Holcomb Valley is located just north of Big Bear lake and is probably one of the nicest areas to car camp in Southern California (it's my favorite at least).
There are primative camps called Yellow Post Sites which are a single campsite in the middle of the forest that have a fire ring and a picnic bench. The bst part is that they are free! All you need is an Adventure Pass and a Fire Permit from the ranger station. Maps for the dozen or so Yellow Post sites around big bear are online or at the ranger station.
So we all drove out friday evening, highway 330 is still closed so we had to take the 18, which is an awesome road. Very euro.
When I was researching these sites, I found two that were within a few hundred yards of the PCT. So of course, because of my nerdness, I wanted to stay at one of these two sites. After searching, we came to our first yellow post site to find it already taken. After another 10 minutes of off-road driving to the next closest camp, it is empty and we set up camp.
Saturday was a very relaxed day. None of us felt like doing much. Especially Harlan...
We ended up going in to town to pick up a campfire permit and firewood. Colin and I ended up at the dollar store looking for a frisbee. And we were successful.
When we returned to camp, the frisbee did NOT last long. It was only a matter of minutes before pieces were being chipped off of the sides and we were playing with a giant ninja star where a wrong catch would mean a giant cut on your hands. We called it quits and agreed that we got our $1 worth of fun out of it.
Sara, Harlan and I decided to go for a trail run because we desperately need to train constantly for our Ironman coming up in July.
Since I strategically chose a camp next to the PCT, we ran for a few miles along the PCT.
Our camp and where the PCT runs through the area.
Now this section of the PCT was awesome! It followed a ridge and to the south you had a view of Big Bear Lake as well as a snow covered San Gorgonio. It made me excited for the thousands of views like this that I will encounter along the PCT. I mean, the PCT literally follows a path along some of the most scenic areas of all of California, Oregon and Washington.
After the run, we decided we drove all the way up here to go rock climbing so we better climb something. When we got to the climbing area, it was a little busy with people and most of the easy classic climbs were in use. We walked around a bit and decided (well, maybe just I decided) on a climb not knowing what the rating was. I lead up it and it was pretty difficult. Sara and Tristen has some troubles climbing it, but Colin made it. By the time we finished the climb, it was already getting dark so we headed back to camp for food, beer, and a campfire.
The next day was a little more productive, we woke up, packed up camp, and drove to the climbing area.
We started with a couple of the classic Holcomb Valley climbs. Then a couple easy routes for Sara to lead.
Finally for our last climb Colin picked a route next to my route from the previous day. We didn't know the rating but went for it. Colin made it up some difficult terrain until he hit a slight roof in the route. After not being able to pass, I gave it a shot. Turns out Colin missed a hold which made the next moves a little easier and I was able to finish it. Colin then top roped the rest and we were done climbing for the weekend.
As we were driving out, we took the scenic route to get a little more off-roading in. Sara and I talked Colin into driving up a steep hill off the main road. It wasn't until he was halfway down from the top that he noticed he may get stuck.
After some discussion, we found an alternate route through some bushes, and we were on our way home.
It was an awesome weekend. Weather was perfect. I glad Colin called me a couple weeks ago. We had been out of touch for the longest time and we all had a great time catching up. They want to go backpacking sometime this summer, so plans are in the works.
The next day I searched online for those unknown routes. I say "unknown" because they were not listed in our guidebook, but they are still established routes. Turns out they were both 5.10b. Pretty good for us since we haven't been climbing much at all lately.
I forgot to mention that I did a little practice with my soda can alcohol stove. I'll discuss this further in a later gear post, but I was able to boil 2 cups of water pretty efficiently. I made a few tweaks to the set up and it improved the performance.
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