I've been waiting to see her from the start. Her flower is as big as a plate. I run to it through the brush. I smell it and everything deadly and mysterious of the desert, those rattling bones in the night are condensed into this singular flower. She's amazing. Intoxicating. Alluring. 

I walk away wistfully back to the trail. Up a road and back to the PCT. But my hat is gone! I turn back and Pedia comes striding in. "The flower stole my hat!" I yell.

Its there, right at the base. Tricky Datura. 

Pedia and I hike on. Eventually we find Honeybuns and Knock on Wood, Acid Jesus and Banana Pants! No Dominic, so I give them my oranges I grabbed yesterday. They all greedily share it.

I take an ibuprofen and caffeine pill. I lead from the front, and the pain eventually melts away. We all laugh and talk together. It's good to be back with my friends!

Dominic is about an hour ahead by his distinctive tracks. I like tracking people by their shoes print. 

We drop to the desert floor. The wind is fierce. We get to a road junction so that we can hitch into Julian. Eventually I catch a ride with two young people from LA. There's hardly any space for me. They're listening to this American life and we drive up up up into the ominous cloud in the mountains that's been building all day. 

Hitch hiking.  

Hitch hiking.  

In Julian, the mist swirls all around. We're in a cloud. I find Honeybuns and Knock on Wood. We head to a bakery for free pie. I get pecan with whipped cream and coffee. So many people are there. I sign the log. Everyone is frantically trying to figure out a place to stay. Pedia and I consider asking Deb.

After pie, everyone goes to Carmens. Basically a hikers only joint with beer and burgers. It's insanely chaotic and I feel very overwhelmed, but happy and excited to be with basically all the folks I've socialized with on trail so far. Deb offers to take 4 of us in. 

I drink a few beers and I'm fuzzy. I talk and mingle for a long time. It's only 2pm but it feels much later. Eventually everyone has a place to stay and we get our ride up to the hill where Deb is at. Me, Pedia, Acid Jesus and Banana Pants snack and talk and stay up way too late.  

I collapse into a bed with Thomas the Train sheets and I sleep more deeply than I ever have before. 

