Well, almost! 

Today Big Bear got our first inch of natural snow and Snow Summit began blowing snow at 3 in the afternoon. They will continue making snow all weekend and this storm is super cold.

I'm sure they will open within a week. That means a nice few weeks of snowboarding before Thanksgiving this year. Bonus!! 

What is new this year at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain? 
They are now offering a free child lift ticket with every lodging lift ticket package. 
Details coming soon on our Lift Ticket Packages page. 

Today I heard there was a traffic jam at Cienega going toward the village. 

I had previously seen a traffic alert pop up on my Google Maps on Android phone when there was contruction hold up at the dam. Today I was excited to see detailed traffic speed along highway 18 from San Bernardino to Cushionberry grade! Right on my phone! 

It looks like the car show is causing a huge weekend traffic jam coming into Big Bear Lake! 

How does google do real time traffic? 
Via "crowdsourcing", everyone who is using google maps with My Location feature enabled is sending google anonymous user data about their speed and location. Google aggregates this all together into a real time view of traffic of surface streets.

I think that since cell tower service on the 38 and Cushionberry grade is spotty google can't get enough data for those roads. But highway 330/18 has good cell service and on a busy weekend their was traffic data from San Bernardino on 18 all the way to Cushionberry grade! 

Real Time Traffic Highway 330, 18, 38

Click Here for Current Real Time Traffic in Big Bear! 

In general I do not want to pay more taxes and am for smaller government. But the funding cuts to schools in California are immoral. 


Kids should not suffer due to adults mismanagement of the state budget!


Ideally, the state would fix the budget by cutting funding for prisons / pensions or other programs over schools. Governor Brown and Sacramento have not come through for us in this regard. 

REASONS TO SUPPORT MEASURE M
Measure M will help fund local Big Bear Schools for the next 4 years. 
Hopefully during that time the state will get its act together and re-fund schools.
Measure M cannot be renewed without another local vote. 
Senior (aged 65+) property owners are exempt. 
California pays relatively low property taxes compared to other states. 

HOW TO VOTE
Measure M is a ballot that will be mailed to registered voters in Bear Valley in early June. 
You must mail back your vote before July 10th.  
Requires 67% approval to pass. 

MORE INFORMATION 

Measure M details: 

http://www.bigbearstudents.com/faqs/ 

Thanks, 
Grayson McNeill
Big Bear Hostel owner

On a recent trip to Mexico I picked up a couple bags of Cheetos for the gang in the bus...