Goat Creek Falls ~ the Voice of Water

The many water features surrounding the “little Castle” as Italian artist, Arri, described Adytum owes its inspiration to the Pacific Northwest Rainforest.  If you like the complement of water music ~ the language of the misty northwest forests as you climb through luxuriant foliage, Goat Creek Falls is your dream hike.

Nearly every step is accompanied by the happy gurgle of brooks; the rush of falling water and the tumult of cascading falls at the climax of the trail particularly after snow melt in early spring. Birdsong echoes from the limbs of a thousand trees in this old wood. Like Muir says, “the songs of the water, wind and birds” – all meld into an incitement to gain strength and peace as you’re drawn deeper into the emerald enchantment and mystery of this moist woodland.

At summer’s end the flow of the falls is reduced to a gentle curtain of iridescent raindrops with the finest spray as a reward for reaching the top. After a dry summer, it is a miracle there is a mist at all. Standing under the fall on the narrow trail, the mist caressing my face I watch the curtain of water falling onto an ancient flood boulder before cascading down into the creek below. 

It reminds us “everything is flowing…going somewhere”. Life in the profound serenity and holiness of the forest is vibrating with passionate energy and distinct intention despite the relative stillness.

The fall’s rock face truly is magnificent and standing behind the effervescent veil of water is exhilarating in early spring and restful in summer. It extends the summons to achieve oneness with the flow of all nature…We have a goal to hike all the waterfall trails as soon as snow melts next year to experience the force of nature’s pure wildness celebrating in her most rambunctious style.

The beauty of this trek is that it is only about 30 minutes from Adytum near Riffe Lake. Goat Falls captures the feeling Rumi reflected when he said “we have fallen into the place where everything is music”.  The combination of intense, lush beauty and soothing water-music is unbeatable.

The proximity is prized by guests that want to enjoy the magic of Adytum without long jaunts to far off excursions. You can stop back into the Bean Tree or Plaza Jalisco in Morton to refuel. Also, the locals tell me that Morton Meat Market has the best beef jerky anywhere. I wouldn’t know, but I do go in to buy raw dog bones for the pack and there is always a line in front of the meat counter.

If you have four-wheel drive great. If not, there was only other car parked at the trailhead when we drove out on a Saturday afternoon -  a Hyundai with two-wheel drive - so despite the potholes and oftentimes deep ruts, you can probably negotiate the 4.5 miles of gravel road off the main road to start your exploration. There are no services, so handle that beforehand or brave the steep cliff and some fancy balancing footwork to find the notoriously large girthed tree.

Before you cross the fishing bridge over Riffe Lake, you will see hang gliding enthusiasts who flock to Dog Mountain for great hang gliding at the head of the lake. The breezes blow off the lake pushing up the steep cliffs creating thermals that allow gliders to stay aloft. There are always a lot of fishermen fishing off the bridge which speaks of the bounty of these Pacific Northwest Waters.

The hike starts at a narrow trailhead and teems with spectacular vegetation instantly like a staged Home and Garden Show. Muir described such a wood, “a fairyland created out of the commonest fern-stuff”.

Profuse stands of maidenhair ferns with its arching fronds, Hart’s Tongue Fern, light green deer fern and lady fern – the quintessential feathery fern with the black frond emerges in every crevasse of the rock walls that interrupt the vegetation flow. Knickinick, coral bells and tiny fir, hemlock and cedar trees line the trail.

Moss lines every open space and we stepped over an abundance of leopard and banana slugs. It is another world…restfully cool and tranquil…and yes, magical. With the prehistoric heritage of ferns, it could be a time warp from thousands of years ago. Enter in...

 After a steep incline we look into upper boughs of ancient Fir and Big Leaf Maple with Polypody Fern – epiphyte -ensconced in the curve of massive limbs.

