Bunny Flat Trailhead

- Shasta Trinity National Park

Mt. Shasta’s Native name is Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki (Shasta) Úytaahkoo (Karok)… ‘Shasta' understandably means, ‘precious water.’ Shasta is also a generic Sanskrit term for ‘a teacher.’

Here is where we begin our hike… are you ready?

On several occasions, I hear water… a train… movement… when I stop to be still there’s nothing… only silence.

Signage isn’t great, so I end up exploring down… down… down… after climbing up… up… up… only to find a campsite and have to turn around and head back to a fork in the path that will lead to the alpine hut. Below is one example… the H.C. stands for horse camp!

So, while we began on Bunny Flat and went down to Sand Flat, we are now back on the Bunny Flat trail. Phew!

Unlike the day before when I walked to three waterfalls… first one… then further on to the next, and so on, there was an expectation of ‘reaching a waterfall!’ After taking my wrong turn, I appreciated the reminder that there’s not always a destination involved and to just keep going.

So often we want to see what’s ahead… what’s for us? And sometimes there appears to be nothing, only more of the same ground – yet there are always hidden gifts. Simply being in nature and immersed in the silence, content to be with my own thoughts… those coming up and out and leaving… before returning to more silence, was a gift.

The wildflowers are so pretty…

Some of the rugged hiking terrain…

I finally make it to the alpine hut…

To the right of the hut, water is pumped from higher up the mountain to quench your thirst or fill your drink bottle…

Behind the hut, a path leads to the summit… strangely it costs 25 USD to climb to the summit, but it’s free to climb to this point… Go figure!

In the video below, I talk about this location and its personal significance…

As I make my way down from the hut I share my innermost thoughts and feelings…

The energies/frequency at the hut site felt overshadowed by all the spiritual stuff we have been entrained to believe in. To be honest, on the gruelling walk up the mountain, when I took the time to sit on a rock and just be, they were the gems of locations for me.

‘Is this my mountain?’ I had asked. ‘How will I know?’

I conceded that while I didn’t have a definitive answer, maybe I never would. And could the whole mountain thing belong to someone else’s beliefs?

As I walk, I admire the butterflies and tiny marsupials, lizards and vibrant life everywhere I look… as they say, the ecosystem is so precious on the mountain that I almost feel like I’m trespassing, that I shouldn’t be here… which is sad, in a way. Yet, when we walk gently on the Earth and do our best, entering a space in peace and carrying the frequency of love, there’s not much more we can do… aside from feeling grateful for what IS.

Moving on…

Then, look what appeared on my path…

Only when filming the doe do I realise nature has answered my question. The doe is my birth animal. Realising the mountain is where I entered and where I will exit is emotionally triggering. As Jacqueline from Oraclegirl had shared in a recent event, I stood still and anchored into the time-space coordinate on Mt. Shasta, then linked in with my birthplace - another mountain and volcano - at Mt Gambier where my physical body appeared.

I am there… I am here… in both places at the same time. It doesn’t surprise me that I am linked to two volcanoes. Behind my closed eyes, the galaxy moves in an anticlockwise circular fashion, changing and rearranging in a swirl of energies - I have experienced something similar before - and afterwards, my body returns to calm and all the emotionality has gone.

Isn’t this Guardian Tree awesome!!!

On the way down I had the choice to go back via Sand Flat or walk another .2 of a mile via Bunny Flat… so many choices! Especially in nature. I must say, why call it Bunny FLAT and Sand FLAT when seriously they are NOT? (I later discover Bunny Flat at 7020 ft, was named after beginning skiers, i.e., ‘snow bunnies,’ using the portable rope tow set up on the west side of the flat in the 1940’s while Sand Flat at 6800 ft has a flat open area of about 30 acres of sandy volcanic sediment… more on this one in my next post!)

After experiencing such a revealing hike, I returned to where I was house and pet sitting only to inadvertently lock myself out of the house… no phone, no keys, no way of re-entering and 4 miles out of town!!!

TBC…

How did you feel hiking with me today?

In my next post, I take you to another area of Mt. Shasta where her sacred offerings are breathtakingly beautiful… and something else happens!

Thank you so much for journeying with me… I am loving ‘my’ mountain’s daily reveals.

Love’s Harmony,

Leanda Michelle ✍🏻