Pine Cone Fest.: cont. from pg. 3 activity! Remember to check out the amazing vendor booths with wonderful items for early holiday shopping and great food vendors to satisfy your taste buds. There will be music all day, including local mountain favorites the <strong>Mountain</strong> Fifes & Drums, Quarter to 3, Dan McNay, Todd & Barbi and Little Bear Valley Blues. Nancy Anderson will share Bear Awareness and Karen Singleton with <strong>Mountain</strong> Top Dog Training will take you through simple steps for happier dogs. Don’t miss the Pine Cone Olympics (first round is free and then you can pay only $1 for additional rounds to improve you score and win ski passes and more). Try to catch your favorite local first responder agency competing for the golden Pine Cone trophy awarded to the winner of the Pine Cone Brigade competition. Just 30 minutes from San Bernardino, and 60-75 minutes from many locations in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, the Festival is easy to find on Highway 18, just five miles east of <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong>. After the Festival visit nearby Lake Arrowhead, Crestline or Big Bear. There will be plenty to do and enjoy in our local mountains into the evening or even the whole weekend. And best of all – it’s FREE! For more info, visit www.Pine- ConeFestival.org. Cheekers and Smokey Bear hanging out at the Pine Cone Festival Some Pine Cone Facts So, you decided to visit the Pine Cone Festival on October 6th, at Rim Nordic and want to search for a few pine cones. Here are a brief primer and the basics. First, pine cones come in many shapes and sizes and the San Bernardino <strong>Mountain</strong>s have two of the biggest pine cones in the world. The pine cone itself reproduces from the seeds contained inside. There are approximately 35 types of pine cones throughout the United States. The most common type in the San Bernardino <strong>Mountain</strong>s is the Ponderosa Pine. This is also true throughout the US. The needles stick out making it ‘prickly”. The Ponderosa Pine is smaller than the Jeffrey Pine and both are the most prolific pine trees in the San Bernardino <strong>Mountain</strong>s and the United States. The Coulter Pine is the heaviest of all pine cones. Some cones can weigh up to 10 pounds. These cones are so heavy they are known as widow makers to loggers as several have been killed when falling on their heads. The early Indians who inhabited the mountains sometimes ate the Coulter Pine’s pine nuts. The Sugar Pine is the longest pine cone in the world. It can grow up to 24” long. It gets its name from the sweet-smelling sap of the plant. The nuts of this pine tree are edible and have been used by native citizens for hundreds of years, and the sap can be chewed like gum. The Sugar Pine is also the tallest of all pines and can grow up to 280 feet tall. The Knob Cone Pine is known to be the hardest pine cone in the world and can be opened only by fire. It’s a closed cone and when heated extremely the seeds drop to grow again. The Pinyon Pine prefers The Coulter Pine Cone is the heaviest of all pine cones, is rightly nicknamed ‘the widow maker’. a little warmer climate and when placed next to a fire, the nuts can be removed easily. The early Indians used the bark and other parts of the tree as a medicine. The two-needle piñon is the official state tree of New Mexico. The Jeffrey Pine is known for its pine needles being much hardier than its cousin the Coulter Pine. The Jeffrey Pine needles and scales are turned inward and do not hurt when handled. The bark of the Jeffrey Pine sometimes smells like vanilla. The Limber Pine is unusual as the bark can be bent and twisted and the smaller branches can be tied in knots. The tree is study and stout and can withstand winds and the elements better than other pine trees. When it comes to pine trees individually, Spruce trees are very popular as Christmas trees as the branches are spread more apart to make it easier to hang ornaments. The ‘Blue Spruce’ usually sells for much more than most pine trees as they offer a fuller tree visually. Remember, all pine trees have pine needles. The idea of a trail connecting the diffderent communities in the <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong>, Lake Arrowhead, and Crestline Communities seems to be coming to fruition. Photo by S. Peter Working On The Reality Of A Intermountain Trail by Steven Peter “Build it and they will come” was a recent saying used in the 1989 baseball movie “Field of Dreams” starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones. The saying might also apply to the proposed intermountain trail being discussed and bantered about recently among some local citizens who wish to make an extension of the trails running through the Big Bear area or even to link the mountain communities more closely with a designated trail that world be approved by the US Forest Service. Existing trails already exist which may be a quick start to any long-range plan to incorporate them into a larger or grand trail linking the mountain communities. With the apparent success of the Big Bear Valley trail system there is a goal afloat to link the Big Bear area with <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong> and eventually Lake Arrowhead and Lake Gregory/Crestline. Meetings have been held to resurrect some of the plans of a 1998 conference that was held in Lake Arrowhead. The assembly was sponsored by a coalition of Big Bear and Rim Chambers of Commerce, environmental organizations, San Bernardino County representatives, San Bernardino National Forest, SoCal Edison, local banks, and other businesses. The Rim of the World Trails Association was an outcome of that conference that was held in Lake Arrowhead. The association applied for and received a Caltrans/ DOT grant of more than a million dollars for an intermountain trail. Unfortunately, a rift developed between the Association hierarchy and Big Bear as well as among board members prompting resignations. Regrettably, those funds were later returned. Big Bear decided to go it alone and they have succeeded via the City of Big Bear Lake and the San Bernardino National Forest. The goals of the new group are to link up with the different communities and/or entertainment destinations from Big Bear via the Siberia Creek Trail (Arctic Circle) to Snow Valley, then connecting to the Children’s Forest. From there continuing to the Charles Hoffman Elementary School and Hootman Center Complex. The more popular trail would then lead from C. Hoffman Elementary into the village of <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong>. The next phase of the plan would be to take the trail and link it between the village of <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong> along the northern edge of town and eventually connecting to or behind Pali <strong>Mountain</strong> to Heap’s Peak Arboretum (which has given the plan a pre-approval). From Heaps Peak Arboretum, it would only be a short jaunt to SkyPark at Santa’s Village. The eventual goal would be to link SkyPark with Lake Arrowhead and Crestline and, therefore, the rest of the mountain. Rim Nordic Ski Area & Bike Park by Bev Brown Summer has come to a close for the bike park at Rim Nordic Ski Area, 5 miles east of <strong>Running</strong> <strong>Springs</strong>, directly across from Snow Valley <strong>Mountain</strong> Resort, with just one mountain bike race to happen when the snow falls in December….The California State Fat Bike Championships on Dec. 9th. But no time is wasted as all the winter equipment is being serviced, hoping for the chance of an El Nino year of weather, which could bring lots & lots of snow. Plans to reside the office in natural wood from the area is on tap for fall, as well. So, think snow & keep in touch with their website snow report page for continuing updates when the weather changes. Remember, the 12th Annual Pine Cone Festival will be happening again this fall on October 6th at Rim Nordic & parking at Snow Valley from 9:30am-4pm. This is a FREE event for the entire family with lots of activities for all, food & entertainment, biggest pine cone contests, Pine Cone Olympics, Smokey Bear & their own Cheekers mascot, fire engines & many vendor booths to start your holiday shopping. Come join the fun! Check out their website at www.pineconefestival.org. Page 4 <strong>Mountain</strong> <strong>Lifestyle</strong> October 2018 October 2018 <strong>Mountain</strong> <strong>Lifestyle</strong> Page 5