  “Epiphyte give the architecture of a tree or a shrub a complex fenestration that confers age and complexity.” (Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses, William Cullins)

Then, the forest descends sharply. Earlier we passed four men amusing themselves rolling rocks down the cliff. The extreme brink of the edge of the path traveled one at a time asserts a silent warning all along the way. No daydreamers here.... Lightening fires leave their mark on many old trees hollowing out some for owls, woodpeckers and the brave creatures of the wood. We don’t see them but we know they are watching…

 “I am never alone in the wild forest, this forest of elders - this forest of eyes.” Richard Nelson.

With the profusion of ravaged bark, the evidence was clear; a large bear had been scraping Western Red Cedar, dislodging rotting bark in search of ants achieving an 8’ reach.  We saw a porcupine and a bird carrying what appeared to be another bird in its talons. We lost count of the waterfalls we waded through on the trail; wear waterproof shoes or do the big leap.

This is a treacherous trail, not for children, elderly or those unsteady on their feet; that warning includes many dogs. Our Borzoi would careen herself right over the sheer cliff in the course of racing along in her joy on the narrow single track. Sadly a horse plunged to its death in an area under the waterfall where slippery shale lines the trail. 

We later learned, after posting this horrific picture on Face Book, that someone had let two horses go in the forest to fend for themselves over the hard winter projected for this year. After many comments in response to the picture of this horse, some other options emerged for caring for horses owners can no longer afford to feed. It was shocking, unforgettable and I hope to never see anything like this again.

Albert Einstein reminds us that “our task is to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.” There is always a gentle option.

If you’d like to experience this hike, take Hwy 12 to Glenoma Road/Riffe Lake, turn right, go a few miles on the paved road; cross the fishing bridge and turn right. You will see the sign “4 ½ miles to Goat Creek”.

This is a slow trek in on a four wheel drive road with deep rutting and potholes and clearly worth the painstaking care it takes to traverse it

Once you enter this rich, complex visual tapestry of form and texture you will not return to the world outside this hallowed space unchanged. 

"The world is a sacred vessel” The Tao Te Ching

Books you might enjoy: Meditations of John Muir; Nature’s Temple and Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses by William Cullina

Biking the Village Mossyrock

My Well Used Santa Cruz Mountain Bike- My Most Cherished Gift from Donn

Past an inquisitive two point buck I shooed off the road, “flying” alongside a robin for a good many yards neck to neck, nickering to the herd of horses and pack mules feeding with their head stretched over the barbed wire fence…

That's Lilly (in black), Sold By Our Medical Vision Center Manager to These Folks

this is the sweet simplicity of biking from Adytum to the village of Mossyrock.

It’s about an hour's bike ride if I explore the back roads and side streets. We have no bank here, no supermarket except a wooden floor general store. But we have the basics and the rest can be found ten miles east in Morton.

Have You Shopped In A Grocery Store With Wooden Floors?

The cats are hunting this early morning. I’ve never seen so many. They multiply like the ancient cars piled around many properties that seem a prerequisite for country life here.

 Cattle stream to the fence line thinking I am there to feed. 

No one is up yet as I pedal along.  I capture the innocent essence of country life on an Indian summer morning when the fogs and mists rise up out of the valley to envelop the spires of Adytum in their mystery. 

The spiderwebs I break as I pass are a portent of chill mornings to follow...

So many regain their youth listening to songs from high school. I regain mine staying connected to joy through my old Santa Cruz mountain bike. “It is”, I say without jest, “my $2000 cellulite treatment formula and my endorphin fix…” And laughingly I add...I traded in a car worth less than this bike!

My '98 Toyota Tacoma...If I Get "Newer/Bigger" I Can't Throw My Bike Into The Back of the Bed...

Alongside my natural progesterone and dietary changes implemented in my mid 30’s, biking is my core program for staying balanced and looking “lean and mean”….Combined with a largely vegan/raw diet (but not exclusively by any stretch…) it will get me in shape within two weeks for what I laughingly call “Donn’s bikini trips” – Optometry continuing education in the Caribbean, South America and Belize. And I’m sure it will do the same for you too.

