Crazy Charlie (part one)

“Man, you’d think the back alleys of LA were turning gold” ..Charlie says. He ought to know ..he’s just been kicked out of one. So he spends the next three days following the Santa Ana river to San Bernardino. Thought nobody would bother him there. Instead he finds the streets buzzing with crystal meth ..and cross-fire. He catches a ride out of town with a kid in a Cadillac, who, moments before ..carjacked it just in time to avoid a police raid on his own meth lab. They blow through the Cajon Pass and out into the high desert going over 120 mph. “That kid was spooked man ..he was poppin' pills like candy and lookin' over his shoulder the whole way.” They stop near a park in Victorville and, without a word ..the kid grabs an AK-47 out of the back seat ..walks into traffic ..smashes the window of a car stopped at an intersection ..hijacks the car ..and disappears down Highway 18 toward Barstow ..leaving two guys standing on the corner shaking ..and Charlie heading for the hills. He spends the night with some other ‘campers’ on the Mojave River. He tells them his story and, in return ..they tell him about some hot springs in a river canyon so deep that roads don’t go near them ..cell phones won't work there “..it’s like Shangri-la, man. I bin there once ..but now I can’t find my way back ..no way.” Before dawn, Charlie is hiking up the Mojave River in the general direction of Shangri-la. After a few days, he finds a tributary feeding in from the East. He stops and tastes the water. Fresh California snow pack with just a hint of olive oil and patchouli. “This has got to be it” ..he says to himself. He follows this new river into a steep canyon filled with boulders. After a while, the boulders become so large that he can’t go over them ..or around them. He climbs straight up the side of the canyon, using his hands and feet, until he finds a goat trail, about 10 inches wide, that follows the river from up high.

continued ..