Blogs from Big Bear, California, United States, North America

Vanmorgen vroeg wakker geworden met de zon op mijn gezicht. Prima geslapen. We hebben op deze saiie camping niets te zoeken, het is meer een dure geasfalteerde parkeerplaats dan wat anders. We zijn binnen tien minuten op pad, Frits voelt zich alsof hij in zijn pyama rijd en Sanne ligt gewoon nog te slapen. Kaien loopt natuurlijk al lang te stuiteren en doet alles wat hij wil doen met een hand, die andere zit vast in zijn honkbalhandschoen. We rijden weer naar het meer waar we gisteravond waren maar het is er echt superdruk, grote families met nog grotere koelboxen, vol eten en dronken alsof ze er een maand gaan blijven... Veel jetskies en boten , mensen vieren het weekend, maandag beginnen hier de scholen weer. Omdat het winkeltje dicht is en we echt geen zin ... read more

Day Three: After a leisurely morning with time spent setting up this blog, we finally headed out about 11. The plan for the day was to explore the Holcomb Valley area and indeed we did, but not as we expected. It was a day filled with redirection, rerouting, and adapting. Though Overland Navigator is wonderful, there have been changes made since the maps used in the program were put out by the government. “Sensitive” areas blocked off by barbed wire fences have eliminated some roads totally, while others have been allowed to return to the forest or ended with campgrounds. Our first efforts were rewarded with interesting trail the 3N19, that took us up near a HUGE limestone quarry called “Prospect” on the map. Its northwest of Holcomb Valley. During our wanderings we found an amazing ... read more

Friday 23rd January to Saturday 7th February, 2009 If Christmas, the 405 Freeway and American Beaurocracy are up there in my top ten list of life’s pet dislikes then there is one other thing that is pushing them hard for the coveted number one spot. The ageing process. Quite why the Good Lord, or the natural world if believing is not your thing deems it necessary to counter-balance the positives of knowledge accumulation and the experiencing of different life situations with the heading southwards of all things bodily is anyone’s guess. The question why is irrelevant, it just happens, providing a surefire way no matter how well things seem to be going of bringing you back down to earth with a bump. Growing old gracefully, for me at least is made so much harder due to ... read more

Waking up as the sun rises, climbing out of our sleeping bags to start the new day. An energy bar for breakfast, packing up my gear for another full day of hiking- 20 miles is the usual goal, although the last leg we've been pushing ourselves, even got a 30 mile day in- which was more that my body was ready for really. Hitting the trail early in the AM most mornings-one foot in front of the other, moving north towards Canada. The simple, rythmic motion of hiking, poles in hands and pack strapped on our backs- an already reasuring feeling- being out on the trail. The meditative motion of hiking, of observing and being in nature- a calming, centered disposition prevails. Starting in Campo, right at the border of Mexico, Britt and I hiked into ... read more

This season we had not been to skiing even once... We went to Reno-Tahoe in December, but by the time we reached the slopes, it was too late for skiing lessons! So, this weekend we decided to hit some slopes before winter is officially over. People generally go to northern areas for skiing and snow boarding. However, being different people that we are, we decided to go to Big Bear Lake in Southern California on the weekend of March 23, 2008! This time our travel buddies were Pranav and Mohnish from San Jose, and Prutha, Nirav, Siddarth, Kanan from SoCal! Big Bear is 2-2.5 hours east of Los Angels and 7 hours south-east of San Jose. We decided to meet there directly. We had a nice and cozy cabin booked for as at Cal-Pine chalets in ... read more