Yesterday sometime around dusk where we stopped to spend the night on what turned out to be land administered by the National Park Service, two rangers appeared informing us we were illegally camping and we could not spend the night here.
The Mules informed the rangers we were traveling across country and anybody doing so either by horseback, bicycle or foot has the right to stop and rest for the night on public space. We were not dragging in rugs, bedsprings, mattresses nor would be changing our oil or doing maintenance on our motorhome. Simply be here for the night, clean up after ourselves, be gone come morning.
The ranger got on his communication device, talked to headquarters, a decision was made to let the Mules spend the night.
The above event of yesterday is the National Park Service acknowledging and understanding the value and importance of a National Park Nomadic Lifestyle Pass. This Pass will be issued to all citizens who wish to travel throughout this country non-motorized either by horse, bicycle or foot.
Showing in a real way, one step at a time, a human being living outside responsibly with respect and reverence for the Natural World. Certainly condusive to the mission and purpose of our National Parks.
On May 22, 2017, the Mules crossed over Donner Pass, elevation 7135′, using Old Highway 40 and over the historic Rainbow Bridge. We went down the grade past Donner Lake. Having walked about 15 miles, we came upon Donner Memorial State Park. It was about 4pm. We decided to stop for the day and Donner Memorial State Park was the obvious place to rest for the night.
We entered the park, tied Little Girl to a lamp pole in the parking lot and went to the park’s visitor center. We approached the ranger behind the desk and asked if the Mules could spend the night. The ranger responded, “Absolutely not. Park regulations forbid any equestrian use inside this park.”
The Mules pay taxes. We pay between 9% to 10% sales tax on everything we buy. Everybody knows business doesn’t pay taxes, people do. When the Mules buy a product, they have paid most of the taxes that were levied by the State to get that product inside the store and onto the shelf.
The Mules ask only for the most bare bones use of the park. Simply put – enter the park, walk to the corner behind the maintenance yard, secure the mules to the fence, remove the packs, make the Mules comfortable for the night, put our bed roll on the ground, sleep, rise in the morning, clean up after ourselves and leave as we came living and walking with respect and reverence for the Natural World.
To deny the Mules or any equestrian this most bare bones use – pennies on the dollar cost to the Park system is blatantly illegal.
The Mules will be bringing the creative, magical energy of the nation, the Three Mule Nation, to make this request for an equestrian to use a state park to stop and rest for a night to every park by which we pass on our endless journey through time and space.
Last night around 11:20pm, Little Girl woke me up as she was exhaling loudly out of her nose, stomping her foot and staring intently at one spot. I grabbed my flashlight, sat up in my sleeping bag and shined my flashlight toward the direction Little Girl was looking. Back shined the reflection of two eyes staring back at us. It was a bear about 40 feet away, which then turned and walked away.
After that, I went back to sleep. An hour later, Little Girl started blowing out of her nose again because the bear came back. This time I got out of my sleeping bag, stood up and raised my arms to make myself look big. The bear walked away and didn’t come back anymore, but it was difficult falling back to sleep.
Tonight, Little Girl and I are resting in a different location.
On May 1, 2017 the Mules entered the Elk Grove in Sacramento county.
Site of 22 train car derailment
On the outskirts of town near Dillard Road, we came across the remnants of a 22 train car derailment that occurred during the heavy winter rains that flooded the area in February. We haven’t seen a derailment like this in a long time.
We found an quiet spot to rest with lots of green grass and shade to give Little Girl some rest. Here, the birds were singing and the geese were flying overhead releasing their energy of magic and power spurring the Mules into a new day of the same.
After we arrived in Sacramento, we spent the night along an abandoned railroad line. In the morning, I released Little Girl from her picket line so she could graze while I fixed my oatmeal for breakfast. Upon finishing breakfast, I went to get Little Girl about 200 feet away then packed her up. Off we went for another spontaneous unplanned day in the 3 Mule Nation.
Got to a Starbucks, secured Little Girl to a tree, went in, and charged my phone. Thank you Starbucks.
After phone got charged, we proceeded north to Del Paso and turned east. It was getting hot so we decided to stop and rest Little Girl under a tree. We were there for an hour when police showed up in two patrol cars, two officers asking many questions.
The first question we were asked was why were we here. They said somebody called saying there was a horse tied to a tree. Didn’t mention me. I was six feet away. One officer said he had had two horses and he knew that a horses should not be out in the heat. I just dropped my jaw, asked if I was being detained, received no answer, untied Little Girl and left. End of our resting time.
We proceeded along the boulevard for a mile went into a parking lot, got under a small tree and stopped.
Shortly afterwards, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee showed up, said he was curious as to what we were about and asked if he could interview us. We said sure, so he did for about 30 minutes asking questions and taking video. We explained our ages old nomadic way of life and the reason why we continue to live the way we do to preserve and exercise everybody’s right to travel by foot in the public thoroughfare and rest for the night. We saw the article and video that the Sacramento Bee posted online.
We were displeased of what the Bee published, focusing on the trivial and had no mention of our purpose of what we do all day every day. Following the Bee post, reporters from CBS13 and ABC10 have reached out and requested an interview with the Mules. We have not called them back as we found from past experience, local news stations cannot adequately report who The Mules are in the thirty seconds that they have to air a story, and most often the story is edited down to fluff. We find that the only three writers who have every captured the Mules true essence are Rick Paulas for The Kernel/The Daily Dot, Mark Luckach for The Atlantic, and Sarah Christie’s column for Mules and More.
Later that night, we found a place to rest for the evening/sleep.
The next day, as we were traveling through the Sacramento megatropolis, temperatures was in the 90s. It was time to obtain Little Girl a drink of water. We stopped at a business, asked if we could get water from the faucet on his building and person said no. He said that if we did try to get any water from the faucet, he would call the police.
