Not Nagano, but Closer

It had been the fourth straight day of coping with El Nin~o, and it was getting to me. I was tired of fighting traffic snarls, avoiding mudslides, navigating flooded streets. Why not head to the mountains, I thought, and trade the wet stuff for white stuff and cross-country skiing? This was a radical shift in my thinking; when I moved here five years ago from the East Coast, I hadn’t cared if I ever saw snow again. Now El Nin~o was making it look good.

My friend Gerard made a few phone calls and came back with some information. Yes, there was enough snow for cross-country skiing in the San Bernardino Mountains, but finding a room in Lake Arrowhead for that weekend was going to be difficult. A few more calls, a few more rejections and we snagged the last room at the Lakeview Lodge (a bit expensive at $145 a night, but I didn’t think we had much choice). It is on California 189 across from the Lake Arrowhead Village shopping and restaurant complex.

Saturday morning I dug out my dusty cross-country skis and we headed east on Interstate 10 toward the blue-black clouds suspended over the mountains.

The Rim Nordic Ski Area is in San Bernardino National Forest, about 12 miles east of Lake Arrowhead, opposite Snow Valley on the grandiosely named Rim of the World Drive. Snow was falling as we headed into the trailer that is the command center to rent one set of skis and buy trail passes ($8 each) for the afternoon. Rim Nordic owner Bev Brown outfitted Gerard with shoes, skis and poles for $10 for a half day. Rim Nordic offers ski and snowshoe rentals, and a learn-to-ski package that includes a lesson, trail pass and full-day rental of equipment for $30.

Sticking to the beginner Country Road trail, we skied past small cabins, a few with lights glowing in the distance, across frozen streams and past trees with boughs hunched over with snow. The woods were quiet. At the top of one rise I paused to catch my breath, and in the silence I could hear nothing but my heartbeat.

As the afternoon wore on, the sky grew murkier and the snow flew thicker, but I had found my balance and my stride. For brief seconds, I’d enter the zone, flying down the trail with the rhythm and grace of an Olympian.

It was raining when we checked into the Mobil-rated two-star Lakeview Lodge, originally a private home built early in this century but renovated recently, near the shores of Lake Arrowhead. The lobby was comfortable and Victorian. A massive stone fireplace with a gas fire and the couch and two armchairs looked inviting. Tucked in a nook by the fireplace was a video library, containing many of my favorite black-and-white classics.

Our room, No. 7, was called the Tapestry Room, named, I assume, for the framed tapestries of cherubic red-cheeked children that hung on the walls. A large armoire dominated one end of room, which contained other antiques and bed linens with a rose and cream-colored floral English country look. And a modern touch: a TV and VCR stood atop an antique table.

In case we didn’t know what the innkeepers were trying to achieve, a sign over the front door proclaimed: Lakeview “Romantique” Lodge. In keeping with our room’s motif, we dined that night at the Tapestry restaurant in town, with reservations secured by the hotel concierge. The restaurant is tucked into the premises of the Saddleback Lodge.

“Let’s eat the most unique item on the menu,” Gerard said, and so we started with a house specialty, porcupine shrimp, in which the shrimp are encrusted with fried yucca sticks and coconut and served with a mango sauce. Unfortunately all the stuff on top overpowered the flavor of the shrimp. Our main courses were better. Gerard liked his--pork with a sauce made of molasses and cumin--and I had medallions of lamb on a bed of tabbouleh and mashed potatoes.

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Sunshine woke us the next morning, and I was looking forward to skiing, anticipating that another foot had fallen at Rim Nordic the night before. We ate two breakfasts that morning. The continental one that the lodge served was delicious--large, warm cinnamon buns dripping with icing, fruit, coffee and juice--but not enough to fuel us for a day of skiing. So we dropped by Woody’s Boathouse in Lake Arrowhead Village to load up on French toast and quiche.

The Rim Nordic trailer was crowded that morning. Bev gave us a few dollars off the rental rate for Gerard’s skis since we had been there the day before. More snow had fallen during the night but rain had too, softening the snow and making it impossible for the Browns to groom the tracks, which were icy in some spots.

I wanted to try snowshoeing, and so we traded our skis for the large oval-shaped aluminum paddles that we strapped onto our hiking shoes. We trudged up hills, over snow-hidden bushes, walking on the surface of snowbanks that were at least three feet deep. Too much work, I thought, especially after a morning of skiing, but I could see how it might be fun to break a trail in woods made inaccessible by deep snow.

We ended our visit to snow in midafternoon. That evening back home, as I hauled the recycling bins down to the curb in the never-ceasing rain, I paused, and for a moment I was back in those white woods, snow gently pricking my face, hearing the beat of my heart.

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Rangachar is an editor in the Travel section.

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Budget for Two

Lakeview Lodge, 1 night w/tax: 158.05

Lunch, Arriba: 20.35

Trail passes, 2 days: 31.00

Ski rentals, 2 days: 21.00

Dinner, Tapestry:z79.57

Breakfast, Woody’s Boathouse: 17.98

Gas: 13.69

FINAL TAB: $341.64

Lakeview Lodge, 28051 Highway 189, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352; tel. (909) 337-6633. Rim Nordic Ski Area, Highway 18, Running Springs, CA 92382; tel. (909) 867-2600.