Our first week here at Palm Desert has gone by fast. We have kept ourselves busy running errands and getting the vehicles all washed. Not that it has done much good, the wind has been blowing off and on and the sand and dust gets everywhere. At least I got all the old stuff off and I now have “clean” dust on everything!
We will leave here next Sunday to head up to Big Bear Lake for our camp hosting job for the summer. I researched the best way to pull the rig up the mountain and determined that we would take the longer route up hwy 38 from Mentone. It has less of a grade but still a few tight spots. We wanted to scout out the route ahead of time so we decided to take a day and ride the bike up to have a look.
We invited our friends Rick and Teresa to ride along and keep us company. They have a Can-Am Spyder that is really cool. It was the first time that they were able to get it into the twisty’s. Rick said that he was real impressed with the way that it handled the curves. It looks like it would be a blast to ride.
Rick and Teresa
We left around 9:30 am and took the freeway the 60 miles from Palm Desert to Mentone. Then we got on hwy 38 and started up the mountain. It was a nice scenic ride up with the elevation at about 8000 feet at it’s highest point. We then dropped down into Big Bear City at an elevation of 7000ft. Thankfully the snow is melted except at Snow Summit.
Snow Summit
We stopped at the Big Bear Discovery Center to use the facilities and get a map of the area. We were only about a half mile from the campground were we will be working. Inside there are several educational exhibits.
And of course a few bears.
After getting a few questions answered from the center’s information desk we headed over to the campground to see what it looked like. We stopped at the gate house and talked with the attendants for awhile and determined where the camp host sites were located. It looks like we will probably be in the middle loop of the campground.
The site looks easy enough to get into and Rick used his satellite locating app on his phone to see if we can get our dish to hook up. It will be close but I think we will be okay. (I hope).
We stopped at the site of the area manager Al and Silvanya, and introduced ourselves. They told us that the water and everything was up and running and it was already getting busy on the weekends. We visited for a few minutes but then we left so they could get back to work.
The campground is located right next to the 3.5 mile paved bike path that runs along the lake. I see us using that as much as we can.
We then headed into Big Bear City for some lunch at Maggio’s for some pizza and calzones. Along the way we rode over the causeway where people were fishing along the bank. It gave us a nice view of the lake.
After lunch we took the back way home riding down hwy 18 to Lucerne Valley and then catching hwy 247 over to Yucca Valley and then hwy 62 working our way back to Palm Desert. It was a nice 220 mile ride with great company. We feel a little better now knowing the route to get up and down the mountain. Thanks to Rick and Teresa for riding along and making it a fun day.
Enjoy Your Day!
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