"He short my mom in the face first and then shot by stepbrother in the stomach when he cameo threw the door. I was sitting there and saw it all".
His dad now searving life in prision for morder. Had come home with a shotgun in a rafe shooting his mom point blank in the face when she opened the door. Then turned on his stepbrother when he tried to interviene. Tim 10 at the time, now 19, was watching tv on the couch when his world fell apart.
We stood there fishing lines dangling in the water, taking in the emaculent view before us. A puddle side lake nesseled at the foot of a cascading valley in the high sierras. A vast and beautiful rocky mountain range streching across California, full of lakes and wild life. High above the city of Indipendance ay 13,000 ft. The air a bit thinner and crisp. The fading tree line evident of the change. Snow holding brush and growth, the snell of pine and nature all around. Bolders visible as the sun warms the Valley. Patches of grass muddied as the snow thaws. The bubbling brook fleming down the steel embankment feeling the tinny lake beside us. Sounds of nature erupting. Chirps and fluttering as swallows and other native fowel hit there Mark, filling there bellies. The sun cresting the massive peaks before us. Revealing the presance of a new day. We stood as men, facing the elements of nature Gods work of art.
Clothed in rugged jeans, t-shirt, hiking boots and the ocasional jacket. The four of us pearched percariously utop our own vantage point to secure success. The native holden browns and rainbows visable bellow as they swim the continualy living curent of crystal clear glacer water. There movement around our bait uninspiring as they ignore the neon yellow powerbait dangling infront of them, a sure sign of there impending fate in a frying pan. Tim had just finished telling us how his adiction with heroin started, leaving US silent in the moment. The rest of our group a band of misfits. Rough and touch street thugs from the IE, Inland Empire, still passed out on there tents on the other side of the lake. Rich, Jimmy and myself the volenteeres on this man making adventure. Leasing the 16 - 24 year old young adults on an excersion of a life time. A three day camping,fishing, hiking expidition. Starting at 9,000 ft in Onion Valley, hiking along the John Mir wilderness trail to the crest at 14,500 ft over a three day period. These hooligans never having steped foot outside the busy city, nos completely out of there eliment, were at our mercy.
Our journey began 3 days earlier in a church parking lot