Scenes from the Weekend

 

Mountain getaway to Big Bear Lake!

Our sweet little cabin in the mountains

The cute and cozy inside

A fun hike along the Castle Rock trail

Which led to these amazing views of Big Bear Lake

You don't even want to know the rocks I had to climb to get this view!

Finally!  Somewhere in California with pretty Fall leaves on the trees =)

The "Village" looking all pretty (minus the construction cones...)

Relaxing by the wood burning fire in our little cabin

And now I really want a fireplace of our own...

I couldn't get enough of it!

Sunday morning spent reading by the lake while Brett mountain biked

Such a perfect view to end a great weekend getaway

And then we said goodbye to Big Bear Lake and drove down the mountain.  But we didn't venture home without a stop first at Hangar 24 Brewery and a local pizza spot to fill ourselves with goodness.  It was so nice to be able to experience a little bit of "Fall" action this weekend.  We welcomed the chilly air and changing colors of the leaves with open arms!  It made us really miss being back home on the East Coast, but at least we got a teeny tiny taste of Fall while up in Big Bear.  Better than nothing!

(And then we got back down from the mountains and it was 90 degrees.... waahhh!)

Oh well, on with the week!

(Here's to hoping for slightly cooler temperatures... a girl can dream, right?)

Scenes from the Weekend

A relaxing Friday evening with homemade brushetta

Camping in Big Bear!

Fall beers and fall weather

Brett and his favorite things: beer & biking :)

Here comes the sun

Hiking the Forsee Trail that overlooks Big Bear Lake

Awesome views the whole way up

We found it!  That's Big Bear Lake behind me!

You could see for miles and miles

It was a steep climb up, but totally worth it!

Which made it necessary to indulge in deep dish pizza afterwards ;)

I love our weekends spent in Big Bear!

(Even if the temperature did get down to the 30s at night!)

Next time, we're renting a cabin :)

Cougar Crest Trail

A few more from our hike along the Cougar Crest Trail

overlooking Big Bear Lake...

Such an awesome & fun hike!

Scenes from the Weekend

Friday beers (and ducks) by the pool
Camping in Big Bear!!
Doing a little reading at the campsite while Brett mountain bikes
Relaxing while dinner cooks in the campfire coals
Hanging around the campfire (and I forgot the S'MORES!)
Headed down the mountain to Big Bear Lake on Sunday morning
And went on an awesome hike: Cougar Crest Trail
Such great views of Big Bear Lake!
And we finished our hike right before it started HAILING
So we headed down the mountain for some lunch and froyo :)
And of course a stop at one of our new favorite breweries (Hangar 24)
Great beers and great views of the mountains we just camped in!

Ah, this weekend was soo good!!

That Time I Ate Freeze Dried Lasagna...

Happy Friday!!*

Last weekend, Brett and I spent the entire time outside.  And it was glorious.  We headed up to the San Gorgonio Wilderness near Big Bear Lake (close to where we hiked on Brett's birthday a few weeks ago) to do some backpacking.  We haven't been backpacking in foreeeever (and never on this side of the country), so it was quite an interesting experience.

We headed out Saturday morning, after spending Friday night car camping near the trail head.  It was a 6 mile hike up the mountain to Dry Lake (which gets it's name because it's a lake that dries up during the summer).  How clever.

Off we goooo...

Really cool views on the way up!
And after a strenuous climb carrying all of our camping stuff,
we finally made it to Dry Lake and the camping area!

We made it to the top decently fast and had a loooot of downtime.  If I'm being completely honest, we kind of got a little bored even... haha.  We set up our camp site and wander around the lake area.  For dinner, we ate freeze dried lasagna (because it is extremely light to carry hiking) and that was an interesting experience in itself!  We meant to bring some playing cards for something to do, but forgot, so Brett created a checker board out of rocks.  Ha!  We spent a lot of time hanging out at the dried up lake and watched the sun set behind the mountains.  You weren't allowed to have fires, so we ended up going to bed at like 9pm because there just wasn't much to do.

Since we went to be so early, we were awake by 5:30am!  We ate a quick breakfast and then hiked back down the mountain in the early hours of the morning.  And found some gigantic pine cones along the way. :)

It was definitely an interesting experience, backpacking again.  Though I think we enjoy staying at a campground (where you can have your car close by and don't have to lug all your camping gear on a hike!) instead.  That way, we can do huge killer day hikes and rack up the miles, with only needing to bring along some water and maybe a snack!  Much more enjoyable in my opinion.  Regardless, anything that gets us outdoors for any amount of time makes us happy campers.  Literally! :)