Found a huge bison skull on my wandering today. It appeared as if the poor guy had fallen in a sink hole and fell prey to the coyotes. Also found a pretty large mule deer antler.

Dead buffalo everywhere! Well, only three actually. Yesterday I went on a long walk through the Badlands while chanting my 11 Rudrams for the day. I saw many bison and prairie dogs, a porcupine, a herd of mule deer, a nighthawk, two magpies, and many western meadowlarks. I also found 3 buffalo skeletons, but only one of them still had a skull. I imagine hikers took the other two skulls. I was tempted to keep the one I found, but I was many miles from camp and it was heavy and pretty fresh, still reeking strongly of death. I did keep the one small horn it had though as well as a tooth. Today the weather is much nicer and I look forward to venturing out again, this time with my tripod to try filming wildlife for my next video. Who knows what I’ll find. The Badlands are always full of mystery and surprises.

I was caught in a bit of a predicament to start out my western adventure this year.  After dropping through my folk’s house in Pennsylvania to grab a few supplies, I beelined it straight to one of my favorite spots in the world, Sheep Mountain in Badlands National Park, South Dakota.  This is the same place where I had the most incredible, supernatural experience of my life back in 2012, and the same place where I had the first and most potent vision of the White Wolf.  

I arrived on a warm and sunny Saturday, and made a vow to stay in the park for 11 days abstaining from all intoxicants and all forms of media and enterntainments apart from books and audiobooks.  I also committed to meditating twice daily and chanting eleven Rudrams a day.  I did this with the intention of purifying the body and mind to start this leg of my journey on the right foot.  Just after I committed to the vow I checked the weather and saw that the temperature was about to drop into the low twenties and that snow was imminent.  Seeing that my van wasn’t really designed for below freezing temperatures which could cause my pipes to break, I considered postponing the vow and taking safety measures, such as driving to a warmer climate or emptying my water takes and blowing out the lines, then staying at my friend Rene’s house in the Black Hills for a few nights.  But the forecast in the Black Hills called for temperatures twenty degrees colder with more snow, and due to a large cold front, I would have had to drive nearly all the way to Arizona to escape the cold.  So I decided to stay put, proceed with my vow, and just hope that my propane would keep my van sufficiently warm to keep my pipes from breaking.  That night the temperatures did indeed drop, and Sunday morning I awoke on the mesa top to about 7 or 8 inches of snow.  To make matters worse, I had made the mistake of driving about a quarter mile off the dirt road to my favorite camp spot, and now I was hopelessly stuck and would have to ride out the multi-day cold front and wait for the snow to melt before I had any chance of getting out.  Even after the snow melted, I would probably have to wait a day or two more for the ground to dry because the silty soil of the Badlands becomes a notoriously soft and sticky mud soup when wet.  

Unfortunately, both the water and propane tanks of my van are quite small, and the level guages for both are pitifully inaccurate, almost worthless.  Before the snow fell I had purposely but foolishly used up quite a bit of water, thinking that if the tank levels were lower there would be less chance of damaging the tank should it freeze.  So I only had about five days of water left.  My bigger concern however was how long my small supply of propane would hold out while running constantly to keep the van warm enough to prevent damage to my pipes.  If my pipes were to break it would be a huge hassle.  Not only would it be quite expensive to repair, but I’d probably have to wait a month before I could even get a service appointment.  It was a bit intimidating to know that I’d have to huddle in my van in the barren wilderness for several days, constantly worried about my propane and water, but there was no way out; I had to face the challenge and weather the storm.   

I immediately regretted making the vow to abstain from both intoxicants and media and entertainments.  I had plenty of supplies to sooth my nerves and expand my mind, as well as a whole library of my favorite shows and movies on DVD to pass the time with, but all were useless to me now.  I had to sit in the cold basically twiddling my thumbs and worrying for the foreseeable future.  

Over the next few days the daytime temperatures were in the thirties, but each night the temps dropped down to the high teens or low twenties.  I was very conserving of my water in propane, keeping my van just warm enough to prevent my pipes from breaking, but not warm enough to be comfortable.  During the days I entertained myself by bundling up and trudging through the snow hoping to film and photograph wildlife in the snow.  I did encouter a herd of mule deer and watched them bounce on all fours in unison into the distance.  I was beautiful to watch, but they were quite skittish and too far too get any good footage.  I also encountered a herd of bighorn sheep running across the mesa top, but they were skittish as well, and before I could get my camera out, they already dived over the cliff edge to the safety of the canyons below.  I only got a few photographs of a quail in a tree and one of the mule deer in the distance.

I was happy to discover that my dirtbike motorcycle did surprisingly well in the snow, so I was able to cruise around the vast mesa top.  It was pretty fun actually.  The bike was real swimmy.  It felt more like riding a jet ski than a motorcycle and I had to be very vigilant to keep my balance and not dump it.  Unfortunately, it was so bitter cold that I could only ride for about ten minutes at a time before my fingers felt like they were going to fall off.  

