My California - Coon Creek Cabins

derekrichardson(71)

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The SoCal Hive

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For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by @thesocalhive I head out into the San Bernardino mountains for a fun winter trip to the...

Coon Creek Cabins!!

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My friend Ryan and I wanted to get out in the mountains for an overnight backpacking trip and with all the snow I thought a fun place to go (and potentially less cold) would be the Coon Creek Cabins. A group of 3 historic cabins that were once a private ranch, but now are maintained by the Forest Service. We headed up highway 38 to the Heart Bar area. We parked at the locked gate on Forest Service road 1N02, which is locked for the season every winter. We had brought our snowshoes as we were expecting there to be lots of snow, but looking at the conditions at the trailhead we opted to leave them behind. Much of the snow had melted and the snow that was still there was only 6" deep at most. So we tossed on our packs and started our hike. It was a 5.5 mile hike to get to the cabins. At first we were glad that we didn't bring the snowshoes as the snow conditions were minimal and the weather was actually quite nice. There were a few big washouts along the hike that took some navigating, but it was nothing too difficult for us. But the last few miles the snow got thicker and deeper and we were sinking and postholing up to our knees. Which was quite tiring and had us regretting not bringing the snowshoes. The last mile was especially rough and we were getting exhausted, but eventually we made it! The sight of the cabins was a welcome relief.

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Trail map

The locked gate at the trailhead

The minimal snow conditions and blue skies on the first miles of the hike

Hiking up Coon creek

Ryan at one of the washout obstacles

Hiking up the trail, with the snow staring to get deeper

And deeper

Starting to regret not bringing the snowshoes

Mostly cloudy views to the east

Arriving at the cabins

The Coon creek cabins are a group of three cabins, two small ones that were somewhat dilapidated and missing sections of roofing, and one larger cabin that is still in good shape and most importantly had a solid roof and a nice large stone fireplace. We unpacked and setup our camp in the main cabin and then headed out to collect some firewood. Most of the wood was wet from the snow, but we were able to find enough dry wood to get the fire going, which then we were able to use to dry some of the wetter wood. With the fire going we were nice and warm and we enjoyed dinner and some drinks before heading to bed.

The front door of the main cabin

Ryan arriving at the cabin

One of the smaller cabins

The other small cabin

The backside of the main cabin

Another shot of one of the small cabins

Views from the front porch

Staying warm by the fire

The next morning we woke up to a bunch of fresh snow outside, with it still falling quite heavily. We made breakfast, got packed up, and then headed out into the snowstorm and started making our way back. It was really beautiful with all the fresh snow, but the extra few inches of snow had us wishing even more that we had brought the snowshoes. After a mile or so the snow unfortunately turned into rain. Which was a bit unpleasant, but luckily the rain was pretty light, and it wasn't long before it turned back into snow. The second wave of snow got pretty heavy, but compared to the rain it was quite enjoyable. Eventually we made it back to the trailhead at Heart Bar. Finishing our trip. We were both a bit tired from hiking through the snow so it was a relief to finally make it, but the challenge is just part of the adventure. And this adventure turned out to be a lot of fun and I'm really glad we did it!

My sleeping area in the cabin