Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 32:
Total km driven to date: 6756km
Total km walked to date: 249.88km
Big Bear Lake, CA
0km drive
6.55km on foot
Today I finally decided to see what was up the trail behind my camp. Axel and I set off up the hill with our gear, camelbak, camera, dog bowl, extra lens, suntan lotion, hat and sunglasses, our usual hiking supplies. We didn’t get too far before I realized that my camera battery was on its last legs! Having the GPS tracking on my camera kills the battery even when the camera is off, first time I’ve done that, oh well theres not much to take photos of anyways. We got about a kilometer behind our camp and came upon a “california clearcut” not really sure why they cut down all the trees since there wasnt really very many trees to begin with! Maybe they’re clearing for a new subdivision, either way it wasnt very photogenic. All of a sudden the hail and rain started coming down amazingly hard, so California that is having a drought has now rained hard on 3 of the 4 days I’ve been here! We took shelter under a tree and I packed away my camera gear. The tree wasn’t doing much to keep us dry and then the thunder and lightening started so it was time to move on and head the 1k back to camp. We got properly soaked on the way and of course Axel was scared out of his wits. I got back to camp and finished ANOTHER book, dammit I need to get back on the road so I dont spend as much time reading. The rain came down most of the afternoon and cleared up around dinner time. After dinner I decided to try again on our hike, this time traveling overland straight up the mountain to the west of my camp for some sunset pictures…..cause you know its always smart to head bushwhacking up a major hill right before it gets dark. We climbed the hill, took a few photos but sunset wasnt that spectacular tonight and then we climbed back down in a hurry fighting the dying sunlight because nothing is worse than climbing down a mountain in the pitch black with nothing but a headlamp! We made it back to camp just in time before it got fully dark. Tomorrow we’re going to move our camp, 4 nights in the same place is enough, now that the holiday weekend is over hopefully some of the crowds have left and we can find a new and better place….still looking for that swim in Big Bear Lake too!
