San Bernardino: California Girls
- Lauren Smith
- Nov 10, 2021
- 5 min read
I took a long weekend to visit my roommate, Cat, out in San Bernardino! I guess "ex-roommate" is more appropriate, but we haven't quite let go of our college days yet. I was spontaneously joined on this trip by our other roommate, Andrea, who upgraded the visit from fantastic to epic.
Arriving at 11pm on Thursday, Cat picked me up at Ontario International Airport (I swear I wasn't convinced I hadn't accidentally booked a flight to Ontario, Canada, until I saw her at the terminal), and drove me 6,000 feet up the mountain to Running Springs, where she has been working at a camp for the fall. We stayed in the loft of a house she shared with fellow camp employees, covering the floor with mattresses for the weekend. Cat had to work a half-day on Friday, so I spent my morning walking around the area and getting comfortable with a spiced brown sugar latte and a book at LuluBelle's (Running Springs' token coffee shop). That afternoon, we drove to Arrowhead Lake, where we enjoyed the beautiful weather over a late lunch at Arrowhead Brewing Co. and got some groceries at the local store to get us through the rest of the weekend. Returning to the house, we hung out on the roof and watched the sun go down until it was time to head down the mountain to pick up Andrea in downtown San Bernardino.
With the package (Andrea) secured in the backseat, we returned to Running Springs and used the rest of our evening to prep for a HUGE Saturday. Cat had convinced us to trust her judgement and follow her on an 18 mile hike up 5,500 feet to the summit of Mount San Gorgonio, the highest peak in Southern California. We were in the car by 6:30am the next morning, packs stuffed with water, food, and headlamps in case we didn't make it down before sunset. With the glow of sunrise lighting our trail, we began the first of many switchbacks, quickly shedding our outer layers as our exertion and elevation rose with the sun. We established early on that regular breaks were not only acceptable but necessary if we were to summit in one piece, so we took our time on the 6 hour hike up, enjoying the quiet trails and striking views.
At 1:00 pm, we reached the peak, summiting at 11,503 feet. Sheltered from the wind, we treated ourselves to sandwiches, protein cookies and goldfish at the very top of the San Bernardino Mountains. After some rest, we began our descent, beginning to feel the ache in our muscles and joints. Down and down and down we hiked, waving our hands in the air to alleviate the swelling. At one point, we laid down right there on the trail and lifted our feet to the sky for some much needed relief. In the last mile, we scavenged the edges of the trail for walking sticks and relied on those for our final descent, shuffling like old ladies. The sun was just setting when we reached the car at 6:00pm, relieved and exhausted and a little in awe of what we just did.
To fuel our recovery that evening, we made some pesto pasta, garlic bread and brownies, and settled in to watch Charlie's Angels-- a cinematic gem.
We were blessed with an extra hour of sleep the following day, thanks to daylight savings, and eventually pulled our aching bodies out of bed for a late breakfast at OCCS, Running Springs' famed diner and a favorite of Cat's. After filling up on eggs, hash browns and bottomless coffee, we headed to Big Bear for the day. We strolled along the lake and walked around downtown, as if we didn't walk 50,000 steps the day before, and casually pretended that our joints didn't creak and ache with every small incline or decline. We popped in a few shops and sat down at an outdoor patio in the afternoon with cups spiked hot chocolate to enjoy some live music. We headed down to the lake to watch the sunset at 4:30 (4:30!!! Boo daylight savings!) and then met up with some of Cat's friends and coworkers at Tropicali, an absolutely delicious Cali-Hawaiian Poke spot. From there, we all headed to Whiskey Dave's (on the recommendation of the super friendly, apparently famous owner of Tropicali) and finished the night with some friendly pool and foosball competition.
Cat had to go back to work on Monday, so she dropped Andrea and I off near the San Bernardino depot early in the morning and headed back up the mountain. From there, Andrea and I boarded a train to downtown Los Angeles. Using a bagbnb service, we dropped our bags at a deli in Chinatown for safe keeping and crossed our fingers that they would still be there at the end of the day (they were). We then walked to Little Tokyo, known for some of the best food in the city, and enjoyed lunch at Shi-Sen-Gumi Ramen. Our meal was completed with dessert at Cafe Dulce, where we got a green tea donut, red bean roti, and some blueberry matcha lattes (YUM).
Expertly navigating the metro rail system, we hopped on the red line to Hollywood. En route, we got to hear a young man's full life story, and were recognized by an onboard socks salesman (we had never met him). Exiting the station at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we strolled down the sidewalk of stars, passing a few of our heroes: Shrek and Paul Rudd. We glimpsed the Hollywood sign from a distance but be warned: a good view of the sign is not easily accessible from the Walk of Fame (we learned that the hard way). In fact, not much is really easily accessible in L.A., we came to find out-- the city is huge and sprawling and not walkable by any means, so we had to sacrifice a few things to squeeze our L.A. site-seeing into a day.
You can't visit L.A. without making it to the coast, so our last destination was Santa Monica. We caught a train from Union Station in the afternoon, making it to the pier in time for sunset. The beach was beautiful, and we had a great time experiencing this small slice of coastal L.A. Dinner was enjoyed at Maria Sol, a Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier, where we shared a mega margarita to celebrate our successful day. We caught the train back into downtown L.A., picked up our bags at the Chinatown deli, and parted ways at Union Station to catch our red-eye flights-- Andrea was flying out of LAX, and I was heading back to Ontario International.
I will spare you the drama of my trek from Union Station to Ontario (don't trust bus schedules on transport apps, don't expect public transport to run on time, don't talk to strangers who think they are aspiring rappers), all that matters is that I made my flight!
It was ultimately a wonderful first experience in California (I had allegedly visited when I was two years old, but that doesn't count). Would I like to move out here? Probably not. But the mountains were beautiful and L.A. was an experience and a half! I'm super lucky to have both friends to visit and friends to travel with-- and hopefully we can do it all again soon!
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