Camping at Big Bear Lake, Serrano Campground, Last Weekend

Went camping at Big Bear Lake over the weekend, at the Serrano Campground to be more precise.

 The Bad:

• The people at the site next to mine had come from the ghetto and brought their booze with them. They were loud and went way out of their way to reinforce negative stereotypes. It’s amazing how many sentences you can form with a two-word vocabulary (f*** and n*****, in case you were wondering). That said, mad props out to them for (a) not fronting and (b) keeping it real.
• At $26 a night for a campsite, I kind of expected it to include turn-down service.
• The campsite wasn’t very flat.
• It got down to 16° F overnight. 16°!
• Some traffic noise from the highway.
• Forgot to bring a hatchet or a mallet.
• Only 2 of 6 roasted marshmallows truly hit the spot.

The Good (it was mostly good):

• Became much better informed about both sides of the debate around whether or not it’s appropriate for a half-black, half-Mexican guy to call someone else a n—–. (Unfortunately the sheriff came before any conclusions were reached — *now* do you understand why I don’t like cops?!)
• Hearing one of the neighbors machine-gun dry-heaving at 3 AM. It sounded like justice. Worth getting woken up for.
• Plenty of tinder and kindling near the site and the campground guys went around in a truck selling firewood at dusk — convenient!
• Didn’t need a hatchet and a piece of wood worked out great as a mallet.
• Good ground for driving stakes into.
• Located on the less-populated north shore of the lake, so you don’t even *suspect* that there’s a McDonalds 10 minutes away.
• Much better cell phone reception than I get in Irvine.
• Clean bathrooms.
• Best fire I ever built.
• Cold weather meant it was a great opportunity to test out my 0-degree sleeping bag. Grade: C. I slept through good parts of the night and never woke up chattering. OTOH, I slept wearing a stocking cap, underwear, t-shirt, camp-shirt, technical sweatshirt, fleece vest, parka, and wool socks. Oh, *and* pants. But still — a good test.
• I like wearing headlamps and appreciated the opportunity to do so within a reasonable context.
• Even with a 3/4 moon out, there were a lot of stars.
• No bears.

bkd