In March 1970 my Step Father was hired by the San Bernardino Police Dept. Back then you had to live within the city…so we moved from Fontana to San Bernardino. Not too far and still in the Inland Empire Valley. In 1970 I was 11 1/2 years old and being uprooted at that age is a somewhat traumatic experience as it would be for any 11 year old who has spent his entire life in one place. Leaving all your friends and school behind…that was hard. I remember it very well. Within a few weeks I found a new friend.
We became friends because we had birthdays 5 days apart. We became great friends and spent from April of that year to Sept of that year hanging out. We did a lot of hiking as San Bernardino buts up against the foothills. As we hiked and hung out we made a bunch of plans to hike to certain peaks and find the cave that everyone knows about but can’t tell us. BTW we did find that cave that summer. 2 of the peaks we said we would hike if and when our parents would let us is McKinley Mtn. W6/CT-166 and Harrison Mtn. W6/CT-125. Sota of course was not in existence yet and these 2 peaks are on the front range and are on each side of Hwy 330 that heads up to Big Bear. The sentinels so to speak. Well we never made it up to those peaks.
In 6th grade we had different classes and in 7th grade a young boys attention turns to girls and then to cars and then to career. But every day I looked up and saw those peaks I would remember the talk my friend and I had about those peaks.
We lost touch and in 1976 I joined the USA Military and moved away. Came back 4 years later, took a few security jobs and then became a Deputy Sheriff for 25 years, got married had kids…you know life. Still always looking at those peaks and dreaming…one day!!!
This past week I finally hiked (and activated) both of those peaks!!! Back in 1970 the phrase bucket list wasn’t even thought of and I must say climbing these peaks were never on my bucket list. However as I was hiking down from Harrison a flood of memories came back to me. I was wishing my friend would have been here with me on this day.
In my 25 years as a Deputy I have seen the worst society can offer up. There are things I wish I could forget but can’t. At least for a moment I dreamed of that day in 1970 and relived being a kid again.
Ken
KN6CCW