Day 4 - Sunday, July 4

I woke up around 11:30, due in part to staying up so late the night before, and also in part to the fact that there was little noise to wake me.  I was thrilled at how many folks were observing the silence.  Of course, this was too late for me to make it to Main Circle, which was about an hour hike away.  So I decided to head up the hill to see what was up at Bliss.  I grabbed the chevron amethyst that I'd brought for Dragonfly, a healing crystal that I'd programmed especially for her.  The silence was deafening, broken only by the occasional sounds of children yelling as they splashed in the water.

Heather and Bob had struck camp some time in the early morning, and Mom had gone up to the trail head to wait with their gear while they went to get their car.  They had to get back to pick up their kids, and couldn't stay longer.  Amazing that I didn't wake up while they were striking camp, but I was exhausted, both from the excitement and the humid heat.

I got to Bliss, found Dragonfly out front, and gave her the crystal. She whispered to me that I was going to miss Main Circle, but that OM Valley was going to circle, so I gave her a hug and headed down the trail.  I got to OM Valley's camp through the mud, which I was amazed at how much mud still remained from Thursday night's rain. I saw a group of brothers and sisters sitting around what looked to be a fire pit, with large rocks surrounding it.  One brother (can anyone identify him?) was smudging people.  I found a rock in the shade and sat down.  The folks sitting around the fire pit got up and left, and the brother with the smudge sticks came over and smudged me and a beautiful sister who was also waiting in the shade.

Being smudged was the most intense I've ever experienced.  I've been smudged before, but this time I could *feel* it.  This brother had the most interesting smudging pattern going on, making sure that he got the whole aura, especially a spiral for the third eye.  I breathed in deeply, and said my prayers silently.  I could have flown off into the sun at that moment, but waited to see if there would be a circle.  I sat back down on my rock, waiting.....

Two little sisters, about 2 and 4 years old, skyclad, clambered over the rock I was sitting on (and me!).  The sudden intimate contact with such small sisters, after having been childfree for so many days, added to the spiritual buzz I was getting. They were so joyous, climbing up and down, and all around me, just like kittens gamboling around playing.  The brother who had smudged me came back (it was around noon-thirty) and said that they had circled in their hearts, and were not going to have a circle.  I was very disappointed.  I turned the little sisters back over to the brother who had been watching them, afraid they might hurt themselves on the rock, and headed back down to Bliss.

Bliss was a chaos of people, after the beautiful silence all morning.  I couldn't take the din, so I headed back down to camp. I boiled water for a dehydrated lunch of chicken stew, which turned out to be pretty tasty, if only we had brought a little salt. But that was up at Bliss with all my other spices, which I donated (without any thought of being repaid!) to the kitchen.  The day was incredibly warm and humid, so I hung out in the shade of the trees most of the day.  For the first time in probably 20 years, I lay on my back and watched the clouds float by.  Now *that* is bliss!

I got a chance to see the "landowner" of the small piece of property we were camped on.  A small mole was very put out by the fact that we were camped over his home, but it didn't stop him from going about his daily activities.  One night (I forget which) I heard a sister close by yell "There's a mouse in my tent!  He doesn't have a tail!"  which set us all to laughing, because we'd seen the mole out and about.  He never got into any of our stuff, and was a very polite host.  I'm sure he was glad to see us go, though.

Mom got back from seeing Heather and Bob off, confirmed that there were few shuttles running.  I had tried to patiently explain to them that most folks would be at Main Circle, but they waited for a shuttle until they finally realized that there wasn't going to be one.  Luckily, Heather and Bob did not get their car towed, so they got off on their way home from Home.  I really wish they could have stayed longer, but they enjoyed their brief time at the gathering.

After the sun started to go down a bit behind the hills, and after having discussed leaving Monday morning, I decided this was my last chance to see more of the gathering.  Cindy was, as usual, at the First Aid station at Bliss, and Mom and John did not want to go for a hike in the heat, so I headed off on my own.  I headed up Silver trail, determined to at least get to Lovin' Ovens.  I wanted to check out the ovens that they built in the woods.  So I got up to the Yellow trail, and made it up the hill to Lovin' Ovens.  The hike up was not too bad, mostly in the woods so the sun wasn't bearing down on me.  I saw a lot of fallen wood everywhere.  I had to cross small streams several times, which was tricky a couple of places because of the mud.  But I made up, stopped about 2 minutes from where Ovens was and almost decided to turn back, the hill was soooo steep.  But I took a drink from my canteen, and trudged on.  I made it finally, and stepped into the largest kitchen I'd seen.  They had benches for folks to sit in (all were full), and a lot of people were eating heartily.  I'd heard about how much food they had and were serving, but saw it with my own eyes.  Found the ovens themselves, and checked them out.  Very impressive!  I stood there catching my breath for about 5 minutes, and although there was abundant food and lots of people, not one soul talked to me the whole time I was there.  Maybe all were too busy eating and serving food, or chopping up trees for the ovens.  But it was a very distinctly different feel from Bliss, and I was glad that we camped near Bliss.  I also don't think I could have made it up that hill every day!

I didn't stay long, since daylight was fading fast.  I had my flashlight with me, but preferred to get back onto Silver trail (marked as White trail on the kitchens map) before it got too dark.  Coming back, there was one spot on Silver trail that was *very* muddy, and I could smell that there had been a dog there recently.  I don't want to get off on a rant here, but let me just say that now I understand all the discussion about not bringing dogs to gatherings.  I heard that one sister lost 2 dogs to parvo, although that was not confirmed.  I saw several dog fights during the days that I was in PA, and only saw 1 dog that was behaving "responsibly."  Our neighbors camped next to us had a large golden retriever, and he was very polite and quiet.  Had I not seen him, I would never have known he was there.  All in all, the large dog population was too much, although I must admit that I'm a cat person :)