By: Melissa McCue

There are many wonderful hiking and biking trails in the Big Bear valley and I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to enjoy many of them. No matter how often I have visited these various trails, I find that I am continually struck with their beauty.  Since last fall, it has been my great pleasure to become involved, in a small way, with an effort to build a brand new trail, one that I count amongst the most beautiful that our valley has to offer. 

The new Skyline Trail runs parallel to the upper portion of forest road 2N10. It is fairly close to the road but maintains a distance adequate to feel the quite comfort of being away from it all. What is remarkable about this trail is the sheer beauty of the view.

The scene that unfolds before the eyes overtakes the mind in all its pull towards continual forward momentum and practically wills the viewer to simply stop, and take it all in. The bright blue sky and fresh air, the miles upon miles of trees,  the snow capped San Gorgonio mountains and a forest teeming with life and vitality that it imbues into the viewer. 

As you can tell, I am completely taken in by this wonderful new trail. My only complaint is that my experience of the trail has been limited by its incomplete state. Of the 15 miles that will eventually comprise the trail, there are a mere 3 miles that have been fully completed. The  Big Bear Trails Foundation, the organization responsible for this beautiful trail, has worked hard to obtain funding as well as a volunteer work force to put in much needed “sweat equity”.  

Please consider joining in on the effort to work towards completing this trail by lending your time to it. The Big Bear Trails Foundation has scheduled trail build days twice a month on the 3rd Sunday and the Wednesday that proceeds it. The work is light and the company is top notch! For more information visit www.trailsfoundation.org 

By: Melissa McCue

Recently I took advantage of a warm spring day and joined in on a Nature Walk at the Big Bear Discovery Center. The naturalist that lead the tour, Joe, was a fountain of knowledge and at the beginning of the tour jokingly said that there would be a quiz at the end. Memories of school days must have scared my mind into sharp attention because I retained more information than I expected. Here is a bit that I can pass on to you, although I reserve the right to blame any false information on rusty test taking skills.

• Yellow Rabbitbrush or Chrysothamnus Viscidiflorous (ok, I looked up the scientific name but I promise the rest is all from memory) is so named because it is one of the only plants that rabbits won’t eat!
• If you smell the bark of a Jeffrey pine when it has been warmed by the sun, the aroma of vanilla will greet you. Now during hikes I sniff the bark of trees, I feel silly but I can’t stop!
• The San Bernardino mountains have an estimated population of 350 - 400 California black bears and has no grizzly bears. California grizzly bears did once roam our valley but the last of them were killed off long ago, at which point the California black bear was introduced into the area.
• The bats that inhabit our valley are “microbats” and feed primarily on insects, thus making themselves invaluable to those of us humans that aren’t fond of insects!
• The bright green lichen that is seen on dead branches throughout the forest is a combination of algae and fungus. (See the picture above)
• Manzanita means “little apple” in Spanish. The small red berries that grow on Manzanita bushes are edible, but I was assured that they definitely don’t taste like apples.

I promise I learned and retained a lot more but since I am out of space you will just have to get over to the Discovery Center and go on a tour. Happy Trails!