DOSE:

3.8 g

oral

Mushrooms - P. cubensis

(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

150 lb

Vail, Colorado – Pitkin trailhead

This was the largest dose I had ever done of psychedelics up until this point in my life (23 y/o at the time). I had done acid a few times in college, just 1 or 2 tabs each time, and always had a solid time. I had done some mushrooms of unknown amount at Bonnaroo but they started out as a bad trip because, as I would later learn, I get very bad panic/anxiety reactions when I take MDMA for some reason. Previously I had just experienced visuals when tripping, experimented with drawing in various light levels, and with the exception of the music festival would trip in my own dorm room but also wander out periodically to hang with my roommates. I had gotten high (weed) probably 10-20 times before this trip as well. I had read trip reports of all kinds for about 6 months prior to moving to Vail so I had larger doses on the back of my mind for a long while. I wanted to take the next step in tripping, but not go too big, too fast. Plus, everyone and their mother would talk about skiing or snowboarding on boomers so I figured I should at least partake when in Colorado (just not while skiing).

My roommate in Vail was selling dried P. Cubensis and I convinced 2 of my buddies (Adam and Sean) to trip with me in the mountains so we obtained a good amount (11+ grams) and split it equally, roughly 3.8g each, so not enough for a heroic dose but still a good deal more than any of us had ever done. We ate our shares on peanut butter sandwiches at 10:30 am and then left Timber Ridge to catch the bus to the Pitkin trailhead. That was all I had eaten since 7 pm the night before. It took us about a half hour to reach the trailhead because we had to transfer buses in town. By the time we got off the bus I was already feeling effects and was a bit confused but hurried after them because they were walking fast in order to get the hike started so that we could make it as high up the mountain as possible before tripping. Unfortunately, they didn’t anticipate just how hard and fast the mushrooms would come on. Mind you I didn’t really care either way as I was just along for the ride. We hiked for a good 15 minutes of fast-paced, uphill hiking at 8000 feet of elevation so it wasn’t easy. I was also amazed that they were able to find the trail with the snow covering it and being in a somewhat delirious state. I yelled at them to stop and take a break because I needed one and also had to pee and also was realizing I was suppressing the trip by doing this strenuous hiking. So we stopped and that’s when we all started tripping hard. I went over to a bush to pee and the branches from the bush started growing and morphing and suddenly covered my entire field of vision. That’s when I knew I was in for a ride. I then peed probably 5 times in the next hour and wasn’t sure if it was just my body trying to rid itself of this “toxin.”

We started hysterically laughing about anything and everything for the next half hour which was incredible; probably the most laughing I have ever done in my life. Then I started seeing faces moving in the eyes of the Aspen trees. I should also note that thankfully the weather was perfect that day; still snow everywhere but it was warm enough to be in t-shirts (probably 40-50 degrees F). The clouds would come over us and I remember getting kind of sad each time it would get cloudy and then get happy when the sun would come out. We plopped down on the ground away from some of the trees in a sort of clearing and spent awhile staring at the clouds, telling each other what animals they were turning into.

I made them laugh by quoting that tripping scene from the movie Dewey Cox about bad trips: “You wouldn’t want to have a bad trip. Uh oh, I had a bad thought. Bad trip! Bad trip!” which then made me laugh super hard and I was thankful because it meant I wasn’t scared of having a bad trip in the moment (I had been a bit nervous of having a bad trip from trip reports I had read and from my experience at Bonnaroo). Sean kept saying “Look at that tree!” which would also make us laugh. I then started watching the faces in the shadows on the snow and then took a photo of myself with my camera and was watching that photo on the DSLR screen change and morph into things. I got out my little journal and tried to draw what I was seeing on a black sheet of paper but I was seeing so many things that I couldn’t keep up.

The only weird part was when a bunch of backcountry skiers came down the trail from what must have been a few day hut trip and walked right past us, seeing us just laying down in the snow. I can’t imagine what they must have thought but it made us a tad bit nervous that they would call the cops on us. We hiked a little higher up, definitely not on the trail, to get a better view south of the mountains to the east of Vail and that’s when I finally experienced what I had always heard about: geometric fractal hallucinations on top of the mountains. It was a surreal experience but incredible. Along with the patterns and fractals I was also seeing this wolf’s face in the ice waterfalls across the valley and watching bears hug the waterfalls.

The only annoying part of the trip was that I got into a loop of circular thinking for a while. I would check my jacket pockets to make sure I still had my phone, keys, camera, water bottle, etc. Then a minute later I would do the same thing. Then a minute later I would do it again. This lasted for probably 25 minutes and was probably exacerbated by the fact that I do this often when not tripping as I’m pretty paranoid about losing things.

We then put Adam’s jacket in a tree for fun and kept thinking it was a yeti. We also we kept playing hide and seek in the brambles and tall grass off the trail with each other. Then I convinced Sean to start drawing and his paper came out much better than mine.

By this time (a solid 6 hours after ingestion) it was around 4:30 pm we were starting to come down a bit so we decided to hike back down and catch the bus back into town where we hit up our favorite spot, Loaded Joes, for some pizza and to tell everyone that we were on mushrooms. I do distinctly remember on the hike down the mountain though that I had this incredibly powerful sense of euphoria that I’ve never experienced before and haven’t since. It made me really appreciate life and all that this world has to offer.

Overall this trip was a 9.5/10 experience. Just overall amazing and I was glad I was with a few friends who also had a great time. I was also appreciative of the fact that it wasn’t too extreme and that I didn’t lose my sense of self during it.

Exp Year: 2010	ExpID: 114674
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: 23
Published: Aug 15, 2020	Views: 971
[ View PDF (to print) ] [ View LaTeX (for geeks) ] [ Swap Dark/Light ]
Mushrooms - P. cubensis (66) : First Times (2), Nature / Outdoors (23), Glowing Experiences (4), Public Space (Museum, Park, etc) (53)