In PCT
← Day 6 // An Amazing ZeroDay 4 // Are you really a witch? & first trail magic →
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Thank you!
Soft fawn lilies, among the thorns and poison oak, like stars on the land all around me.
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At times, I forget where I live. I forget the goodness I have.
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This retrograde, in my own natal sign of Aries has been a doozy for me. From computer fixes, to my car needing $2k in work, to feeling stretched very thin... it's been very challenging. But also lessons in survival, lessons in recognition of what privileges I have, lessons in what to protect, lessons in when and where not to give.
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As Mercury seemingly glides backwards, so do I. Words are hard to make. I move with a slowness I never thought possible for myself. And while the mishaps and frustrations have been very grating, I surrender to this strange energetic current.
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Boundary has been my word this retrograde cycle. Throw the salt around your home, stand your ground to those who would encroach on your sanctuary, be firm with pushy bullying spirits. Appreciate those plants that burn, sting and pierce. Don't curse them! They only teach through example...
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#witch #plantwitch #fawnlily #wildflower #lily #spring #aries #retrograde #mercury #lessonslearned #boundries #witchesofinstagram #plantspirit #plantspiritmedicine #poisonoak #cultivatingsoftness #staysoft #butfierce #ariesseason #witchesofthenorthwest
I'm breaking my regular posting radio silence to say hello! and reintroduce myself in a way. I've gained and lost quite a few followers, so I wanted to say hey to those who may not quite understand who/what I'm about!
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• My name is Britton, or sometimes I go by Pitch. A name I acquired while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017. It's about pines, if you're wondering.
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• I'm a witch person. What does that mean? I means very simply that I live in liminal spaces, communicate and ally with the unseen: Spirit, ancestors, trees, plants, rivers, dirt, birds are my guides. I'm an animist and seeker of understanding the strange mysteries of our world.
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• I make a living through making perfume, slow plant medicine and reading tarot (link in bio if you're curious).
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• Herbalism is a big passion of mine. Plants teach us, heal us. And not just our physical bodies, but our spirits.
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• While I've been living in Oregon for 10 years now, I am originally from Georgia. I have and keep a few inflections in my accent from my time growing up in and around the south. Swamps and trailer parks y'all.
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• My sun and moon are in Aries and I'm Aquarius rising. I still battle with my aloof Aquarian nature 🤷🏻‍♀️
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• My education stopped at the 4th grade. I'm a homeschooled, uneducated weirdo.
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• Some folks say I'm intimidating, but really I'm just a giant friendly goof who likes memes about doggos. And I say HECK a lot.
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• I got ADD! And it's reeeaaal difficult to deal with sometimes, but I handle it by creating structures and being patient with myself.
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• I can be very quiet, until I'm not.
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• I turn 33 in just 19 days! 😱
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• I'm the oldest of 6 heckin kids!
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• I'm really into divination through cards and bones (maybe you noticed? 😅). I've been studying and using the tarot for 10 years now. It's cheaper than therapy and it'll whoop your ass into shape.
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That is my brief self summary 👋
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Who are YOU? Where did you come from, and most importantly what's yer dang astrological sign? 🤓
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#aboutme #hello #witchesofinstagram #ADD #aries #ariesseaon #arieswoman #perfumer #herbalist #witchesofthenorthwest #northwest #yurtlife #pagansofinstagram #animist #itme #selfiesforselflove
I want us to be imbued, by the land.
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Buried in our skin.
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Taking three steps back.
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Letting the Devil catch me when I fall.
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& he teaches me to find so many stars, also fallen: all scattered in the dirt.
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#juniper #desertsky #desert #easteroregon #storm #devillessons #thedevil #mystic #crossroads #fallenstars #mercuryretrograde #aries #ariesseason #myheart #riverlessons #ethericcurrents
🏔WA🏔
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Cloud mist clinging to rock. The night and day before this was so wet. And my rain anxiety had kicked into high gear. My tent floor, flimsy cuben fiber had tiny holes all in it, making a pool of water around my sleeping pad. It was a poor and very cold night of sleep. As it goes though, you wake up, a little miserable because you have a new definition of what physical misery is and you "cheerfully" trudge through salmon berry, thimble berry bushes, getting drenched from the rain that clings to them. Also acquiring new scratches to your already trashed legs. You come to the top of the long climb and there's the sun, the mountains, huckleberries, the rocks and alpine firs. Lay out all your gear, get your sleeping bag crispy dry, feel full on life and powdered cappuccino mix and continue on...
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My missing this is only growing. Even though in the moment I took this picture all I was dreaming about was avocados, French press, never walking again, being able to preen myself in a real bathroom, and a loaf of sourdough with a pound of butter.
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#pct2017 #yearoffireandice #pacificcresttrail #pacificcresttrail2017 #pct #thruhike #thruhiking #traillife #trailstories #northcascades #longdistancehiking #womenwhohike #mountains #mist #witcheswhohike #cascades #mountainheart #mountainblood #hikerhunger #feral #witchlife #pacificnorthwest #pnw #pnwonderland
At the end of this month I will be sending out an herbal tea that has saved me 1000 times from: anxiety, looping thoughts, lack of concentration, feeling emotionally scattered, ADD (actual diagnosis), creeping doom feelings, heavy emotional labor work, dealing with shitty people, stress... lots.
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Obviously I am not a doctor, obviously this isn't a medication if you're dealing with mental health issues. That's for professionals. This however has helped me. As a person who has limited access to professional care, most of my health care is in my own hands. So I read, study and make my own medicine, because that's mostly all I got.
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What is it?
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Deep nervines.
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Deep nutritives.
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Gentle herbs: tulsi, nettle, passionflower and skullcap and a few other herbal friends.
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Uplifting and yet, unknotting tensions we hold inside us. This stuff holds your heart and your brain in a gentle way.
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This will be going up in my shop eventually, but you can get early access through my Patreon for $20. Each month I send out a little herbal care package. There's 10 additional slots open for this round and you're all welcome to join me if it interests you. This tea package will come with four servings and a small guide on an easy tea meditation you can use with *any* herb to get in touch with it, fully experience its medicine, while also coming back to your center: your heart.
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You find a link to my Patreon in my bio 🖤 or, sign up to my newsletter that'll let you know when I'll be doing my shop update 💌
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#fire #woodstove #tea #mug #herbaltea #herbalist #nervine #adaptogens #herbalist #herbalism #woodstovelife #countrylife #yurtlife #ruralliving #witchinthewoods #witchesofinstagram #healing #plantspirit #plantspiritmedicine #oregon #oregonlife #soot #witchlife
Often I am curious about the content and nature of the heart of a mountain. I see it as red and molten, naturally due to my location. Especially of this one, Wy'east. From far away he is so intimidating, commanding, he rumbles. I've gone broke neck for him too many times to count, making me swerve when I'm in city traffic. And I've listened to his glaciers crack and thunder out along a ridge line I walked one afternoon, years ago. It shook me deeply. He has held me while I watched stars fall... But when you draw nearer, he seemingly shrinks. Your feet sink deeply into his hot sands, like he wants to trap you, to slow you at least from leaving. Like that aim is for you to be consumed, eaten. He seems hungry and restless for something so deeply fixed in the land.
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I miss that mountain a lot, now that I am further south. When I moved here, I had no clue whatsoever I was getting myself into. I will never forget driving down the 84, of that great river, and moss and mist, of basalt and cascading water...
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My nomadic childhood never allowed me a place to call home, and I did find it here.
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Something else is happening though, the deep restless finds me again and beats in subterranean places within me. I acknowledge it, I sigh, lust for living fills me to the brim and I grow joyous that another landscape will hold me and reshape me as this one has, eventually.
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#cascades #mounthood #mounthoodnationalforest #wyeast #pct #pacificcresttrail #thruhike #backpacking #womenwhohike #armybrat #columbiarivergorge #witch #witchlife #witchesofinstagram #mountainheart #mystic #lust #volcano #womenwhohike #trailstories #dougfir #mountainhemlock #cascademountains