Getting Ready for some Joy Time

What I haven’t written much about is the intense spiritual feeding that occurs as my legs do their rhythmic strokes without ever stopping and my breath comes in even draughts. My mind is free to soar

, to commune not only with the intensity of the natural world around me but with God…All the visual stimulus and fresh mountain air,  the hayfields ready for cutting feed my spirit and refills my inner well.

The Buses Carry the Workers In

Hola and Gracias...I eat them every morning!

Now past bright yellow school busses on the right that bring the Latino laborers into the Pan American blueberry fields. I have purchased 150 pounds so far and harvested our own blueberries from 30 bushes at Adytum, some beginning to produce now. It’s not an easy life for them but perhaps they find their own rhythmic dance and meditate on all that is good while they work under blazing sun and oftentimes soft rains. I nod my thanks and pray over them as I stroke past.  I get the blessing of a nod in return, acknowledgment we are all one.

Buenos Dias!

And on the left I zip past the DeGoede’s workers harvesting bulbs and hoeing between the rows of bright red alstilbe plumes that wave with the summer breeze. We wave to each other and I yell, “Hola!”  I can always tell the few white workers with naked arms at work that haven’t the innate wisdom apparently to cover up against the ravages of a day in the fields. What a life…to be under the great blue sky that puts Montana’s Big Sky logo to shame…to hear the whinny of the horses and watch the hawks collecting mice that shelter under the Dahlias. To breathe clean air and work honestly with one’s hands…to stand firmly grounded on the famous Cinebar Loam, some of the finest soil in the world.

Safe Passage Under Highway 12 for the Workers and I

I come off Birley and take my Santa Cruz along the frontage road, now more colorful reds, oranges and yellows splashing in a rising wind on my left. Past the trailers that house permanent workmen and their families, I take the viaduct under Highway 12, built to safeguard the field hands as they pass over to the fields and greenhouses on the other side.

So Many Old Barns and Many Still In Active Use

DeGoedes owns 500 acres in all and their cousins run the Mt. Vernon Bulb fields further north. Pumping hard up the rockstrewn dusty road, I pop up to street level with a blaze of orange-red Diablo Croquisma rewarding my effort. Left now on the road I see Mossyrock in the distance, but I always lengthen my ride and divert past another privately owned blueberry field or head up to check on the Osprey nest on top of a phone pole overlooking the rest of the Degoede lands.

Osprey Nest

Past lazy dogs, dozing in the early morning sunshine, past crumbling old farmhouses, past barns and silos and all things country I suck this village life deep into my lungs. 

We all need to add a little country to our “city” and we in the country need to add a little city to our “country”. Like the progesterone, the bike and the diet, it keeps us balanced.

My morning bike rides set the tone for my day. I stand on the pedals up the hill toward my truck, mercifully parked at the bottom of the hill that leads to Adytum. I’m not there yet- and may never be- where I bike the last half mile straight up. But I’m breathing hard. I’m well prayed. I’m well exercised. I’m well in my heart, mind, body and soul. I’m in Joy

Adytum and the new Pinot Noir Vineyard Growing in the Sun

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Upper Caribbean Creamy Grits With Roasted Plantains- With Adytum Signatures

Leave me alone long enough with a recipe and the inner chef keeps whispering in my ear, "Add some marsala to get more complexity into those plantains and caramelize them- too dry if you roast them...Crush and toast hazelnuts to add some crunch to the topping....toast some unsweetened coconut to wrap around the plantains...."

Your inner chef will whisper in your ear too as you play around in the kitchen with these new dishes more too. Every guest who makes a special request urges me out of my box and  helps me to expand in my cooking skills. Ultimately they help me to see that there is so much more out there-  Like the chef who taught me to "try one new thing a week, from the produce section and from the jar/can isle" Get familiar with capers, arugula, new spices, and on and on.

Here are some pictures of this morning's breakfast in the making:

This really "makes it"  The coconut creams it up, the ginger and cinnamon make it decadent...luscious....

