Where the big bears roamed.......



White lilacs are supposed to be pretty rare, and I was excited to see a bush at Neal and Stu's house in Big Bear.  We were up there to housesit and watch Norman, a German Shepherd with a goofy sense of humor.  Not only were there white lilacs all over, but there were all types and all types of purple.   It was magic, seeing all the lilacs and wondering how they had adapted at that altitude.  The magic did not last. We had gone back to spring in travelling up to about 7000'.  Getting away from the boat was a good idea, but then we started sneezing, noses dripping and eyes itching to the point of catatonic behavior.  Spring had sprung its dirty trick on us in big ways.  Here we were with all sorts of wonderful things to do and we were crippled by an unseen terror: pollen.  We were ticked.  But there was tv to watch - we only get five regular channels on the boat and 65 Asian channels.

A lot of development has occurred since the lake was created but we were able to find this vacant lot across the street to let all the dogs sniff and run and do their thing.  This side of the lake has every type of house possible, with an enphasis on mountain syle, but there are still little cabins hugging rocks that you need to take a boat to or hike in.  The road up makes the road to Lake Edison look puny, with horrendous drop offs and I kept looking at the map to see if there was another way down, as all I could envision was something out of a horror movie with the car blasting loose, no brakes and loud screams on the return.

Looking toward the dam.  We rented a runabout and the engine had fits but in our short exploring we found a more deserted area of the lake across the way.  We took our bikes over and huffed and puffed alongside the lake, with stops to breathe through the pollen.  An old hotel across the lake was built in the 20's and we wondered at how the early visitors were able to get their cars up what had to have been the road from hell.  We left early with poor old Norman in the car with our dogs and met Neale and Stu at thier plane at LAX, just so we could breathe ocean air.  No.  It was just so we could breathe.  Anytime pollen overcomes meds, there is trouble - and we found it at Big Bear.