DOSE: T+ 0:00	150 mg	oral	AMT	(powder / crystals)
T+ 0:20	1 cig.	smoked	Cannabis
T+ 4:30	1 repeated	smoked	Cannabis

BODY WEIGHT:

12 kg

This weekend I had one of the greatest psychedelic experiences of my life. I’m going to try and do it justice here.

Last week, my friend 'B' and I began exchanging e-mails with a view to heading somewhere for a camping trip. Originally the idea was to head to either Sherwood Forest in Nottingham or to travel north to the Scottish highlands but the latter was scrapped as it would mean 8+ hours driving each way. Eventually we decided on North Wales and Snowdonia National Park as being the best location in terms of isolation, beauty and relative distance.

My mate and I have tripped together twice before, once when we were both on some strong hits of blotter LSD and once on 2c-i and LSD. Normally I like to trip alone as tripping can be, for me, something of a more intense experience than it seems for others.

We had been chatting over e-mail about various drugs and their effects and I had sent B some information on AMT via e-mail following my initial experience with the stuff a good few weeks earlier during a lunar eclipse. I still had quite a bit left over and when the idea of making this a psychedelic camping trip was mooted I was able to tell him that I had the golden ticket!

My friend lives down south, so he picked me up on Saturday morning and we headed off. It took about three hours good driving to get us to the national park. First off we sought out information on local campsites, forests and stocked up on food and drink for the pitch. As it was the Easter bank holiday the little town was absolutely heaving- mainly with middle aged English bikers and young families and their dogs- so we had a quick drink and got back in the car and went another hour west to a tiny little town named Bala.

Here we bought a second tent and sussed out a few campsites by telephone before settling on one about ten miles further out from Bala. It was a nice spot, flat grassy field which was elevated from the river that bounded it on one side. The place was fairly quiet too and we were able to pitch beneath this impressive Oak tree near the bank of the river with a good view of the hills in the distance.

By the time we had made camp dusk was rolling in so we broke out the camping gas and B cooked a class feast! We had chicken Rogan josh with basmati rice followed by coffee and fruitcake with a few beers and a few joints later on to wind the evening down early enough so we would be fresh for the big day in the morning.

Both of us slept none too well that night, our tents were pretty cold and I was definitely awake until around 6am, before drifting off until 9 or so. The plan was to drive to an isolated mountain or forest and trip there, beginning early in the day. After the bad sleep though we took our time, had a big breakfast, showered and decided to leave one of the tents at the campsite so that we could come back there for a shower and a lie down if necessary. I packed up mine as it's the smaller of the two and we drove to a town about 30 miles east to book a session of gorge walking for the next morning at 12.30.

While we were there we also bought some tasty local produce at the butchers shop and then got in the car to get us close to the forest. After about 40 minutes we had reached a valley which runs down the middle of a very hilly pine forest. The road was winding all over the place and very, very narrow so we abandoned the car and hoisted our packs. There was a river between us and the woods so we shed our shoes and socks and forded it. Then uphill through a few sheep pastures and into the wood, which began on a steep, steep hill. There were pines. I don't know what kind(scots pines?) and they were immensely tall and straight, occasional old oaks, shrubs and bushes and an abundance of thick greed heather and bracken, the real spongy stuff that coats dead sticks and feels like walking on an old mattress!

We took the most direct path up the hill which was at a real tough angle - at least 45 degrees- and was almost too much with all the gear hanging off us. After about ten minutes we had climbed the worst of it and crashed down where we stood to admire the view. All around us, stretching off into the distance were more huge hills, forested on top, pasture way down below, blue, blue skies, fucking lovely sunshine and a delicious cool breeze coming through the trees to where we lay.

We struck camp there, setting up my tent and cooking up our dinner before lying back to eat with the heather making the comfiest seat in the world against the hillside. After the meal I measured out 150mg of AMT for myself and 100mg for Lowe. The plan was to wrap it in a Rizla and swallow but the powder was too fine for this so we just ended up licking the tray and drinking water to get the taste from our mouths. Luckily it does not taste bad at all.

We smoked a quick joint about twenty minutes later and decided to go for a walk to the other side of the hill/wood to see the sunset. At this stage it could have been around 5pm. Checking the time was not high on my list of things to do

We climbed higher and higher into the wood but just as we thought we were coming to the crest of the hill we reached and impasse in the shape of a thick cluster of trees, brambles, grass and peaty ground- which meant we had to detour left to find a way past. Eventually we found a likely route, but it was really choked with briars and at a steep steep angle. We decided that we MUST get past it and that we MUST see the sunset so we pushed on, both of us ignoring thorns in our shoes, legs, arms and fingers and after some hard going we stumbled out the other side to find and old track in front of us going uphill. So we followed it.