Now it's time to top after a long, much stirred simmer~and taste (:

We served this with Apple Quinoa Banana Muffins, Maple Smoked Sweet Potato Oven Roasted Fries, and Eggs- and non-eggs - on the Half Shell.  If a vegan has to watch others eating a dish - like my guest says, "Oh, I'm used to passing things along" - well there's something inherently wrong about that. So I came up with an alternative that I'm anxious to try with grilled polenta  under the sauteed mushrooms, garlic, sweet onion and red bell pepper~

"Is Everybody HAPPY?"

Upper Caribbean Creamy Grits With Roasted Plantains

As promised, here is a new vegan recipe that dedicated meat eaters will enjoy too.  Since I have a very well established southern heritage, this caught my eye. Only I’m using Polenta…the “new” grits. 

Adytum is full of great, like minded guests this weekend as always and one which happens to adhere to a pretty tight dietary plan:  no sugar, no gluten, no animals- even casein in some vegan cheeses… (welcome Daiya; lactose and casein free)   So in anticipation of feeding Kat…yes- another Kat who is dating a Bastyr student who may very well be YOUR naturopath one day I decided to check with the experts – Oly Vegan, a Facebook page recently shared with me by my hair stylist who does a vegan/GF diet plan herself. Like the lady who shared this recipe, her dad too was lost to cancer and the vegan diet has some pretty amazing stats if you’re looking to avoid that potential…

I did a test run with this recipe for our breakfast this morning and will make some modifications. I like a little more natural sweetness and will caramelize the plantains in a skillet with some coconut oil and pure maple syrup instead of roasting them. Additionally I toasted some unsweetened Bob’s Red Mill Coconut and topped the dish with the plantains and toasted coconut. Oh yes…now we’re talking…

I just bought 25 pounds of polenta from Bob’s Red Mill in Oregon and that is what I used in the recipe. It came off really creamy  - reminiscent of Cream of Wheat. It is, in short, comfort food. You could add chopped dates, some nutmeg, maybe even some pineapple. Play with it and you’ll find, like I did, your own unique combination that works to start your day. Amazing, too how far ¾ cup of polenta goes. It really does serve 4-6…

We appreciate the collaborative effort that happens on Face Book when we ask for a fresh idea…a favorite recipe…and someone comes forward with theirs. Lesli really came through for Adytum’s guest, Kat, and may it all come back to you, Lesli!  By the way, Lesli is issuing an open invitation to join their FB page:  Oly Vegan for even more great recipes, even if you aren’t a dedicated Vegan.  For those of you that haven’t been to the capitol city of Washington, Olympia is an eclectic blend of progressive people. Free thinkers, original…which is why we keep a second home there. Never know, we might become Vegan and move back (:

This recipe is from the book “Vegan Soul Food” by Bryant Terry 

Upper Caribbean Creamy Grits with Roasted Plantain Pieces

Yield- 4 to 6 servings

1 large ripe yellow plantain, ends cut off, peeled
and cut in half lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch pieces width-wise

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coarse sea salt

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 cinnamon stick

4 cups water

3/4 cup stone-ground grits

5 tablespoons maple crystals or organic raw cane sugar


-preheat oven to 450

-in a small bowl, toss the plantains, olive oil, cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. 
Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and cook, stirring a few times to ensure even browning, until crisp on the outside 
and starting to turn golden brown, about 45 mins. Set aside.

- In a small sauce-pan over medium-low heat, combine the the coconut milk, the ginger, and the cinnamon stick. Simmer for 5 mins., stirring often
and ensuring that the coconut milk does not boil. Remove from heat and strain the coconut milk into a small bowl. Set aside.

- In a medium sauce pan, combine 3 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Whisk the grits into the liquid until no lumps remain,
return to a boil, then quickly reduce the heat to medium low- and simmer, stirring often to prevent the grits from sticking to the bottom of the pan,
until the grits have absorbed most of the liquid, and are thickening- 10 to 12 mins. Stir in the remaining cup of water, and cook for another 10 mins, stirring occasionally, until 
most of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the reserved coconut milk and simmer, stirring frequently , until the grits are soft but not runny, 30 to 35 mins.
Stir in the maple sugar. 

