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INSIDE

Outlook, Page 17

Sharon Rizzo leads her MountainTop Strings students through two performances.

Bear Valley Unified schools hosted science fairs recently. Youngsters learned about air pressure, bacteria, cookie sheets and more. Page 6

How does your salary measure up to those in similar jobs in the Inland Empire? Page 20

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Big Bear Lake (San Bernardino County) California

75 centsbigbeargrizzly.net | Wednesday, February 25,

6 56525 11111 2

INSIDEVolume 74, Number 26

2 In Brief3 A new garden grows8 Celebrating achievements

10 Obits, Sheriff’s Log11 Babies at the zoo12 Playoffs continue

13 Wrestling wrap 18 Movie review, theater listings22 Grizzly Classifieds

Big Bear Lake (San Bernardino County) California

75 centsbigbeargrizzly.net | Wednesday, February 25, 2015

By KATHERINE DAVIS-YOUNGReporter

More than 90 percent of long-distance hikers who attempt

to tackle the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail start at the Mexican

border, making their way north to the Canadian border. Almost

everyone who attempts the daunting journey over the Sierra

Nevada and Cascade ranges does so in spring and summer months.

What Shawn Forry and Justin Lichter are doing is unheard of.

Forry, 33 and Lichter, 34, are hiking the PCT from north to

south, and they’re doing it during the coldest months of the year.

They started at the Canadian border in late October and expect to

make it to the Mexican border around March 1. No other hikers

are known to have accomplished this before.

“There’s been a bunch of people calling us ‘the crazy ones,’”

Lichter said in an interview. He and Forry took a break to speak to

The Grizzly when they passed through Big Bear on Feb. 20.

When they started walking in Washington last autumn, they

Digging into Rathbun options

By KATHY PORTIEReporter

The Rathbun Corridor Sustainability Plan

is taking shape, but it’s not a final draft yet.

On Feb. 17, residents and other interested

parties gathered at Hofert Hall in Big Bear

Lake to review the latest round in the devel-

opment of the plan.

The Rathbun Corridor follows Rathbun

Creek from the San Bernardino National

Forest in Moonridge to the shores of Big

Bear Lake near Eagle Point Estates. The

creek runs parallel to Moonridge Road south

of Big Bear Boulevard before meandering

through the Bear Mountain Golf Course

property and turning eastward toward Sand

Canyon. Plans are in the preliminary stages

to construct and develop a multi-use trail

along the creek. Another aspect of the proj-

ect includes improvements to the Moonridge

Road business district between Elm Street

and Clubview Drive, north of the golf course.

The plan was divided into three sections

for review. The first section extends from

the shoreline of Big Bear Lake and under

Big Bear Boulevard along with the northern

portion of the Rathbun Creek trail near the

Trout Pond. The second section focused

on the Moonridge Road portion of the plan

along with the trail on Sonoma Drive, across

Moonridge Road and alongside the golf

course. The third section focuses primarily

on connection to Sand Canyon, the Sand

Canyon area and trail access to the national

forest.

The first section mostly goes through

undeveloped property behind Interlaken

Center in the city of Big Bear Lake until it

reaches Big Bear Boulevard. The culvert at

Rathbun Creek does not meet Caltrans’ 100-

year flood requirements, and rebuilding the

culvert to meet those specs would enable the

city to create a bike-pedestrian path under

the road, said Jay Renkens of MIG Inc.

Steve Lang, MIG landscape architect,

said there is the opportunity to create

habitat at that entry point into the lower

Residents review the myriad plans

Installing one or two roundabouts on Moonridge Road is one of many suggestions being considered for the Rathbun Corridor project.

See RATHBUN Page 4

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail like no one before

See PCT Page 9

SCIENCE AT SCHOOL SALARIES STACK UP