Walking Down the Mineral King Road and Up the Nature Trail

Gird your loins—this is a long post.

With my new-to-me iPhone 14 in hand, I walked down the Mineral King Road to Cold Springs Campground (STILL CLOSED—CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR SOMETHING!) and back up the Nature Trail. This is about 2-1/2 miles total.

Let’s look at the flowers I found along the road. I actually did this route on two consecutive days and was very surprised by how many flowers vanished and new ones appeared in just 24 hours.

From left to right: mariposa lily—a ruffled variety I’ve never seen before; angelica (not to be confused with cow parsnip because angelica has lacy leaves); buckthorn

This view at the top of Endurance Grade always grabs me. Endurance Hill. Coral Hill. Whatevs. It photographs much better with the phone than it ever did with the camera, as much as it pains me to admit.

Most people prefer the view of Sawtooth. Sawtooth isn’t my favorite, but I paint it over and over because most people like it—they haven’t been medivacked off it*.

I love penstemon, particularly this variety. The color just slays me. Maybe I should learn the actual variety name.

A little past the ranger station, we cross the neglected bridge into the closed (WHY?) Cold Springs Campground. (It’s kind of fun to flick off the flaking paint. No, I am NOT telling you to do that! Why would I tell you to do that? Do you think I’m immature or something?)

Here are some yellow flowers on the other side of the bridge: seepspring monkey flower and false lily of the valley.

At the upper end of the closed (WHY?) Cold Springs campground is where the trail begins. It used to have lots of interesting and helpful signs along the trail. The Park removed them all with the plan of upgrading them, but it has been about 10 years so I don’t think it is a priority. (The Park will say, “Hiring freezes! Understaffed!” to which I have many opinions which I will keep to myself in order to keep the tone of my blog elevated.)

At least the beginning of the trail has a nice sign.

This is a Jeffrey pine, which used to have a sign explaining how to tell the difference between Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines and inviting you to sniff the tree, because Jeffreys smell a tad like vanilla.

Aspens are thick along the trail.

Can you see the trail? It’s definitely overgrown. Last week we saw a trail crew guy and I asked if I could prune it for them. He actually said, “If you want to!”

Blog Reader and Top Commenter Sharon calls this “Iron Falls”.

I finally remembered to put a dime in my pocket so that you can see the scale of wildflowers. I didn’t take into account how: A. difficult it is to photograph the 2 side-by-side with only 2 hands; B. to keep my hideous thumbnail out of the photo (yea for cropping); C. to make the phone focus on the blossom instead of the leaves; D. to actually see the screen. Maybe you are supposed to tap the bloom on the screen, but already being shorthanded, this is beyond my capability.

The little footbridge got rebuilt last summer, or maybe the one before. It all runs together.

More Sawtooth

And just in case you are into Sawtooth (Hi, Kathy Wolfe!), here it is one more time, peeking around the ridge, before the phone battery died**.

OIL PAINTINGS OF SAWTOOTH

WAIT! THIS IS A BUSINESS WEBSITE! Here are some oil paintings of Sawtooth available this summer at the Silver City Store (unless they have sold already.)

Sawtooth #67, 8×10”, oil on wrapped canvas, $165
Sawtooth # 68, 6×6”, oil on wrapped canvas, $75
Sawtooth #69, 8×8”, oil on wrapped canvas, $145

*It was 50 years last week so you’d think I’d be over it. I am, but it still isn’t my favorite. So there.

**This is the biggest disadvantage of using a phone instead of a camera. I also bought a charger, but it only works when it feels like it. The frustrations of tech are endless.

Walking to Crystal Creek in MIneral King

The Crystal Creek crossing is about 1 mile from the parking lot at the end of the road in Mineral King. It is relatively flat and easy. We don’t even pretend that it is a hike and it barely passes for exercise. But recently I’ve been thinking that as one ages, one’s body produces and contains progressively more discomfort. Since to hike is to be uncomfortable, one becomes less inclined to add to the discomfort by forcing oneself out onto trails of great steepness and altitude gain. (I AM SICK RIGHT NIGH UNTO DEATH OF THIS STUPID PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY!)

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. Let’s take a nice little gentle walk to Crystal Creek.

First, we cross the bridge and admire the classic view of Farewell Gap and the Crowley Family cabin.

