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Post by Man in Black on Feb 19, 2010 8:43:09 GMT -5
Some years our mountains stay snowy and icey at times, but this year it's been mostly permenant. It looks like there is a ton up there right now.
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Post by Jason on Feb 19, 2010 12:14:17 GMT -5
I've seen our mountains stay snowy through July sometimes.
I can also see the Big Bear mountains from my city.
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Post by Man in Black on Feb 20, 2010 21:24:59 GMT -5
Marii's brother used to work on Big Bear, running a ski lift I think.
There are a few of the taller mountains here that can have ice every month of the year but you can't see it from here - too many trees covering them up. That was one of the things I was most amazed at on my trip out West - how different the mountains were. I can't wait to get back out that way to get pictures of them.
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Post by Jason on Feb 22, 2010 21:15:35 GMT -5
I knew I shouldn't have gotten lazy when the skies were clear. Now they're foggy around the mountains and I won't be able to get a good picture of them. Gotta wait for clear skies, again!
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Post by Man in Black on Feb 26, 2010 13:32:06 GMT -5
You sound like me. I'm always doing that - saying I'll wait to get a picture of something, then for some reason I can't.
Correction on the Big Bear thing. Marii's brother worked at Mammoth Mountain. Big Bear is where he goes snowboarding.
On that same note, I watched an episode of Mantracker that they filmed on Big Bear. That is some really pretty country and it started snowing on them during the show. Have you ever been up there wandering around at all Jason?
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Post by Jason on Feb 26, 2010 17:01:18 GMT -5
Stacey and I took a trip up there in the Summer of 2007. We borrowed some camping gear from my family and stayed up there for 2 days. But we only camped for 1 day.  I'll explain. Stacey's job had a set schedule of Monday - Friday. I was working for Arco at the time and my schedule fluctuated. I managed to work my schedule around to get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off in mid-August. Everything went to plan. Stacey got off work Friday afternoon. We packed our things, loaded up the camping gear and left at around 8 PM. We got to Big Bear at around 10PM. Maybe a bit earlier. We were pulled over by the Sheriff who noticed we were driving quite slow. We explained our situation and he completely understood. Very, very nice guy. He guided us to the campgrounds we were looking for. Unfortunately, there were no spots available and the groundskeeper was asleep. Our next option was to rent a motel room, but EVERY motel room we hit was FULL! We could only assume that there was a classic car show being held in Big Bear at that time, because every car at every motel had a newly painted, gorgeous car in every parking space. I don't think there was one car younger than 1950. There was nothing we could do, so we decided to just pull into a Valero and stay in my truck for the night. It was actually kinda comfortable. I slept on the floor of the cab with a few blankets under me and a few over me while Stacey slept on the seats with a few blankets (The truck was my 1974 Chevy Pickup). The next morning, at around 6:30 AM, we went to Denny's and had breakfast. Immediately after that, we headed right toward the campgrounds and reserved a stay for the night. The lady who owned the campgrounds was interesting, to say the least. Her whole life revolved around those woods. She explained that the little camper we see behind her was her home. She was very kind. During the day, we drove around all of Big Bear. Many of the cars we saw were the ones that we saw at the motel rooms. After a while, we parked at a random liquor store and walked around. There was a boat, so we took a ride around Big Bear Lake for about half an hour. The homes over the lake were something I've ever seen. They had to be multi-million dollar homes, at least! We continued to walk around for a while and when we finally decided to go back, I realized I locked my keys in the truck ;D Luckily, I left the window rolled down a crack so we grabbed a small branch and got the keys out. We bought sodas and snacks and food for the night and headed back up to the campgrounds. It was unbelievably cold that night. It was the dead of Summer and it felt about 20 degrees. The groundskeeper provided firewood for everyone, so we built a fire and roasted marshmellows. The next day we mostly drove around, went to the park, ate at Sizzler, bought a souvenir for my parents and headed home. Unfortunately, ZERO pictures. We saved up and went to the Queen Mary 2 months later and stayed for a few days. I remembered to buy a disposable camera that time. ;D |
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Post by Man in Black on Feb 26, 2010 17:20:43 GMT -5
Now that definitely sounds like one of my trips. In fact Marii locks the keys in something at least twice a month (that is not an exaggeration).
