Saturday, August 27, 2022

Arctic Point

Hiked: 8/26/2022
Distance: 2.8 miles round trip on dirt road and cross country
Summit Elevation: 8336'
Elevation Gain: 935'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.7
Round trip time: 1 hours 40 minutes
Recommended water: 24 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Forest Road 3N07
Difficulty: Easy

Storms in most of the higher local mountains left me few choices. Blue skies were on tap for Big Bear, so I located some lesser HPS peaks. First up was Arctic Point (HPS #54). Doing this one in the hottest month of the year felt incongruous. I drove a series of dirt roads from the east side of Big Bear Lake to the starting point: 3N09 to 3N16 to 3N07 to the intersection with 3N23. The roads were not bad, but I did have to drive through 4 mud puddles at the end with 4x4. I followed the next dirt road (3N43) on foot to a drainage on the right where the cross country route started. A faint use trail came and went, but I mostly followed cairns. The path appeared to go through several boulder piles, but there was always a ramp or bypass. I did a little scrambling by choice. The summit was a walk up set of boulders. I found a register in HPS red cans, but it was water soaked and I couldn't sign it. I poured water out of the cans and found a dead baby scorpion. The views were mostly blocked by large trees. I was prepared for disappointment with Arctic Point, but I quite enjoyed the walk through open forest. On the drive out, I stopped at Wilbur's Grave. Legend has it that Wilbur wanted to be buried in that exact spot by the side of the road.

Rockfall on the unmaintained 3N09, but not blocking

Leaving the trail for the drainage



Summit with register cans visible





Wilbur's Grave

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