By this time it was apparent that the hill/mountain/wood was a lot bigger than we had thought at first glance. The AMT was also having definite effect by this stage. My headspace was rapidly expanding and the trees on the distant hills were dancing at me. I had acquired a stick somewhere on the uphill route and was using it like a staff to point, touch and to check where I was putting my feet as the ground could be treacherous if there was heather growing over a hole.

We wandered upward, each time thinking that this ridge would be the last, that after this one the hill would come to an end and each time we were wrong! The hill went on and on. We came onto a logging road after an hour or so. This road ran clockwise around the hill, it seemed, so we followed it for a little while paying close attention to the subtle changes in colour taking place all around us on the road, the heather, the trees, the sky. When I swung my stick it seemed to leave a faint cloudlike trail behind it.

The two of us were feeling really happy, good and comfortable with the company of the other and we continued to walk. Shortly afterward we found a good path leading toward the top of the hill under some fully mature and damn impressive trees. Pine again, but really thick trunked and a few hundred feet tall. The corridor under them was even more impressive as it was thick green heather which lined a pathway about twenty feet wide uphill under the trees and it was slowly going from dark green to a pulsating, beckoning, welcoming, almost fluorescent shade of green. Like it was calling on us to walk up there almost. So we did.

At the top B witnessed an Eagle taking off right in front of him and called me and pointed. I sat down on a tussock of brown bog grass which was throwing shades of gold, looked into the sky, at the surrounding hills, forests, streams, and rocks shimmering in the valley and through the haze. I resisted the sudden urge to vomit and stared at the ground between my feet which I was poking with my stick and I decided it was a good thing before I stood up and moved on. It was the first time I ever encountered one in the wild.

At this stage our walking speed had dropped to almost a standstill. Stopping to examine tree stumps which had a golden disk in the centre of them where the grain was showing and spiraling, and a purple shimmer around the outside where the sap had crystallized. Wandering on another few feet, exclaiming to the other and laughing softly. When we eventually came to the top we found a clearing there followed by some high peat bog dividing us from the next field which was cleared trees and had some rather weathered looking sheep and their lambs grazing and looking suspiciously at these two strangers who just strolled over the mountain and jumped into their field.

We were not quite at the highest point of the hill, but at that stage we were both feeling thirsty and also like we were going to be approaching an entirely different kind of peak very shortly so we decided to return to camp. Before we could however, a farmer on a quad bike materialised from thin air and proceeded to tend to his sheep. We hopped over the fence into an adjacent wooded area to wait until he left. I don't think either of us would have been incapable of talking to the man. We just didn't really want to at the time.

I checked my phone at around this time and was amazed to discover that the time was almost 19:40. Everything was absolutely altered at this stage. We were standing on a grassy path a few feet below the dark powerful forest on either side. It was radiating a beautiful energy and we could have happily sat down there for the night except for the need to be within easy distance of the camp. The farmer droned away soon enough towards the far corner of the pasture so we exited the way we came in and slowly made our way back down to camp. It could not be called walking. It was more like the sensation of being on horseback, bobbing up and down and moving forward without being aware of your lower body. I had felt a little queasy going uphill but that had passed now. B was in wonderland and we both commented on how the come up on this drug made us almost completely acclimatised to the mind state with almost no stress.

We had some minor difficulty finding the camp again, nothing to cause panic though. We just had to stop at each turn and consult each other on which way was right. Once I took us the right way when B didn't know where to go and once he did the same. We took a detour into some deeper woods to avoid the nasty briary slope we had hacked through going uphill. That time there had been something symbolic about it, to me anyhow, but this time we just wanted to go around it. As we stepped into the deeper woods we saw this large creature run up a tree with a nut in it's mouth. I looked like a squirrel but it was grey and black and it was waaaay too big for even a red squirrel, let alone a grey. As I said we were both pretty much peaking at this stage and it was getting quite dark.

A couple of minutes later we saw a rocky outcrop we both recognised and took a left, went uphill and found ourselves back at camp. It was shortly before 9. We were both glad to sit down on our heather benches and both of us had been really thirsty for well over an hour at this stage so it was a relief to have some lemon water and relax my muscles. I even managed to skin a joint using just touch! A roach was beyond me so B took care of it and we had a satisfying smoke which put a really nice spin on everything and really brought the trip on for me. At that stage it was almost properly dark and several hundred meters below us in the valley the sheep were bleating. The valley is huge so the ones below us bleat and then about twenty other fields of around the valley bleat on a one second delay from each other causing a kind of a Mexican wave of bleats around the valley. It trips me out.

