5th of May

 The roots of the 5th of May were in the 3rd of May when we all put out such a great push on the Fracking Ban petition gathering. At one point, by great serendipity I found myself at the International Festival at the re-dedication for the Tree of Peace, planted in 1988 in order to heal our communities. Above Chico State University President Zingg addresses a Native American audience and uses the paraphrased apologetic phrasing... Thank you for letting us borrow this land where the University sits today. I don't know how folks heard it but it does acknowledge for me that he knows the issues...the Mechoopda land was not traded for and there were never any treaties. Everything that was theirs, including where I call home right now, is rightfully theirs.

 After gathering some more petitions on Sunday we hit the road for a wander up toward Little Grass Valley Lake. We passed clear cut after clear cut on Sierra Pacific Industries land with terrible erosion on many of them. These clear cuts have timber harvest plans that are supposed to act like environmental impact reports but they are completely privatized. SPI won't let the public on the land to comment and they hire the foresters that make the determinations about the road cuts and the timber harvests with just about no outside over-sight. They file them with Cal Fire which has no biologist or forestry science people to review the plans. It's really hard to see what is happening to all these trees of peace... In the cause of profit the earth is raped.

 We wandered off the road we were on and spent the night next to what we think was Fall River. The dogwoods were dancing over our heads and the place we stayed was peaceful with not a single vehicle passing in the night.

 Today we walked on the Fowler Peak section of the Pacific Crest Trail. At one point we found a little north facing snow patch and Michael implemented some skiis for a photo op. Selkie was fairly confused by this but played along. It was lovely being out in the just blooming early spring of the high country with Michael. Feeling good and just being present to everything Mother Nature and our own bodies are up to.