The 4th of July weekend brought Quinn and her boyfriend, Ken, to experience some San Bernardino hiking. Onyx Peak was first on the list. This is a mild warm-up hike of 6 miles on a forest road. Dorie and I’ve done this hiking and snowshoeing. Our neighbor, Sharon had not hiked this peak and joined our group of 4. Great views on the top and a nice lunch.
The next day, Quinn, Ken and I hiked Lightning Gulch Point. After a very steep off-trail start, we accessed an old abandoned forest road and continued the steep climb. Before the Point, the mountain levels off (somewhat) on Lightning Ridge. The entire ridge line is a spectacular setting with some of the San Bernardino’s oldest weather-beaten Sierra Junipers, mixed with Pinyon, Limber, and Lodge-pole Pines. The final assent up Lightning is a very steep and very rocky climb. On top the views and a nice lunch were the reward. If this was a test (which it wasn’t), Ken passed in flying colors. Another 6-mile hike but twice the elevation as the day on Onyx.
The following day Quinn and I went kayaking, and Ken went fishing, catching what he deemed as the ugliest, one-eyed small mouth bass ever. Following that we drove the Gold Road up through Holcomb Valley, about five miles north of Big Bear Lake. It was the site of the most gold mines in Southern California, named after William F. Holcomb, who found gold there in 1860. A full afternoon of scenery and history of the region, visiting mines, ghost towns, and a hangman’s tree.
A great weekend chocked full of activities, good visits and of course good food and drink.
Great re-cap! Thank you for the great weekend, Dad and Dorie!