Lady is too old now to haul a load all day so we left her with some great folks. It’s just Little Girl and the monk now. We’ll have another blog post or several coming soon sharing stories of our 31 years traveling with Lady.
The photo above is Little Girl standing alone infused and enveloped by the energy of 3 Mules Nation, a nation of people following, watching, giving their hope, faith and energy to that nation. A Nation born from a history of hundreds of thousands of years. Human beings wandering and living with their animal companions with respect and reverence for each other and the planet earth from which their nation and themselves were born. A 3 Mules Nation of people (human beings) unwilling to accept and conform to the new paradigm of gadgetry and glitz (endless discovery) at the cost of that most sacred relationship immersed in the magic and wonder of human beings wandering their home earth.
On Thursday morning, we packed up and left San Emigdio Canyon where we had spent the previous day. That night the temperature at 6,085 feet elevation was below freezing (in the low 20s or high teens with wind chill) – much colder than it was below the mouth of the canyon where we had been camped. Our intended destination was San Diego. The El Camino Viejo a Los Ángeles (Old Road to Los Angeles) is the route to get there by foot from Wind Wolves Preserve.
We traveled up the canyon for 2 hours 45 minutes, then reached the highway at Pine Mountain Club and proceeded east. We reached Frazier Park (elevation 4,542 ft) about 4:30pm. We had walked 6 hours that day with temperatures in the high 30s and decided to stop for the night and exercise our God given and legal right as well as anybody else’s whether traveling by horseback, bicycle or merely walking to use public space when in transit from one place to the next for the purpose of rest.
I unpacked the kids, put them on picket lines, made them comfortable, pitched my tent, ate some oatmeal, and went to sleep.
Upon awakening in the morning, I walked up the bank to check the kids and found Lady to be in distress. I maintained a watch for one hour and decided to get her to a vet.
I called the lady who voluntarily serves as the 3Mules.com admin and informed her to the situation. Using the 3 Mules Facebook page, she contacted the many people who follow and offer their help and support to the Mules on their endless journey through the Megatropolis.
The help the Mules needed materialized in a very short time in the form of Scott Rogers, president of Backcountry Horsemen of California – Kern Sierra Unit, Gretchen and her boss Tom, who came with a horse trailer.
We loaded Lady and Little Girl into the trailer and went to Bakersfield Veterinary Large Animal Hospital where she was thoroughly checked and declared to be in excellent condition for her 38 years of age. (Vet thought that the freezing temperatures at high elevation may have caused her stress as her condition improved at 300 feet above sea level.)
Our camp at Scott’s ranch
The Mules are now at Scott Rogers ranch where they will stay a few days then return to Wind Wolves Preserve. The Mules can no longer expect Lady at her 38 years to serve the Mules as she has so admirably done for most of her life. She is nearing retirement. She has earned and deserves it.
The Mules say thank you to all those who have joined this new nation, a nation growing up within a nation, by giving their hope, faith and energy to this nation. Respect and reverence for this earth and all its inhabitants.
The Mules give thanks on this Thanksgiving Day for this beautiful place called earth, the home of the human race. We give thanks to creation for all the animal companions who we enjoy and share this magical dance of energy and motion played out on the earthly stage. We give thanks for all the people we have met along the way and follow the 3 Mules page and peer through the window and watch and support the Mules on their endless journey using their God given right to move freely on earth. The Mules are all of us and we must be and remain free if we are to stay human.
The other day as we were heading back to Wind Wolves after getting groceries and supplies in Bakersfield, the Wild West was materializing before our eyes with a large amount of sheep tracks and droppings left everywhere.
Curious about where these sheep came from and where they were going, we did a Google search on “Bakersfield sheep” and an interesting Los Angeles Times article returned called “End of a Tradition: Young Basque Shepherds No Longer Flock to Calif.” The article discusses the Basque immigrants who have been coming to California for over 100 years to herd sheep as few Americans want these jobs.
What caught our eye in this article the description of Aleman and his nomadic life as a shepherd in California.
“For 21 years Aleman has lived the lonely, nomadic life of a California shepherd. After the winter lambing, Aleman spends April and May in the Mojave Desert watching his flock during spring grazing. He spends his summers on the mile-high meadows of the Owens Valley on the slopes of the Sierra. In the fall, he returns to the Kern County foothills.”
