May 1

I believe we left off somewhere with sulphur and mercury as a construct of alchemy and even if we didn’t, that’s where we’re picking it up. I realize it’s quite a stretch, and what does this have to do with Joaquin Murrieta? but bear with me, all will be made clear soon enough. New Idria was a Quicksilver mine, first opened a year after Murrieta’s murder, in 1854, off to the left, right up here is the turn off. I’ll show you the sign later. I’m not going to the old mines, I’m headed for Joaquin’s Ridge, then to Joaquin Rocks and according to the sworn testimony of Ana Benetiz at the trial of Reyes Feliz, just before they hung him, this was Joaquin’s hideout. On my way out there, I come across, Hermes Trismegistus manifesting the properties of Sulphur and Mercury – right before my eyes – Hermes lived about the time of Moses and is considered the grand father of alchemy and Joaquin lived about the time of my great grandfather’s father – I have no clear idea what the connection is, only that there is one, I’m sure of it. Just as the alchemists were sure, for centuries, that base metals could be reduced to gold, thus in accordance with the understanding that Sulphur is the fatness of the earth, dug up from mines miles below the surface, and Mercury is the cause of perfection; the distillation, from course into fine. I haven’t a clue what the connection is, other than Murrieta mined gold from the Stanislaus and had he been left the fortune he rightfully claimed, I wouldn’t be on this road. And just like that majestic river in the Sierra foothills, there is a confluence happening in front of me, I can feel it, an oddness that illuminates as if the source of light, along with everything else, comes from within.
Just around the bend I am about to encounter something I have not understood for a very long time, as if sulphur and mercury were playing itself out in a transubstantial dance in front of my eyes and inside my head at the same time.. My tires are holding up fine, I’m taking it slow. I’m in the land of gypsies and outlaws, back on the mountain path – La Vereda del Monte.