Moving to Crestline / Lake Arrowhead / Running Springs with only a Honda Fit (rental, houses)

[birdandfeather]

Hello!

My partner and I currently live in LA, but are desperate for some nature / mountains. We are also locked into a lease on our Honda Fit. We are heading up to look at places this week, and I'm wondering how crazy we are! Hah.

We primarily work from home, but we sell at a flea market in LA every Sunday morning, so I think that will be our biggest struggle. My understanding is that the fog is awful. Does anyone have a rough estimate for how often it is actually a problem?

Also, SNOW. We are both from Michigan and we are used to being dumped on with many inches of lake effect snow and still going about our day - but Michigan is relatively flat, so we would be dealing with a whole other beast.

I **really** want to make this work without breaking our car lease or buying a second vehicle. Any thoughts?? Are chains enough? Or would we basically be at the mercy of the snow and trapped several days a month during the winter?

[Ol' Wanderer]

We live 2500 ft higher in elevation than Crestline, almost 2000 ft higher than Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs, and with a lot more snowfall than any of those three places. With 320+ days of sunshine a year, we don't have fog problem, and when we go up and down the hill, we always try to avoid the Cajon Pass. Our only car is a Honda Civic, and snow chains are fine for our monthly round trip to OC. However, we don't run around town in the snow, not because our car cannot handle the road in bad weather, but because there are always hordes of tourists here every snowy weekend and we have no desire to deal with drivers who are not used to drive in snow and ice.

[birdandfeather]

Thanks for your input!!

I had to google Cajon Pass...good to know!

We are going to go up on Wednesday and check out a few places. A couple of the rental agencies made us feel a bit discouraged that we didn't have 4WD, but I've sort of noticed that some Southern California drivers can be pretty reactionary and a little bit overdramatic about driving.

[Ol' Wanderer]

We have never owned a 4WD in our lives, and even before living here full time, we have been going up and down the hill every season of every year (except the seven years we lived abroad) since the mid '80s. You'll be fine in your car.

[birdandfeather]

Thank you. That makes me feel so much better about things!

[Fontucky]

Why so far from LA, assuming you'll continue to sell there? There certainly are some nice nature/mountain areas there.

[birdandfeather]

Hello, Fontucky!

To get what we want nearer LA we'd have to pay double the rent we'd pay in the SB mountains. We are also looking to continue to pay what our current rent is, but double the size and add outdoor space. Also, we really really like the higher elevation and the plants/trees that come with it. I'm not sure if there is anywhere closer where we could get that? If you have any suggestions, we are definitely open to that!!

[Ulysses61]

Birdandfeather, you are not going to use the Cajon Pass if you live in Arrowhead, RS or Crestline. I live in Arrowhead and will tell you right now the fog can be HORRIFIC. You have never driven in log like we have up here. But that's only 12-15 days a year, tops. The person saying there is "no fog" must live in Big Bear.

I wouldn't live in Crestline or RS, for reasons well-known to natives. If you can afford $300,000 choose Arrowhead. It's a fabulous, safe place to live. The other two communites, especially Crestline, has drug problems and a lot of trash. Just my .02 cents. And if you live in Arrowhead, you need either a 4WD or chains. Crestline not so much, they get FAR lesss snow.

[birdandfeather]

Ulysses61 - We were actually up there today and saw some of the fog!! I doubt today was as bad as it can get, but it was really beautiful to watch it float over the mountain tops. We had decent visibility on the road, still. There were a few rough patches, but nothing too crazy. There is NOTHING scarier than not being able to see what's in front of you. I hope I don't get caught in one of those situations.

Thanks for the tips. We are still looking. Before we knew any better we looked at a place in the VOE. Not good. Not good at all. Depressing, in fact. As my bf said, "more like Valley of DISenchantment." Hah.

We saw one crummy neighborhood in Running Springs, but I also saw a couple that seemed good to us...well maintained houses, etc. We are actually looking to rent, not buy, so if our first neighborhood isn't ideal, at least we won't be stuck with it!

[birdandfeather]

Another random question: on another thread someone mentions that UPS deliveries were difficult for her in Lake Arrowhead. Is that everyone's experience? We saw several UPS trucks driving around while we were up there, so I assumed service would be fairly regular. We receive many deliveries for our business, so that's pretty important to us.