jodes eportfolio

   I try to identify plants as we walk; ripping leaves off to dissect them, staining my fingers red rolling berries between my fingers. None I am sure enough to pop in my mouth yet, but I stuff some samples in my bag to press, sketch and study on our next break. Intersecting goat trails are recognizable enough despite the overgrowth to follow up a hill overlooking the valley, sun reflecting off my companions heads as I trek behind to avoid repetitive conversation. I'm usually never at a loss for words, but I don't think we've all ever spent this much continuous time together.

   Midday heat quickly evaporates the undergrowth lightly dampened by this morning's fog. Dewdrops can be an easy pure water collection source but our stint at the lake has our stores in the clear for the next day or so. Still, when I pick a leaf still wet I take a cursory sip off the surface, mentally restarting my 3-day dehydration timer each time.

   It takes about an hour to get to the top. Daphne and Faye dredge silently just ahead of me, led by Junipero and Aurora holding hands in the front, with Aurelien and Kasey chatting away in the middle. We orient ourselves away from the sun and I spot the interstate running parallel to our current path intersecting paved suburbia. "That's downtown?"

   Daphne squints ahead and points to a large building cutting over the skyline. "There's the hospital which means we need to just cross the valley."

   "Just cross the valley? Like we were just stopping for water?" Faye scoffs, taking a seat on a chunk of granite under a gnarled oak tree.

   Kasey stands with a pout, peering through sunglasses disconcertingly. "It's even sketchier there than the lake was."

   I pull out a transit map. Not the most useful now, but it at least chunks of main roads left provide some guidelines. "When are tweakers most active?" What was a fifteen minute drive is now just exposing ourselves to everyone with a height advantage so we need to chart a better route.

   Aurora comes to my side to look down at the map. "Dawn and dusk. Heat just makes them slump."

   "Dealing with them in the dark sounds like an actual nightmare." Arelien crosses his arms, perching next to Kasey lingering in the sun with her hip cocked.

   Junipero points past the edge of the overlook towards a lower mound just downhill. "Let's sleep there and figure it out over dinner."

   Dinner. Eating our packed granola and MRE feels like a waste without trying to forage first. I slink down to the ground next to Faye's rock and dig further into my pouch, handing the map off over my shoulder. Now or never I guess. Pulling out the edible plant guides I had been studying back home, I flip through to bookmarked pages of what should be the most prolific here, but I worry that the elevation will affect what we can find. Hopefully we make it across to more familiar lower areas sooner rather than later. "I saw some cactus on our way up that I know we can eat if we are careful not to get poked picking them. It's a bit early for manzanita but they are edible green. Maybe some buckwheat as we go downhill."

   On a recreational hike long ago, my best friend introduced me to my first rampantly wild edible her favorite grandmother taught her about as a child. "Aurora, I bet some fennel too." If it grew like a weed before, now we'd be doing the native landscape a favor by surviving off it.

   Kasey slides next to me, leans against the boulder and peels off her sunglasses, begging "Can we just take a break for a while?" Lingering in the sun in front of us, Daphne and Aurora pour over the map none the wiser to everyone else moving to rest in the shade. Junipero chucks his items at the trunk of the scraggly oak tree before laying down in the covered grasses. I follow suit, using my backpack as a pillow against the woody roots protruding from the sandy hard-packed ground, not comfortable enough to sleep a full night on, but manageable for a nap. I keep flipping through the book in my hands, elbows locked above my head but the rustling wind soothes me into resting my eyes for just a moment.

===

   I wake up to being hit with a stick. Faye leans on the makeshift cane above me against my sleepy glare, dodging revenge swats with a 180 flip back towards a huddle formed without me. A struggle to look at through the blinding sunlight silhouetting them, I squint as I roll to bury my head in my arms. Sleepless anticipation last night combined with a pre-dusk departure is starting to weigh on me. I'm a night owl, through and through, making today drag on in delirium.