I put my head back and stare up at the two sheer pines growing over where I sit. I stare at the upper branches of these trees and then at the hundreds of similar pines growing lower on the hill from where I sit. In the advancing darkness all the trees look almost like strange distorted 2D cutouts of trees pasted onto a backdrop of crepe paper mountain and blue/grey cutout sky. I drift off on a random stream of thoughts and events in my life. Thinking on this, realising something about that which I never did before, being snapped to reality by the add sounding bleat of a sheep. An owl hoots. The valley falls silent. At the same moment I realise that it is now fully dark. It's almost the owl just signaled for lights out.

B and I had a little conversation on religious origins, nothing too heavy as we were both too far gone to be able to articulate anything much, just touched on druidism and the role of the medicine man in the days when people living in the valley we were in now knew of nothing else and how the world got where it is now. It seemed the appropriate thing in light of it being Easter Sunday. I got my sleeping bag from the tent and put on another wooly jumper, a t-shirt and a jacket to keep out the cold. B decided to go to the car for his sleeping bag. I stayed where I was and drifted for miles in my head for what could have been hours or minutes. After some time I became aware that B was not back and felt some unease. I began to skin a joint telling myself he would be back shortly but was compelled to go and have a look for him.

Once I did all the concerns I had for his safety were gone. I was sure I was going to find him grinning at a badger or something! As before I kind of floated down the hill and found the errant B re-entering the woods and examining and Oak tree intently. He had liked wading across the river so much he had spent an unknown amount of time paddling up and down in it beside the road! We went back up to the camp. The hill nearly killed me this time. It was an incredibly steep slope and I must have trotted up it like it was nothing but my heart was pounding afterwards.

The sky was spectacular. It was like somebody was putting on an amazing firework show for just us. There were also five stars in a crescent just above the treetops over our heads which were glowing like giant firefly’s. It we switched on the camping lamp it was like the valley beneath us did not exist. Just the camp, the trees and the stars. The Owl flapped over our heads and landed less than four feet away. It regarded us for a minute and then flew off.

We smoked another joint around this time and we both retreated into ourselves for a time. I was being shown myself in some situations and my reactions. There were some things that really made sense and none that I can clearly recall now. It doesn’t matter. They have been learned on a subconscious level. It's all in there somewhere. It's all good. I may have let B feel worried about me around this time because he seemed to be on a very happy, bubbly trip and I would have seemed somewhat withdrawn for this hour of two and then he began asking me if I was o.k, if everything was all right and I could see asking the question unsettling him and me too, so I had to swallow my stomach and just say 'B do not worry about me at all. I am fine. Just going to lie in the tent for a little' This is why I like to trip alone, you see. I always have an hour or five like this. B was fine after that though.

I listened to some music later on and it was magical. The Doors practically gave me an orgasm, and I was listening to some cuts from musical pantomimes which blew my mind. Each cast member had me seeing through their eyes as they sang and the violins, drums, piano and sound effects were special.

B lay down in the other side after a while. This was around midnight or 1am. I remember us staring at the bulb of the camping lantern we had and watching the light on the filament dance like led's on a sound system and then curl around each other up the side of the bulb. It all gets a bit soft around the edges after this. I had a few hours in hyperspace and came to with a start around 8am to find a beautiful sky outside.

That's my trip.

Once we woke we smoked a joint and lay back down in a trance until 6pm that evening for sleep. When we woke again we smoked another and did the four hour drive back home. [Erowid Note: Driving while intoxicated, tripping, or extremely sleep deprived is dangerous and irresponsible because it endangers other people. Don't do it!] Gorge walking was absolutely out of the question! I rank this as one of the best experiences I have had. It is still only three days old so I haven't had time to absorb it all fully but still . . .

One negative point was that I did get a quite ugly headache for a few hours at the end of the experience but I feel that proper hydration would take care of this as there was only 750ml of water for each of us for the 26 hours of so we were in the forest.

Today, three days on, I am luckily off work for the day and I feel tired physically, mentally agile and pretty damn happy with myself

Jude.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 62620
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 13, 2008	Views: 7,477
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AMT (7) : Nature / Outdoors (23), Music Discussion (22), Glowing Experiences (4), Small Group (2-9) (17)