Since I hike Mt. Tam very frequently,
I thought I'd share this favorite poem...
I really connected with this poem and its mingling of
Eastern Philosophy, California geography, and personal
descriptive narrative.
Plus Gary Snyder is the MAN!
Enjoy...
+J
The Circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais
By Gary Snyder
Walking up and around the long ridge of Tamalpais, “Bay
Mountain,” circling and climbing - chanting - to show
respect and to clarify the mind. Philip Whalen, Allen
Ginsburg, and I learned this practice in Asia. so we opened
a route around Tam. It takes a day.
STAGE ONE
Muir Woods: The bed of Redwood Creek just where the Dipsea
Trail crosses it. Even in the dryest season of this year some running
water. Mountains make springs.
Prajñāparamitā-hridaya-sūtra
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Four Vows
Splash across the creek and head up the Dipsea Trail, the steep
wooded slope and into four meadows. Gold dry grass. Cows-a huge
pissing, her ears out, looking around with large eyes and mottled
nose. As we laugh. “-Excuse us for laughing at you.” Hazy day,
butterflies tan as grass that sit on silver-weathered fenceposts, a
gang of crows. “I can smell fried chicken” Allen says - only the
simmering California laurel leaves. The trail winds crossed and
intertwining with a dirt jeep road.
TWO
A small twisted ancient interior live oak splitting a rock outcrop an
hour up the trail.
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
The Heat Mantra
A tiny chörten before this tree
Into the woods. Maze fence gate. Young Douglas fir, redwood, a
new state of being. Sun on madrone: to the bare meadow knoll.
(Last Spring a bed of wild iris about here and this time too, a lazuli
bunting.)
THREE
A ring of outcropped rocks. A natural little dolmen-circle right
where the Dipsea crests on the ridge. Looking down a canyon to
the ocean - not so far.
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Hari Om Namo Shiva
And on to Pan Toll, across the road, and up the Old Mine Trail. A
doe and fawn, silvery gray. More crows.
FOUR
Rock springs. A new trickle even now-
The Sarasvatī Mantra
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
-in the shade of a big oak spreading out the map on a picnic
table. Then up the Benstein Trail to Rifle Camp, old food-cache
boxes hanging from wires. A bit north, in the oak woods and rocks,
a neat little saddhu hut built of dry natural bits of wood and parts
of old crates; roofed with shakes and black plastic. A book called
Harmony left there. Lunch by the stream, too tiny a trickle, we
drink water from our bota. The food offerings are swiss cheese
sandwiches, swede bread with liverwurst, salami, jack cheese, olives,
gomuku-no-moto from a can, grapes, penettone with apple-currant
jelly and sweet butter, oranges, and soujouki - greek walnuts
in grape-juice paste. all in the shade, at Rifle Camp.
FIVE
A notable serpentine outcropping, not far after Rifle Camp.
Om Shri Maitreya
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
SIX
Collier Spring - in a redwood grove - water trickling out a pipe.
Dhāranī of the Great Compassionate One
California nutmeg, golden chinquapin the fruit with burrs, the
chaparral. Following the North Side Trail.
SEVEN
Inspiration Point.
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Mantra for Tārā
Looking down at Lagunitas. The gleam of water storage in the
brushy hills. all that smog - and Mt. St. Helena faintly in the
north. The houses of San Anselmo and San Rafael, once large
estates...”The Peacock Gap Country Club” - Rocky brush climb up
the North Ridge Trail.
EIGHT
Summit of Mt. Tamalpais. A ring of rock pinnacles around the
lookout
Prajñāparamitā-hridaya-sūtra
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Dhāranī of the Great Compassionate One
Hari Krishna Mantra
Om Shri Maitreya
Hari Om Namo Shiva
All about the bay, such smog and sense of heat. May the whole
planet not get like this.
Start the descent down the Throckmorton Hogback Trail (Fern
Canyon an alternative.)
NINE
Parking lot of Mountain Home. Cars whiz by, sun glare from the
west.
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Gopala Mantra
Then across from the California Alpine Club, the Ocean View
Trail goes down. Some yellow broom flowers still out. The long
descending trail into shadowy giant redwood trees.
TEN
The bed of Redwood Creek again.
Prajñāparamitā-hridaya-sūtra
Dhāranī for Removing Disasters
Hari Om Namo Shiva
Hari Krishna Mantra
Four Vows
--standing in our little circle, blowing the conch, shaking the staff
rings, right in the parking lot.
by Gary Snyder,
from Mountains and Rivers Without End
(c) 1996