Then we head up the road on the left side of the creek which leads to the pack station. The road turns into a trail after the pack station, SO DON’T BRING YOUR DOG.

There were a ton of flowers, and I experimented with the iPhone 14 as a camera with mixed results. All but one of these are dandelions, which are a wildflower in MIneral King, but a weed in your yard. The other is one of many unknowns in my personal wildflower index.

The trail passes through the green tunnel.*

Hey, a non-yellow flower! I’ve always thought these are whorled penstemon, but many books are calling them “small flowered penstemon”. I think “whorled” has a specific botanical definition, but I’m ignorant of it.

Here is the wide and shallow Crystal Creek. (That is kind of like Facebook, but it might be much wider and even more shallow.)

The views back down the trail:

Yea! More colors!

This summer is showing promise of being a terrific one for wildflowers. Everything seems to be about 2 weeks earlier than normal.

Tomorrow: The Nature Trail

*Remember this painting? I feel compelled to show you because this blog is supposed to be a business venture. Yes, it is the yellow tunnel here. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

While I am advertising, this painting might still be for sale at the Silver City Store.

Timber Gap with Bigelow Sneezeweed, 8×8”, oil on wrapped canvas, $145

Cabin Life

I misled you yesterday when saying we’d visit my short wussy walks in Mineral King. Instead today’s topic is Cabin Life: what in the world does one do in a place with no electricity, internet, or phones?

These are the photographical items on the agenda:

  1. Enjoy the views.

2. Help people hold down their porches.

3. Go exploring for things not noticed before, like these 5 trees growing off one downed tree.

4. Split wood (I’m downright scary with an axe.)

5. Test out a new method to oil the cabin. Looks as if nothing happened here; should have taken an “After” picture.

6. Dig through books trying to identify wildflowers.

7. Clean up messes from dropped trees. This is a giant long project.

8. Examine plants that are growing, with cautious victory dances that some transplanting may have FINALLY taken hold.

9. Spy on kids climbing The Big Rock, thinking how cool it is that kids still know how to play without screens (and then discover that they were inventing a way to get a tablet to the top of the rock.)

Non-photographical activities

We also listen to a lot of country music and try to guess the singers, read, and I knit. Trail Guy naps when he isn’t fixing things at other people’s cabins. (“Hey Mike, could you look at my fridge/oven/toilet/faucet/shower/water heater?” This is endless.) We hang out with neighbors, help strangers figure out appropriate hikes or walks, visit with people that we can’t avoid, and sometimes we hide from all the social activities.

And of course, we hike and walk. Hiking is when you carry a pack with water and lunch; walking is when you don’t have to carry all that stuff (but you can if you want—I rarely do.)

Next: Walking to Crystal Creek

Trail Guy Went to Timber Gap (in Mineral King)

Where is Timber Gap? It’s on the north side of the Mineral King Valley.

A “gap” is a low spot on a ridge or between peaks where it is natural to cross over to the other side. I suppose it is synonymous with “pass”, but in Mineral King we call them “gaps”: Tar Gap, Timber Gap, Farewell Gap. (We also have passes, but that is not today’s topic.)

Notice that Trail Guy’s photos no longer have spots in the sky. I passed my camera to him since I have graduated to an iPhone 14 in hopes that it will suffice as a camera. (Charging the battery is the current obstacle to the success of this new photographic approach but that isn’t today’s topic either.)

These are views from the trail.

In case you were wondering, it is about 2 miles to the gap. I don’t know the elevation: either 9400 or 9600’. (Do your own math from the valley floor at 7800’ if you like those types of facts.) Trail Guy counted 17 downed trees across the trail, which he went around, over, and one time, underneath.

Here is the same photo but this time the starting place in the Mineral King valley is circled for you.

Because I am still teaching drawing lessons in June, Trail Guy gets more time up the hill than I do in early summer. I think my numb feet will still allow me to do some hiking, nothing too tough, but more will be revealed as the summer unfolds…

Meanwhile, I continue to take my wussy walks to Crystal Creek or down the road and up the Nature Trail. We’ll visit that topic tomorrow.

Hey Jeff, Am I Finished With Your Garden Painting?

