Horse Camp at 8000 feet

From the monastery Mount Shasta can be seen towering into the sky, recently covered with snow. Winter is just around the corner. A cooling last week with welcome heavy rain has ushered in a real sense of the season change.

Today a female Reverend and I drove up the mountain road to a trail head leading to Horse Camp. It was a two mile walk to the stone hut the area around it serving as a base camp for those climbing the mountain. The hut a shelter in severe conditions. It’s a long days climb (for most people – see comment) to make it to the top starting out in the wee hours to get back down before dark. This is a real mountain climb requiring ice and snow equipment and experienced guides. I’m just so glad of the opportunity to get closer to this majestic mass. Shasta Abbey is 4000 ft above sea level.

As close as the mountain is and as beautiful as it is I rarely stop and look at it as a ‘sight’ as I go about the day. That’s unless it turns candy floss pink in the evening light. Or as the other evening when we were called away from the washing up to look at a perfect rainbow arching over the mountain.

But that you could join me here. My place of training for so many years. Now returned to appreciate anew the gifts which can’t be conveyed in a photograph. Or in words.

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7 thoughts on “Horse Camp at 8000 feet”

  1. “Amidst the myriad mountains”. In my youth mountaineering was my thing. I used mountain huts quite a bit in those days. Interesting to note you need an alpine start to a day in the hills.

    The abbey is at the same height as Ben Nevis in Scotland give or take a couple of hundred feet, – just shows how big Mount Shasta really is.

    Thank you for this post and thank you also for the post about Rev. Master Jiyu.

    __/\__
    Norman

  2. Hi Rev. Mugo- this brings back memories. I spent an afternoon at Horse Camp while a certain man in a pair of shorts and light hiking boots ascended the summit. On his return he described the route up as a “bit of a challenge”. Love and bows;
    Michele

  3. Well, I should clarify, he did leave in the morning, but he got back mid afternoon as I recall. He told me he received a lot of strange looks from the well clad groups making the climb, him in his shorts, wind breaker and small pack. I also remember being told that he recited the Avalokiteswara scripture when climbing across the snowy bits…

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