DR: Drive Report from Big Bear to Running Springs

[Waldo]

A good friend of mine had Friday off from work and decided to take a drive up through the burn areas from Big Bear to Running Springs. It wasn't just a sightseeing trip: A couple of friends have homes that were threatened, and this was the first recon any of us had been able to do since roads started to reopen. Thought some of you might be interested in reading this:

I spent this morning driving through the mountains--Redlands to Mentone up the 38 to Mountain Home Village to Barton Flats to Big Bear (North Shore) to Snow Valley to Green Valley Lake to Running Springs to Fredalba down 330 to Highland.

Big Bear looks fine, just everything is bone dry. The water level in the rivers (Santa Ana River and tributaries) is so low it's a sad joke.

Probably the first strange thing I noticed is that almost every trail and dirt road in the San Bernardino Mountains is closed. So no hiking today; no 4WD exploring today; and I didn't take my kayak (good thing because the lake looked really choppy, and BTW the water level is down about 7-8 feet below the spillway of the dam). All campgrounds were closed too, in the entire forest!

A mile or two west of the dam, I could see the eastward burn line on the ridge. The closer I got to Snow Valley, the more burn damage. But it's not like the area was devestated. It looked OK. Lots and lots of Forest Service people out. Lots of fire hoses still laid down along the side of the road. Helicopters circling overhead, doing damage assessment and/or looking for hot spots. Caltrans is putting huge dirt berms up along steep drainages under burn areas, because they know that when the rains come the road between Snow Valley and Big Bear is in danger of washing off the side of the mountain.

Snow Valley--the climbing areas are untouched. The ski area looked like a homeless encampment--tents everywhere with firefighters in them. Wait till you see the pictures.

Green Valley Lake turnoff--everything still looked fine. Maybe a mile up the road, you could see evidence of the burn, but it was not at all what I expected. In most places, it just looked like all the pine needles and dead leaves on the ground had burned. Most of the trees looked fine, and underneath was a carpet of black. The closer I got to the lake, the more burned trees I saw, but still it was NOTHING like I expected.

In town, all side roads still open to residents only, but uncontrolled. So I risked it and drove up to the cabin. Didn't even get out of the car, just pulled up, snapped a photo for M, and got out quickly, not wanting to get arrested. I got out fine. And the cabin? It looked BEAUTIFUL! What a sight for sore eyes!

I saw no burned buildings in Green Valley Lake except the hardware store and a couple adjacent buildings in downtown. Lots of activity there with guys chopping down burned trees. On the east end of town, kind of near the campground, I saw where the fire had come right down to the back of a cabin or two, but no cabins lost. It was strange having heard all the devastation in Green Valley and then seeing almost nothing, but then again I didn't go down Holcomb Creek or the other roads that are closed.

Running Springs Area--Most side roads still open to residents only, but uncontrolled. I did drive down Hunsaker to Deep Creek--it was open. I had heard homes were burned down there, but saw absolutely no damage. Drove down Pine Cone which was also open (a couple hundred people there filling out forms for SBA loans, FEMA loans, etc.--odd because it's usually a very quiet area), to see if S's house was OK. Her house was fine! Her truck was parked out front but i didn't stop because she had a bunch of people there doing work on the house/yard--I hardly recognized the house because she had chopped so many trees down and cleared so much vegetation, which is a very good thing.

In fact, a lot of areas of the forest look very different now because the trees have been cleared so much. This is great, because most the forest has not been cleared in 100 years and is tragically overgrown, increasing the fire danger.

Driving down towards Fredalba, I saw one house on a hill on the outskirts of Running Springs that had burned, and saw lots of road work--the old school wooden guardrail burned again, so they are busy replacing it with metal rail. Fredalba, which lost half the homes there, was only open to residents, and the road was guarded by two fire marshals, so I just drove right on by and headed home.

Strange trip...the good news is, the forest looks to be in much better shape than I expected; the bad news, there is still SO MUCH fuel out there to burn...


Plus a little postscript, after I emailed him back about some of the National Forest areas starting to reopen:

Every trail I looked at was closed, and most dirt roads were signed closed; every campground was closed; a few dirt roads appeared to be open, but I took that to mean that the Forest Service was using them, and maybe even that they didn't have enough signs to go around! With all the closures, the forest had a really weird vibe, almost like "you can drive through and look, but please don't touch anything!"

There's this old, closed dirt road that cuts right through the Snow Valley climbing area, north-south, that has not seen vehicle traffic for many years--in fact, I had assumed they were letting it go "back to nature" because it's real close to a nice little creek. Well yesterday I saw heavy equipment up there making it into a "real" road. Makes sense from a firefighting standpoint, because that's a big area with no good access from the main road.

[GOGrannyGO]

Some friends cabin was saved in RS, and I'm supposed to be up there for Thanksgiving w/e. Sounds like biking is verboten around there.
Thanks for the 411. I'm hopeful enough to bring my bike.

[Pain Freak]

How bout some pix?

[surlygal]

Originally Posted by GOGrannyGO

Some friends cabin was saved in RS, and I'm supposed to be up there for Thanksgiving w/e. Sounds like biking is verboten around there.
Thanks for the 411. I'm hopeful enough to bring my bike.

I was under the impression, the trails for hiking and biking are open. You just can't drive or ride your OHV's or drive any vehicle's on *jeep trails*, and obviously no fires, not even grills.

[GOGrannyGO]

That's encouraging. I'll try not to heat my brakes.

[Waldo]

Originally Posted by Pain Freak

How bout some pix?

He's promised to post some on his web site. I'll add a link when he does.

[ghixon]

Good to hear another perspective for someone who doesn't live up here. This weekend was the first weekend that the SB Forest was reopened. The forest service has been out in force trying to finish up most of the mop-up and rehab operations prior to Thanksgiving.

It sounds like your friend hit some of the places that the news crews did. No offense to the fine folks in the media, they did a fine job, but they really had no idea where the were. Most of Green Valley Lake was spared. Most of the damage in GVL was limited to the west end. Not too bad if you ask me. Most of the damage and devistation was along the Upper Rowco area of RS. Streets like Encina, Secret Dr and Wlderness Dr were almost completely destroyed. We were helping some friends sift through what remained of their home a week or so ago and we took a walk around that area and at one point, we counted thirteen homes in a row destroyed. In all, RS lost around 165-170 homes and buildings.