“At one time, Aleman and the other shepherds lived in tents and followed their flocks’ peregrinations by foot over the century-old California Sheep Trail. It was one of the longest animal drives in the nation–400 miles over the Tehachapis to Mojave, up past Lone Pine and Bishop to the high mountain summer meadows of the Sierra and then back to Kern County.”
“We adapted to the loneliness of shepherding better than a lot of people because most of us are from very small villages with few neighbors. We grew up with the isolation.”
Maybe sometime in the future, the Mules will find and explore this 400-mile trail. Have any of our readers ever traveled the California Sheep Trail? If so, tell us about it.
In California, there is a high speed bullet train being built at a cost of $64 billion dollars. The Megatropolis plans the first prototype to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It will split the state right down the middle much like the San Andreas Fault with no less potential disastrous consequences.
It will require a massive surveillance apparatus to guard and protect from terrorists at a cost of billions of more dollars. People living anywhere nearby will be considered a possible terrorist threat by the surveillance state. Their children will be tested in school for possible terrorist tendencies. This will all be done under the guise and pretense of providing a fast, quick way to get from point A to B in complete comfort and ease.
Pull back the smoke screen of glitz, gadgetry and endless discovery and the Mules see the Megatropolis using this bullet train (machine) to seize and bring under its control more space to satisfy its insatiable appetite for contained and controlled energy (be it human, animal, wind, sun, etc.) on earth.
The bullet train is yet another scheme brought forth by the Megatropolis to drag the Human Race down a dark hole to be disconnected from ourselves, each other and our home, the Earth. To be forever wandering and lost in the manmade world of gadgetry, glitz and endless discovery. You bump into somebody, they ask you who you are, where you are from, and you won’t have a clue.
The Mules have an alternate proposal to the Megatropolis’s bullet train: A multi-use trail system going in all four directions, – Hooking all communities to all communities – Connecting people with reverence and respect for each other and their surroundings – Moving at a pace that is in harmony with the natural flowing energy that flows around and through us – Learning to use that energy to heal our bodies and nurture our souls – Teaching the children the magic and joy of being real human beings connected to the Natural World – Bringing people together to solve the problems that face them with cooperation and respect.
The Public Thoroughfare, a multi-use trail system, is the place for the fist step in the right direction.
The Mules
Note: If you agree with this, please make a copy and send where you think it will do the most good.
We awoke this morning, it was cold. I grabbed some oatmeal, put into a cup, headed for the morning sun just breaking over the top of the ridge, sat down on my bucket and pure enjoyment began. Eating our breakfast out in the open air in this beautiful canyon at Wind Wolves Preserve.
This is our wealth, the endless magic of time and circumstance bestowed upon those who give their hope, faith and energy to earth and all its inhabitants. The wealth of the Megatropolis (manmade World), gadgetry, glitz and endless discovery to the Mules is no wealth at all. It’s the bait on the hook to lure the human race down the endless dark hole to be forever isolated from itself, creation, and God.
We awoke this morning and fixed breakfast. While eating, we spotted two wild mules moving across the horizon. They were moving with a sense of direction and purpose. We became curious and decided to follow. As we got closer, we could see they were wearing halters. This we found strange for there were no signs of the man-made world (fences, walls, machines, dirty air, water and outrageous noise). The energy that was flowing through us gave us a strange sense of moving out of something and into something here to fore unknown.
We the Mules carry and contemplate a vision in our mind’s eye. A vision of millions of buffalo appearing upon the horizon. First we feel the vibration of ground beneath us – a sense of excitement and wonder surrounds us, then comes the sound that assures us that yes energy is intensifying and then we see millions of buffalos. Our knees buckle. We fall to the ground. We shake from the power of this vision materializing before us. Then we know we must keep walking. It’s the walking that makes stuff happen.
On Thursday, October 13, 2016 around 1:15AM, while I was asleep behind the Selma Plaza Shopping Center in Selma, CA, the shopping center’s security guard drove up in his truck and woke me up. He said he had seen me with my two mules earlier in the evening at the shopping center. He wanted to let me know that he had just seen a man on a bicycle leading Little Girl, my 28-year old white mule, away on Highland Avenue.
