My Big Bear adventure. I rode from home to Big Bear on Saturday, and rode home on Sunday. I am not fit, and so this was a little over the top, particularly once I hit the heat on the 138 after descending from Wrightwood. The steep pitches on the 138 heading up towards Crestline began to take their toll. The situation with vehicular traffic and the shoulders is a little dicey, so it is necessary to take the steep ramps when they are on your side of the road. My guess is that the climbing is understated here, and that it is over 17,000' (see notes at the bottom re my adjustment of Meichtry's Garmin data) . I'm not sure I will do this again due to the motor vehicular traffic on the 18/Rim of the World. There is little to do there to protect yourself should a truck be pulling a trailer, oblivious to the extra width of the trailer, or the way it is tracking towards the cyclist where there is no adequate shoulder, or no shoulder at all. I expected this, but still it is not something I would choose to do on a weekly basis because, from my perspective, it would only be a matter of time before something bad would happen, and the prospect is unpleasant for me. Crestline is not particularly ideal for a water stop, but you take what you can get; the liquor store only had smallish size water to buy, like Fuji. A local gave me good advice, though, on a more direct route towards Big Bear, where I took Crest Forest Drive to the 18 instead of a more roundabout way on the 138. The ride was plenty long and difficult as it was, and it bypassed a few miles of the 18 about which I am quick to complain. I met a couple of "colorful" characters in the town while I was scrounging for free water; there is no reliable water source from which to "scrounge". Not sure there is any intermediate spot to replenish other than the McDonalds near the I-15, which is only 11.4 mi from my Wrightwood stop, assuming it survived the fire a week later. I took some pics along the way, but only stopped once or twice, one time as I was going around Silverwood Lake, which looks like a nice spot for some boating (not too crowded). Sadly, a huge forest fire broke out right there only 24 hours later. The bookend to this was my rode home Sunday, which was non-eventful with a lot of junk miles and way too many stops at red lights on Base Line: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/10384577 I deviated from my route map to save a few minutes by taking Foothill towards ACH, and I even cheated a corner off of Foothill/ACH. Steve Meichtry sent me the gps track from his similar ride in June, and I edited it to coincide with my entry to ACH, and on to the Big Bear Dam (where he took the North Shore). I also deducted 0.5 mi & 66' for his detour to the McDonald's on Wagon Train Rd (intersection with I-15 in/near Phelan). This left 115.8 mi & 16,612'/-11,464' based on his Garmin data. Adding to this my start (to ACH at Green), and my finish in Big Bear) off the south shore brings the ride totals for elevation gain/loss to: 17,869'/-12,170'