"A bad day riding a trail motorcycle in the mountains,
Always beats a good day in the office."
~Ron
"In the end you only regret the rides you didn't take."
"Old motorcycles don't leak oil --- they mark their territory."
One of my early ideas when I created my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77 was to repeat some of the activities I had enjoyed in the past but hadn't done for a long time. Motorcycling on mountain trails is one of those activities.
Brief Background: Fred and I purchased Honda 250 trail bikes in 1978. Not long after that, many of our friends obtained trail bikes of different types and over the following years we rode the fire roads in Big Bear Valley on a regular basis. What fun it was. Art H had a Honda 250 like ours, Connie A bought a Honda 175, Merlin obtained two Kawasaki trail bikes, Bill S, and eventually two of his sons, purchased trail bikes of various types. During the late 1970s and all through the 1980's into the 1990s, these friends and I rode our trail motorcycles on the mountain trails and fire roads throughout the Big Bear Valley. We rode trails north into Holcomb Valley, northeast toward Victorville and the desert, east to Onyx Summit and out to Pioneer Town, and south down into the Angeles Oaks area. We would usually find a cafe somewhere and have breakfast or lunch. We had many fun weekends. On some weekends, Fred and Mel would bring their small pickup trucks and follow us on the fire roads, loaded with other friends, to a picnic location - we called this activity fun-truckin'. Over the years, little by little, these friends have either sold their bikes, moved away, or, in the case of Mel and Merlin, passed away. Even though I continued to ride periodically on the mountain trails, it's been many years since I have done so.
The photos below are from one of our fun truckin' weekends. First shows Fred and Mel's small pickup trucks and the group of picnickers; next shows us having a picnic among the boulders; and the final photo is me swearing Connie A into the Sigma Zonk Fratority -- not always done on these picnics, but it could happen anywhere.
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Current Activity: Bonnie and I decided to spend Memorial Day weekend in Big Bear so we drove to the mountains on Friday, May 25th. Dale and I had originally planned to hike the Pineknot Trail on this weekend, but he ended up with a conflict so we rescheduled the hike into June. So I decided this would be a good weekend to complete the Updated Bucket List activity of riding some mountain trails on the Honda motorcycle. Art H spends this time of year in Big Bear and was one of the guys who rode the trails with me in the past, so I tried to line him up to ride with me this weekend. However, he had relocated his bike to his other home in New Hampshire and didn't know of one he could borrow. Nevertheless, I talked him into meeting me for lunch at one of our old trail-ride destinations.
On Memorial Day morning (Monday, May 28th) I pulled my Honda 250 out of the cabin basement, started it up, filled it with gas, and headed for the mountain trails. It's not always wise to go out on the mountain trails alone, and particularly on a bike that has not been serviced since purchased new in 1978 and hasn't been ridden in more than five years. But I wanted to complete this item, and was unable to line up a riding partner, so off I went. One of my favorite rides in past years was to go south, up the 2N10 fire road behind the Snow Summit Ski Resort, over the mountain top and down into the valley on the 2N06 fire road, then along Radford Road to the intersection with Seven Oaks Road, then to the Seven Oaks Mountain Resort for a drink and/or breakfast - this is the ride I did today. I set the odometer when I left the cabin and it was 11 miles one-way and a 45-minute ride (longer time than you might expect for 11 miles because of the rough condition of the fire roads). The photos below show portions of my ride.
1st row- The road entering the San Bernardino Forest; next shows I'm on fire road 2N10; next is the intersection with a directional sign showing 6 miles to the Converse Station (a Forest Service location).
2nd row- I'm on fire road 2N06; next is just over the top of the mountain looking to the valley below; the third photo is at a turn in the road that we always called Pee Point (you can probably figure out the origin of this name) with the San Gorgonio Mountains in the background.
3rd row- The first photo is the Converse Forest Service Station at the end of fire road 2N06; next, a short asphalt road goes to the intersection of Radford Road and Seven Oaks Road; then a right turn on another short asphalt road takes you to Seven Oaks Resort where the last photo shows I have arrived.
