Alpine Slide Crash in Breckenridge Colorado: Awesome Video

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Up close and personal with a HUGE brown bear

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Snow Summit Mountain Bike Park

Snow Summit Mountain Biking Trails

I just got back from an afternoon mountain biking session at Snow Summit and I was extremely impressed.  The park opened this year, so there wasn’t a lot of information about it online. The lift tickets for the afternoon 1pm-5pm session are very reasonably priced at 22$. If you have to rent a bike, this is where they’re going to hit your wallet. Bike rentals start at 59$, not including the 10$ damage waiver.  The rental bikes are higher end Trek XC models with full suspension. We brought our own bikes, so it wasn’t an issue for us anyway.

The lift takes approximately 10 minutes to reach the Summit. Your bike rides up the mountain on a separate lift from a metal hanger. Our first run of the day started on the easy fire road trail 2N10. This trail is a wide double lane fire road with no obstacles or rocks. We skipped the turnout for the Coyote Trail that went back to the lift and headed down the Pine Nut Trail instead. I would call Pine Nut an intermediate trail. It was mostly single track with  quite a few small obstacles. A fairly novice rider could manage this trail is they were in good shape and not too clumsy. This route required a small amount of uphill riding, which is much harder at 10,000 feet above sea level.  I definitely wouldn't take my mom down Pine Nut. From the bottom of the trail, there is a 2.5 mile ride back through town on Big Bear Blvd to the resort. I wasn't expecting this, but the lake is beautiful in the summer and it was a fun ride. This would have been a good last run of the day to cool down. This run took up 90 minutes with a few small breaks in the middle for picture taking.

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Bear Mountain, Big Bear California

If you live in Orange County or LA and you want to take a day trip to the slopes, you won't find a better resort than Bear Mountain in Big Bear California. The resort is about a 90 minute drive from the heart of Orange County. Bear Mountain gets a ton of snow, the daytime temperature are usually mild, the skies are almost always blue, the scenery is amazing and they have more jumps and features per trail than any resort that I've ever been to.

Adult lift tickets are 59$ for a full day during the week and jump tp 72$ on the weekend and during holidays.  During "peak holidays" they jump all the way up to 118$. I highly recommend visiting midweek when the crowds are thin. It's also a good idea to check the internet for deals on lift tickets. In the past, Bear Mountain has run 2 for 1 lift ticket specials. As of 2013, they still offer the "ski for free" on your birthday program.

 Big Bear is a great little town. It has enough to do that even a non-skier can have a great time.  My favorite place in town is the Alpine Slide at Magic Mountain. For 20$, you get 5 rides down the mountain on a miniature luge with wheels. If you're brave enough, try mastering the course without using the hand-brake. There are also a couple of really great pizza joints in town like No Name Pizza and Saucy Mama's.

 A ton of locals head for the coast and offer up their cabins for rent during the ski season, so you can almost always find a good deal on a cabin. The last time I did Big Bear we found a 3 bedroom/2 bath cabin that would easily sleep 10 people for

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