Mt. Shasta hiking trip - May 26-29

FRIDAY May 26

MY RETURN TO SHASTA

For the last 12 years or so, I’ve gone on an annual hiking trip with my buddy, Tom, and we’ve almost always done them over Memorial Day weekend, before kids get out of school, and while the weather is still cool. We try to really get out there for day hikes in very remote, “Squatchy” areas (areas or sites of reported Bigfoot sightings). Not just because we’re hoping to catch a glance of a Squatch, but also because we want to get way off the beaten path.

Here’s my blog post about last year’s trip to the Marble Mountains Wilderness Area, one of my favorite spots in Northern California. Even farther back, for one of these trips several years ago, we stayed in Weed. This tiny outpost is about 10 minutes north of Mt. Shasta, but we only explored the nearby mountain area.

This year, I decided to return to the area to explore the bountiful hikes in this region. Instead of staying in Weed, though, we’d stay the town of Shasta, so we could focus on the Castle Craggs wilderness area, southwest of Dunsmuir. Plus, the town of Shasta seemed like a cool place I wanted to get to know better, based on several pass-through visits. To prepare for this year’s four-day trip, I bought two separate guide books so we could really get out there for some remote hikes.

GUMBOOT LAKE

Rolled into Shasta late and went right to Gumboot Lake, which I wanted to check out because of a Bigfoot sighting in 2020. Normally you can drive right up to the lake on a paved road, but because of the snow, we had to stop at the same place a truck ahead of us could not get over, either.

We started talking to the would-be camper, Brennan, and the three of us decided to hike about 1.5 miles over the increasingly snowy road to the lake, which was beautiful at dusk. We took some photos and made it back to our vehicles well after dark, around 9:30 (fortunately I’d packed two flashlights). The scenery made this adventure totally worth it, and we made a new friend with a very interesting life story.

SATURDAY MAY 27

TAMARACK AND TWIN LAKES

We drove about 8 miles up a remote road but came upon a large tree across the road. We hiked about 2 miles and started to hit too much snow at that point, so we turned back. Aborted hike (4 miles total)! We regrouped and decided to try…

CALDWELL LAKES

We hiked over two miles in, and lost the trail to snow about halfway. So we had to bushwack our way up the lakes, roughly following the creek. After some tough hiking, we finally came upon the first two lakes, Lower and Middle Caldwell Lakes. This was pushing it for me in terms of taking a risk, but it would’ve been hard to get lost with the creek we were able to follow both up and back to catch the trail. The lakes were covered in snow and we didn’t see a single soul the whole way. It was totally worth it.

This was a remote trail, far off the beaten path or any main roads—the way we like it. We only saw one couple on this trail, but they had turned around at the creek about 1.25 miles in. We had to climb up that spot along the creek quite a bit to cross, but we did it. I was determined to get to the destination after having been thwarted in the morning. Great adventure! I’d do this one again.

SUNDAY MAY 28

BURSTARSE FALLS

This trailhead/parking lot was a relatively short drive from Shasta (about 30 minutes). Hiked 6.2 miles total, up and back out. On the way up, we overshot the short scramble upstream to the falls, and continued along the PCT by a quarter-mile or so. We went back to the falls on the main trail and found the scramble “trail” upstream, then found the falls. Beautiful spot and totally worth it.

The hike itself was a tough climb at first, then fairly gradual and relatively easy. Hot mid-day, no snow. This was the only hike where we ran into a good deal of people—predictable since it’s relatively close to Castle Craggs State Park and not too far off Highway 5.

SHASTA HIKING BOOKS

I got these hiking ideas from two great books covering the Shasta region: One by John Soares (thank you for the emails and tips!), and another by Bubba Suess. I highly recommend them both.

WE’LL BE BACK!

This trip was only 4 days long (two days of driving), but I’d definitely like to come back to the area when there’s a little less snow. I’d like to hit some of the longer and more remote hikes I’d researched before coming up here. But we did love the town of Shasta, including the people, food, and majestic, mystical mountain looming over the whole scene. I’d like to give a shout-out to the Pipeline restaurant – so good we ate there thrice. And the Gold Room Saloon across from our hotel. Fun times!

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Consider buying my music (I prefer Bandcamp since they give the most to the artists, but it’s available on all major platforms).

Buy a Bigfoot T-shirt illustrated by me and give @creatureportal a follow on Instagram and Facebook (creature-theme clothing and hiking photos).

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Thanks for reading about my hiking adventures.

Bigfoot interview with Dr. Simeon Hein, Ph.D., author of Dark Matter Monsters

Dr. Simeon Hein, Ph.D. is a sociologist, author, and musician who has a new book out, ‘Dark Matter Monsters,’ that examines Bigfoot through a scientific lens — and proposes ideas that could also explain other cryptids, UFOs, ghosts, orbs, and other paranormal phenomena.

