Kayaking Big Bear Lake

I have been to Big Bear a handful of times now, but this is first time I have every spent any time on the lake itself. This was also a good chance to see just how low the lakes water level was.

I got on the lake in town and decided to head east over to the dam. The wind was in my face so I hugged the shoreline and checked out a few of the harbors along the way. I was curious to see the effects of the low water on Big Bear Lake Cable Wake Park, because every time I go to Big Bear this is one of the things I want to do that never seems to work out.

The next place I went to was China Islands, where I did some cliff jumping last summer. I debated jumping again but decided against it, based on the lower water levels and because there was nobody else there. At China Islands I was pretty much at the dam, so I went the rest of the way. From the dam I headed back through the straitest route, strait through the middle of the lake. This was pretty easy with the wind at my back.

-James

Lele Kawa

Mountain-bike Fern Trail, Big Bear, CA

My first downhill ride in Big Bear was a little loop near my camp site. I followed somebody's Strava Segment that lead across Bristlecone and down Fern trail.

My legs were still sore from the race, so my up hill was slow and painful. The little downhill down Fern trail was enough of an award for pushing myself up the hill.



-James

Lele Kawa

Camp Tahquitz 6 hour Challenge 2014

Having been a recreational Mountain Biker for a few year, I decided to go all out for my first Mountain Bike race. I signed up for a solo 6 hour endurance race with hopes I could find some friends to join me. Because I had spent most of the year leading up to the race traveling over seas, I was a little under prepared for the race. In all I had about a month of riding in the summer heat of Arizona, and for about half of this time my bike was in the shop for various repairs. To include a last minute replacing of the crank, two days before I departed for the race, because I stripped out a pedal because I didn't realize it was coming loose on a trail ride.

I arrived at BSA Camp Tahquitz early Friday evening, shortly after registration opened. I quickly set up my camp and then took off for a pre ride of the course. Upon hearing that this would be my first race, one of the event organizers offered this advice. "Start slow, and then slow down." On the pre ride, I started to understand how unprepared I was. The course was a loop of around 6 miles, that included a 1,200 foot climb and a loose and dusty down hill of switch backs through the pines. Also the camp lay at around 7,000 feet ASL, much higher elevation than my flat training grounds in Yuma (200 feet ASL). Despite its difficulty the ride was undoubtably beautiful. Riding through pine and sunny meadows in near perfect weather.

When I returned to camp, the rest of the campers had arrived. Most of them from Jenson USA, a title sponsor of the event, riding in the team event and running a maintenance tent for the race. The combination of a ban on alcohol from being on a BSA camp and the early race start in the morning made it an early night in camp.

With my registration done and my bike already set up, I was able to stay in my tent until the race was about to start. When I pulled back my tent flap, I was surprised by all the activity. A few hundred people were now buzzing around ready to race. I grabbed a light breakfast and prepared my aid station.

I took my place at the back of the pack for the mass start. I held no illusions of competing against any of the riders beside myself. The first lap felt pretty good. I kept up with the pack on the flats and even passed a few people on the down hill. At the bottom of the hill I dropped back to the rear of the pack. The second lap went a lot like the first. By the climb of my second lap, many of the leaders were working on their third, I gave way to the leaders as they easily passed me. I made a stop at my aid station to grab some food and top up on water. Once I got started on the third lap exhaustion was already setting in. I took advantage of the Aid station at the base of the climb drinking a few cups of HEED electrolyte and cookies. Once I started the climb my legs were spent and I found myself having to dismount to allow people to pass, especially in the technical sections. The fourth lap even the down hills were a struggle when my legs began to cramp. I made an even longer stop at the Aid Station at the bottom of the hill. Laying down while eating cookies and drinking more HEED, in hopes of curing the cramps before the climb. I crawled up the climb and made it back to the start, suffering the worst of the leg cramps within site of the finish line. I crossed the line at 5:33, relieved that I could stop without worrying that I could still finish one more lap. This race had a hard finish at 6 hours, so any lap that doesn't cross the finish before that time doesn't count, as opposed to races where any lap started before that time will count. I finished 6th of 7 in my age group.

Obstacle at the bottom of the Ravine

Lower Meadow

After grabbing a snack I crashed in my hammock to recover while waiting for the award ceremony. Laying around was exactly what I needed right then. I spent the rest of the day lounging around camp with the Jenson USA guys. Many of them were competing in day two of racing, the inaugural Endure race. In retrospect this is the race I should have done, and if I had anything left in my legs I would have signed up.

-James

Lele Kawa

Descanso Wall Hike

On the way home from San Diego, I decided it was well past time to take an exploratory hike of Descanso. It has been on my rock climbing RADAR for a while, but I wasn't sure exactly where it was or what the climbing looked like.

The turn around at the gate also serves as the parking lot.

I half intentionally passed the trail, in order to explore the area a bit more. Which was marked by an unusual large amount of dirt on the road.