   "We decided we will hug the valley's west side, crossing through Harmony Grove towards country club." Aurora announces overhead. Daphne elaborates that this is the shortest path from nature to nature, at least according to our map and what we can see from our vantage point. Hopefully the suburbs are as relatively quiet as they used to be.

With a sharp inhale, I push myself into a downward dog, taking a moment to stretch out before rising to my feet.  The last thing I need is to pull a muscle and slow down the entire group. My plant guide thunks onto the ground but I don't bother to grab it yet. "Careful, I don't want to end up in Questhaven," I say breaking into the huddle, wrapping my arms around the people sandwiching me.

Daphne laughs across from me and flips the map so I can read it. "We would have to walk back uphill in the wrong direction." They've vignetted the map I handed them with surrounding mountain ranges, key streets from before labelled to stand as major landmarks. Junipero's unmarked geographical map sets are splayed out on the ground, clearly used as reference for the annotated one.

As I study their suggested route, Arelien slips away towards our oak shade stockpile. "I made those snares while you were passed out," he says, hoisting the glistening game traps in front of him. I've never made one myself, but described the basic concept to him earlier based on my YouTube tutorial and survivalist forum study sessions over the past week or so. While I was mostly missing sleep today I suppose his focus was on a growing hunger.

"Maybe there will be rabbit runs in the denser foliage lower down," I turn one over in my hands. "We might get lucky while we set up camp. These things are pretty hands off."

"Careful overnight 'cause we aren't the only ones out here," Daphne chides. 

Junipero starts grabbing his things from our huddle, packing his bag but leaves out a pair of binoculars. "It's a nice view," he justifies, peering out as everyone else gathers their belongings. Early summer means we have enough daylight left to not be in much of a rush. 

"What do you see?" With that he hands me the binoculars and lightly orients my shoulder to the right angle. 

"Ten o'clock. I've never seen so many during the day before." Half expecting to see a band of tweakers, I zoom in towards the street baking in the sun, west of our proposed route towards the college. Instead I spot their animal counterpart.

Growing up, frenzied midnight yipping was only a signal to snuggle any cats or small pets closer to you, grateful it was someone else's furry friend being ripped to shreds. Only rabid ones posed a real threat to people. Here, they have taken hold as the true apex predators. Tracking their movement down the center of the street, it occurs to me I have never seen this many at once period. A stray couple jumping fences in your yard at night, sure, or a single one staring you down by suburban trails; but an entire pack? "I count about 20." No cars or people sober enough to hunt must emboldens them. I try to memorize their features; fully shiny coats, healthier, fatter with a surer stride as opposed to their predecessors scavenging amongst civilization. I hand back Junipero's equipment and he goes back to scanning the horizon. Inspiration struck so I fish my journal out the front pocket of my pack, sitting on top the rock I lounged against earlier. My pen starts to take rough shape of the temporary image burnt into my mind, like staring directly into harsh light to focus on the impression through closed eyelids. An etch-a-sketch I must make permanent before it escapes-

A wet nose pushes onto the paper, leaving a bit of drool. Roxy's whole body sways as she pants up at me. Maybe she sensed dread taking over or took movement as an excuse to beg for scratches, but it works so I dig behind her floppy ears. I try to continue focusing on my drawing while petting with my off hand but she wants my full, undivided attention. Splayed notebook open across my lap, I pat all along her sides, a drum solo hyping her into a playful frenzy. She stretches, spins, puts her two dirty paws up on my lap as I laugh at her enthusiasm. To her this is just one big adventure.

Gnarled branches litter the sand at my feet, so I grab the biggest one in reach and chuck it back away from the ledge. Physically full grown, she's just now starting to grow out of the puppy mindset, and dives into the stick, trying to bury it into the ground clumsily. The image so perfect I decide to memorialize it too, moving at first to flip to a fresh page, but the large gap in my current composition calls to me. I look up to the blur of blonde in the dirt, pulling up the stick with her mouth, pinning it to the floor with her paws.