I used to love this town and this mountain and this alpine village of ours under the Jeffrey pines. But that was before the global pandemic ruined the town of Big Bear Lake. That was way before all this completely normal to us locals now in 2022, Big Bear Lake short-term rental drama. Maybe I wouldn’t be writing this rant if I had any sleep last night but how can one sleep when the Big Bear Lake short-term rental next door left their two large dogs in the backyard, abandoned whining and barking nonstop for eight hours. The poor dogs were going ballistic, probably hungry too, barking at the raccoons until at least one a.m. Because, duh, we live in a forest full of wild animals. If you leave dogs out at night with raccoons present, dogs are going to bark! I was bleary-eyed, grumpy and yes, even PMSing when I got up late at five a.m. and put a Bulletproof coffee in the blender. Day seven of no carbs and no sugar and this Hungry Mountaineer on the keto kraze was running very low on patience.
I used to care but things have changed
Big Bear Lake short-term rental ridiculous drama was the perfect storm for Tropical Aggression Pissy Amber to form. PS I think my boyfriend is quite thrilled I take out my female hormonal stress on asshole vacation rental businesses and not his sweet ass. As my morning dawned with Big Bear Lake short-term rental drama, I was sleepy, grouchy as all hell and I hadn’t had carbs in seven days. I grabbed my macadamia nuts and a bag of beef jerky and raced out the door with my trail dog to go meet my first clients of the day. As Big Bear Lake’s premier hiking guide, I needed to put on a happy face and fast. Luckily I left early enough to meet my badass friend Bobbi and do a super quick one-mile trek with the pups and vent about Big Bear Lake short-term rental drama for goodness sake. And then my morning continued with the discovery of human shit everywhere alongside, my favorite creek. It had to be from the homeless population who live here in the forest this time of year. I was already fed up with humanity and my patience was up shit creek. Literally.
As a Leave No Trace hiker and hardcore nature lover and just overall responsible human being I just don’t understand what the actual fuck is wrong with other people these days? I mean finding human shit in the creekbed while just trying to get the pups some water this morning was the last straw in my tolerance for other human beings and their outright stupidity. Bob Dylan sang,
People are crazy and times are strange.
I’m locked in tight I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed.
The tourists, the Big Bear Lake short-term rental industry and the homeless in this forest are turning my hometown into a virtual toilet. Code enforcement doesn’t give a shit, literally. Cabin management rental companies could care less about locals just wanting a good night’s rest in our homes where we pay taxes. And this is coming from someone who works in the tourism industry and needs the tourism industry to survive financially. I have to say I host so many travelers each day who are awesome respectful human beings but then there are the rest of them.
The ones who let their dogs shit in our front yard.
The ones who pick fruit from our garden like they are at fucking Whole Foods.
The ones who smear human shit on the boulders at my favorite trailhead.
The Big Bear Lake short-term rental boarders who started an illegal bonfire last week when we had 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts.
The ones who throw their stinky ass diapers and garbage in our trash cans when tourists are expected to take their own trash to disposal sights.
Oh, and the seventeen-year-old hosting crack-smoking parties next door at the STR until two a.m. on a Wednesday. Let’s not forget about those douchebags.
And this was how pissy I was this a.m. before I sat in dog shit! Because, yes, obviously I sat in dog shit today at our dock that we pay for. There are no boats next to us, why is anyone even over here and why can’t these Snow Pigs pick up their dog poo?
It was a shitty twenty-four hours
The last twenty-four hours of my life have been an absolute shit show. And I mean that in every way possible. It began when I completed a nine-mile hike with a badass seventy-year-old friend on a humid day yesterday. Bobbi Jo is one of the most impressive women I know. She is seventy and in better shape than anyone I know. She wore long jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt on the hike to protect her skin. Bobbi Jo didn’t even bring water for herself. (She did for the Huskies. We both did because what kind of person doesn’t care for dogs on a hot day?)
So I’m in shorts and a sports bra, sweating my big ass off and complaining about the humidity and gulping water nonstop. The huskies and I were hot. I swear to you, Bobbi Jo is so upbeat and positive and apparently not hot and thirsty like a Keto Krazed Fat Ass Hungry Mountaineer. When I grow up, I want to be Bobbi Jo. I just wanted some carbs and a lake to dunk my fat ass in for a super-fast swim from our dock before my doctor’s appointment. The whole morning was humid and sweaty and beautiful with fields of wildflowers until I sat in dog shit at our dock.
