Big Bear Lake

Driving up to big 

Myself, my mother and sister were off camping in Big bear lake in San Bernardino, It was slightly tough to book a campsite however we managed to get one, this was a great time to test out my 1st tent which i bought off a sale for real cheap, So early monday morning we started off on our journey, after may be an hour of driving we were driving parallel with the Angeles mountain range, the mountains over here in the U.S are very different to the once i'm familiar with back in Sri Lanka, My sister called them the "paws of a Lion", and indeed they look like gaint paws!

Not after long we started driving up our selves on the edge of the mountain! and we had a windows role down to let the fragrance in the air to come fill us all, ok i just sounded like writing a fairy tale but trust me this was the truth!  the flowers were blooming yellow in colour and they were on either side giving us a grand welcome to the Angeles National forest!

and soon with it came the Big Bear Lake! "the second largest lake in southern California" so said the boatman. and we started to drive around it!! the chill in the air and the hot sun made it a perfect day! a little chilly but still it was magnificent!  we needed to have our lunch so we parked by a meadow, and we picnicked by the meadow, this was that "perfect picnic"  right off the book! even though i believe in off the book in many things in life! 

And with more energy we went into the little town of big bear, small shops on either side of the road, one shop we stepped into was a Jerky shop, and i was suprissed to see Aligator jerky to be on sale, i was tempted much to have a taste of it, but then i opted to taste elk only on the belief that Alegator is more in demand than the elk, but now i'm wandering whether elk too is a animal that is in demand in the black market, hope i made the right choice. how ever with some elk Jerky as some snacks we went on a touring boat which kind of took around the lake, showcasing houses of actors and what not, the information was real boring apart from a few, but the captain of the boat made it sound real intresting. I 

took time off seated on the steps instead on a chair letting the breeze go right pass me! 

and soon afterwards we decided to head for camp, and there i started to pitch my tent, even though the mordern day tent is advertised to be the least complicated i dont thing it gets any less easier than the simple old school two man tent which my father owned which we once pitched on our garden back in Kandy, any way overcoming a few difficulties we soon managed to set the tent up! and my sister took over getting the inside of the tent ready for the three of us!

We needed fire to cook our dinner so i took out our charcole tin burner which was suggested by my friend Pradhan, we never saw it work so today was the day it stood the test! and sure it passed with flying colours, and thanks to that and later wood burning we had a big dinner, so with that over we quikly snuggled our selves to our sleeping bags where we had a good night sleep.

Early morning was cold as excpected or may be even more than i expected, but soon i managed to start a fire going which at first i used to warm my hand but then afterwards used it too prepare our breakfast! and then after having a good yummy meal i packed my bag with a few warm clothes and a couple of energy bars, with that i started to hike up to Bertha Peak all by myself :P i was excited to use my GPS which i bought a couple of weeks back how ever too bad the batery was low so yea i kept it till i go up the mountain to check the elevation!

So soon i started my long hike up the mountain the first bit was not too tough but the latter became tougher with each step it definitly felt a lot tougher than i normally feel, i was wandering whether it is becuase i was all by my self and missed all the motivation needed which i usually get when i hike up with my buddies back in sri lanka, but as soon as i saw bits of the big bear lake all the breathing calmed down! i took some time off gazing over the lake, it was blue as it can get! back in Sri lanka i remember lakes being green. anyway i kept pushing myself until i reached the tops of bertha peak my gps read 8164 feet thats the highest mountain i'v climbed so far, but then this was not those big hikes, any way i still enjoyed it and will remember it forever!

and i came back down after about four hours where i met my mother and sister who by them sleves did a small walk! at least my sister tricked my mother to walk while she chilled standing in one place :P so after reuniting our selves we headed to a animal rescue center where we saw bears, eagles, raccoon and many more!  surly the bears were the highlight of them all for me! apparently they are very dangoures here in the U.S yet they look adorobale :P.

that ended our camping trip to big bear, so we headed back home along the winding roads, it was a great trip loved it and enjoyied it :)

with akki and ammi 18th, june 2012