- Right before serving top each serving with some of the roasted plantains.


I hope your guests enjoy this as much as i do! 

All the best,

Lesli Baker
Oly Vegan

Adytum’s Niche is The Healthy Choice ~ The Breakfast Fondue

Our guests from Seattle said, “All of our friends eat this way.”  They were talking about the absence of meat, dairy, egg- and a breakfast about half raw food. “That’s why we chose Adytum. Because we knew we could eat our regular healthy diet here.”  But they admitted that the food and presentation was anything but regular….and I admitted that I love spoiling people!

When Johanna came to the kitchen at 9a.m., I shared my excitement. “You were a challenge to me! I haven’t done a raw, vegan breakfast for anyone yet. Vegan, yes. Raw vegan…no. AND gluten free on top of it all!”  Since her partner wasn’t 100% raw, thankfully I could revert to my vegan breakfasts which gives me some time to revisit all the “un-cookbooks” on my shelves before my 100% raw guests come. Since it was Johanna’s birthday, I wanted to amaze her, delight her…completely “wow” her at her first breakfast at Adytum and we did!

For inspiration, I turned to Renee Loux Underdoffler’s book, “Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods” and found exactly what ended up doing the trick. Donn chopped chunks of three different melons and sliced strawberries and kiwi, leaving raspberries whole for a beautiful tray of summer fruits while I made Renee’s “Caramel Sauce”. It is vegan and it is raw and it is AMAZING! The recipe follows to serve a breakfast fondue. The rest of the vegan/raw breakfast?

For a larger protein fraction, I served a shake that Donn and I have been drinking most every morning for 16 years. The only difference is that ours isn’t tasty like theirs was. For theirs, I used Metagenics Ultra Meal Rice (brown rice) and added frozen blueberries and a banana and ground flax seed. They loved it. It has the protein equivalent of two eggs- 14 grams- and half the vitamins and minerals for the day.

 For our shake, I used Metagenics Ultra Clear Renew (liver support/cleansing) and Ultra InflamX 360 (anti cancer/inflammation) and added brewer’s yeast, green powder equal to ten servings organic greens, and several other powders that make it outrageously healthy and not so tasty but after all these years, we don’t even notice it.

Their raw, vegan breakfast included some cooked items. Homemade gluten free granola with Montmorency Cherries and made with pure maple syrup. (Recipe to follow) Laced with coconut yogurt and a lovely blueberry/strawberry compote with the East Indian Spices I love, it disappeared immediately along with the oven baked Sweet Potato Fries seasoned with smoky maple.

Sweet Potatoes are only a distant relative of potatoes. They regulate insulin production, stabilize blood sugar and lower insulin resistance and are full of beta carotene, precursor to vitamin A and B6.  Baked in the oven, they are a healthy treat before the hike they will take today. I’ve already posted the recipe for the Quinoa Banana muffins, which also appeared on the table and will be carried on the hike later. They are such a great low sugar, high protein treat and are really a meal in themselves, like a protein bar.

As I walk back from putting Zephyr in the dog park, our Borzoi who recently met her first skunk…I stop to pick handfuls of fresh fennel fronds, lavender buds, pansies and Johnny Jump Ups with their smiling “good morning” faces, lemon verbena and several varieties of mints that will become edible garnish for the birthday breakfast feast.

Eating healthy is visually stimulating and we feel fantastic- ready to tackle a big day- after eating this way. Taking digestive enzymes is always wise, but especially when starting a raw food program; so many of us lack “digestive fire”. It takes zinc to make hydrochloric acid, for instance. Upon testing for zinc sufficiency, I had only one client in 4 years who was sufficient in zinc. The aqueous solution that tastes so bad, most would spit it out instantly was reported as tasting like water by 99% of my clients. So replenishing digestive enzymes while the body rebuilds itself is a good plan as well as supplementing zinc.