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Art H's friend Ellen joined him and drove down Highway 38 from Big Bear and met me at Seven Oaks for lunch. I haven't been there for many years and was pleased to see how the owners have kept the place in such good repair. The photos below are of Seven Oaks as it appears today (see further below for some history of Seven Oaks).
1st row- The first photo is the main building housing the store (all kinds of supplies for the campers), the bar and restaurant, and dinning room; the second photo is the dinning room; and the third is Ellen sitting at the bar in the restaurant;
2nd row- First shows a few of the many cabins on the property. There are also many hookups for trailers and motor homes. The second and third photos shows some of the camp sites along the river that runs by the property. The trees and river make these sites wonderful locations for campers.
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While we ate lunch we had some fun discussions with the owners. Without going into all the details, the Fink family owns Seven Oaks and have owned it since January 1978. I mentioned that a bunch of us used to come down in those early days for breakfast and they said, "Yes, Earl and Evelyn were running it in those days and Evelyn always cooked breakfast." It turns out that the parents have passed away, but the two sons, Greg and Steve, and their wives, Melisa and Ann, are running the Resort now. The Fink family has now operated the place for 40 years. I told them I was on a special ride during my Year 77 as a memory ride of all those we did in years past. Also, because of my obsession with the number seven, I wanted to make sure I did the ride to Seven Oaks. The next thing I knew, Melisa came out with a Seven Oaks T-Shirt for both Art and I.
After lunch I thanked Art H and Ellen for joining me for lunch and headed back to the trails, up and over the mountain, and to our cabin. I was more relaxed on the ride home, since I then had confidence that the motorcycle was going to make the trip without breaking down. I thought of the many times I had ridden that trial with the boys (I remember one time Dennie and I got caught in a horrendous rain storm) and smiled as I mentally reviewed those outings. I had a lot of fun today and I'm really glad I got the old bike out and checked this item off the list.
In the photos below, the first one shows Greg and Steve with Art and I on the deck where we ate lunch; in the second photo Art and I are exhibiting our new Seven Oaks T-Shirts; the final photo is of a memorial bench for the boys mother located near the restaurant. On the bench she is referred to as "Mrs Oaks."
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A Little Seven Oaks History: Seven Oaks Mountain Resort was developed in the late 1800s as a small resort situated halfway up to Big Bear. It offered respite and sustenance to weary travelers riding the burro trains up and down the Bear Valley Trail. Originally homesteaded in 1875 by hunter and prospector Charles Lewis, Seven Oaks was named for Lewis' hometown in England. Lewis began welcoming visitors at his modest Lewis Resort and it became a popular stopping point. Seven Oaks was expanded in the 1890s to include a dining hall, 15 additional cabins, post office and even a telephone line. William Glass purchased the resort in 1902, and in 1912 Glass and his wife moved to Seven Oaks where they remodeled, added on and raised their family. Descendants of the Glass family continued to run the resort until 1962. Between 1962 and 1978 there were two short-term owners. First a Hollywood investment group that added a swimming pool and improved the plumbing for all the cabins (and then went broke), and later the Nojos Family who operated the facility until sold to Earl and Evelyn Fink in 1978.
In the 1920s, a small group of seven cabins was constructed just a mile east of the original settlement. This group of cabins was purchased in 2005 by Candy Martin of Palmdale, restored to maintain the rustic charm of their original design but with modern amenities, and is still in operation today. One of the cabins was lost to fire in the dramatic end to the 2013 manhunt for Christopher Dorner, a fired Los Angeles police officer, who had killed four people and wounded three others during the chase.
Photos from earlier trail motorcycle rides below:
1st row- The first two photos are in front of our Big Bear cabin -Dale, me and Kevin and next is Covert, Jon C, and me: The third photo is at Art H's Big Bear cabin and is Dennie, me, and Art H.
2nd row- Me and Art H, then me and Dennie, then Art W and Dennie, all with San Gorgonio in the background.
3rd row- Me and Dennie, with San Gorgonio Mountain in the background. This is at the trail top before descending to Seven Oaks. The next two photos are at Seven Oaks - in the first is Dennie, Art H, me, and Art W; in the second is me, Fred, Bill S, and Dennie.
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