Trip Report from this weekend:
Left San Diego at 430AM Saturday morning. The rest of my buddies did an evening/night run on Friday from Pioneer town up to the mountains and sent me coords for the campsite. My plan was to go through big bear and meet them at a meet up spot east of Big Bear near Baldwin Lake. Drive up was cruise control and 80MPH the whole time. Easy. As I am coming up the 215 right near the 10 intersection I notice some amber lights in the distance and I remember thinking (It was early and I was sleep deprived mind you) "There's no high rises in that area, what the heck is that?" As I get closer I realize there is a fire at highland/baseline area that started likely the night before. Little detour was fine with me so I went up the 38. It ended up being better because I got to take Broom Flats from the 38 and met them right near Burns Canyon Road. Aired down my tires, had a snack and stayed and chatted for a bit but we took off shortly after that because it was getting hot. The wind was blowing East to West so I didnt think much of the fire. Told the guys about it, nobody seemed to worry too much.
We continued on burns canyon and made our way to Baldwin Lake. We stopped towards the bottom and saw that the fire had gotten significantly larger and started to worry a little bit. By now the wind had shifted and we could really smell the smoke and were seeing some ash land on us. We opted to continue on because it still wasn't that bad. During this stop I noticed a large screw in my front passenger tire that needed to be addressed. We continued on to the dump site near Baldwin where it was flat and paved. Got out all the tools, repair kits, compressor, etc to fix my tire. I unscrewed it out and no air came out, thankfully. Double checked for bubbles with soap and water and all was good.
We went up to Holcomb, with a quick pit stop at Doble Mine. Haven't been there in many years. I grew up going to Big Bear every summer with boats an motorcycle's etc so we always did fun things in the area. After the stop we continued on Holcomb. The spot we marked for the night was right in the center of Holcomb Valley so after another stop at the little cabin in the area, we got to our campsite around 1230. I had intentions of exploring the areas around so 2 of us went on and went all around Holcomb, went to john bull to check out, did Holcomb creek and everything in between. By now the smoke and ash was very bad so we went back to camp and a few of the guys had gotten ash in their eyes and we started to get a little concerned about camping in this spot. We decided we did not want to stay there for the night so doubled back and headed back to Burns canyon road. Took a slightly different way to get back there. We had seen a few spots that looked good on the way out so knew we could find something. Around 5 we got to a good spot that was flat, could fit the 8 trucks in our group and had a good view. The smoke was minimal, ask was present but we were all tired and wanted to chill. Set up camp had a drink and me and a buddy made the best cheesesteak I have ever had in my life. Went to bed a few hours later and slept peacefully all night. No wind or anything so I was a happy camper.
Next morning we woke up, cleaned up and dusted off the find layer of ash covering everything and hit the road. Everyone took off pretty quickly but me and a buddy stayed back to do some exploring. We took the same trail out that I took in. Stopped at a few spots along the back, checked a few trails and check out Juniper Springs Group Campground which would be perfect for a large group of families and kids, which is something we're trying to plan. We finally got to the 38 around 10AM, aired up and little did we know that Running Springs, Arrowbear, Arrowhead and some of big bear were on evac warnings and were leaving, along with the weekenders. It took a good while before there was a spot for us to get on the road.
The Drive back was simple but very hot. It was 110 in the Menifee/Temecula area. No traffic at all.
Overall it was an easy and quick trip, just how I like it. Everyone that did 2 nights was grumpy on the 3rd day and wanted to get home, which I understand. Put on a podcast and cruised home to my wife and kids.
Pics coming.
