Big Bear Lake, CA, July 19-22, 2001
Bertha Peak Mine Cache, GCBDB, June 20, 2001
Bertha Peak Virtual Cache, GCBDE, June 20, 2001
Ursus Petrus Cache, GC7BE, June 20, 2001
Finally we found ourselves back in Big Bear, a year-and-a-half after we sold our cabin there. We joined Kathy Nichols, Lorri's friend from high school (Marina High, Huntington Beach, Class of... a few years ago) at her parents' place in Moonridge. On Friday, the 20th, the girls enjoyed some quality time together shopping and lunching in beautiful downtown Big Bear while I went hiking.
Bertha's Peak
Even though we had a cabin in Big Bear for ten years, I had never been to the top of Bertha's Peak. I had been close to it many times on the Pacific Crest Trail, but never went up the dirt road that leads to the top. Thanks to Geocaching and the lure of a double cache, I finally ascended the road and was rewarded with great 360 degree views at the top. The virtual cache was a can full of old log books and scraps of paper originally placed by the Hundred Peaks section of the Sierra Club, and a relatively new Geocache log which most recent visitors have been signing.
The cache was in plain sight in a pile of rocks near one of the microwave transmitters.
Top left: View toward Holcomb Valley, Top Right: View across the Lake toward "downtown" Big Bear, Bottom Left: View down the lake toward the dam with Snow Valley ski area in the background, Bottom Right: View across the lake with Bear Mountain ski area on the left and Snow Summit on the right with San Gorgonio in the background.
To find the Bertha Peak Mine Cache, the hint tells you to go the a "white cross" which turned out to be an aerial target set on a survey control point. The control point is stamped "BERTHA SPRINT L.S. 4215. I have a call in to the city engineers office to try to get the true coordinates for this point so that future geocachers can test the accuracy of their receivers against a known point. Some fun, eh? There I am in the middle with the cache standing in front of a man-made wall at the entrance to an old mine. The cache was hidden about 5 yards to my left, your right. The photo on the right shows the cache site in the foreground and Holcomb Valley in the background
To get to Bertha's Peak I started at the Cougar Crest Trailhead. From there, it's about a two mile climb to the PCT. Then you go easterly along the PCT until you get to a dirt access road leading to the top. The above photos are part of my trail sign collection except for the one on the right which was taken along the Cougar Crest Trail looking toward Snow Summit ski area.
Ursus Petrus Cache
This one was located along the Woodland Nature Trail, a trail I would highly recommend taking the kids on, if you have any. I'ts a relatively easy 1-1/2 mile hike with about 20 markers pointing out various plants and stuff along the way. The Cache is near marker 16 and easy to find. There was no one around so I sat on the boulders and contemplated life for awhile. I forgot to take any photos until I was past marker 17 so I turned around and took this one. The cache is hidden in the boulders behind me.
On the left are Lorri and Kathy leaving one of their favorite shops and on the right is Stork relaxing after a long tough day of hiking.