You may have a point with 173 although I'm not sure if parts of it may be blocked or not during the winter. 173 snakes to the south of Lake Arrowhead and goes east. Coincidentally though ... if you can wait and assuming you're not going until tomorrow, I'll actually be in your area tonight visiting my friend for dinner. I'll do a GPS map recording and publish it here later in the evening when I return.
I usually make my way to Old Mill Road* near Lake Gregory and then merge onto 138, go past Silverwood Lake, make a right onto 173, then a left onto Arrowhead Lake Rd and right on Rock Springs Road, to Roundup Way and then right on Bowen Ranch. This route takes just over 1 hour-ish and is actually shorter in time but maybe not distance compared to 173. The total miles is about 45 vs. about 32 for the 173 route but that route will take about 20-30 minutes longer because of the lower speed limits and twisted road.
* See that left turn I make in the first 5 seconds of my video ... that's coming back to Lake Arrowhead making a turn from 138 onto Old Mill
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2014 04:35PM by mohave.