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With this hot weather, it's not so easy to find a nice place to trail ride these days.  One place I can always count on though, is the San Bernardino mountains.  So I loaded up Mr. 501 and headed to Heart Bar yesterday, to spend a few hours in the relative coolness of the mountains.  The weather was sunny, but there were a few tell tale little summer puffball clouds in the sky when I arrived.  The temps were agreeable for the most part, and as the day progressed and the clouds gathered more and more, the nicer the weather got.  The overcast made for just about perfect riding temperatures.  The ride went off without a hitch, no tip overs or misadventures.  I didn't see too many other riders out on the trails, but there were a lot of 4X4s.  Going  through  town at Big Bear, it was a zoo.  People flocked to the lake shores with their inflatables, and though parking lots and marinas were closed,  traffic was heavy and vehicles were parked nose to tail along every accessible stretch of shoreline.  Lots of clogged roads in town too, so I decided against trying to find a place to eat and rest, instead just pressing on, back into the dirt and the trees where I had a small break away from all the tourist madness.  I enjoyed a ride back to the staging area under a nice cool layer of clouds.

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Well done Mimi, given the heat, that seems like a good choice.  Does it seem that anyone could cruise up there (Heart bar or ?) and find a campsite without reservation?  I saw in your pic that you rode "2N01"  , are there a couple others that you might suggest for a casual wander through the trees?  (2N93, 2N83?)

Thanks, Mac

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2 hours ago, MacDuncan said:

Well done Mimi, given the heat, that seems like a good choice.  Does it seem that anyone could cruise up there (Heart bar or ?) and find a campsite without reservation?  I saw in your pic that you rode "2N01"  , are there a couple others that you might suggest for a casual wander through the trees?  (2N93, 2N83?)

Thanks, Mac

There are a lot of fun dirt routes up there. 1N02 goes out to Coon Cabin group camp.  An un-named route goes from behind the camp to Rainbow lane.  That goes to the 38.  38 to 2N01, 2N01,  2N02.  I rode 3N69, 3N16, etc....Arctic Canyon, Sand Canyon....I'm too lazy to list them all from yesterday's ride. The ranger stations have free maps with all the routes on them.   I think most of the campgrounds get full on the weekends, and I noticed that a lot of the yellow stake sites were filled as well.  If you get there on a Friday, you can probably grab a site at Heart Bar, as not all their sites can be reserved.  As far as I could tell, people were camped all over the place throughout the mountains this weekend.  Not sure how legal some of them were, or if they would be asked to move by rangers.

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Thanks Mimi, the clouds in your pics, especially the dark ones that look like rain, are like a magnet to get out of the heat  :), and likely better air up there than the smoke from the navy ship this afternoon. A weekday may be best for possible open camp sites.  Glad you had a nice ride and thanks for the info.

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16 minutes ago, MacDuncan said:

Thanks Mimi, the clouds in your pics, especially the dark ones that look like rain, are like a magnet to get out of the heat  :), and likely better air up there than the smoke from the navy ship this afternoon. A weekday may be best for possible open camp sites.  Glad you had a nice ride and thanks for the info.

I'd be happy to show you some trails sometime.  I have nothing but time on my hands, these days.

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Just got home. 
Big Bear was the place to be for sure. 
Mid 80’s on the mountain. 106 in the IE as soon as I hit the bottom of the mountain. Lots of people out enjoying the outdoors for sure. 

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On 7/12/2020 at 8:29 PM, Ken S said:

 

 

Exit stage left.

 

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