There are no other boats even docked next to us this year because the economy is so bad here nobody’s even putting their boats in the water. So I don’t understand why there is random dog shit next to our dock when no one else should even be over here. I splashed my fat ass off in the lake angrily and drove to my doctor’s appointment even stinkier than the sweaty hiker I usually am and thought that was the end of my doggone tirade for the week.
But wait! There’s more!
like I’m in a sauna and Bobbi Jo is just frolicking through this heat.
Well, then I went to bed at 8:15. completely exhausted and had to wake up at 4:30 for a sunrise hike this morning for my business that has been completely affected by Joe Biden destroying our economy. Our tourism economy has been absolutely dead since April and that deeply affects my paycheck in a world where gas and groceries are unbelievably expensive. I’m a full-time resident here in Big Bear and some days I just have to get up before the sun for work to make a decent living. It’s unbelievably frustrating to have an STR Big Bear Lake short-term rental next door to me that is constantly having parties or having dogs barking till two in the morning going batshit crazy at the raccoons. But that was last night.
Big Bear Lake short-term rental bullshit
The dogs next door started going batshit crazy at the raccoons at 6:00 p.m. and we are actually friends with these neighbors and we know they’re in Spain right now on holiday and we were told they were having friends watch the dogs. The friends have been here for days and the dogs have been super well behaved. I haven’t even seen the dog watcher friends next door. So it was really surprising to have the dogs barking last night. I really wasn’t concerned in the beginning because I figured the people must have just gone out to dinner and left the dogs out in the backyard. At 8:15. I went to bed because I was just exhausted and I was getting up before dawn on that early July morning. By nine p.m. which is quiet time, the dogs had gone totally ballistic. After nine p.m. in our town if you are screaming and smoking crack in the backyard of your Big Bear Lake short-term rental (True story. That happened a few weeks back) you are disturbing the peace. Same thing if you abandon the pups you’re supposed to be watching.
I was unbelievably pissed about the dogs at that point as I struggled to sleep. And I texted the neighbors who told me basically that their friends who had been watching the dogs had left and they had people they didn’t even know coming to watch the dogs. They should have been here by early evening. Apparently, they had never shown up. Why on earth would you leave your dogs to be watched by people you don’t even know? I’m not usually this exasperated but I’m a hell of a lot nicer when I have a good night’s sleep. Or any sleep for that matter.
Well, last night I learned that if you call Cool Cabins, the sheriff, code enforcement, animal control, every hour on the hour, nobody gives a hot damn about the locals who actually live in this town when the dogs at the STR next door are barking like mad until two a.m. at the raccoons. This is life in Big Bear Lake short-term rental hell.
Obviously, I work in the tourism industry so I have a really hard time complaining but life in Big Bear Lake is getting beyond ridiculous. The Snow Pigs STR short-term renters are acting like Big Bear is Las Vegas, using the forest as their toilet and having crack-smoking parties next door to us until two in the morning on a Wednesday. Big Bear Lake has changed so much during the pandemic in such a negative way. And Big Bear Lake politicians have no interest whatsoever in helping the residents who live here. Our friend just tried to buy a piece of land near us to build long-term housing for low-income mountain residents and the city made the permitting process such a shitshow that they just gave up and bought land in Oregon instead and are building a business there. The city of Big Bear could give a flying fuck about what locals want or need. And what we do need is housing for locals who live here and officials who will actually do a damn thing about the code violations besides “Make a not of it”
Living in Big Bear has seriously gone to shit. People who live here and pay taxes have no rights whatsoever. I don’t even understand why we have code enforcement when they won’t do a damn thing when there are literally dogs barking all night long because dog owners have abandoned them out in the backyard for the coyotes overnight. And calling Cool Cabins who is supposed to manage this property is just a joke. After the second time the manager who was helping me hung up on me I gave up. What a mess of a company
I’m beyond exhausted so I thought to myself why don’t I write a two-thousand-word rant? I got three hours of sleep last night. So yes, before I met my second group of hikers of the day I did realize my shirt was on inside out. And yes I did go to turn it the right way right as they drove up to meet me. And that’s how I ended up half-naked when my second group of the day showed up. And that is how you get a five-star review even when you are exhausted from Big Bear Lake short-term rental shenanigans!
