It's May in California and in the midst of a ridiculous drought, it happened to snow quite a lot in the mountains. We got some rain - two days worth - out by the coast, but the mountains got the good stuff. The white stuff. We anxiously waited for the week to end so we could head to the mountains. Saturday morning rolled around and we hit the highway. The winding road that leads up to Big Bear Lake was a cloudy, foggy mess. There were moments when we literally couldn't see much more than a few feet in front of our car. The Subaru took it nice and slow and got up the mountains, through the mist, and safely delivered us to the trail of the day.
We headed up the Cougar Crest Trail from the Big Bear Discovery Center. A couple of miles in, we met the Pacific Coast Trail and trekked along that for a short distance. Eventually, we came to a fork, veered right, and hiked up a steep, steep fire road. Suddenly, some radio towers were in front of us, and we were at the top of Bertha Peak. She sits 8,200 feet up in the air, and we took every one of those feet in by wheel and by foot. The view was worth it.
Neighboring mountains and a lake and ski slopes... all surrounded in clouds and fog. A lovely day hike - slightly less than 8 miles, with an almost 1,700 foot gain. (Legs = sore.)
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