The benefits of a completely raw food diet are undeniable. With all of the living enzymes intact and cellular mutations from browned or burned proteins/foods no longer a factor to contend with is healing. If you want to get well or stay well, eat raw food and organic as much as possible. However, most of the benefits from a raw food diet can be obtained at about the 80% level- eat breakfast and lunch raw and add something warm at dinner perhaps.

Our guests and I discussed the necessity of getting the right kind of fat in a vegan or raw food diet. Since only a very small amount of the ALA in flax seed, for instance, converts to EPA and DHA, 15% and 5% respectively, it is best to supplement with pure, micro-distilled fish oil. It’s also advisable to supplement Omega 6 in the form of GLA from borage or evening primrose oil as vegetarians, vegans and raw food diets are not getting exposure to the Omega 6 in animal foods or certain oils. A 1:1 ratio is recommended, Omega 3 to Omega 6.

These guests loved all the raw “un-cookbooks” on my shelves and will leave with recipes. In turn, we are reinvigorated in our efforts to create great health for ourselves by eating a plant based, largely raw diet….but “gourmet” and of course, beautiful as are all things we aim for at Adytum, the Sanctuary.

The sanctuary/temple of our soul is honored by the commitment to extreme self-care, and we’re grateful to these guests’ commitment to this walk in their own lives. Iron sharpens iron and we all inspire and encourage each other in a world that does not honor this way of being, for the most part. That is, after all, what brought these great guests to Adytum in the first place. They knew their choices would be honored and they would be well fed. It was indeed an honor and a privilege to spoil them rotten!

Caramel Sauce

Makes About 1 Cup

Serve this luscious caramel confection on absolutely everything for a sweet treat.

5 Tablespoons raw almod butter or raw cashew butter

¼ cup pure maple syrup

2 Tablespoons cold-pressed coconut butter

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 pitted soft dates

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch sun-dried sea salt

In a blender or food processor, blend all ingredients until creamy. Add a touch of pure

water in blending if necessary.

Cinnamon Spiced Granola

This easy to make granola is perfect to have on hand for busy mornings. It can top fresh fruit, be served with a dollop of organic yogurt or served as a breakfast cereal with hemp milk or another non-dairy milk. You can add any dried fruit after it has been cooked. If you have a nut allergy, then substitute sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for the nuts.

Makes about 5 cups

3 cups rolled oats (We use only gluten free oats from Bob’s Red Mill at Adytum)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 cup coarsely chopped almonds

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup pure maple syrup

½ cup melted coconut oil or ¼ cup apple juice and ¼ cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional Additions:

Chopped dried apple

Raisins

Dried cranberries

Shredded coconut

Sunflower seeds

Pumpkin seeds

(We use Montmorency Cherries at Adytum and Dried Apricots)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place rolled oats, chopped nuts, and spices into a medium sized bowl and mix well. Add the maple syrup, melted coconut oil and vanilla to the oat mixture. Toss together using two spoons. Add shredded coconut and any seeds if desired, toss and bake on  a large cookie sheet for 35-40 minutes turning occasionally with a spatula. Remove from oven and stir in dried fruit. Let cool completely and transfer to a large glass jar.

From the Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook: Whole Foods Recipes for Personal and Planetary Health by Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre, MS, CN

Adytum Has a Ghost

“Adytum has a ghost,” I told Michael, who was asking lots of questions about how Adytum began almost 5 years ago now. We usually think of ghosts inhabiting old creepy castles and mansions…pacing the floors, rattling chains, and generally scaring anyone in their space. We think of ghosts as imaginary, as fairy tales. Or we think of ghosts as somehow “real”. I really don’t think of them much at all, and really can’t say I believed in them either until one day last year….I continued sharing with Michael, who now had a mixture of “curious/dubious” written all over his face.

