Briggs: Baker Hot Springs
N: 48.455345
W:121.401140
Elevation 1430
Relaxing
at Baker Hot Springs sitting in my new favorite camp rocking chair and thinking
about how wonderful life was, when I heard the tone of a voice talking from
down the trail towards the river, when around the boulder a young man wearing a
full hiking backpack that jingled with bells, came sprinting towards me.
“Did you
hear me talking?” He said excitedly out of breath. “I was just talking to two bears down that
trail, black ones, and they didn’t seem scared of me at all.” He pointed in the direction in which he just
came and I stared down the closed off road half expecting to see two bears
following the young man.
I looked
at the six foot tall, slender man with his designer glasses and his new REI
hiking gear and smiled at him. “Did they
follow you?” I asked turning my attention back to the road, wondering what I
might do if two bears did come rambling up the trail.
“No, they
just stared at me as I talked to them and then I just kept walking backwards
away from them until I got to that boulder.” He pointed at the rock I had
earlier determined looked like the profile of George Washington and nodded. “They just stood there staring at me. I thought they were supposed to go away if
you make enough noise.” He shook his
pack on his back causing the bells he had tied on to ring again for emphasis.
“I believe
if they are territorial bears they know that a lot of people come and go from
here and they just might be accustomed to Humans enough that they don’t scare
off so easily. As long as you leave them
alone, I believe they will leave you alone, unless of course it is a Mom bear,
then you can have lots of trouble. Do
you have bear spray or a gun with you?” I said looking up at the young man as
he had not moved an inch since stopping in front of my chair.
He stared
down at me and my little blue bird and shook his head. “This was the last thing I expected to see after
those bears, a woman and her bird just sitting in the shade.” He started to
laugh nervously as he stared back down the trail where the bears were.
He calmed
down some as I went over to my van and began the activity of making some tea,
inviting him to put down his pack and to relax awhile, which he did, talking to
me the whole time of how he had just hiked from Bellingham to the hot springs
over the last five days and how he was planning on continuing his journey East
along the NW Crest trail until he came to the Continental Divide which he
planned then, to follow South.
We each
had a cup of green jasmine tea as we settled into the shade of the parking lot
where I was camped talking for many hours, only being interrupted by those who
came and went through the parking lot either to hike or to enjoy the hot
springs, while he told the visitors of the two bears he had encountered
earlier.
He
introduced himself to me as Briggs and said he was quitting his delivery driver
job and taking this incredible hiking trip before he ‘settled’ down in
life. He told me he was leaving behind a
girlfriend and a German Sheppard along with a bitter fight with his Father and
heading out to join with nature while sharing the conscience awareness of unity
that he felt was filling the planet in leaps and bounds.
He also
mentioned I should look up some teachings he had read about called the “Emerald
Tablets of Thoth’. (See link below) and
our conversation fell into a spiritual affirmation of how we are changing the
way we think about the Human race and our unity upon the planet.
We
continued our conversation after we went into the hot springs, his first
natural ones, as we found ourselves immersed in the sulfur mist of body and
mind.
A man came
along to join us and he listened to Briggs relate his story of the bears when
the man asked Briggs about the protection he planned on using as he hiked into
the backcountry of Washington State, reminding him that not only bears are to
be feared but cougars, wolverines and badgers, not to mention what happens when
you upset a skunk or a porcupine. He
said never forget that wolves and coyote lived there also and that they can be
predatory in the wilds and have been known to attack people on rare occasion.
Briggs
said he would think about what the man said and spoke to me of how he had a gun
at home and how he had chosen to not bring it because he wanted to go
peacefully through the woods, not armed to kill, which he admitted he was
passive in killing any animal.
I tried to
remind him that each animal lives in accordance with its own instinct, and over
time, Humans have bred into animals the instinct to protect themselves from us
and even though noble in his intentions, I too believed that a cougar would not
listen the inner prayers of a soul asking to not be ate, and that he needed
some kind of protection other than his hiking poles.
Briggs
made his camp near my van and in the morning took me up on my offer to take him
back into town so he could resupply his hiking expedition. He told me he was going to go back home and
pick up his gun, his knife and to get some bear spray before he continued
Eastward.
We drove
the thirty miles back to Sedro Wooley and he went over to the National Parks
service office while I put gas in my Matilda and to chow down on a corn dog until
Briggs returned with a huge can of bear spray that the Park Service gave to him
under unique circumstances.
He piled onto his back his
pack with his bear bells giving me a sweaty hug and the promise that we would
catch up to each other somewhere along the road again. He walked across the busy intersection of
Highway 9 and started hiking north towards his home in Bellingham, his bells
clanging loudly with each step he took.
I pulled away from the gas
station in Matilda, with Herbette sitting tall on her perch to look out the
front window as I say, “Here we go…” the thoughts of goodwill and good people
met on my own journeys giving me hope of the wonderful people and experiences I
encounter as I continue “Traveling Thru the Tonda Zone!”
http://www.alchemylab.com/thothtablets0.htm
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