By Tuesday enough snow had melted that I figured I’d give a try at driving out but failed miserably.  I did nothing but spin my wheels and sink into ruts.  Not having a shovel, I had to get real creative and work hard to get out of the ruts, but doing so only put me into a worse position.  My van, being front wheel drive and extremely heavy, did better at going backwards than forwards.  It also didn’t help that my van was facing a slight uphill.  I was parked not far from a sheer cliff edge, and moved a few feet closer to the edge backing out of the ruts.  Later in the day I tried moving again, desparate to get out before my propane expired, but only to get stuck again in fresh ruts.  By the time I got out of those, I was a few more feet closer to the edge, now only about 8 feet away.  This worried me incredibly.  The Badlands are all about erosion, constanlty shifting in formation.  It’s part of what makes them so beautiful.  As I said, the soil is very soft and silty, and gives way easily.  I was deeply concerned that the weight of my van combined with the wet soil could cause the whole edge to break off sending me and my van plummeting.  Now I was thinking I might really need to call for help, but I wanted to try one more thing. 

Tuesday night was supposed to be the coldest yet, getting down into the teens.  I thought that if I try moving the van first thing in the morning when the ground was hard frozen, I might have a chance.  I woke up groggy at 7am to brave the bitter cold and try again.  Alas, I immediately became stuck in ruts again.  I worked all morning to get out, riding my motorcycle back and forth to the dirt road to bring back pans full of gravel to put in the ruts, and digging on my hands and knees in the ice with a hatchet.  I was finally able to back out of the ruts, and now I was 6 feet from the sheer edge.  I tried to go forward but only dug fresh ruts.  I gave up and called my park ranger friend Rene for help.  Her roomate had a truck and was willing to come pull me out, but they wouldn’t be able to make it until about 6pm.  It was also a 4 hour round trip for them and I felt really bad to have to put them through all the trouble.  

Throughout the day however, the sun came out and melted off a lot of the snow and dried the ground a bit.  I decided to give one more honest try to get out, wanting to spare them the hassle and save face a little.  It was a hell of a lot of work.  I took a blanket down to the dirt road, filled it with gravel, folded it up and strapped it to my bike.  I spread the gravel as best I could and did more tedious digging with my hatchet in the slosh of mud and snow.  This time, thankfully, I was finally able to get the van moving forward.  Though I was moving, my wheels were still spinning like crazy and there was no way I was gonna make it up the hill so I had to resign to driving laterally into the field of wet grass and snow.  Once I got around the hump of the hill in front of me, it was about 300 yards slightly downhill to the road.  I had a chance.  My wheels were still spinning like crazy and I knew that if I stopped or slowed I would definitely be stuck again, so I just gunned it, said my prayers, and aimed for the road.  I made it about two thirds of the way before I finally got stuck again in deep wet grass and snow.  I was smart enough at least to let off the gas before I dug fresh ruts.  Now I was stuck in the middle of a field with about 100 yards to go.  But things were starting to look up.  Once the field dried a little more I should be able to just drive out.  I called Rene and we decided that we’d wait a day before she came to see if I could get out on my own when things dried more.  It was a hard call to make.  I only had about one day’s worth of water and propane left and I really didn’t want to stay another night huddled in my van, but nor did I want to burden my friends with such an effort, especially if there was a chance I could get out on my own.  Fortunately by the end of the day, the grass dried sufficiently and I was able to drive out on my own.  I still had to gun it through a marshy depression and up a 3 foot bank to the road, but I got ‘er done.  Man, was I relieved.  What an ordeal that was.  

Even when I made my vow to stay in the Badlands for 11 days, I allowed for the fact that I’d probably have to make one run to town to refill my tanks and fridge.  So last night I drove over to Rapid City and stayed at a KOA where I knew they had hot showers (I hadn’t bathed in a week to conserve water), laundry, and propane.  This morning I got a few supplies (including a folding shovel I wish I had had) and then headed back into the park.  Now I’m staying at a free primitive campground in the middle of the prairie where there’s a solid gravel road instead of up on my enchanted mesa, and I think I’ll ride out the rest of my 11 day vow here.  I like it here. I’m camped in the middle of both a prairie dog colony and a large herd of bison grazing in and around the camp, and I look forward to filming both in the days to come.  There are beautiful walks in all directions, and plenty of mule deer, antelope, porcupines, and coyotes to be seen as well.  And the night sky is crystal clear.  

This was certainly an interesting start to this summer’s western adventure, but it was an informative and character-building experience overall.  It taught me about both the limits of my van and myself.  I did notice in the mirror at the KOA though that my sideburns are much whiter than they were last week, and my beard has more salt mixed in with the pepper.  I think worrying up there in the cold on the cliff’s edge aged me a bit, but that’s okay.  I mean, I’ve always known that White Wolf would have a white beard and hair before too long.  It’s my destiny.  

I had a wonderful month down here fishing, filming, and making music. I healed up from the injury and unsettledness of 2020, rediscovered a sense of purpose, and recharged my body and soul in close communion with Nature. It’s good to have discovered a place where life makes sense to me, where I can abide peacefully and focus on inner things in inspiring settings. I’ll be back, but for now, the adventure of the wide-open West beckons me. Thin air and thick trout here I come! Rocky Mountain high all summer long.