I don’t think Jeff reads my blog. Marketing and sales people would tell me that I don’t push it hard enough, that I should be linking posts to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. That would be difficult, since I don’t participate in any of those. This may be why I only have tens of readers; the good news is that I know most of you IN REAL LIFE! Thank you for being here.

But I digress.

Jeff’s Garden, a commissioned oil painting, might be finished. After spending the bulk of another workday on the painting, trying to beat a predicted heat wave (the swamp cooler in the painting workshop can only do so much), I sent the last photo to Jeff to ask if it is finished.

If he says yes, then I’ll sign it, paint the edges, let it dry (a quick process in the heat), varnish it, and then begin figuring out the logistics of getting it to him. His zip code appears to be a Northern California town, so it may get shipped. However, I have another trick up my sleeve that might work for delivering it; more will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Here we go with the (hopefully) final in-progress photos. You can see that I began on the poppies, working my way from left to right. Then I added sweet peas to the upper right, and finally, detailed the bench on the left with a hint of a plaque and a branding iron sitting atop.

HE SAID YES, IT IS FINISHED!

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. The design had me baffled for awhile, and I thought this would be really difficult. So, I stepped out of my mental blocks and chaos and coached myself the way I would do for a drawing student. It worked, and this was really quite enjoyable.

THANK YOU, JEFF THE GARDENER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GNAT!

FOURTEEN Things Learned in the first 1/2 of June

Last month I had my head in the sand or something. This month I did so much learning that I’m publishing this post 1/2-way through the month, with the (always reckless) assumption that there will be more to learn in the second half of the month.

TECH

  1. My iphone is too old for a new battery because of planned obsolescence. It still worked but only charged intermittently, and although it is an inferior camera because of pixelation, it was able to capture colors and light better than my PHD (Press Here, Dummy) Canon Elph. Thus, I bought a “pre-owned” (remember when we used to say “used”?) iPhone 14 (the latest version that will work with all the portable charging equipment I just spent too much money for) to use both as a phone and as a camera (like normal people do). There is much to learn, since it has no home button, and things just work differently. Good grief, life is So Very Complicated.

2. The new solve-all-your-problems iphone goes straight to voicemail without ringing. When I asked the Duck, the first answer is that it can take up to 72 hours for it to be ready to ring (to “finish porting”.) To quote my Dad, “Humph”. (It fixed itself, so the Learning here was to just wait.)

3. When I told a friend about my tech decision and the need to find a used iphone 14 for photography, she told me about a site called Swappa. Have you heard of this? BestBuy in Visalia had the phone for $399; Swappa has them for $200-$400. Even in this decision, there are many more decisions to be made—14, 14 Pro, 14 Plus, 14 Pro Max.two lenses or three lenses? Locked or unlocked? JUST STOP ALREADY! (Is this why I frequently escape into fiction?) Forget it. I bought mine in person at Best Buy where 2 different very nice helpful and mostly knowledgeable people helped me. (and I read a library book while I waited for all the transferring to finish.)

4. I learned to transfer all the stuff from the old phone to the new one, along with how to set up email in the new phone (by carefully copying all the weird nonsensical answers used on the email account on my laptop, including everything that said “optional” because no, it’s not optional; you MUST fill in all the blanks.)

5. When emails arrive and say “This email has no content”, I can drag the message out of email onto the desktop and the text will appear. No one understands why, so I’m just glad I found this workaround instead of automatically deleting those emails.

Neighbor cat sometimes walks with us.
Pippin, GET OFF THE ROAD!
Tucker loves his grass.

6. Buy It Now is a way to put an easy button on my blog that takes people to Paypal to buy things. That’s great if the item is available. However, I learned (the hard way) that people can search out an item on my blog and the Buy It Now button still works in spite of no longer having the item. This meant that I also had to learn how to go through my PayPal account and delete every Buy It Now button.

7. Because of this Buy It Now button situation, someone ordered copies of Trail of Promises, which was out of publication. I learned that because I have the computer files for both the text and the cover of the book, it can be reprinted one book at a time (AKA Print-On-Demand) on Lulu.com. So, now Trail of Promises is once again available!

BOOKS

8. I learned about a book by some people called America’s Cheapest Family. If it is interesting enough (and if I remember), I’ll tell you about it next month.

