B4 CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 15, 1980 A quiet stay at Wild Horse Mountain (From DEEP COVER by Cril Payne. Copyright © 1980 by Cril Payne. Published by Newsweek Books. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.) It didn't seem at-all unusual to be riding around the streets of Spokane in search of a discreet parking location; in fact, it had become a_ nightly ritual since traveling and living in the van. CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 15 As a “‘deep cover’’ agent for. the FBI, Cril Payne became Bill Lane, posing as a. drug dealer and pelitical fugitive while looking for the trial of the Weatherman un- derground extremist group. In this third part of a series, he finds a rustic commune of American expatriates in the Slocan Valley instead of the Weathermen. An FBI Agent Infiltrates the Radical Underground The Largest Inventory CLEARANCE In The West Kootenays ‘you're invited to MALONEY ALE DAYS June 15 to June 21 | was in Spokane because the bureau had found out that Weatherman fugitives were using the smaller, less frequented bor- der crossings in eastern Washington, and | had been in- structed to return to Canada’s Slocan Valley by a similar route. | crossed into Canada near the town of Nelway and could readily see why it would be a popular spot. There was only one tiny guardhouse at the border. It was situated in the middle of the forest, and if was reminiscent of man ! European border crossings. The officer never even looked in the van or = questioned me about my intentions. The ‘ entire procedure took less than three minutes, and | was on my way. 1 drove into Silverton that evening ond placed a call to Karen from the ;, town's only pay phone, : Before her departure, we had worked out a communications system involving long distance calls. It was similar to one of the methods employed by the Weathermen and consisted of my placing long- ce calls from Slocan Valley at specific times to pre-arranged pay phone numbers in Seattle. While living in Seattle, | had com- piled a long list for Karen of pay phone numbers and their locations. Karen would wait at a predetermined phone in Seattle for my long-distance collect call, answer with a casual “hello,” and advise the operator she would accept the charges, it worked every time. When Karen answered the pay hone as planned, she did seem to be in Better spirits. She filled me in on all the latest h ings around the and Red Sun (a Seattle tavern known as a counterculture hangout). Our conver- sation rambled on for several minutes before Karen dropped a bombshell: she was pregnant! | was stunned. This was a situation | “ had never even considered in the con- text of the deep cover program. Our conversation continued for + some time without even approaching a resolution to the problem. About the only concession | could wangle out of Karen was a reluctant agreement to see a doctor. We made plans to talk again the following evening, and | slowly drove back to camp. | say dejectedly in front of the cam- pfire wondering how my personal life had gone so hopelessly out of control. Perhaps this was my reward for ex- politing and manipulating people in the name of national security. Were the Weathermen actually capable of starting a revolution in the United States? Or was it essentially just @ matter of wounded pride among the pompous bureaucrats and the egotistical politicians? How easy it must be to sit in a plush Washington office with a fat paycheque and halantly talk about pi ing the innermost thoughts of deep cover targets. Hell, these targets weren't paper cutouts! They were people with hopes, aspirations, and human frailties exactly like mine. And now one of them wanted to have my child. Out of all the confusion, only one thing was certain; if Karen had my child, | would be haunted for the rest of my life, How could | ever hope to see the child, or even provide support, without revealing my true identity and em- ployment? That course of action would almost certainly result in my immediate dismissal trom the bureau. On the other hand, if things just rocked along and Karen somehow discovered my true identity, she would probably initiate a paternity suit. (slept fitfully that night and I had a hart time getting up the next morning to face the day. As | was cleaning up, who should walk into the campsite but the Chicken Mah, a local freak whom | had met once before and who was a possible lead to the underground, He mentioned that he had been visiting friends in a commune south of Nelson. Naturally that got my immediate attention. Apparently the Chicken Man had sought me out because he needed tran- sportation to the town of Kaslo, some 30 ;miles away on the shores of Kooienay Lake, | was more than happy to oblige, and in a short time we were traveling down a winding dirt road through the Selkirk Mountains. Since the Chicken Man was such o space case, it was almost impossible to sustain conversation. He seemed to wander off into prolonged periods of silence. Then, after a 15-minute lapse, he would suddenly resume the conver- sation exactly where it had ended. Passing through New Denver, | noticed a girl standing near the outskirts of town waiting for a ride. She looked strangely out of place since she was relatively clean, without possessions, and wearing a dress, She seemed like an affluent coed spending her spring break as a hippy. "Hey, that's Debbie" Mr. Chicken yelled, “She's going up to my place. Let's give her a ride.” | pulled over, and Debbie jumped into the van. She was a friendly, outgoing lady, and | could tell, they had little in common. Imagine my surprise at learning that some two years earlier, they had spent the entire winter together. In fact, Debbie had just travied to the commune, which she called Wil Horse Mountain, with Mr. Chicken, When | called Karen later she was bubbling with t she had given the name of a contact in Van- couver who could provide false iden- tification and an entree into the un- derground. In all honesty, | was excited too, Karen provided me with the name of the underground contact — I'll call him "The Professor” — along with his post office box and telephone number in Vancouver. Although excited by the news, | was more concerned about Karen's visit to the doctor. "Did you go to the doctor, Ralph?” | inquired. “Yes | did, Chief,” she replied without elaboration, “Well, what'd he say?” “He said I'm too far along for an abortion. But look, Chief, don't wor about it. I've heard about a doctor who'll CLEAR-EYED and confident, conservatively saa ° bered and cloth ig oth (third from left in third row) was in 1968 fresh out the of a Texas lawschool with all his patriotic ideals ther new agents class at the FB! Academy, Cril Payne = and provincial ideas