Camping and mountain biking at Snow Summit

Gps

 

^lol thought so.

 

Ok, who's been bootleg'n my GPS maps ? :?:

 

Here is a post with my write up of the trails in the Big Bear area:

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/forum/general-discussion/22806-name-your-favorite-bigbear-trail.html

Fall Line is not a good trail for beginners unless they don't mind walking their bike down the hill. It's listed as a black diamond (advanced) trail.

BTW, ghixon refers to Cabin 89 being east of SS. It is on the west side of SS. Cabin 89 has some excellent flow and overall is an intermediate trail with a few advanced sections that could be walked.

Pine Knot (1E01) is similar to Cabin 89, but the harder parts of Pine Knot are not as hard as the hard parts of Cabin 89 IMO.

Plantation Trail is easier than Pine Knot and may be a good place for beginners to test their skills to see if they want to go for Pine Knot or Cabin 89. After the three trails mention previously in this paragraph (with the exception of the various fire roads), the trails start getting more toward the advanced side of things.

As for getting back to the lift from Cabin 89, Pine Knot or Plantation Trail, unfortunately, it is a bit of a trek no matter which way you do it. It's still better to do this than skip the lower portions of Pine Knot and Cabin 89 IMO.

As for commercially available maps, I have seen none that are good, some are OK at best and downright misleading at worst. These are the best maps I have found for the Big Bear area:

 

I must be getting my gang affiliations backwards too.. East siiiiide!

When are you headin' back up here Jeff?

 

Not sure, but we may get one more day on the last weekend of the month (I hope!).

 

all this information is making me sooo excited for this weekend! thanks a lot everybody!

 

Me too! I don't know where the hell to start now!

 

PM me when you make the trip. I'll join ya!

 

The California State Championships will be up there during the weekend of Sept 20/21. Plus the SoCal State Series also races there twice a year. The XC race course is pretty good and has just the right amount of climbing, fire road descending and singletrack. At race speads you can do the entire route in 1 to 1-1/2 to 2 hours, but if you are doing a leasure run you can milk it for a good 3 hours. You can pick up the race map at http://www.teambigbear.com/schedule.php. Scroll down to the bottom and you can get the race course map.

 

^i would also like to add that this weekend will be the first weekend for oktoberfest!!!



http://www.bigbear.us/octoberfest.html

ride, oktoberfest, fishing. i can not wait.

 

do 1E01, all the way down to the bottom, take the road back to snow summit, but make a right on knickerbocker and ride all the way up knickerbocker you will see a dirt trail at the top of the road, make a left, its a short climb up where it brings you to an intersection where there are huge boulders, take the route where the boulders are and the trail will lead you all the way back to snow summit (super fun trail), once your back at snow summit, take the aerial all the way back up, and hang a left on 2n10? the dirt road behind the cafe, go east, hang a left on the first service road which takes you around a gated hole, there starts the pirate trail! super fun downhill (technical) might I add, it will drop you all the way to the bottom, which then you take the smooth dirt trail back to your car.

here is my gps trail I did about 2 weeks ago, it takes you through 1E01 and also through pirates:
(The file is in .kml format so you can upload it easily through Google Earth)

http://www.filefactory.com/file/69f8bc/n/bigbear_kml (choose option 2, try the basic just to get the file)

 

I will be up there this weekend (weather permitting)

 

the weather here in orange county is a bit overcast. but looking on weather.com, it looks like its going to be nice and sunny! maybe some of us can meet up for a sunday morning run at the top of snow summit! i'll post later with some details.

 

Here is some different advice- watch for Bears in that campground. Last time I camped there a big ass black bear came in and went through all the stuff I had left out. My dog was in the tent with me and in all her fierceness peed all over my sleeping bag lol. That said though the bear was not aggressive, just be sure to put all your food away, if they get food then they get used to it and have to be relocated, which sucks for everybody.
Have fun I love riding the lifts...

 

My girlfriend refuses to camp any more after we had probably the same visitor...luckily we were in sleeping in the back of my SUV and we left our chows at home...chow vs. a bear is Big Bear vs. Little Bear.

 

Me nad a fellow Str member are gonna be up there at the lifts tomorrow moring...he's been a out there a couple times and it's my first trip....should be a good time...Say hi if you guys see us...I'll be on a silver Giant VT and he's on a Black giant AC..think we have room for a couple more if anyone wants to ride up with us form ontario/rancho cucamonga area...leavin about 7ish...gonna hit the lifts for a few hours and come back in the afternoon.....

 

man wish I can make it, we diverted plans and headed to marshall canyon tomorrow mornin, dont forget to download my .kml file for you guys to disect on google earth a couple posts up... that route we did is approx 15 miles, 7 miles of it is pure downhill goodness!

 

So how was your trip? My buddy and I only lasted about 4-5 hours before we were hurting too much. Went to clipless the day before so only had some street training getting in and out of them before we headed up. 2 of my 3 falls I was barely moving and just fell over. but I landed on an old injury and couldn't grip my handlebars with my left hand so it was time for us to go. Hope you guys had a good time! Ill be back up end of the month again. Probably revert back to stock pedals this time...

 

good thing there wasn't any bears, they would've eaten all my chilli! i'll keep this in mind when i go here for another MTB trip.! thanks!! also, riding the lifts were more scary than the single tracks

OMG, i think i saw you two at the top of the lifts! was the guy in the giant ac looking for 2N10? me and my friend were looking for 2N10 and another rider found us asking us the same thing. do you remember seeing a santa cruz bullit and black/red giant boulder se (xs frame)? the bullit barely made it on the lifts.

this trip seriously was the best ever. it was probably the greatest birthday i ever had. the first day, we kinda went late and weren't able to get on the lifts, so we just climbed a random trail. we ended up somewhere at the top near 1E01. It was getting late so we took it down. my gosh, this single track is so much fun! it really changed my mountain biking! however, my friend in the target sale special really ate it bad. at the section right BEFORE it gets really rocky, he some how got air, landed on his front tire, went over the bars, he lands on his back and the bike falls on him. good thing he was ok, but his bike was out of comission for the rest of the trip.

the next day, sunday. me and my friend kyle went on the lifts and headed west on 2n10. went down plantation trail. the trail was ok but it was too damn short! also, there was a nice amount of water on the track which we had to walk, no biggie. at this time, i lost my good map and relied on the lift map. we ended up finding 2n15y or something and headed back east. then we saw 1e01 and went down. this time i tried to go a little faster because i kinda knew what was ahead of me. man, such a fun trail! my rear tail light fell off so....... :wave:.

i'll post a couple of pictures and one video when i get back at home.

for those wanting to go to snow summit, JUST DO IT! pineknot campground had lots of shade and no pissy rangers!