kate wolf festival

im back in st. michaels, it is july 11th, 3 days after my original estimated time of arrival, 30 hrs after leaving crested butte, co, 17 days since i have talked to georgia, 17 days since my last shower, and 17 days since i have thought about a computer. 

in the final leg of my journey, zoe became my co-pilot. we spent her first day in california napping, driving hwy 1 south to laytonville, and checking in and setting up camp for the kate wolf fest. the festival was great. zoe and i were assigned to the rePSYCHology krew--which entails much of what the title suggests: recycling. the recycling operation was based out of hog city, a small camping area with a bright pink trailer modified to look like a pig.  our bosses were these awesome guys Kofi and Berto. Kofi spent the entirety of the fest in a clown suit, but he was not just any clown, he was a clown with a radio, and man, he could get stuff done. Berto was more of the boss man. if you had a question you went to him. it was the most relaxed job EVER. we were required to preform three 6 hr shifts of either: 1-the pile-run by this dude Twig (just imagine a guy who's sole territory is the trash pile for a large festival, and you have Twig, he was gnarly in more ways than one) this job was messy, we had to hand pick through every trash bag to prevent throwing away recyclables; 2-the bowl-probably the easiest job, we sat in the food area and taught people about recycling and picked up trash from food vendors, these shifts went by pretty quickly; and finally for 3-micro-trashing-we were issued a claw and a trash bag and given free jurisdiction of the land, this job was a necessary if there was a band you wanted to see.

for our first shift we arrived a little early and meet jeff.  he is a hippie in denial. jeff has been working the festival forever and drives the trash truck around. we would hang out with him when we were supposed to be working and he showed us the ropes to the festival lifestyle. the 6 hour shifts would automatically be kicked down to 5, because we would just hang out on the couches outside of  hog city and chat.

it is funny how all the krews work so well together yet they are so segregated. everyone knows who is who from the rePSYCHology vs. Cruise Control Krew.  zoe and i were known as the Lacoco sisters to most and we will definitely be on rePSYCHology when we go back next year.

we pretty much tried to get our shifts finished with as soon as possible so that we would have the rest of the time to frolic around the festival. (sidenote: it is so weird have access to a toilet, i have to go to the bathroom and it's not an ordeal finding the tp in the van or finding the perfect location or mastering the hover only to find out you are already standing in pee) anyway, frolicking. yeah, i think i was publicly nude more often at the kate wolf festival than in the entirety of the rest of my life. it's so great when the first time you meet someone would be in the sweat lodge, because it is already kinda dark in there, so later on you'll be walking around the festival, see someone familiar then picture them naked in the sweat lodge.

also at the kate wolf festival we became close with this amazing kid jarred. when we first arrived at kwf we parked our van by this big black boxcar that had graffiti on the sides, and FREEDOM spray painted across the front.  a bunch of kids were living out of the truck and travelling to all the festivals. we kept running into them around the fest and started hanging out with them, mainly jarred. it became the three of us. we would adventure around swimming, exploring "the jungle", consuming lydia's raw smoothies, hanging out with the crystal crew from india, drinking fresh coconut juice, and playing with jarred's crystal ball. jarred was a lover of people. he said to me once "this is what i am" and he pointed to himself. and he wasn't lying. no frills. no nonsense. hes a straight forward guy who would give any one anything. i don't know if i was in love with him, but it was warm waters. and if the festival had been a little longer, it could have been tragic to completely fall for a traveler. 

i left ca with many friends.  it is such a peaceful place to live. Why is northern CA tugging so strongly on my heart?