Big Bear Ca

The giant snowstorm that buried Big Bear Lake over the weekend seemed gentle and reassuring compared with the smoke, fire and evacuations the mountain resort has endured. Mother Nature, for now, acting motherly. In fact, despite slick roads, cars entombed by snow and freezing temperatures, it was pretty much impossible to find anyone willing to utter an unkind word about the weather.

Wildfires that burned into the night Saturday forced several thousand people from their homes in San Bernardino and San Diego counties as winds pushed flames along the edges of Big Bear Lake and the historic town of Julian. The Big Bear fire, the larger of the two, burned more than 16,000 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest. Gov.

Fire crews made progress Sunday in containing wildfires near Big Bear Lake and the historic town of Julian in San Diego County that had forced thousands of people from their homes, but officials said both fires remained dangerous. As of Sunday evening, the blaze near Big Bear, called the Butler 2 fire, had burned 15,433 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest and was 12% contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Jocelyn Holt.

Just 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Big Bear Lake offers a quick cure for urbanites with a fever for cabins. Though best known as a winter playground, there are plenty of autumnal charms in this resort area nestled in the San Bernardino National Forest 7,000 feet above sea level as an autumnal destination. It's far less crowded. Accommodations are discounted. And though the temperature drops sharply at night, most days are sunny and warm enough for T-shirts.

WHAT The Champion Lodgepole Pine WHERE Big Bear Lake WHY TAKE THE DETOUR Hunting for this ancient tree takes you farther into San Bernardino Mountains territory and deeper into its history. The Champion Lodgepole Pine is about 440 years old, which means it germinated around 1560, about four years before Shakespeare was born. The drive to get there, over sometimes wildly rocky road, is SUV-worthy and winds through towering trees and piles of boulders.

Christmas came early this year for Southern California snow junkies. Skiers and snowboarders woke up Sunday to the best of gifts from Mother Nature, who overnight had dumped up to 8 more inches of snow on Big Bear ski resorts. All told, a weekend storm left slopes covered in as much as a foot of the white gold. After the bone-dry season of last year, Shane McCallon, 19, was eager to get started.

Two Big Bear Lake boys were arrested after stealing a small plane from a hangar at Big Bear Airport on Sunday and then making a forced landing in Joshua Tree National Park, authorities said. The plane, a single-engine Mooney M20C, belonged to the parents of one of the 14-year-old boys, and the two friends apparently were trying to run away from their homes, authorities said. The boys landed in Pinto Basin, about 30 miles southeast of Twentynine Palms, between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

The second of three people who died in a twin-engine plane that crashed on the south shore of Big Bear Lake on Monday morning has been identified. Danny Edward Stokes, 52, of Victorville was the pilot of the plane that took off from Big Bear City Airport, San Bernardino County sheriff's officials said. The owner of the plane, 68-year-old Robert Cartwright of Sugarloaf, also died in the crash.

Coroner's officials have determined that the skull and bones found near a Big Bear area campsite last weekend are those of 9-year-old David Gonzalez, but the cause of his death is still under investigation, authorities said Thursday. The boy's dental records were used to positively identify the remains, which were found by hikers and San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies along a creek near the Hanna Flat campground. David disappeared during a family outing in July.

A couple killed when their small plane crashed at Big Bear City Airport were identified Tuesday by authorities. Michael Peter Defilippo, 52, and his wife, Debra Ann Defilippo, 51 -- both of Big Bear City -- were pronounced dead at the scene Monday after being extracted from the aircraft. The lone survivor, airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center with minor injuries, was identified as Kathleen Ann Rodriguez, 23, of Rancho Cucamonga.