Sunday, February 7, 2016 Sears Point, Arizona, United States of America Taking a toke out in the open, using a magnifying glass to light the bowl, I thought how the drug war is about attention seeking by social status holders. They want to control my thoughts while I get high; they want me to think of their power over me, how they can imprison me for what I'm doing. --- Prancing around, naked, on aboriginal foot paths leading, invariably, to panels of petroglyphs, newer superimposed on ancient. Making footfalls, gripping handholds people have been choosing for twelve thousand years, at least, probably. Small roundish brown rocks, like large pebbles, strewn in hills and patches, surrounded by dried mud. Some are split open, revealing a white crystalline quartz interior, under the thin shell of brown. (Not all, though; others have dark interiors, or low-grade white pegmatite material (?) under the brown exterior coating.) From the outside I assumed brown all the way through; but the brown layer is a millimeter, the quartz interior is centimeters thick. In the Guest Register Commengs log, some dude from Longview, Washington wrote "DOPE!!!" Yeah, I've bought bud in Longview, Wa too ... "Hi" with an "x" for a dot over the "i", and "03-03-01" below it, on a back face of one big rock along an ancient foottrail. Couldn't find petroglyphs of birds, for certain. Some might have been. Some looked like dinosaurs. One drawing showed what looked to me like a steel fence stake, used to hold up barbed wire. On one side of the stake was an animal with horns or antlers, with blocks for feet; on the other side was a smaller animal, like a rabbit. Was this a late drawing, indicating how fences keep the animals from traveling freely? A line on the rabbit's side of the fence could have been a stream or river. The deer on the other side was cut off by the fence. I managed to time my visit between one group's departure, and another group's arrival the next day. I got to the parking lot around 3pm on Saturday, after crossing a departing couple on the (dusty) road in. The signboard said primitive camping was permitted. I decided to pack in my sleeping gear, choosing the prime campsite in the middle of the surrounding low rock ridges. It was somewhat protected from the wind. Rocks that had been used, I wager, to hold down groundcovers for many thousands of years outlined the flat area. The night was clear, the stars gloriously bright, the wind light, the air warm enough. Sunrise was on my left, lying on my side I watched it. Some birds chirped around sunrise; a dove flying by, some kind of song sparrow, tiny little light-colored birds. I also saw, while walking around, quite a few lizards who must be coming out now after the winter. These lizards had dark backs, camouflaging them against the dark basalt rocks that make up the ridges. After running around some of the trails in my birthday suit, I packed up camp and moved the car to a side parking spot away from the main signboards. Just as I was wiping down my feet before leaving, another group pulled up in a big truck, a family with several teen-age kids who ran up the hills and whooped at the top. I was glad I had finished, that no one had disturbed me while my camping gear was still strewn around. It was fantastic sleeping in that ancient place where people have been camping since the last ice age, probably.