This response to our request prompted the Mules to bring forth and into view Mule Proclamation 2645-B passed by the legislature of common sense and decency. This Proclamation states as follows: “Any corporation, business or private party who refuses any person traveling with or without an animal companion water for said personnel survival has committed an act of extreme inhumanity. A penalty of not less than 10 years in a not so nice place plus a $50,000.00 fine which will be placed in a multi-use state trail system fund, which will be assessed against the convicted.
The Mules will be in the Sacramento area showing how we live and the challenges we meet on a day to day basis and gathering people’s thoughts and energy as we walk along. In the past few days, Little Girl and I have enjoyed meeting and talking to many of the Three Mule Nation followers that live in the Sacramento Megatropolis.
The Mules are pleased to say that for every negative encounter the Mules may experience as we walk north, south, east, west, when we choose, how we choose, we have ten times more positive experiences with people that we meet while walking and living responsibly outside all day every day.
Upon arriving here last night within the city limits of Ripon, we the Mules were informed by the Ripon City Police that the Ripon City Council had recently passed a no camping law forbidding anybody traveling by foot, bicycle or horseback from stopping anywhere within city limits of Ripon on public space to sleep for the night.
Ripon City Hall
The above being understood, we the Mules have taken it upon ourselves to deliver this day 4/24/2017 Mule Proclamation number 2645-A to the Ripon City Council.
PROCLAMATION #2645-A states:
Anybody traveling by foot, bicycle, horseback, crutches or wheelchair using their own physical resources to do said within the constitutional boundaries of the United States is doing so under the constitutional guarantees to move freely in anyone of all four directions, how you choose, when you choose. Stopping to sleep for the night is a necessary component for our right to move freely. For if the necessary function of sleep is denied, all other human activity and living experience is also being denied. To put it short and sweet without sleep, you die.
The Mules have come to the inevitable conclusion we cannot obey this law for to do so will be our death.
For any municipality and its city officials within the constitutional boundaries of the United States to spring forward and declare this most necessary function to life itself sleeping to be illegal and subject to heavy fines and jail time is a slap in the face in blatant disregard to all those who have given life and limb throughout this country’s history to protect and preserve humanity’s God given right to move freely.
The Mules will not give up this right. We’ve been here for hundreds of thousands of years. We haven’t given it up then nor will we now. The Mules invite the mayors and city council members of the many towns which the Mules will be traveling through to send their explanations and justifications as to why they have passed the no camping law in their town. The Three Mule Nation will be interested to hear the rational for enactment of such laws to be used against people traveling via non-motorized vehicles by foot, bicycle, horse. The Mules will gladly post their response in its entirety on our website 3Mules.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.
Highways are Public Thoroughfares. They are the means by which the Mules or anybody else moves freely from one place to the next. The Public Thoroughfare is public for the general public. It cannot be claimed exclusively by any singular use – in particular the high speed machines be they private or commercial.
Anybody traveling by horse, bike or foot all day has the absolute common sense right to stop and rest on the Public Thoroughfare. Any law, regulation or constructing the thoroughfare to limit its use to any one venue over others is absolutely illegal.
The Mules will continue to use the Public Thoroughfare to move freely and responsibly in all ways applicable to our nomadic way of life. We have been here for hundreds of thousands of years and will remain here for hundreds of thousands more.
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.
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.
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.
On Friday, June 24, 2016, the Mules arrived in Clovis, CA. We got onto a nice multi-use trail in the afternoon and were heading north. Upon walking for awhile, we met a TV news crew from KMPH and they asked if they could ask questions and take film for their FOX26 KMPH 10:00 news broadcast. We said sure.
The Mules at Trader Joe’s parking lot
We went to Trader Joe’s to buy some cranberry juice, then went back to the trail.
It was getting late so we decided to stop off to the side of the trail and rest for the night. A lady named Janeen brought the Mules some hay when we were at Trader Joe’s so they (the kids) were set. [Thank you Janeen for unexpectedly appearing out of nowhere and bringing the kids hay and carrots for their dinner.]
After fixing and eating my dinner, I was sitting on the water bucket on the Fresno-Clovis Trail, relaxing and enjoying being off my feet. At about 9:30pm, two officers with flashlights from the Clovis Police Department came upon us wanting to know what we were doing. We said that we have stopped here to rest for the night. The officer said the city council of Clovis says no camping in the city limits of Clovis. We said we were not camping, we have stopped here on this public right of way to rest for the night.
The officer said they were responding to calls from citizens about us being here. We said we were exercising our legal right to use a public thoroughfare and any attempt by the use of codes, regulations or laws to deny us that right shall be considered blatantly illegal.
The officer returned to his cruiser, came back in a reasonable amount of time, used discretion, in regards to the no camping law and said we could stay for the night if we would agree to leave in the morning. We said yes we would, which was stated intention.
So the kids and myself slept peacefully through the night, arose in the morning, ate breakfast, packed up and were on our way for another day living in balance with the Natural World all day, every day
Note: The Public thoroughfare in a free country must be open to all comers. The Mules are one of those comers. Our use of this thoroughfare is not the same as those who live, eat, play, and sleep inside houses then come out of those houses for some fresh air and exercise.
The Mules wander freely throughout the day then stop and use the public space to rest for the night. Any law that prevents the Mules from resting and sleeping, a most necessary function to sustain life, must be considered by any common sense mind, to be illegal.
With the above being said and understood, the Mules will not and cannot obey these no camping laws. For to do so will be the end of us. This place of any one human being wandering with his or her animal companions, has access to many dimensions. This dimension on this earth is the one we love the most. The Mules will not be removed from it. Long live human beings and their connection to Earth. There is no future without it.
