Odd Sights in Mineral King

This first one isn’t odd. I’m just warming up here. It is a plant called Coulter’s Fleabane, which I misidentified in Mineral King Wildflowers as snowberry. Maybe. Still trying to figure it out.

The cottonwood was prolific, abundant, and fascinating. Very soft to the touch, but elusive when one tried to gather it.

Once again, I failed to put a dime or a quarter in my pocket so that you can appreciate the teensy size of these daisies.

What is this? We don’t know, so I sent the photos to the local historian.

What is this on the trail??

Oh, just a little changing booth for a bride. Check out those heels on the bridesmaid. That’s an unusual sight in Mineral King, especially on a trail.

These dressed up gentlemen were receiving instructions. I think they were waiting for the bride, rumored to be an hour late.

And there are the guests, waiting for the action to begin. We didn’t bushwack down to investigate.

Let’s just end with a calming, more usual type of sight. These are penstemon, but the name escapes me at the moment. Besides, since discovering that snowberry is really Coulter’s Fleabane, I’ve lost confidence in my flower identifying abilities.

Meandering and Socializing in Mineral King

Mineral King is very social for this pair of introverts, Mr. and Mrs. Trail Guy. This is how it goes: any trail we walk includes running into people we know. Sometimes we run into people we know in the parking lot, then other people are waiting for us back at the cabin when we’ve been out and about. While we are visiting with those folks, others stop by to check in. Most people only come up the hill a handful of times a summer, or maybe only once, and they are very understandably excited to be there, and want to say hello and catch up. Trail Guy has a buddy about 1 mile down the road who invites him to his birthday party every summer, and I have a friend directly across from us who wants to be with me every moment she isn’t chasing her brother around.

Thank goodness we don’t have a phone at the cabin any more.

This is my friend holding the birthday present for Trail Guy’s friend. We decorated some scrap paper using 45-year-old crayons and used a bit of yarn from my current knitting project for the ribbon. My little buddy went through the odd assortment of cards I had on hand, and we found an envelope that matched our wrapping paper.

Brother didn’t want to go to the party. He is single-minded about baseball (New Yank Yorkie fan), and the party was decorated with San Francisco Giants stuff. He chose to stay back and play catch with his dad.

We played one game at the party. The birthday boy sat in a chair, trying to hold still, and everyone had 5 minutes to draw him. He then chose his favorite drawing, and it just wasn’t very fair for all the others to have to compete with the Central California artist. (Of course he chose mine—did you doubt?) I took it home and finished it under better light and while wearing glasses. He thought it looked like a fat girl face. (I didn’t photograph it for you, not wanting either to expose his identity or put a dent in my professional reputation.)

Let’s look at a grouse instead. No wonder the miners ate these birds. . . they are fearless, slow and easy to pop on the head. (Fear not, no head-popping took place, and the only shots taken were with my camera).

I walked down the Nature Trail to the little footbridge to see if the Monkshood had bloomed. It has been many years since I’ve seen it, although I look every year.

Yippee skippee, here it is!!

Felwort, another one that I have only seen in this one place along the Nature Trail is also in bloom, although there was only one.

Twinberry is another one I have almost seen no place else except by the footbridge on the Nature Trail.

There will be more about Mineral King, but it is now August, which means Monday is time for a Learned List.

See you Monday!

No, not literally.

White Chief Again, continued

Yesterday’s post was stopped when my friend and I crossed the creek in the middle part of White Chief canyon.

It’s been awhile since I’ve gone further than this, but my friend was very interested in seeing the mining tunnel.

We didn’t go inside, and we didn’t go a whole lot farther because we were slow, just enjoying being there without a particular schedule other than getting back in time for a cabin friend’s 9th birthday party that evening.

Besides, I just wanted to soak in as many wildflowers as possible. The rocks, caves, and tunnels are interesting, but it is green and flowers that float my boat.

Sierra columbine
We are overlooking Timber Gap in the distance.
Larkspur, monkeyflower, Indian paintbrush
This lupine has leaves best described as “gurple”. (That’s Hoope’s Sneezeweed in the yellow.)
Everyone’s favorite juniper
So verrrrry green on the way down.

About 1/4 mile to go, and now Timber Gap is above us in the distance. It was a terrific day of hiking to White Chief, steep trail but short and very well worth the effort.

White Chief Again

White Chief is our favorite destination in Mineral King. Most people want to go to a lake, and they are welcome to struggle to Eagle up that lousy trail. We’ll wave goodbye as they turn that direction, and then head up the steeper but shorter trail to White Chief. It’s hard to calculate the distance, because sometimes we are happy to just break into the canyon, which Trail Guy calls a “dry lake”. You can go as far as all the way to the head of the canyon, which might be 4 miles one way. Just guessing. . .

Is that a white blooming bush ahead?
Nope, just bright sunlight hitting glossy leaves.
We shouted this back to our friends who turned back at the junction (the kids were just taking a morning constitutional while wearing pajamas).

