This old man, he's all done, cause he played Nicknack and Drake from God kicked that Paddywack, never drink alone. This old man won't make it home.

Let me spoon, stay tuned.

From KQED and PRX, you've crossed over to Spooned.

One of my favorite places is near the California coast, an old Redwood Grove forest.

If you've never been, it's kind of hard to describe. Damn, misty, lush, vertit.

The last remnants of an Eden. And Redwoods, these giant ancient trees, they often grow next to each other.

In a protective circle around the remains, around the altar of a fallen mother tree.

You call this configuration a fairy ring. And if you step into the middle of this circle and you look up, it feels holy.

It feels sacred. It feels wild. This cathedral, grown to protect the sacrifice of the mother, we should all be so lucky to step into the circle.

Spook starts.

Now.

There are many different types of circles,

there are many different types of wild. And I want you to meet Nate.

Nate, he grew up hearing stories from his grandfather.

I remember of the Ojibwe Chippewa Nation. His grandfather taught him to love and respect nature.

That's why, when Nate was 16, he explored the forest. Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

But some places, some things might be better left alone. Spooked.

I believe it was around May in 1988.

I called my friend Keith and said, what are you up to today? And he said, not too much.

We're talking about a plan for the day and we should get together. And we said, well, we could go back to Diamond Hill and maybe see if we can't dig up more quartz crystals.

Quartz crystals, garnets, tormalines. When you unearth something like that and realize that you're the first person to ever lay eyes on this thing since it started forming thousands of years ago, it's just a really fun thing to do.

So we made a plan to get together and said, yeah, we'll spend the day down there and if it gets to be evening, maybe we'll camp out and spend the night in the forest.

...