Alexandra Souverneva, 30, a self-proclaimed shaman, but in the real world once a PhD student in SUNY's New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry, said she had decided to hike to Canada from her home in Palo Alto - 1,500 miles - when she became thirsty and then decided to boil what she claimed was bear urine.
Thus began the Fawn fire, one name in California's annual litany of wildfires caused by everything from utilities not being allowed to clear brush near power lines without an environmental impact statement to environmentalists not understanding California is a desert 9 months out of the year to, apparently, letting self-proclaimed shamen boil bear urine.
After drinking the urine, she became caught in some brush and called the fire department for assistance. Because it is a high-risk area and she was acting strangely, they asked her to empty her pack and it revealed CO2 canisters, a lighter, and "a green, leafy substance she admitted to smoking that day."
Who sets off on a 1,500-mile trip with nothing but a fanny pack and a lighter and CO2 canisters?
