(Obligatory not mine)
I went on a little hiking trip with my dad to Shasta, California: a small town in Northern California near the Oregon border. Shasta is home to a potentially active volcano named, of course, Mount Shasta. There are many trails on Mt Shasta, so my father and I were excited to do some hiking. We drove up the side of the mountain to the parking lot in which one of the trails begins. I believe it was called the old ski bowl trail. The landscape was a very barren incline, filled with rocks, boulders, dirt and very few trees. About an hour into the trail, we came across a very odd assembly of these large boulders. They were arranged in a circle. We thought it was strange, but we continued on. If you look up pictures of the trail, you’ll see much smaller rocks arranged in patterns and circles.
My father and I only encountered three people. At least, that’s what they appeared to be at first. The first two were a father and son. We met them on a steep incline that went along the wall of a cliff that would then switch back as it reached the top of the cliff. We stopped and said hello, talked about the trail, and then went our separate ways.
Here’s where it gets weird.
Dad and I kept walking up the incline for just about 2 minutes. I turned around and I saw the father and son SO far down the trail. It should’ve have taken them AT LEAST 20 min to get down to where they were. But somehow, they were in only about 2 minutes. To this day, I have absolutely no idea how that could’ve happened. There was no one else on the trail at that point, and I could see the color of their clothes from that distance, so I knew it was them. I pointed it out to my dad, we thought it was weird but we didn’t dwell on it, so we kept going.
And here is where it gets so much weirder.
As we reached the top of the cliff, there was another strange rock arrangement that was off to the side of the Trail. This time, there were far more rocks than before and they were now arranged in rows, almost like gravestones. We continued on the trail and reached another sort of incline with a switchback to reach the top of another cliff. We reached a point where we would need climbing gear to continue, so we decided to head back.
When we turned around, I saw a man standing among the rocks, staring at us. He was wearing a button up shirt, cargo shorts and a wide brimmed straw hat. He was at a distance where I should’ve been able to make out his facial features... but it was almost as if he had none. Like his face was just flesh and skin. I pointed him out to my dad, and then the man quickly ducked down behind a boulder, and was peering out at us over the top of the boulder. It seemed almost playful, like a child trying to hide.
For a few moments, I was out of it and I have no recollection of what was going on. According to my dad, I just started walking towards the man in the hat. My dad was calling to me “Joshua! Josh what are you doing?! Where are you going?!”. And then I came to. I was standing right at the edge of a cliff. It was a huge drop. Enough to kill me or seriously injure me. My dad grabbed me and pulled me back to the trail. He told me to stay put, and my dad went down to the boulders to search for the man. But, he wasn’t there. There was nowhere for him to go except up or down the trail. It didn’t make any sense, he just disappeared.
I have no idea what was going on on that trail, and I have no explanation for it. I’ve told this many times to family and friends, and no one has an explanation. I’ve done research and found similar stories about encounters with a man with no facial features wearing a hat. I’ve also read that the Native American tribes from the area viewed Mt Shasta as a holy site. They believe it could act as a portal to other dimensions, and that it is guarded by spirits who would potentially harm anyone who tried to go up the volcano.
If anybody has any similar experiences or any insight at all, I would love to hear. So please share anything you have to offer.
Thank you for reading