I do not know it. I did not know it then. Does it still exist?
One day an old friend and I went out into Sorrento Canyon. It was a place of beauty..snuggled against the foothills to the W. of Rancho Santa Fe..easy to get to..somehow ignored, at the time, by greed. Nature had its way there. (The area of the canyon is Carmel Valley..now known for computor factories and software development..S.D. 'silcone valley') Dewey and I took off that morning. We were enjoying the day..being young men..with enhanced senses. We grabbed a couple of single shot .22 rifles..(for lions tigers and bears) and set out hitchhiking from La Jolla. We got a ride as far as Solana Beach. The car turned right toward the foothills where we got off after about a mile. We began our journey. It was a beautiful day. We exchanged stories..philosophy and then, as folks will do, fell predictably silent.
As the day waned on and my thoughts moved with it..the sun went behind a cloud. We had walked past meadows with cows grazing..we had seen bush rabbits. We had enjoyed the sun on a sunny day. The air was clear and wonderful. With a cloud it all changed for me. It became serious and demanded my attention. A thought passed..will I slip into eternity now?..am I happy with what I have done..how self serving?..We came on a waterfall..the immediate landscape changed from plants and animals to marcesite..left by the volcano of a lost time..granite boulders two stories high..going God knows how deep into the earth..and the waterfall..the beautiful..damnable waterfall..we both walked quickly down the gentle slate slope toward the 'fall..it went into a pond..creating a whirlpool of sorts..and then a little of the water went over a slate partition/bridge, 2' wide and 8-12' deep, that had a hole of indeterminate size where most of the water crashed through at high velocity. I was to find this was Dewey's place. In later years Castenada would define this as a 'Power Place'.
I was spellbound by the waterfall..where did the water come from?..tons of it..crashing over a boulder that extended out and appeared to threaten breaking up and falling into the whirlpool..crushing anything stupid enough to be in its path. I turned and saw my friend going back up the slope. I went to follow, as friends sometimes do; I could not..as I walked up the slope it was like trying to walk against a gravity anomoly..such as the one at Knotts Berry Farm..I felt heavy..I called to his retreating back..I called again and again..he ignored me..leaving me to find strength. I sat and thought. My thoughts on eternity returned..NO..I stood and following advice of boy scouts..the nra..and the civil air patrol..fired my rifle three times in the air..of course it was barely audible there..for the crash of the waterfall..to my interest and morbid delight..there was a crack high in the boulder..an inch across and spanning the top third from the apex down and across a, relative to the boulder, small area. The crack..cracked..then it CRACKED..so loud..it threatened to break up the rock and fall..to splash the whirling pond..me and everything else..Facing the hill directly across the little bridge I looked to my right..at the tranquill pussy willows and weeping willow trees..the white oak and 'Tom Dooley'..running through my head in incongruent insanity..The cracks came..I looked for reason..I looked for sanity..I looked to the bridge..my thoughts returned to me..the place I had faltered..the place I had not taken the time for..in my mind. There was but one way for me..the hole..I would make a postive mark..I would dive and trust my strength..keeping my breath..emerging on the other side..or dying stuck in a slate hole..I threw my wallet out to a dry place in the marsh to my right for that is where I needed to be..I unloaded and threw the .22..I dove toward the hole through the bridge..the rock cracked..in a moment I was sliding through the bridge to the other side..I walked to my wallet..my identity..I picked up the bang bang toy..my protection in the fierce jungle..
For that day I understood courage..for always I understood how to recognize..friendship
The stars shone as I made my way home..soggy..with a .22 (bolt removed)..the air clear and beautiful..
When Dewey saw me dragging in he laughed..as well he could..as well he may have..
I thanked God I was alive..
I have searched for the waterfall with no result..Peace Tony
(c.dp.AC.22810/0845h/wpls)
Recent Comments