"Cliff" at the base of the trail

The hardest part of the hike is the steep "cliff" between the road and the trail. Once I passed the Fire Fighter Memorial,

I wasn't sure which face was which. I took a quick break on the large boulder at the base of the wall.

Bolt on top of the boulder facing the main wall

After that I made my way east along the wall and saw a bunch of bolts along the way. At least four bolted routes, most of them look easy from the bottom. After exploring the bottom I scrambled up the rocks immediately behind where the memorial is to the top. There wasn't much up there until the east end of the face where there were 2 anchors and the easiest path down to the bottom. I look forward to head back here and do some climbing. Because of the easy access, hikeable top rope anchors and variety of difficulty, it should be a good place to take new climbers.

View from the top. Parking center left and I8 across the top

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Rock, Big Bear Lake, CA

The weather was threatening so rather than commit to a long adventure, I decided it was a perfect time to visit Castle Rocks. Castle Rocks is a popular hike in Big Bear Lake because it is short, hard and rewards hikers with a great view of the lake from the top. The rocks at the end of the hike offer some large faces to rock climb, but I did not bring my gear on this trip.

Thanks to the weather the trail was not very crowded. Road side parking can get sketchy if it is crowded. The trail starts steep but well maintained and easy unless the altitude gets you. You first meet the rocks from a boulder field at the bottom and see the 100 foot faces for rock climbing. As you make your way around the rock clock wise, you reach the shorter back side that offers a pretty easy scramble up to the top. At the top you have your reward of the lake view. There are also climbing anchors scattered across the top, offering a repel down or top rope for climbing.

-James

Lele Kawa

Summiting Picacho Peak, CA

Today I set out the the meetup group for the other big peak near Yuma. After not making it to the top of Castle Dome, I felt I needed to make it to the top of this one. Six of us set out, but only two made it, the group leader and me.

We got an early start and made the drive down Picacho road and turned off the Wash along the BLM trail.

At the point where you can no longer drive, we started the hike by continued by walking up the same wash. After you pass by Picacho, a trail heads up to the left. The trail continues to a scree slope up to a saddle.

The Guardian

View from the Saddle

At the saddle we took a slight turn to the right and began the scramble along the first ledges. We arrived at the first ladder, about 6 feet tall.

At the top of the ladder is the infamous crack which divided our group. It is only about 2 feet wide but it is very exposed and there is no good location to step off from. The spot where you jump from is slightly higher than the landing. When you lower yourself to get a better angle to jump from, you give up all footing except for one little pocket about an inch deep that you can place one heel in. This means all your upward and most of your forward momentum needs to be generated from that one poorly placed foot.  It took me a minute to build up the confidence to take the leap. The first time I made my way to the edge I needed to back away and collect myself. The video below shows me making the leap.

 The Leap and Landing

Not ready to leap

 After the leap it is easy scrambling to the second ladder. You snake back and forth long a series of ledges and the turns are marked by red arrows. The second ladder was taller. Once at the top, we borrowed it to help go from the false summit to the true summit.

 A boulder divides the summits, and using the ladder to get on top of it was the most exposed part of the hike. I did not get a picture of the previous ladder placement on the other side of the boulder, which was the truly exposed part. The ladder was on a slope that had a small divot that held one leg. The ladder was also only about 3 feet in from the ledge. The only redeeming part was there were some good hand holds, so you could commit a lot of your weight to the rock as your feet moved up the ladder. The ladder placement in the below photos looks a little precarious, but it was solid.

 Exposure? You should see the other side.

After we reached the true summit we signed the log and got some photos. The log was in a pipe that was cemented into the rock. There was some additional stuff cashed in the rocks that are directly behind me in the below photo.

Colorado River as seen from the peak

-James

Lele Kawa

Joshua Tree, Thanksgiving weekend

Joshua Tree has been on my hit list for a while. I bought a climbing book for J Tree even before I got back to the US. It is also a convenient "midway" point to camp between Yuma and San Diego.

Thanksgiving seemed like as good of a time as any to head out there. Cool fall weather in the desert. One of the reason for going was getting some last footage for Lele Kawa's Literally Living the Dream movie.

Unfortunately since I was the only rock climber in the group I didn't get to put the climbing book or gear to use. My hopes to use this trip to draw my friends into the world of rock climbing did not pan out. The best I was able to get was a little bit of scrambling and some easy bouldering, in addition to some hiking.

In addition to scrambling we did get to do some long boarding. There was even some long boarding at night that resulted in some good looking photos.

Our only attempt of the weekend at slack lining did not go so well. No makes.

We also stopped at Keys View to take in the valley.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the weekend were the nights spent around the camp fire.

-James

Lele Kawa

Pilot's Knob, CA

A new hike in Yuma, for me. Nexgen Yuma and Meetup put together a hike up Pilot's Knob, a hill in California right at the point where California, Arizona and Mexico all meet. This hike is similar to the "goat trail" up Telegraph Pass minus the approach hike. It is a little under a mile in distance and a little over 600 feet in elevation gained.