9. Trail of Promises is available again after a several year hiatus, thanks to the marvelous print-on-demand services of Lulu.com. This book is a well-written true adventure story, my favorite of Louise Jackson.

10. The Visalia Electric Railroad also now available on Lulu.com. Even if Tulare County history doesn’t float your boat, I think the book is worth it for the photos. Here is my favorite one:

11. Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, finally has a new book out: The Calamity Club. It is based during the depression and is a depressing story with a good ending. Hard to put it down, gave it 5 stars on GoodReads, but I don’t want to read it again.

MORE INTERESTING & MORE IMPORTANT

12. Davidson’s fritillari is a brand new-to-me flower in Mineral King. My new friend TC discovered it, marked the trail so I could find it, and then it still took me forever to spot it. What color would it be under in a wildflower book??

13. Restaurants, especially fast food types, have been closing because so many people are taking those appetite suppressant drugs. People are changing clothing sizes so quickly that stores are raising their prices to compensate for all the lost revenue that results from all the exchanges and restocking.

14. My friend Bill, William R. Winn, M.D., died. We spent 10 years working together on his two books, Tales of TB and Springville’s Hospital. When we met, he told me it was “hard to get through one’s eighties”. He missed age 90 by 3 months. I will miss him for a very long time. Such a fine gentleman, humble, kind, eager to learn, determined to not be beaten by tech or health troubles, persistent, focused.

Another Someone Else’s Book | Visalia Electric Railroad

In 2018, Louise Jackson and I worked together on a second edition of her book, The Visalia Electric Railroad: Stories of the Early Years. We published it with a printer that may or may not still be in business.

You can read about it on this old blog post: The Visalia Electric Railroad Book.

Very occasionally, folks have contacted me for a copy of this sold out book. Since learning how Lulu.com works, Louise and I decided to make the book available again, this time through their bookstore so that she and I aren’t shuffling inventory and dollars.

Here you go: Lulu Bookstore, The Visalia Electric Railroad

In case you were wondering, the book contains three of my pencil drawings. (Louise made me, because you know I am just so shy and hate promoting my own work… fall down laughing)

And in case you were wondering, this photo is my mom, whose dad worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, which was also known simply as “the Santa Fe”.

Honestly, I believe the book is worth it just for the photos!

Notice I said the photos, not the drawings. Just want to be clear that I came here today to sell books for Louise.

It is also now listed here on my website page OTHER PEOPLE’S BOOKS, also with the link to the Lulu.com bookstore.

Trail Guy Went to White Chief

Look at the fancy road! (For my far-away readers, that’s Sawtooth in the distance.)

Trail Guy, being retired, spends more time in The Land of No Electricity, Internet, or Phones (unless one has StarLink, which your Central Calif. Artist does not—surprised by this?) than I do. He actually had time to hike, working around all his obligations/helpfulness to neighbors.

You can tell he took these photos by the spots in the upper right of many of them.

White Chief peak has a flat top.
There is a pond, if you know how to find it. (It’s there even if you don’t know how to find it.)
Everyone’s favorite juniper tree.

When I made it up the hill, I spent some time contemplating wildflowers. A plan is beginning to formulate, but it isn’t ready for public consumption just yet.

Thus we conclude another photo tour of Mineral King.

Drawing Jeff’s Garden With a Paintbrush

I thought this would be very difficult and take “forever”. Instead, I am thoroughly enjoying the process because now that the sizes and locations and base coat are down, I can simply begin drawing with my paintbrush.

Step by Step by Step. . .or Way Leads on to Way

Let’s just have a series of photos without excessive jibber-jabber.

Yes, I painted the hummingbird with both the canvas and the photo upsidedown.

Remaining Details

The bench (with a branding iron atop and the hint of a plaque), poppies, the foliage on the upper right, and a few of the transitional areas between the different images need to be finished. Oh, and the edges. This will all be easier when all of this day’s work has dried. Then it will need to just rest while I decide if I can make it better.

Final Steps

Jeff will need to see his garden in oil paint before I declare it finished. It will be signed, photographed, varnished, and then delivered.

This is Fun

I started detailing Jeff’s Garden, the commissioned oil painting, and it is fun!

We left it looking like this:

Then it began evolving. . . (oops, finger partially over the lens in the first photo)