About two years ago I walked slowly up the slope, just off the Orion Suite, that would eventually become the Pinot Noir vineyard. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always looked closely at the earth to see what it would yield. Seashells at the beach, a penny on the sidewalk downtown, a tiny wildflower in the fields of grass straining to be known and seen…Today, quite unexpectedly I caught a glimmer of shiny black and reached down to pick it up. It was a beautifully shaped obsidian arrowhead, tiny chips out of one side as it hit its mark all those years ago. It was our first Indian artifact found on Adytum lands. A few steps later, another…not so pretty. It was broken, well used in the hunt. It seemed strange. Like the tiny wildflower in the field of grass straining to be recognized, the arrowheads just presented themselves on my path. I’ve walked that slope planting grapevines with Donn and in all our digging we’ve never found another one, much less two…or anywhere else on our land either.

Adytum has an air of mystery around her with the mists that swirl around the turrets or the dense fog rising up off the Lake at daybreak to fill the whole valley with “the breath of the dragon…”  With all the holes in these ancient trees, I have to confess the writer in me -living in my head so much of the time - would love to find a secret treasure stashed away in the crook of an old maple or pushed up into the center of one of the many hollow red cedars here…maybe a gift left for a lover who never made it one stormy night, or a worn copy of handwritten verse, a journal, or a blade hastily stashed from the scene of a crime. This land evokes fantasy and imagination…

That night, I held the sharp dark arrowheads in my hand and felt the age old energy of the hunt, of the warrior, of the Cowlitz Indians that depended on these small stones to bring down prey. Obsidian isn’t native to our hill. Nor was the large yellowish white quartz that I discovered on a chilly walk in February a few months prior. Donn and I had taken an out of the way trail on the back of the land high on a ridge overlooking the road below. Ferns tumbled down a rocky sheltering cliff. The brush was so dense if you didn’t know it was a cliff, you’d fall right off. There was – and is – a different feel to this area. We naturally fell into calling it our “sacred spot” and set up a bench there, intending it to be our worship and reflection place. As we came up the thin trail, ducking overhanging maple limbs, we came round a little bend and face to face with a very unusual object shining white in the dense forest  growth.

Under a large overhanging boulder it sat, large and white and certainly not native to this Birley Mountain we live on. It had been scooped out in multiple locations with a little spoon type object. It sat alone under the rock and instantly we knew it was someone’s worship place, a natural altar and someone’s worshipful object, though we didn’t know what it might be for. Maybe it was Indian, maybe it wasn’t. We’d heard tales of the prior owner near Adytum’s back acreage making underground bunkers for the end of the world, and an unsuspecting tractor falling in three stories deep….Maybe it was theirs…What it is, we don’t know. But I knew enough to put something back once I took this strange rock back with me. I returned with a handful of white daffodil bulbs and they bloom there to this day.

The energy of those that have been on this stretch of earth under the wide expanse of Pacific Northwest skies lives on. Sometimes it wills itself to be known, and sometimes it remains a secret until the right one comes to discover it. The night that I held the arrowheads in my hands, feeling the hunt, I left them on the ledge on the spiral staircase windowsill and went up to bed. One might have thought I’d dream of Indians on horseback with bows and handmade arrows but instead I was awoken out of a deep sleep and saw a woman outside my bedroom door. I felt no sense of fear. She didn’t seem to know anyone was there…She walked, hunched over as if she couldn’t go another step. She seemed exhausted. She had long black hair that clearly hadn’t seen a brush in a long time and she wore it loose. She wore the clothes of a white woman in the 1800’s- maybe earlier. A wide skirt and blouse tucked in, black shawl wrapped around her shoulders that she clutched with one hand as she paced back and forth between the rooms outside my bedroom door.

Just like the arrowheads, I could “feel” her energy and she was worn out, worn thin from the hardships of the journey. She had seen inclement weather, she needed rest and the comforts that a woman craves; a warm bath, tea by the fire, the companionship of her lover. But she was denied all these and she restlessly looked, like a bird trying to find a place to land, for a place to settle.

