Originally this was scheduled as a two day trip with slightly different peaks
north of Big Bear Lake. But we had to cancel the first day because of a lack of
an assistant. Craig Estes, volunteered to assist on the second day.
It turned out to be a great trip after all, with all of the participants
deciding to hike just on Sunday. There were two drive ups: Butler and Gold. The
other three were just walks in the woods. But, I might add, very beautiful
forested woods with nice outcroppings of boulders.
There were six of us who met at Fawnskin at 7:30AM. We waited about 20 minutes
for Randy Bernard, of DPS fame. We worried a little, then Charlie Knapke left a
large note on Lenny Garza's van saying that we had gone off to Crafts via the
regular route. As the six of us were approaching Crafts, Randy and Claire
Beekeman found us, they had parked their car near Butler, and that is why we
never saw them en route. This made a car shuttle possible and we did Butler as
an extra peak. Butler is very easy because there is a short path and stairs from
the road to the top.
Next on our agenda was Grays, where we had lunch. There is a nice view of Big
Bear Lake from it. After this peak, Fred and Somany Lytle left to go home.
Gold was a great 4X4 road. We took Randy's and Charlie's up. Then for the five
minutes walk up to the top, Randy held three rocks in his hand and said he was
"walking his duck".
As the sun was lowering in the sky, we decided to go for just one more peak,
Arctic. We made it back, just at dark, to our cars. The weather was perfect and
everyone had a great time.