On my last evening in the Everglades, all I wanted was to enjoy a home-cooked dinner of rice and beans and a fresh-caught bass, but that required catching another nice bass on demand. I applied all the skills and knowledge that I’ve developed over the past month and was back at camp in no time with a healthy bass pulled from the grass beds on a curly-tail plastic worm on a weighted hook.
Both my belly and heart feel full.

Onward, ho!

I know I’ve written a lot about alligators already, but that should only be further testimony of how much I’ve enjoyed my time among them fishing together.  I’ve really come to believe that alligators are on a similar level of intelligence and communication capacities as dogs.  In the past month I’ve really learned how to read their moods.  Sometimes they look quite tranquil, but they are nevertheless hunting and ready to pounce in a split second.  But sometimes they actually are tranquil, aren’t interested in hunting, and are just enjoying perfect equilibrium in their habitat, weightlesslessly suspended in the warm under the nourishing sun.  This was such a gator.  He swam over when I started playing music and floated near me listening the whole time.  During this serenade the gator and I locked eyes throughout the whole song.  He was calm and curious, intently listening, transfixed.  I held his gaze and played from my heart with an empty and silent mind.  We shared a true moment.  

There were many other gators listening at various distances.  At one time I gazed over the pond and every gator I saw, no matter how near or far, was pointed directly at me, floating, listening, watching.   The nearby heron too was mesmorized and didn’t take his eyes off me.  I had a better turnout by gators at this performance than I did by people at most of my professional gigs, sigh.  And I believe the whole pond enjoyed the Easter serenade.

I wanted to do something special on Easter, both for spiritual devotional purposes, but also to give back to Nature for all the beauty and wondrous experiences I’ve absorbed during the past month in the Everglades.  This was my third day in a row returning to the same spot.  I had spent the past two days fishing with gators, but my soul really yearned for a day of silence, music, and meditation as well in this serene location.  So I left the fishing gear at camp made the long motorcyle rid and two mile hike back to the pond bringing only my flutes and camera gear… and maybe a little weed.   

I filmed these back to back from the late afternoon till just before sunset, and later mixed in wildlife footage I had filmed the previous two days.  I was in a sweet and mellow mood, feeling in close communion to Nature.  Please share any of the vids you enjoy.

I found a tranquil spot in the Everglades where the oscar fish were hitting on nearly every cast.  Oscars aren’t too big, but pound for pound they are great fighters, and a few in a pan makes a filling and tasty meal.  There was a dock jutting out into a pond that was filled with numerous alligators, some of the biggest I’ve seen in these parts.  Because I was catching so many fish, the gators really started to swarm and were trying to steal the fish off my line.  They were getting pretty worked up to the point they were fighting each other over the fish.  I stayed there all day fishing and filming, goofing around, and chatting with the occasional passerby.  It was a thrilling day to spend so much intimate time with the gators.  I witnessed a lot of intense action from these powerful, intelligent beasts, and I took home three good fish for my good Friday meal.  

One neat encounter I wasn’t able to film involved a hungry heron.  He kept coming around also attracted by all the fish I was catching.  I knew he wanted a fish but I didn’t know how to give it to him.  He didn’t trust me enough to take it out of my hand, and didn’t quite have the big crop of a pelican to catch it in.  Finally I noticed he was behind me on the dry land, and I figured maybe he wanted me to toss one on the ground.  I chucked one his way.  Startled at first, he jumped a few feet back, but once he saw the fish flopping on the ground he pounced with no hesitation.  He took quick steps forward, swayed his head while taking aim, and then boom, with a merciless and decisive thrust of his pointed beak he pierced the meaty fish all the way through with about 3 inches of his beak sticking out the other side.  Then he walked off into the woods to further deal with his pride.  After watching some of my videos people have commented how pretty and graceful the birds are while how ugly and scary the gators are.  All day long I watched gator after gator snap at fish with fierce and deadly intent, but seeing the heron deal such a swift and deadly blow as well, I realized the two animals aren’t really that different in their intent, despite the stark contrast of their appearances.  Later in the day, I too dealt three, swift, death blows to the fish I was taking home.  I found a sharp edged brick and smashed their brains so that they wouldn’t suffer any more and suffocate.  Killing to eat is part of Nature.  Nearly all mammals do it.  Pretty birds and polite humans are not above this primal instinct.  

Lastly I just wanted to say, I wasn’t feeding the gators directly, but for the fish they were able to steal off my line.  Nor did I have any intention to harass the gators.  I really love and respect them and I enjoy coexisting with them.  I felt like we just spent the afternoon fishing together and playing a game.  We got our fill and had our thrills.

In the Everglades of Florida, the more fish you catch, the more you draw gators. They try to steal them off your line, and the more they succeed, the more aggressive they get until they work themselves into a feeding frenzy. This particular spot is way back in the woods and seldom fished. I could pull out oscars on nearly every cast, and I’ve never seen so many big, old, gators in one pond. They came swarming! When I shot this, I didn’t have my good camera or a tripod with me, so I had to do what I could with my iPhone. I’m heading back out however this morning, however, properly equipped in hopes to capture better footage more professionally. Stay tuned!