I bet that ride on the lake was awesome. The lake was actually the finish line in the Mantracker episode I was talking about. And I bet that water was freakin cold too.
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Post by Jason on Feb 28, 2010 20:45:41 GMT -5
It's amazing that it was so cold, because it was in the dead of Summer. It was one of the funnest trips I've ever taken.
I have a hide-a-key underneath my Mazda truck (don't tell anyone!). The lock on my door panel went out on the drivers side. So I have to open the driver side door from the inside. I've locked my key in a few times because of this. Luckily, I have my hide-a-key! (Shh!!!)
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Post by Man in Black on Mar 1, 2010 19:06:52 GMT -5
Lol, I have nobody to tell if I wanted to. Marii has extra keys, but when she does it she manages to lock them all in or something crazy like that. Lots of time the vehicle is still running.
Mantracker must have liked Big Bear because I saw a different episode yesterday that was filmed there.
On the weather front... we are now under our zillionth winter storm warning of the season. They are calling for at least 4 inches here. I'm not tired of the snow - that I like - especially when it's falling, but I'm now officially ready for Spring. I am super sick of this cold. I don't ever remember it being this cold here. Even when we went to Florida it was freezing cold and that's just unheard of. My flowers are already starting to come up so bring on some warm weather.
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Post by Jason on Mar 2, 2010 16:42:21 GMT -5
Unfortunately, for the area I live in, it's only actually COLD for about 4 months out of the year. We'll get about a week of perfect weather, then it's on to scorching, dry heat. I've seen temperatures reach up to about 120 degrees. It's already reached the 80s at one point. Honestly, when it comes to heat, I prefer the humid weather. There's very, very little humidity up here. I'm not saying I enjoy it, but when it's 120 degrees outside and it's dry as can be, it feels like your brain is being scrambled on a frying pan with no butter or grease. Headaches are killer in the summertime.  |
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Post by Man in Black on Mar 2, 2010 18:35:57 GMT -5
We get the humidity here and that's one thing that every single person who lives here hates. I don't look forward to that part at all, but my joints have had enough of this bitter cold where it's below freezing everyday. We only get about 3 months of winter down here, but I doubt anyone farther north would consider it much of a real winter ;D I'm ready to work in my flower garden and to be able to spend the days outside again. It's what keeps me sane stuck here all the time. Here's a shot of the weather here just a few minutes ago - yep, it's snowing again. We have about 3 inches right now, but it's not really cold enough for it to make the roads get bad - which is a good thing.  I love how all the the little critters come out to eat my birdseed when the weather gets bad  |
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Post by Jason on Mar 2, 2010 22:15:10 GMT -5
How do you manage to get so close?
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Post by Man in Black on Mar 4, 2010 16:49:36 GMT -5
How do you manage to get so close? Two factors: First I have a glass storm door on the front porch with no screen which is great for getting clear shots of them. I have been feeding the squirrels and birds there for years so they are all used to coming to eat where we can watch them. The squirrels are so used to me that I can go out on the porch with them if I do it slowly. Second I pop the telephoto lens on my Nikon and I can zoom in right on them. Even though they are not a long way off the big lens still works great for close ups. Here's the female cardinal |
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Post by Jason on Mar 5, 2010 16:33:59 GMT -5
That's amazing. The only time a bird allows me to get anywhere near them is if there's popcorn everywhere. ;D When I worked at Target, I always had to clean up after the slobs who leave their spilled slurpees and popcorn bags in the carts. I would just dump the popcorn and dozens and dozens of birds would be there in seconds. They wouldn't get out of the way for anything. |
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Post by Man in Black on Mar 7, 2010 22:22:11 GMT -5
I bet you got seagulls and all sorts of stuff huh?
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I'll explain.
Oct 24, 2014 19:30:48 GMT -5
Oct 24, 2014 19:30:48 GMT -5