Well, we got back from Big Bear around 11am today. My dad, Jean and I all camped at the Hanna Flat campground near Big Bear Lake on both Friday and Saturday night.
On Friday after I left work, I hurried home and as I was pulling into the complex my dad was waiting to turn in too. Jean had all of our camping gear piled up in the garage and the three of us stuffed it all into my truck. We normally carry all this stuff camping, but I’ve only been camping with one other person at a time, so we’ve always had room even after laying down both of the seats in the back. With three people it was a little more challenging because we couldn’t fold down one of the rear seats. We still managed to cram everything in, but I couldn’t see any daylight when looking into my rearview mirror.
My truck turns 6 in another 2 months, but it’s getting close to the time when I need to sink a little money into it so it’ll keep running. My brakepads need to be replaced badly and it seems like my rotors need some work too because when I stomp on my brakes (which seem pretty “soft” lately) the steering wheel shakes like the rotors are warped. I also need to replace the radiator, get the front right axle repaired (busted CV boot), and a few other things. I’m waiting until I get back from my RTW trip because I want to be in town to take care of any collateral damage the mechanic creates instead of having to wait for a couple of months. With the truck loaded down with tons of camping gear and the three of us, I was a little concerned about actually making it up into the mountains.
I couldn’t see anything behind me, so to merge in and out of Friday afternoon traffic in the IE was a bit of a test. With brakes don’t work so well, the heavier truck made it so I had to go much slower than I normally would. We finally made it to the base of the mountain and then started our climb up to Big Bear. When I went camping with my dad up near there last year my truck overheated because it was running around 4500 rpm the entire way up the mountain. On Friday afternoon I was ready for that, so I kept a close eye on the temperature gauge and pulled over into several of the pull-offs they have as you wind your way up the mountain. The temperature would rise a little bit, I’d pull over for about a minute and it would drop back down, then I’d get back on the road. We got to the little town of Fawnskin, on the north side of Big Bear Lake, around 5pm on Friday evening.
To get to the Hanna Flat campground you have to turn off the main road in Fawnskin and go about 2.5 miles down this dirt road. As far as dirt roads go, this one was not bad at all. It had a little washboard and maybe 2-3 large dips, but you could get to the campground with a normal passenger car. On the way back to the campground my dad started yelling at me to “hit the brakes! hit the brakes!”, and about 2 seconds later the truck dipped down into this big ditch and we shot out. All the stuff in the back, including Jean, hit the ceiling and we bounced along down this hill. I did hit the brakes, even before he told me to, but the ABS braking started and they were fluttering just before the bouncing started. Luckily it didn’t damage anything and we slid on into the campground.
Our campsite, #57, was pretty sweet. It was like a satellite site. We backed the truck into the parking spot, but then we had to walk down this little pathway through some shrubs about 25-30 feet to get to the clearing where the campsite was. Our picnic table and fire ring were a good 50 feet from the car, which was good because it meant the sites were big a fairly private, but bad because you have to walk pretty far back and forth to the car whenever you want to get something or put something up. You could see other campers from our site, but unlike some other places we’ve been it wasn’t like they were on top of you and people weren’t walking through our site to get to the bathrooms.
My dad and I unloaded the car and Jean got the tent setup. After Jean finished setting up the tent she went around collecting pinecones for the campfire, and she put on a little stick flipping demonstration. Jean was in the colorguard in high school. Basically she marched around on the football field with a flag during halftime, spinning and throwing it around. She’s older now, but she’s still got it. She spun this big stick around for a little bit until some bark flew off into her eye, then she quit. I would have probably hit myself in the head if I tried those moves.
We sat around for the rest of the evening. I started a campfire, Jean grilled some burgers, and my dad read his book about Krishnamurti. We ate dinner and then sat around the fire for a couple of hours. Eventually my dad went to bed, around 10:30pm I’d guess. Jean and I stayed up with the fire for another half hour or so, and finally we went on to bed too. I layed on my sleeping bag for at least 30 minutes, tossing and turning because I was having a hard time getting comfortable and I couldn’t even begin to fall asleep because my dad was snoring really loudly. Once I got comfortable, I just layed there on my back listening to my dad sawing logs. It was chilly, around 55F, but not cold. I couldn’t take it any longer, so I woke my dad up and told him he was snoring like crazy and could he change positions and try to knock it off. He said “sure” and wiggled around a little bit. It was quiet. Ahhhh, here I come sleep. Not. Within 5 minutes he was back to snoring. This time it was worse though because now he’d flipped over and was facing me, so his loud snores were right in my ear instead of aimed at the side of the tent.
