Jacob Boxerman

Moving to California does have its benefits. My roommate and I spent a weekend in the San Bernadino National Forest, near Big Bear Lake. I’ve been wanting to go camping since I got here, and finally took the leap. My ultimate goal is to go backpacking or thru-hiking, so I chose a campsite that stood out as being particularly remote and primitive, but that seemed simple enough to get to, Fishermans Group.

Online reviews were mixed, with many people noting that the trail and site are unmaintained and difficult to access. All we knew for sure was that there was a 2.5 mile hike in, and a road leading up to the trailhead that was accessible only with AWD. I had no idea what to expect, and was especially confused when Google Maps told me I had 7.2 miles to go, which would take nearly 40 minutes. I couldn’t understand how that was possible, until we hit the unpaved parts of the road! I can’t see how it would have been possible without a vehicle with sufficient clearance and AWD.

Lessons Learned

Overall the trip was a great success and a good introduction to more primitive camping. Doing one night and a 2.5 mile hike was the perfect way to get a feel for what is important and what to prioritize.

Look more carefully at overnight temperatures
Sleeping bag ratings assume use of a pad with an R-value of around 5.0
Simple instant food from the grocery store works well (e.g. instant mashed potatoes)
Having a headlamp is very helpful
Make sure anything on the outside of your pack is tightly secured
Understanding the exact location of your trailhead and campsite (not just Google Maps places, but the coordinates) if possible is very helpful and takes out a lot of guesswork and confusion

Overview

There was a roughly 6 mile off-road drive to the trailhead, where a 2.5 mile unmaintained trail leads to Fisherman’s Group. The rangers told us the site is closing for the season on November 30. This picture shows probably the smoothest part of the road.

Hike

The trail to the campsite starts as an easy slope but quickly becomes overgrown with brush as it flips back and forth. Navigating to the campsite was significantly easier than the trek back. My watch read around 700 feet of elevation on the way back, most of which was in a one mile stretch of the trail.

We stopped a few times to take in the views. At 5,000 feet the sun felt hot but the breeze and cool air kept things pleasant.

We wasted nearly half an hour on the last quarter mile of the trail, as it runs into a river with no obvious crossing point. We walked up, only to backtrack and find a reasonable spot to navigate over some rocks, and up a steep hill, at the top of which we were greeted by the campsite!

Water

I was extremely excited to try drinking from the river. I had never used a water filtration system before, so this was a great experience. On the recommendation of a friend I purchased a Sawyer Squeeze 2-Liter system and brought along two plastic Smartwater bottles (despite my aversion to single-use plastic) which worked well, using one to fill with dirty water from the river and another to collect clean water from the filter. The river was so cold, I had trouble keeping my hand in to collect water!

Tent

We slept in a $25 tent from Walmart. No complaints here, though I wasn’t the one carrying it. Upon arriving we set up the tent and went on a brief walk around the site. Surprisingly, the bear bin was not overflowing with trash.

Sleep

Our food prep went well, and so did the coffee in the morning. The one major mistake was not having sufficient padding and being prepared for the night. We checked beforehand and saw that the low was around 50º F, and figured with our 30-40F sleeping bags and pads with R2.0, we’d be fine. It ended up being cooler than 50º and we were quite cold all night. Now I know it’s not worth skimping on a good sleeping setup and will be purchasing a much warmer pad for my next cool night.

Misc

I brought my radio to try to reach repeaters in the San Bernadino National Forest. I was able to hit two of the VHF ones I had programmed in earlier, but nobody seemed to be on at the time. I couldn’t receive KCRW from LA. I was able to tune into two very strong FM stations, both playing Mexican music.