Before I went to sleep, I had secured Lady and Little Girl on a picket line to the fence with a secure knot that can’t come undone by itself. I looked where Little Girl had been picketed and she was gone. I flagged down a police officer and told him what happened. I couldn’t risk leaving Lady alone and waited in place.
Around 2AM, Selma police returned and said that they located Little Girl. One officer stayed with Lady and my belongings, while the other officer took me to get Little Girl.
The Mules want to thank the Selma Plaza Shopping Center night security guard who woke me up to alert me that Little Girl was taken as it resulted in her quick recovery. I neglected to get his name and hope he sees this and writes us. I also want to thank the four Selma Police officers on duty last night – Officers Alvarez, Officer Johnson, Officer Hissong and Officer Musso, who responded and located Little Girl. Without the security guard as witness and fast action of all the officer involved, it would have been very difficult to locate Little Girl if we had awoken hours later without any witness information or any idea which direction to look if she got hidden. We also want to thank Selma Police dispatcher who we spoke to on the phone who gave us updates while we were waiting. We are forever grateful more than our words can express.
We do not want to go into details about the person who took her, so please do not ask for more info. We are just thankful that Little Girl, who has been with me and Lady for the past 25-years, was located and unharmed. This is the first time in in our 30+ year journey that this has ever happened.
This morning, we walked to Selma Police Department to thank the four officers but they had finished their night shift. These are photos of other Selma officers who came out to meet Little Girl and Lady. After we thanked the Selma Police Department for their help, we left Selma and continued on our migratory journey south.
The Mules want to thank Sam Gonzales for inviting us to stop and rest on his property for the past three months.
We had come to the Coarsegold area by the direction of the energy that surrounds and guides us. Here is where my oldest mule Lady was born 37 years ago.
We decided we would head for Oakhurst, buy groceries, then find the place where I bought Lady and she was born.
As we were walking along Road 415, we saw a sign Tomatoes for Sale. We stopped. Sam was there. We asked to buy some tomatoes. He came back with some. He asked where the mules were going to spend the night. We said we weren’t sure. He said they could stay here and that there was plenty of grass for them to eat. There was. We accepted.
We’ve been here for 3 months. The Monk was having a physical problem due to age. Meeting Sam was a godsend. The Mules now continue this ages old nomadic journey practiced by many through the ages.
While the Hillary and Donald circus distraction goes on, the Megatropolis continues to spread the gadgetry and glitz everywhere no matter the consequences. As the Mules walk, their endless journey and show the startling contrast between their way of life (respect and reverence for earth and all life) and the Megatropolis way of life to spread itself relentlessly until there is no life.
The Mules and our Declaration of Emergency was recognized by a stellar organization of Equestrians, The Long Riders’ Guild who wrote:
“While the majority of Americans are familiar with the political aspirations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it may surprise people to learn that another political campaign has also been launched in the United States and that this movement is about the need to preserve equestrian freedom.
John Sears has been traveling with his mules through the western portion of the USA for many years. During his travels Sears has denounced the spread of a threat he defines as Megatropolis, a ‘developing machine that’s only real purpose is to gobble the Earth up until it’s been consumed.’
In an interview with California journalist, Rick Paulas, Sears explained how an expanding tube of local city ordinances are being passed in an effort to systematically remove people’s right to sleep outdoors in a public space.
‘We have a right to travel in this country freely and to choose how we do it.’ Sears told Paulas. ‘But if you don’t have the right to stop and rest, or the right to go to sleep at night, you can’t exercise that right to travel.’
Sears believes that Americans are unaware that their fundamental right to travel freely across the country is being endangered by restrictive local laws. He has written a Declaration of Emergency wherein he urges his fellow citizens to protect their civil liberties.
‘The ordinances go against any real law of common sense. They’re laws against life itself.’ Sears said. ‘It’s illegal. It’s not acceptable. If it’s acceptable, this country better quit celebrating the Fourth of July and stop uttering the word freedom, because there is none.’”
Does not matter whether you be Republican, Democrat, socialist, capitalist or a hoo-dee-do, we are all human and we cannot continue our lives without a strong healthy natural world.