Summit

Once at the summit you are rewarded with a panoramic view that includes Yuma, Algodones, Picacho, Felicity and the Imperial Sand Dunes

Panoramic 

 "Center of the World" Felicity, CA

Algodones, Mexico

-James

Lele Kawa

Lele Kawa at Squaw Lake, CA

I was surprised to learn form some guys at work that there was some cliff jumping near Yuma. Could this be real? An opportunity to do some lele kawa here in the desert.

It turned out to be true, and the cliffs are no joke. They loom about 35 feet over Senator wash. The only catch was unless you have a boat, you need to hike about a mile to get there. Now a mile doesn't sound that far but remember in the desert summer when the water is warm enough that you want to jump the air temp is often over 110. The mile there isn't too bad, its the mile back that is killer.

 Center of the photo has a 30 foot cliff

This photo lacks scale, but that point on the right is about 40 feet

The trailer for "Lele Kawa's literally living the dream" shows some clips from our time at the cliffs, and the full movie should contain even more.

-James

Lele Kawa

Early season snowboarding at Big Bear, CA

The worst part about early season snow is only two runs being open and lift lines. The best part is all the snow bunnies in tank tops as the day heated up.

It had been a while since I spent any time on a snowboard, so I was happy to get up to Big Bear, CA for the long weekend. Plenty of fake snow on the two open slopes, one beginner and one intermediate. The good thing was the intermediate trail had a bunch of man made terrain scattered all over it.

Normally I shy away from terrain parks in favor of glades or side country, but for early season you have to take what you can get. They had a good variety, which was nice. They had rails, boxes, small table tops, larger kickers, and some large pipes.

-James

Lele Kawa

San Bernardino camping

After I split from my friends in Joshua Tree, I headed to Big Bear Lake, CA for some snowboarding. I didn't really have any plan for this part of the weekend. Before I hit the road from J Tree I went online to see what camping and lodging options I had.

I found out about Yellow Post camp sites, from my google search. The main permit needed was the Adventure Pass, that I have had and barely used for about a year now. A further search gave me the map below, which showed me the locations of all of the sites.


View Yellow Post Campsites (partial) in a larger map

I decided to try for Yellow Post 26, because it was the closest to the lake and the ski resorts. I was amazed to find that the site was empty, since it was less then a mile off the paved road and 3 days into a 4 day weekend.

Once I arrived I was disappointed I didn't have my mountain bike. There was a constant stream of bikes headed up and down "Plantation Trail", which is mapped below. The weather was perfect for some biking. The ground was a little crunchy from the cold rather than wet with snow in spots but the air was a comfortable 60 or so in the early evening.

-James

Lele Kawa

Saving lives

It's a sad fact that when you are doing "crazy" things, from time to time people get hurt.  I feel fortunate that nobody from our crew has suffered more than some cuts and scrapes on any of our adventures. However sometimes you see people from other crews do not follow the same precautions that we to the mitigate the chance for injury.

That being said, the Lele Kawa crew was at Sunset cliffs when a man jumped and suffered a head injury. We were among the crowd of bystanders that came to the mans aid, before he was life flighted out. So far we have been unable to locate any follow up information on the man.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/16/jumper-at-sunset-cliffs-suffers-traumatic-head-inj/

Be careful out there. You can be stupid and you can be crazy, but try very hard not to do both at the same time. If you are getting stupid don't do things that are crazy or reckless. If you are doing things that are crazy be as smart about them as you can be.

-James

Lele Kawa

Three Sisters Falls, San Diego, CA

Finally took advantage of my adventure pass and did some hiking in the Cleveland National Forest.

Reading about this hike most people rate it 8 to 9 out of 10 on the scale of difficulty. I think this rating was undeserved. I would only put it at about a 6. With good shoes and taking your time on the steep area of loose sands, there is almost no risk.

For what turned out to be for no good reason we carried a surf board and a body board the whole way. The only thing they proved useful for was a prop in the photo below, with the three sisters in the background. This picture was taken on the way down just before the steep and loose part of the hike.

Once we got to the falls it was time to play around. The hike up to the top of the third sister was a little sketchy, it was a slab scramble. If you lost your grip you would tumble down the rocks and over the water falls. The water at the bottom of the falls was only about knee to waist deep.

The shallowness of the water didn't prevent me and Jeff from jumping. There was a sandy bottom under the shallow water, so it was soft when you hit bottom.

Above the third sister there was this queens bath in a crack between the rocks that created an infinity pool. I slipped my way down into the pool and relaxed for a minute. Getting out of the pool turned out to be a little hard. The rock gets really slick when your wet.

A little way from the parking area on the way back we crossed paths with a Rattle Snake. This was only my second encounter with a rattler in the wild.

Even got to take a little Poison Oak home with me all over my right arm. I might have been able to avoid leaving home with it if I had read the directions better. At the bottom of the hill when you reach the creek you need to rock hop or hike along the left side of the creek. The trail seemed to cross the creek so I did some bush whacking on the right side of the creek.

-James

Lele Kawa