Distance: 3.5 miles round trip on dirt road and cross country
Summit Elevation: 8237'
Elevation Gain: 1060'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.8
Round trip time: 2 hours
Recommended water: 16 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Forest Road 3N16
Difficulty: Easy
Gold Mountain (HPS #64) is slightly NE of Big Bear Lake. A variety of dirt roads lead to the top. I drove up Forest Road 3N16 and parked at the Lucky Baldwin Mine historic site. For people who yearn to push the driving adventure, 3N16 was open and could be driven another half mile to the much rougher OHV road 3N69, my ascent road. I found 3N69 steep with major boulders. It made very few switchbacks. Closer to the top, I left the road for a more direct cross country route. It sort of followed Ben FRs track, more of a concept of a plan to follow it. The slope above the road was mostly open with a few downed trees to work around. After intersecting another road right below the summit, I walked below some tall cedars to the class 2 summit rock pile. Register cans were placed directly above the benchmark. I spotted a couple of reference marks as well. A wooden social media sign was lying nearby. Gold Mountain won the contest for best view of Big Bear Lake (so far). Views were nice in every direction. The weather and blue skies felt more like summer than late October. I soaked in some sun before starting down. My descent path followed a wide gully to the road below, then an easy walk back to the truck.
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