Shasta was a special place. People had described it as a ‘spiritual town’. Which in reality meant that half the population believed that skinwalkers, lemurians, scoocums, big foot and other batshit creatures were very real and very dangerous for those who strayed from the hiking trails. Many sightings and incidents had supposedly taken place around Mt Shasta, the nearby mountain the town was named after. I was very excited to meet the ardent believers in such monsters.
When we got to the highway into Shasta, we quickly got a hitch from Mark, the same person who gave us trail magic the day prior.
During breakfast, we did some planning. Not for the trail for once, but for IPA’s and my birthday party, which we would celebrate the day after. We settled on a barbeque and cake.
In the end, we decided to have a pre birthday party and went out for dinner. Afterwards, we went to a bar, where Solemate joined the party. We got quite drunk and, after the bar closed down, went to the Gold Room Saloon, the only place open in town. There, we stumbled upon Veto, Captain Something, Booster and Pippin. I met Pinch, a member of their group I didn’t know before. He was a software engineer as well, and had moved to New Zealand, so I had plenty to talk about with him.
Near the end IPA jumped on the stripper pole and spun passionately around. Fitz, Mash, me and Solemate bent double laughing. Solemate beat Mash in an armwrestling contest, something I’d never have imagined could happen.
We went home drunk and very satisfied. This had been the first time going out in a very long time and it felt good.