Windhorse Zen Community

We decided this year to try hiking out from a central location. We set up tents and an outdoor zendo in theBig Creek area of Great Smoky National Park, an easy hour’s drive from the Center.

The weather, after an initial cloudburst, was perfect.

Creeks and waterfalls were rushing, mossy forests glowing green and gold. 

Mushrooms everywhere – a spectacular variety irresistible to the mycologists in the group, who gathered and prepared only those asserted to be “1000% safe.”  Who knew that such delicacies as oyster mushrooms and rare black and orange chanterelles would grace our simple meals of rice and beans?

 

But the deeper nourishment came from mountains and rivers themselves. Hours of hiking the beautiful trails mostly in single-file silence, the vibrant stillness of the great forests, a brilliant crescent moon straight overhead at midnight, the single hair-raising scream of a bobcat at 3 AM (or was it possibly an Eastern cougar?), and the deep silence of candlelit zazen morning and evening – so many inspiring sutras!

Check out more photos of the retreat on Flickr:

• Wilderness Retreat Set 1
• Wilderness Retreat Set 2
• Wilderness Retreat Set 3