My two-hour interview with Simeon lets him expand on his theories about coherent energy-matter — while also addressing the stigma surrounding these topics (social, academic) and institutional denial (government, media) that it’s even happening.

Watch with an open mind… I believe the truth is out there if we’re looking — and bold, brave work like Simeon’s is pushing us closer to it.

Order Simeon’s book at www.darkmattermonsters.com

Richard Turgeon interview with author Simeon Hein, author of ‘Dark Matter Monsters’

SUPPORT MY WORK

Buy a Bigfoot T-shirt, hoodie, or sweatshirt illustrated by me:

http://www.creatureportal.com

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http://richardturgeon.bandcamp.com

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https://www.richardturgeon.com/blog/category/bigfoot

What makes a solid recording session

Tonight I had a particularly productive recording session. I think it would help future sessions to break down why.

1. I took a break – I usually record on Saturday nights, but I’ve been busy with a screenplay these last few months. So I took last Saturday off. This helped me come in feeling ready to go.

2. I’m excited about my new song – I haven’t released my last two songs because I ended up not liking them. They were OK, but not good enough. They deviated too far from what I want to be known for, and not in a good “experimental” way. They were just not great songs. So they’ll stay in the vault. With this new song, I know it’s in my wheelhouse. I already know it’s a solid song. The music is solid and the lyrics mean something to me. So it fired me up.

3. I took my time – Sometimes I’ll go into recording without really thinking about the song being good enough, or baked enough. This time, having created two songs over the course of two months and not really liking them, I made sure to write one I really liked.

4. I didn’t drink beer – I start recording on Saturday nights around 7:30, after waking up at 6:30 A.M. to go for a run. On the one Saturday a month I record drums, it takes my 40 minutes to set up the kit, mics, and my setup. Then it takes my 3-4 takes, which takes about an hour. It’s tiring work. So tonight, I didn’t drink beer at dinner, or at the studio. Instead…

5. I took drugs – Just instant cappuccino at the studio with some hot water. BAM. So after I killed it on my drum takes, I recorded four rhythm guitar tracks with my amp. AND a guitar solo. All under three hours. That’s over 60% of the song right there, barring vocals and bass!

6. I recorded guitar tracks through my amp – There’s something about getting the tones right and experimenting a bit with different pedals… And live amps almost always sound better than software. Doing this also cuts down on the processing the computer has to do when mixing. And since the tones are dialed in at the studio, the mix starts to mix itself.

7. It’s the song, stupid – I know it’s a good song. Period. This goes so, so far. I’ve been experimenting with recording techniques and different styles of songs for over five years straight now—consistently. My average has been putting out a song every month. Tonight got me back to recording the kind of song that’s really me and that I know I’m good at—hard-hitting alt-rock / power pop with a bit of sophistication and flair.

One of the things that also led to a great night is that I haven’t stopped trying new things. Even though I use the same gear and techniques I’ve been working with for decades, I’m also at the point where the simpler I keep things, the more efficiently I work, and the better the sound.

For example, I’ve been frustrated at how weak my live guitar tones have been. So I asked my good friend/genius engineer/bass player Ron about panning hard left and right, versus keeping things in the center. His thoughts inspired me to take a slightly different approach to recording live guitars tonight, but it’s also “back to basics” and something I’ve done before. So the meandering and experimenting all adds up to feeling like I know what I’m doing as I progress. Although with music and mixing, there’s always something to learn.

A few other small but significant tweaks to how I've been doing things:

• I tried new drum sticks - Vic Firth SD1 Generals. I’ve been a 5A man since college. But a few sessions ago, I had to use a pair of Sd1s someone left at my studio. They felt very heavy but I got used to them, and of course they made the drum takes sound… wait for it… way heavier. And they were somehow easier to play because I didn’t have to smash the drums as hard. So I ordered two pair for myself and used them again tonight with the same success.

• I turned up the bass on my amp – I’ve been feeling my Fender amp has a gritty but thin, “hollowed out” sound. So I turned up the bass a bit more than I usually do. Doy, that seemed to flesh it out to where I wanted it.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I just wanted to capture why tonight was kinda magical. There was a lot to it, but I really do think the biggest thing is working on a song I believe in.

I’m leaning toward putting out less material in the future to really focus on songs I know are really good, versus, Oh, I have a new riff… write, record, repeat. Maybe it means putting out a song every two, three months, versus every month. Or just taking it easy for a week or two, before the next GOOD song pops into my head.

I look forward to getting this one right and putting it out soon. Rock on.