Panther Springs Mt. Shasta February 20, 2008
Mt. Shasta, California 14,162′
I am one of the lucky ones.
One night in June of 1969 I went to the Fillmore East to see THE WHO play Tommy.
We got out of the concert when the sun was coming up and we decided to drive up to Woodstock, New York.
While driving down the main street, we ran into a van of people we knew from
a Joshua Tree commune I use to live at.
The woman driving said “You have to come out to Mt. Shasta, we’ll all be there for the summer”.
So my best friend, Bonnie and I headed out to Mt. Shasta for the first time.
We would camp at the lower elevations early in the spring,
waiting for the snow to melt. Then move up to the higher elevations as that happened.
We arrived at Wagon Camp at 6,000′ and there were about 15 people camping at
McGinnis pond.
It was a fun time and from that moment on, every summer I would return to Mt. Shasta and spend the entire summer at the high elevations.
Full moon in August was always the peak of celebration on the mountain.
If anyone wanted to find me they always knew I would be at my 8,000′
camp at Upper Panther Meadows anytime from May-September.
In 1978 I moved into town year round.
We blazed the trails in those early years hiking over to Squaw Meadows,
working it out with the US Forest Service.
We always showed respect for nature, and nature always welcomed us.
I have seen UFO’s on the mountain on 2 occasions,
had a family of ferrets as my pets and friends,
heard the creek speak and watched the stars shoot across the universe.
I had a miracle healing of my first cancer on Easter 1979 on Mt. Shasta,
but that’s another story.
Unfortunately,
All the openness changed in 1986 when the Harmonic Convergence took hold in
Mt. Shasta.
No longer was it possible to camp in the wilderness all summer long,
no longer could we go up the mountain during the week and be the only people there,
now no matter what time of day,
what day of the week,
there are always people wandering around the mountain.
It was to much, the mountain has begun to show signs of rebelling.
She is an active volcano and I do expect she will erupt within my lifetime.
Right now we are fighting the big water bottling companies for water rights
in Mt. Shasta city and the sister city of Mc Cloud on the eastern side.
The local Native American people always come up to Upper Panther Meadow
to worship at the Upper Spring there. They have recently posted this blog and video.
Please read and watch….
The upper Panther Meadow of the mountain has been held sacred by the local Native American’s for centuries.
Please watch the video clip of the sacred spring there.
New Film Clip: Panther Spring Runs Dry
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu, discovered last week that the healing spring on Mt. Shasta that is the birthplace of both the Winnemem people and their ancestral river had dried up. Everyone asked why — Global warming? Cremation ashes that have been dumped in the spring by New Age visitors?
Forest Service management practices?
Water bottling plants sucking water out of the base of the mountain?
Please watch our new four-minute film clip: The Spring at Panther Meadows.
sacredland.org/weblog
Cha