I laughed a little bit at how my plan had backfired, then I woke him up again and told him it only got worse. He flipped back away from me and went back to snoring. I finally fell asleep, exhausted, after what seemed like an eternity of laying there. I will be bringing earplugs the next time we attempt this.
The next morning I woke up around 6am and got the other two up so we could go hiking. Jean was pretty agreeable, but my dad was not happy about waking up and he was even less happy about going hiking. It took about 15 minutes of talking to convince him to get up, but finally he did. We packed up a few things in the car and then headed down the road to the trailhead of the Cougar Crest Trail. Jean and I have done this hike several times, but it was a first for my dad. He wasn’t very excited about it, but he did it anyways. Thanks, pop! The hike climbs up from near the lake to the top of some surrounding mountains. You climb about 1500 feet in a little over 2 miles, then go back down the way you came up. The trail we were hiking ends at the Pacific Crest Trail, which is the west coast’s version of the Appalachian Trail. The PCT runs from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. The hike is nice because it isn’t too difficult and the views looking back down on Big Bear Lake are awesome. You don’t realize how long the lake is until you’re up there. You can also see all the ski runs cut into the mountains on the opposite side of the lake. It took us about an hour and half to climb up the trail, and another 45-50 minutes to go back down. Jean and I took some decent pictures during our 4.5+ mile hike, and my dad was excited about getting back to the car and sitting down, so there were highpoints for everyone.
After the hike we went back to the campsite and my dad cooked breakfast – eggs and sausage. We sat around for a little while and then decided that we wanted to try and rent a pontoon boat and get out on the lake for a little while. I’ve been up to Big Bear probably a dozen times, but I’ve never gotten out on the lake. We drove down to a little store and picked up a pamphlet with a map of the lake and phone numbers for the marinas surrounding it. I called 5-6 marinas, getting prices for their pontoon rentals, and for 2 hours they all wanted about $120. One wanted $85 + gas for a small 4 man boat, and Pine Knot Marina wanted $230 for their boat. We drove around the lake until we got to Big Bear Marina. We sat there watching the dock for a little while until finally my dad went down and asked about a rental, but they wouldn’t have an available boat until 5:30pm. It would be too cold to get out on a boat and go swimming from 5:30pm-7:30pm, so we gave up. During the afternoon it would have been nice though because it was in the mid-80′s. We decided that we’ll make a reservation for an early afternoon rental next time we go up there.
We drove through town and were surprised at home many people were at some chili cook-off that was going on. After an hour or so of driving around the lake and looking for a boat, we gave up and headed back to the campsite again. The rest of the day we sat in our chairs in the shade, reading books and talking. In the evening Jean started a fire and cooked some macaroni and cheese for dinner. We didn’t feel like messing with burgers again… After dinner we sat around the campfire for several hours until it was time to hit the sack. Saturday night was much colder than Friday night – my dad slept with his head underneath his quilt. I was happy because my dad’s snoring was nearly as loud as it had been on Friday night, and I managed to fall asleep fairly quickly.
This morning we got up around 7:30am, packed up the truck and made our way down the mountain. It was 90F down in the IE by 10:30am. Each summer I wish we lived in the mountains, then each winter I’m glad we live down here. We stopped at Burgertown USA for breakfast and then came on home. My dad stayed for about 2 minutes and then he took off. I took a shower and washed off a weekend’s worth of dirt, then I took a nap for about 4 hours. Jean and I are about to watch Big Brother right now, then I’ll be going back to sleep because tomorrow I get back on my regular work schedule.
This next week I’ll be applying for my Chinese visa. Hopefully that won’t be too difficult. Here are some pictures from our camping trip:
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