When she disappeared, I got up and wrote the vision I had seen and told Donn when he woke in the morning. I’m no stranger to the spiritual world, but I really hadn’t ever seen such a figure- so defined, so describable. When I think of why I did see her, I imagine it was because I wanted to know. I wondered about the Indian whose careful work I held in my hands all these years later. I think I simply tapped into a space in time and perhaps she inhabited that same space. I really have no idea…it’s all conjecture. All I know is that my experience that night was real.

That’s why it was so incredibly confirming when that summer, our guest – then the wife of famous writer Richard Bach of Jonathan Livingston Seagull fame, Sabryna Bach came to the kitchen early in the morning, and advised me with absolutely no emotion like it happened everyday: “I’ve seen your ghost”.  I almost dropped the dish from my hand….”Oh?” I never let on that she wasn't the first to see her until I heard her story.

She knew nothing - no one did except Donn – of the sighting earlier that winter. Sabryna went on to describe the woman I had seen down the last detail, only she added that she had been attacked by a man or men. I didn’t get that feeling, only the desperate need to stop and get off the trail. The impression I got was that she was part of an early party coming to the Pacific Northwest. Lewis and Clark certainly had their fair share of hardship and torrential downpours, chilling days and frigid nights in opening the Northwest Territory. I am convinced our ghost came soon after they forged the way.

To say I was shocked beyond belief that our guest, Sabryna, had witnessed our ghost- and in another part of the house- was strange. I had seen “her’ on the third floor, Sabryna saw “her” on the first. Neither of us had any sense of fear at all, only a lingering pity that she couldn’t get what she was after…no one has seen “her” again…We may have to find a name- or maybe one will come- to call this Ghost of Adytum.

On my knees today in the garden off First Light, I am suddenly aware of the land beneath me and the rich soil. I think, “one day I will be this soil and I will be part of the Adytum lands…” Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We have our brief shining moment on this earth and then we are gone. I can’t explain the Ghost of Adytum. She doesn’t fit with my spiritual beliefs at all. All I know for sure is that the energy that made the arrowheads on our staircase window sill lives on here as does her restless wandering and the vibrations of others we’ve yet to learn about, should they choose to be revealed.

Both “she” and the arrowheads and the quartz in the altar clearly wanted to be known. I don’t argue that it sounds ridiculous, and again it doesn’t mesh with my logic at all. Do we always have to know in our “knower”?  Knowing with our heart seems to work better when dealing with these kinds of things. What questions arise when confronted with the history of our spaces and those that came before us are perhaps the more important thing. Everything holds vibration and we ourselves are resonating with frequencies some are only beginning to understand. We are using these frequencies to heal our bodies and our minds…I think of the engaging seminar I attended with my daughter last year to obtain certification in using Frequency Specific Microcurrent (www.frequencyspecific.com) that will become the cutting edge in healthcare.

Having the right questions is perhaps more important than having all the knowledge just yet. As Einstein found, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” As we open ourselves up with childlike wonder at all that is around us I think the answers will find us.

We see from Adytum’s many windows the frigid waters of the Cowlitz River in clear view. These waters flow from the icy glaciers laden with rich minerals that give the Cowlitz the enigmatic green glow. In the Cowlitz Indian language, the river means “Spiritual Seeker”. Beautiful… I look daily at a river that is a living symbol of the trajectory of my life. May all who come to Adytum find the answers to the questions they are seeking, and may the grace of the gentle spirits who came before us fill Adytum lands with reminders of how fragile, how frail and how short our days on this earth are, creating in our hearts an intensity of living and the desire to “suck the marrow out of life” while we can.

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die Discover that I had not lived.” Henry David Thoreau

I have to admit, I want to see “her” again. I want to understand…she seems such an enigma to appear so lost and restless in this sacred space that we have created to share, opening the way for deep rest, reconnection and rejuvenation with other wanderers on the path of life...

Maybe “she” is just affirming our decision to open the beautiful castle of Adytum to those who also need to find a place to light, who seek relaxation and nurture. And if it is possible, I hope that “she” finds it too here among us.