At one time Donner Lake was a place where morbid sins were committed by man. Some of us each day each minute it is just that a fight for survival. A friend of mine told me that he experienced ten feet of snow a couple months ago. I sort of laughed it off till I seen the snow marker from the Donner Party.

My plans for the day were to rent a boat and scour Lake Tahoe however the boat shops were all closed due to dreary weather. I decided to do the next best thing which was to follow the Truckee River on a scenic ride through the forest.

In the back of my head I had remembered reading that this is where the Donner Party ate there fallen to survive. Only back then the snow rose to a mere 22' causing the death of many animals and pioneers.

Truckee a historic bustling town is not at all that far from where I reside so visiting here will take place time to time. Note that there are bigfoot sightings outside of Truckee considering how vast and dense the forest is. This region of course would include Donner Lake as the area has a dense national forest which surrounds it.

Allot of my explorations are a mix between night and day. Night and Day have there own separate rewards but when I do more scenic locations I make it attentive to visit during the day so that our viewers can respectfully enjoy the photos we take to the fullest.

For some of you who are into the paranormal know that not every investigation wields paranormal evidence and for some of us that's a huge kicker. The paranormal takes allot of patience so we can only hope that we were able to capture something of the strange here.

Since our relocation to the Lake Tahoe region I have made it a goal to visit most locations twice so coming here will not be a last expect at least one more investigation perhaps a camp out in the woods here.

It was morning still I was deciding where to go and what to do. I stopped at the visitors center the girl there was pretty awesome and hot to wtf right? lol But seriously I must had took advantage of every map and brochure for the entire area. Right now were pending permission from many historic sites to bring our viewers some pretty good ghosthunting but were also going to work hard this year at capturing Sasquatch on film. Of course during my show I mentioned showing evidence no matter how real it is also draws in haters and disbelief so for now I am just going out and having a great time.

Having a great time for me would mean hiking....drinking a brew on the lake....and in the end doing some investigating into the Donner Lake region and so my adventure began here.

Donner Lake

It is madness how much money I spend paying to enter these lakes and forested sites. At least near my home there are woods that I can park at....toke one and howl at the moon. But the fact is to enter the Donner lake shore area cost money.

I walked in the museum asked the ranger about one of the scenic trails it was closed due to snow. What's new Lake Tahoe is closed due to gray skies and half of the national forest is gated shut. I was a bit let down but its okay ill do a night hike this summer maybe up to the peak that borders the lake.

I decided to visit the museum which had in fact a giant wagon and many artifacts left behind from the Donner Party and Emigrant Trail pioneers. There was old spoons.....photographs an even shotguns. My kids didn't enjoy it as much as I did they just wanted to hike and find some snow to play in.

They had a few taxidermy animals at the museum one being a grizzly bear which at one time roamed the region. Now they have migrated further northwest however standing next to one of these stuffed or not can put fear into the eyes of man knowing how powerful these mammals are. I at least hope I never come across one of these but if I need to pull out a bazooka to save my ass I will I refuse to be eaten and come out the ass of something.

I toured the memorial which has a snow marker and a plaque. The monument also marks the Emigrant Trail and along the trail behind it is a few markers pointing out where cabins once stood. These are pretty good areas to take EVP's the problem is this entire area is extremely windy. There is nowhere to hide thus taking EVP's outdoors in an area like Donner Lake can prove a bit challenging.

I have gotten into production the last couple of years so now more then photos I do allot of reality clips for our fans and viewers. We actually have a clip of me jumping off this massive rock into a pile of snow ummm yeah baby!!!!! But anyway's we decided to do a hike on the same trail the Donner party once set up camp at.

There was a pretty creek that meandered through the forest. I spent sometime looking for a solid bigfoot track never found any. This could be due to a heavy amount of tourist or maybe I was not deep enough in the forest.

I made our way back to the truck and we had lunch on the lake. The winds were whipping and lake was very gloomy. The skies were gray and some of the houses on the lake were amazing.

I did a bit of offroading sadly the road did not cut through and I had to go the long way around the lake. I found this playground right on the other end of the lake. I wondered if the children are aware of its dark history and what took place during that fateful winter of 1846-1847.

I was not finding bigfoot but I did find a rock with a plaque in the middle of the woods which list every member of the Donner Party. I believe that this was the area that the gruesome bones were found that fed the party during the harsh winter that took place here.

I was bird watching as in the Tahoe forest is this giant blue bird I keep running into. They are beautiful birds and so when I didn't find any paranormal evidence I decided to appreciate nature. I think so very few folks appreciate the living and the dead as much as I do. But I consider PGS more then a paranormal group we go out there and we bring you guys anything and everything.

There is a real sad feeling that surrounds the woods and lake. I am not sure I can explain it but for me when I visit a location I can always say I was there. But to be really there over a century ago meant that your animals would die...soon your friends and family. Then what were you stuck with but an endless cold and a shot at living by eating the ones you grew with or letting the winter defeat you.

I left Donner Lake with a smile on my face despite the dark history it truly is a remarkable place. I wanted to get a little more extreme so I decided to take the pass up the mountain and take some scenic shots of Lake Donner from thousands of feet above it. I stood on a cliff looking at the lake and even found this massive cave entrance in a canyon.

The skies were turning gray and it was getting cold but despite this fact the weather maintained all day long enough for me to hike around most of the day. The limestone cliffs and its cracks made me wonder do bigfoot live up at these higher elevations?

I decided to head back home I was happy because for me its not about making money or fame. I enjoy the sites I visit I feel that each site I visit I connect with the dearly departed. I always leave in harmony no matter how evil or what terrible history the place has had.

On my way home I parked right onto the bank of the Truckee River and toked myself some herb. I sat right there on the bank thinking of what adventures are to come of this new found area. Its a beautiful place and I found many historic plaques throughout the mountains to prove that many came here to live the American Dream where some made it and some did not.

Lord Rick
Founder
Producer, Author & Talk Show Host