This story is completely fictional, of course.

Tripping on acid in a national park may sound like a good idea, and I'm sure it can be great. (I suppose it just depends on which park you choose and the time of year.) But last night, tripping in Bankhead Forest was NOT a good idea.

Everything was going good. I was with my brother J and my friend M. None of us had tripped for weeks and these doses we were getting were supposed to be really high quality. They lived up to their reputation. Before we even arrived to the trailhead, J and I were tripping balls. (M probably wasn't tripping quite yet since he didnt take his until we were almost there as he was driving.) We were well prepared. M and I had packs full of supplies, and we had ample lighting.

About 0.2 miles into the trail M spots a young Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake slithering across our path, about 7 feet ahead of us. M had had a bad trip involving visions of snakes before so he was pretty damn scared about this. J and I were a bit taken aback as well, but we thought, 'what the hell, no way will we come across another one.'

0.8 miles into out 12 mile hike we came across an old cemetary. The map labeled it as Johnson Cemetary. It was trippy as hell. I really did not expect to see a cemetary out in Bankhead Forest. None of the tombstones said anything except for one which had the numbers 897 carved into it (we assume there was a 1 at some point making it 1897). The graves were marked with body mounds. I doubt the bodies were actually directly in the mounds, but who knows. We all agreed we liked the cemetary atmosphere, so we stopped to smoke a blunt. We were REALLY tripping now.

We left the cemetary and continued down the path about 200 yards or so. Then we saw it. The biggest snake I had ever seen in the wild. It was another rattler, right in the middle of the path, about 20 feet ahead of us. I estimated the serpent was about 8-10 feet long, but I've read they usually only grow to a maximum of 7 feet. Either way, it was intimidating. It began to approach us. It was near strike range now. This was pure terror. We all faced it and backed away slowly. It continued to slime up to us cautiously. I turned and fast-walked the fuck away while urging my companions to do the same. They followed suit and we got away safely. Serpentine never shook his rattle at us, luckily.

The 0.8 miles back to the trailhead would be hell. We all knew it. We decided to stop at Johnson Cemetary again to regroup. We chilled for a while at the cemetary before finally working up the courage to head back. Surely, we would not see another goddamned rattlesnake.

WRONG. We barely even started out of the cemetary before M spotted another 4-5 footer. I didn't get a good look at the reptilian scoundrel, but M swears it was another rattler. It went off into the woods somewhere, and we lost it from our sights. Terrified, we stood scanning the vicinity. We couldn't find it again after 5 minutes had passed. We decided to slowly treck onward.

We would need a formation. J got front, scanning straight ahead of us, M was behind J checking on our right, and I was in the back constantly looking out on the left. I was peaking on acid. Every stick, branch, twig, leaf, pinecone, rock,etc., looked like a snake to me. We made it a bit further, I have no idea how far really, the fear made it seem like hours, before spotting a fourth demon. This one was about 3 or 4 feet long. I was the only one that saw this one, but I know it was really there. I'm not sure if it was another rattler or just some other type of snake. It lay on the left of our path, moving ever so slowly. We decided to just walk quickly past it. Success.

The rest of the way out was rattlesnake free. But the fear was not lifted until I was back in the car. But once we got out, another dastardly factor came into play. M suggested we check ourselves for ticks. FUCK! They were all over us. I had at least 20 on me, including a few in my pubic region. I imagined the parasites sucking all of my blood out of me as I removed them.

BAD TRIP.

CLIFFS:
-We purchased some good acid
-We were tripping balls hiking in a national park
-We came across a shitload of rattlesnakes while peaking
-Ticks all over us

I'm confused, to many words to comprehend, summarization?

If you had a bad trip that means it's the way you perceived it. A bad trip could be the most enlightened.

However, why would you trip out in a national park if you weren’t completely prepared...

.peace.

I did summarize. Notice the cliff notes at the bottom.

I felt that I was completely prepared, but I suppose I really wasn't. I didn't expect to see any snakes at all. I very rarely see snakes, much less pit vipers, and I go hiking and caving fairly often. I suppose that may have just been good fortune on my behalf throughout my life though.

Damn that sucks. I've never had a bad trip, but I can defintely see how that made your trip bad.

The only bad trip I ever witnessed is when I triped with my best friend for his first time. We were in my car bumping the system to some sublime while we were waiting to peak. When we started peaking, my friend thought he saw smoke coming from his house. The house he lived in before ended up burning down, so he started to freak out a little.

We decided to get out of the car and look. I tried to unlock the door and open it after I turned off my car, and it triggered the alarm. That's when all hell broke loose.

It took me probably 5 hours to calm him down. He was saying shit like, "this is all out of control, everything is out of control...this is how people die!!!"

I went to spark a bowl and he screamed at me "what the fuck are you doing? Theres kids up stairs, and this is how fires start. This is how people die!!!"

We laugh about it now. I never triped with him again, and doubt I ever will.

what the fucking fuck

I know people that would go into a fetal position for that shit.

Well written, that sounded like a fucking massive snake.

I just had a thought. Do you think the ticks that were on us were tripping out of control just from feeding on our blood? I hope so. Those dicks deserve it.

LOL cliff notes.

Bro, you were tripping in a cemetary. Ever heard of set and setting?

He said they enjoyed the cemetary atmosphere.

Set and setting? What a person finds comforting or enjoys is up to that particular person.

Yes I am well aware of the "set and setting" principle. That is why we chose to spend a good deal of time in the graveyard. Think about it like this: The graveyard was the only cleared out area in about a miles radius where we could get away from rattlesnakes/ have clear view of approachers. That's how we saw it anyway. It felt safe.