intact. She was traveling back to the com- mune at Wild Horse Mountain where her friends had promised to help cut poles for a teepee she was building. She had bought a teepee kit in Spokane and smuggled it into Canada to avoid paying taxes, and planned to live in it during the coming summer. ; were originally from New York; Kevin was a native Canadian, 1. would subsequently learn that JoJo and a friend of his named Aaron had fled the United States in the late ‘60s to avoid military service. They‘Wére ac- companied by Kath, who was Aaron's girlfriend, and Sher, JoJo's college Ih lly made their Perhaps b | repr free, non-stop transportation, Debbie cagerly invited me to visit the commune and meet her friends. If this was, infact, Weatherman Haven North, it would be interesting to meet the inhabitants. Af- ter the trip to Kaslo, | was certain that it would be more pleasant to. ride with t. They y way to Wild Horse Mountain where they hoped to start o new life free of Viet- nam, the draft, and Richard Nixon. Fortunately, JoJo's parents, who were affluent and supportive, gave him enough money to buy 40 acres of remote wilderness called “Crown land” from the “Il was driving down to Winlaw when | noticed Debbie hitch-hiking just outside of Silverton. | pulled over and she jumped in the front seat. She was traveling back to the commune at Wild Horse Mountain where her friends had promised to help cut poles for a teepee she was building.” do ‘em anytime. Betty told me about him. I'm gonna go'see him next week.” “Okay, Ralph,” { said, “but | wouldn't waste any time.” Though by no means an expert, | had read that therapeutic abortions were generally uncomplicated during the first 90 days of pregnancy. After ing a calendar, | lized that 1 hadn't even known Karen that long, and during the time we lived together, she claimed to be taking the pill. Very . strange indeed. On the following day, | was driving down to Winlaw when I noticed Debbie hitch-hiking just outside of Silverton. | pulled over and she jumped in the front seat, Debbie than with Mr. Chicken. The Wild Horse Mountain commune was situated on a gently sloping meadow surrounded by timer-covered The buildi march) ° two log cabins located some 20 yards apart, and an unfinished shed d Canadian government. l was fascinated by Kath, Kevin, and JoJo and their unique lifestyle. Con- sidering what they had accomplished and the primitive way they had gone about it, the entire commune was an display of human perseveran- on one side by a small corral. A clear stream meandered behind all the struc- tures and flowed down the sloping terrain before joining a larger river at the base of the mountain. Debbie introduced me to Kevin, Kath, and JoJo, who were the only per- manent residents of Wild Horse Moun- tain, They were a friendly group who immediately impressed me with their openess and sincerity. Kath and JoJo ce, Light was provided by candles or kerosene lamps. For plumbing, you stepped out on the porch, took a deep breath of unpolluted air, and aimed away. Running water was always - available, since one end of a rubber garden hose was positioned in the sink, with a faucet-like clamp attached, while the other end ran through the log wall and was placed well upstream. It was an tivities connected with the U.S. presidential BY 1972 Payne was a member ofa hirstute under- . cover group k as The B in ac- in Miami. — ” teresting conversations,’ | was ingenious, practical way of creating con- stant water pressure that would never freeze if the flow was constant. When | think of ingenuity, I'm always reminded of the evening's enter- tainment. And by that | mean each and every evening. After dining on a healthy but unfilling array of vegetables — all of the residents were strict vegetarians — we'd walk down the hill to JoJo's cabin for the nightly festivities. We'd sit around the one-raom cabin, usually smoking my finest hash. While JoJo attached the wires from the tape deck to the 12-volt battery from his truck. Since the vehicle seldom ran, the battery was almost always located in the cabin. Once the system, complete with two minuscule speakers, was ready to go, Jolo would ceremoniously plug in the tape. It should be noted that this was the one and only tape. Even now, virtually every word of every song on that tape remains in- delibly etched across my mind, It was Joni Mitchell's “Blue” album and we would sit there night after night listening to it over and over. | can still see us sprawled around the floor, rap- ping, smoking dope, and watching the sunset through the plastic sheets that served as windows. After nightfall, our only illumination came from the flickering fire in the stove. As we sat there in the shadows, the log walls seemed to come alive with an endless variety of shapes and tex- tures. After spending a week at Wild Hor- se Mountain, | got to know the inhabitants pretty well. While both JoJo and Kath had been well educated in the States, they had forsaken the opportunity for affluence in favor of basic, uncomplicated existence in the wilderness. While their reset- tlement had initially been motivated by political consideration, they had reached the point where they were decidedly non-political. In fact, they had no information about what had hap- pened in Vietnam or in the United States, and clearly, they didn’t care. { experienced mixed emotions upon leaving Wild Horse Mountain, although I had no choice in the matter, since a debriefing was scheduled at the smaller city of Trail. I gave all my magazines to Kath and tried to leave them some stereo tapes, but they wouldn‘t hear of it. We made plans to see each other at the upcoming spring festival, and after saying good- bye, ! headed down the mountains. On the way down to Trail for the debreifing session, | stopped at the post office in New Denver to check for mail. Sure enough, there was a letter waiting from Karen which had been sent care of general delivery. It was a rambling four- page discourse which ended with one rief sentence saying that she had had an abortion, _ As | drove back to Stocan Valley, | reviewed the profound experience of my week at the commune. The people I met had been genuine, sincere individuals dedicated to establishing a new life in the wilderness, | think they realized that more is not always better, and that the quality of life takes precedence over materialistic quantity. Everything they had was shared freely, In essence, all they’ really wanted was to be left alone to live their lives in the way they saw fit... A Alter their warm hospitality and in- fy ask soveellt what right an FB! agent had to violate the privacy of hardworking Canadian citizens in an attempt to learn their political views? 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