I turned 20 today, which for a beaver is saying something! In the wild, beavers only live to be 16, but luckily there are no estimates for beavers in the city! I was lucky again this year: not only did my birthday fall on a Sunday, but it also happened to arrive in time to see my 500th Historical Landmark! I rummaged through my maps to find a suitable #500 and decided upon San Bernardino County, where I would tackle two very difficult landmarks and work my way through four more before a grand finale leap into Big Bear Lake!
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My first decision came down to which of the two difficult landmarks would make a better #500. I had to choose between the Stoddard-Waite Monument (#578), which I’d tried and failed to visit twice before, and the Garcés-Smith Monument (#618), at the end of a vaguely described 5-mile (each-way) trek up Monument Peak. Ultimately, the weather decided for me. Since we’re on the cusp of summer, I had to make sure I saw Garcés-Smith before the sun turned me into a piece of beaver jerky! So, at 9:00 AM, I hit the trail!
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The walk started very pleasantly, and there were so many wildflowers that I started to forget my wariness of mountain lions. That was okay, because I had more pressing concerns, like the motorcycle brigades zooming up the trail! Anyway, this turned out to be a steep trek, up into the pine woods that I forget exist in Southern California! I was headed for a radio tower that supposedly marked the site of the plaque. If only I knew what was in store!
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Three hot hours later, there was no plaque at all by the radio tower! In a panic, I phoned my good friend, Karolina, who looked up two phone numbers, neither of which worked! Then she sent me screenshots from another blog with the vistas surrounding the monument, which did not match my location. So, I turned back, disappointed and bewildered, until a caravan of jeeps pulled up, and the lead driver showed me a trail map. I’d passed the landmark completely at the Edison Access sign! Oh, for the love of huckleberries!
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After adding two hours to my trek, I found the darn monument! It was right at the intersection of Roads N49 and N43! While the detour gave me some great views of Silverwood Lake and lovely meadows of ferns and blue lupine, that was quite the detour on a hot afternoon! The picture above should give a good idea of how much extra distance stood between the monument and the radio tower!
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Trial and tribulation aside, I reached my 500th Landmark. The Garcés-Smith Monument marks a point on the Mojave Road (an old Native American trade route from Needles to Wilmington) where Father Francisco Garcés passed in 1776 and mountain man, Jedediah Smith, passed in 1826! It’s an important point on a greater path, sort of like a birthday!
I didn’t have much time to celebrate, as I was already 2 hours behind! The 4-hour hike had turned into a 6-hour hike, and the long way back down affected my mind much more than my body! When I reached the trailhead again at 3:00 PM, dried halfway to jerky, all I wanted to do was curl up in the shade and take a nap, but time was wasting!
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The next Landmark, the Stoddard-Waite Monument, has been the bane of my existence for the last two years, considering no one at the San Bernardino County Museum, which owns this very private property, knows anything about it! That’s because it’s run by the San Bernardino County Museum Association! When I finally stopped barking up the wrong tree, it was actually pretty easy to set up an appointment with Mike Hartless, the caretaker.
Mike taught me a lot about this site. It was once an Indian village, and many people are still buried here. Mike’s job is to repel grave robbers, even though this tribe didn’t bury artifacts with their dead. This was also an important stop for Mormon pioneers along the Salt Lake & Santa Fe Trail, as evidenced by the many bottle and train fragments found around the property every day, including half a wheel from a train that flew off the tracks and had to be buried! He also told me a tale about “Gravel Gertie,” who lived there before him, and her many shenanigans, including selling rattlesnakes to tourists and flagging down an endangered train with her brassiere. In short, that train stopped in a flash!
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With four more landmarks to see before dusk, I thanked Mike for his time and headed into the mountains, where I encountered two monuments on Highway 18 to two different types of road! The Mormon Lumber Road (#96) marks the place where 100 Mormon men constructed a road up into the prime timber that was used to build San Bernardino, just another remarkable feat by these industrious folks, quite like Box Canyon! The Daley Toll Road (#579) came 18 years later and was big enough for full-sized wagons!
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Having caught my second wind, I rolled into the Big Bear area, stopping first to see the Old Bear Valley Dam (#725), once hailed as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” because its unusual single-arched structure held back the era’s largest man-made lake, despite all doubts. Since then, a new, taller dam has been constructed and submerged all but the top of the original. As a beaver, I salute those who are daring in their dam design!
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I was too late for my last landmark, Holcomb Valley (#619), at least too late to explore the museum where the plaque was located. This valley was a center of both placer and quartz mining during the Gold Rush, and the town of Belleville became so populous that it nearly pulled the county seat right out from under San Bernardino! Mike Hartless had also mentioned this valley as being an archaeology hot spot! However, I did not have time to excavate.
After a simple ravioli dinner, I walked out onto the beach of Big Bear Lake to watch the sun set on another day and another year. I’m almost halfway done with my landmark quest. I really can’t believe it. I haven’t found George yet, but even beyond that, I really don’t know what I will do once this quest is done. It’s giving structure to my life right now, and while I love visiting national parks, they require more time, more money, and more planning. Even though that’s at least three years away, and not worth the worry yet, it has been on my mind lately.
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That being said, it is very important to see birthdays as milestones more than measures. Age follows a schedule; life doesn’t. So, for now, I will celebrate this milestone by swimming across Big Bear Lake in the dark. I won’t be able to see what’s ahead of me, but I will find the shore.
Good night, everyone!
