“When confused with D. T. Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki would say, ‘No, he’s the big Suzuki, I’m the little Suzuki.’” (Chadwick, Crooked Cucumber, 2).
4. Chadwick, Crooked Cucumber, 397.
Chapter 2: Nature
There is not a more scenic spot in the world than the Columbia Gorge, particularly when the sun is shining and the winds are calm. Several rivers and creeks tumble down through the southern cliffs to create little waterfalls that start by meandering through the moss-laden trees at the top of the precipice before falling down to raucously join the Columbia. These seemed to build up in energy as we travelled east from Troutdale until we passed by Multnomah Falls, a much larger spray of cascading water that justifiably attracted a large swathe of tourists. From there we passed through the little towns of Cascade Locks and Hood River on the winding highway that clung precariously to the narrow strip of land between the towering cliffs and the broad river. Across the wide river to the north were the rolling hills that constituted the southern border of Washington State. In contrast to the Oregon side, these were gentle hills that contained farms and even a few vineyards. The hills were green in early June, though I knew from rainy experience they would probably still be green in September.
About half way through the journey along the gorge is the peculiarly named town The Dalles. It was about here that Alan and I seemed to exhaust the topic of Zen for a little while at least, and we continued east through the gorge in a comfortable silence. Gradually the forests and steep cliffs on the Oregon side gave way to more gently rolling hills, though the interstate still followed closely to the course of the river, not quite ready yet for the leap upward into the wheat fields of eastern Oregon. I was reminded, as I always was when reaching this part of the gorge, of the fields and farms in California’s Central Valley, which I had driven through innumerable times as a child. I had realized long ago that I much preferred mountains and forests to fields and plains, but there nevertheless is a subtle and nuanced beauty in the grass and wheat, whether encountered in the green Oregon June or the golden California September.
Finally, almost two hundred miles east of Portland, the interstate rises suddenly out of the gorge and turns southeast across the expansive fields and farms, heading straight for the Blue Mountains in the distance. I spotted a Conoco station near Hermiston, and we got off the freeway to gas up the car and get a little snack. We sat for a few moments at the picnic table chained to the concrete alongside the little store, and soaked up a little sunshine while we ate our doughnuts. Finally Alan spoke.
“You certainly got quiet there for a while. Too much Zen for an early morning car ride?”
“Too much past. When you start wandering around on one path from way back when, it’s hard not to find yourself looking down others.”
“We agreed we’d only talk about stuff that can explain to me your puzzling new career in ministry, so I don’t want to hear about paths that lead to all the girls you chased in your misspent youth.”
“Ah, but there must be something deeply spiritual about chasing girls?”
“Well, in your case it would probably be a pretty short chase. So, c’mon; were you really thinking about girls that whole time?”
“Actually, I was thinking about forests and mountains. All of that stuff involving Zen happened in our home in Los Altos, but we had another home in the mountains where I spent all or part of every summer until I was in my thirties. Since I never practiced Zen, I would have to say that it is in those mountains that I had my first real, tangible experiences with the spiritual world.”
“Cool!” Alan exclaimed. “Let’s hit the road, and you can tell me all about it!”
We climbed back into the car and sped east towards Pendleton. I found myself again on another journey I had taken repeatedly as a child, and I wistfully wondered if there was any other metaphor that could be used for my life, but couldn’t immediately come up with one. Life on the road, I guess. It seemed like an appropriate place to start, anyway.
“If you travel up Hwy. 108 for about thirty miles east out of Sonora in California’s Gold Country, you’ll see a turn off marked for Pinecrest Lake. Drive another mile down this road, and you will suddenly burst upon the shores of a blue-green jewel set in a bowl surrounded by pine and cedar forests and a backdrop of dramatic Sierra granite. In 1957, when I was 1 1/2 years old, my father rented a cabin on Pinecrest Lake for a two week vacation for himself and his young family. Thus began for me an association with Pinecrest that lasted thirty-two years, and a lifelong relationship with the sacred beauty and power of creation.
“Pinecrest Lake is a misnomer: it’s actually a reservoir, which was constructed in 1914 to provide water for downstream communities and serve as a control dam for the hydroelectric plants located farther along the south fork of the Stanislaus River. Before being dammed, the river ran through a meadow that was used in the summer by the Miwok Indians, and was covered in several feet of snow during the winters. The road into the lake ends at the western shore: a sandy beach area that is the remnant of the glacial moraine, the effluvia left over from the glacier that carved through the surrounding granite to form the valley now filled with pent up water from the spring runoff. Looking out east from the beach you would see most of the small three hundred acre lake, and towering over the far shore the dominant feature of the area: a thousand foot wall of granite, sheared away by those ancient glaciers, looming over the lake. I don’t know what this feature is officially called; we referred to it simply as Little Yosemite, and it’s a powerful testament to the primal forces unleashed during earth’s formation.
“The Forest Service allowed cabins to be built along the shores of the lake, and eventually a lodge and marina grew up at the end of the road on the western shore. A unique feature of the cabins built on the lake is that nearly all of them were (and still are) inaccessible by road. The only way to reach these cabins was either by boat or by hiking in along the lakeshore trail. The trail wound close to the lake, which was surrounded by forests of mixed conifers and the occasional aspen grove near the water, and interspersed on the steep hillsides with granite outcroppings. Cabins further east along the north and south shores were consequently quite isolated, a condition that was amplified in the winter when boating was not possible on the frozen lake and the lakeshore trail became treacherous. The Stanislaus river entered the lake at the east end, and a dusty trail ran along the south shore of the river, passing through a Boy Scout camp until it dumped out into a granite and scrub valley beneath Little Yosemite called—you guessed it—the Boy Scout valley.
“In 1957 Dad rented a place on the South Shore that was the last one reachable by road, then for the next two summers he rented a different cabin on the North Shore that was not reachable by road, which allowed him the excuse to purchase what he really wanted anyway: a brand new yellow speedboat with a Johnson outboard motor. Finally, in the fall of 1960, Dad purchased our cabin at 204 Lakeshore Trail. The cabin was just a few cabins down from the one owned by Win and Helen Wagener, who had introduced us to Pinecrest at about the same time they were introducing Mom to Zen. Now, instead of spending two week vacations at the lake, the entire summer was spent there. We would pack up and leave our home in Los Altos as soon as school let out in June and drive across California to the lake. These trips across the Central Valley were epic, and I particularly remember the fruit and vegetable stands along the dusty farm roads; but even more notable was the A&W root beer stand in Oakdale where we would always beg Mom and Dad to pleeeeeease stop. We would stay at the lake all summer until Labor Day and the beginning of school. Dad stayed in Los Altos during the week to work, and would drive up and stay with us at the cabin over the weekends.
“It would be a gross understatement to call these summers at Pinecrest idyllic. I spent three months of every year as a child wandering around in a mountain paradise, mostly unsupervised
