DOSE:	25 g	oral	Nutmeg	(ground / crushed)
	1 cig.	smoked	Tobacco - Cigarettes

BODY WEIGHT:

195 lb

What better place to trip than Joshua Tree National Park? This was universal agreement between two of my friends and I as we departed on yet another classic Southern California roadtrip.

Shrooms had been on the agenda, but managed to elude all our efforts to procure them. So after an eight hour drive over the course of a night, I found myself standing on the Martian landscape holding a bottle of ground Nutmeg and a bottle of spring water. After watching my buddy Brian attempt to down his twenty-five grams mixed with canned pears, I decided that speed was the key to success in downing this incredibly morbid tasting concoction. I downed the spring water and mixed all twenty-five grams with approximately two cups of coca-cola. Well accustomed to consuming putrid protein shakes, I wasn't expecting the extremely horrible, grainy mixture's taste. My other friend Victor opted, at first, to skip the entire ordeal after observing our suffering.

Well, after an hour of setting up camp in a beautifully secluded box canyon, I was feeling no effects aside from a few nasty burps, and set out to do some early evening bouldering. We each had one of those small Motorala two way radios to keep in contact, and after climbing a towering two hundred foot rock pile, I enjoyed a cigarette while watching the sun set. It was at this time that I felt the first twinges of anxiety. These feelings grew more pronounced when I realized that I now had to find a way back down to the campsite from atop a now seemingly vertical route. I watched in wonder and amazement as my two buddies appeared to traverse easily back down the maze of rocks leaving me stranded and confused as to a course of action. Not wanting to appear afraid, I began my descent only to find myself trembling and paranoid as every rock seemed to be incredibly steep and impossible.


It took me a good thirty minutes to ease my way down a route that should have taken no more than five minutes, and all the time the incessant sarcastic guidance over the radio from my buddies below wasn't helping my situation. Once I reached solid ground, I realized that I was really tripping. No visuals, but the body high was amazing. It was very similar to being extemely stoned, but I noticed no loss of energy. My friends and I each perched ourselves on different outcroppings around the campsite, and started talking to each other via the radios. It was at this point that my visual perceptions changed. Everything took on a pronounced three dimensional aspect, and I felt as though we really were just little aliens on a foreign planet. Distance became impossible to perceive, and every word that came over the radio caused me to burst out laughing uncontrollably. I felt like the rock I was sitting on was the top of my own little world and that I was holding a discussion with the rulers of two other worlds that were within eyesight and earshot, yet incredibly distant at the same time. A truly unusual summit of the minds.

Soon after this, I became extremely dizzy. Everything whirled around me and when I closed my eyes it became worse. I managed to make it to my tent, and lie down which helped minimally. I figured some music might help and grabbed my discman hoping to alleviate my distress. I put on Black Sabbath's Vol. 4 and laid back wishing that I could just clear my mind. By now, nausea had set in and was getting quite bad. As the song Wheels of Confusion rolled my mind in circles, I knew that I was going to puke but couldn't drag myself outside. A few tunes later, I deperately pulled myself from the tent and stumbled to a nearby bush where I engaged in the most painful and disgusting retch of my life. The entire time this was happening, I was dimly aware that a stranger had somehow wandered his way onto our campsite (a strange occurence indeed considering we were in the middle of nowhere), and I could hear my friend Brian trying to halfheartedly explain my situation to this mysterious person who was later nicknamed The Dude.

Although the retching had helped, I was still quite sick, and retired to my tent for the remainder of the evening to let Sabbath administer its medicine. I had heard that hallucinations were common after the first eight hours, and in fact did experience one mystifying perception of a yellow speck of light on my sleeping bag. It seemed so real, that I attempted to grab at it to determine its existence, and it jumped outside my grasp about six inches to the left. Quite mystified, I stared at it for a few seconds longer and it disappeared. I managed to fall asleep after another hour of discomfort, and spent the next day in a painful hangover. In fact, I felt as if I had a bad case of the flu. I was able to revive myself somewhat after a campfire meal of mac and cheese, and was up and about by that night, although it took another twenty-four hours to regain all of my senses completely.

In retrospect, I probably took too large of a dosage. Both Brian and Victor (who ended up taking about 15 grams) had pleasant though mild trips which they compared to a typical marijuana high. I would even be tempted to try it again if it weren't for the awful taste.

Exp Year: 2000	ExpID: 14207
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 4, 2004	Views: 40,792
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Nutmeg (41) : Nature / Outdoors (23), Difficult Experiences (5), Small Group (2-9) (17)