I saw a new flower in the middle part of the canyon, where the trail crosses over the creek. It was very hard to photograph, and the best I could do is this, barely adequate for identifying. However, I concluded that it is Little Elephant Head, very similar, as one would suspect, to Elephant Head. Weird.

The flowers were terrific as we approached the place where the trail crosses the creek.

This might make a good cover photo if I publish a second edition of Mineral King Wildflowers. No promises.

We crossed the creek, and tomorrow I’ll continue this topic.

All About Mineral King

This time of year I spend lots of time in Mineral King, AKA The Land of No Electricity or Internet (unless you have StarLink, which we do not). So, my posts might be a bit erratic. Today’s post is simply photos from a walk down the road to Cold Springs Campground (now open after several summers of closure) and back up the Nature Trail.

Fireweed is prolific along the road above the Ranger Station.
Yeppers, aspen along the Nature Trail.
Sharon, my most regular commenter, named this Iron Falls.
You can count on seeing Indian Paintbrush along the Nature Trail near Iron Falls.
Walking on rip-rap is the worst part of the trail.
Sawtooth is the signature peak in Mineral King, although it can be deadly. RIP, Drew.

Tomorrow we’ll go to White Chief again.

In case you were wondering, I am working a little bit. I stop by the Silver City Store to check inventory and sometimes I hand out business cards to people I meet along the trails. (Hi Walt and Steve and the other guy from Hanford—hope Steve made it home without any more altitude discomfort.)

Busy Weekend in Mineral King

Sometimes I need to leave Mineral King for the peacefulness of Three Rivers. MK is a very social place, and although I have decent social skills (please allow me this illusion), I am an introvert who needs a copious amount of solitude.

The hazard tree crew has been working in our neighborhood.

I love the evening light coming through to the corn lily and grasses. It is especially nice when these folks are present and have their flag flying. I’ve drawn that a couple of times.

I called the drawings “Dawn’s Early Light”, because most people won’t be familiar with the direction of the cabin or the lay of the land. The first one was done long ago when my web designer put watermarks on my art (as if anyone would want to steal it, or as if we could prevent such a catastrophic occurrence.) I think I used the same photo for both drawings.

There was no time for hiking, but Hiking Buddy and I took what we shall refer to as two different “morning constitutional walks”.

First one: Timber Gap/Monarch junction

On the way up
On the way back

Second one: White Chief/Eagle/Mosquito junction

Heading up
Heading back (Timber Gap in the distance)

July and August are busy in Mineral King, particularly among the cabin folks.

Starting over Again

Like that song by Dolly Parton? Nope. Starting 2 new oil paintings of Mineral King (and finishing one other).

This is 3×9”, a new size I found in Salem at Michael’s. Visalia’s Michael’s doesn’t have any this size (or the 4×12”, which I quickly used to paint Sequoia trees.) This does not surprise me; the Central Valley of California usually gets lesser quality merchandise in its chain stores, of which there is an abundance (EXCEPT for Trader Joe’s, of course). However, we did get the largest Catholic church in North America, right in Visalia, although after a year of asking me to write and rewrite a contract to paint a mural, no contract was signed. In frustration, annoyance, exasperation, and a big injection of reality I raised my prices significantly. They gasped in horror, went searching for another muralist, and now, 2 years later, STILL NO MURAL.

Wait—we were talking about new paintings. This will be titled Mineral King Dusk #??

Here is a 6×12” of the classic Mineral King scene. Yes, upside down.

Layer #1 is now good enough to set aside for drying.

This trail scene, Mineral King Trail III, is now drying, awaiting a scan.

The color will be truer with the scan.

Why is it called “scan”, which is the first syllable of the word “scandal”? And why does it sound so close to “scam”?

I just work here.

Mineral King, Just a Few Photos

Today’s post is just a handful of photos in Mineral King. I recently went to Hume Lake instead of Mineral King but understand that my audience prefers seeing and reading about Mineral King. No offense to Hume Lake people—just accepting the identity of my blog readers. The first best summer of my life was 1978 at Hume Lake. Then my first summer at Silver City (4 miles below Mineral King) in 1985 became the Best Summer of My Life (and that was even before I met the love of my life.)

Mineral King has rustic and unique cabins. I recently had the opportunity to spend time at almost every one. It was a work thing: another cabin owner realized the need for propane tanks to have their cabin numbers visible on the tanks. We discussed press-on numbers and stencils; hand-painted numbers were the simplest solution. Nope, no photos of the numbers, just two photos of things that struck my fancy.

Rustic, but undergoing a few repairs. Those stone steps really grabbed me (not literally—don’t worry!)
Unique—the light was uncooperative but if you study this, you’ll see that the chimney was built to abut this boulder.
Why is this horse standing with his front feet in the trough? Some questions just don’t have answers.

This road leads to the pack station, then becomes a trail. In the olden trails (when Trail Guy was just a boy), people could drive past the pack station and even go up to Crystal Creek and cross it! In their cars!

Maybe I’ll do a post on Hume Lake. . . more will be revealed in the fullness of time.

A Day with Oil Paint

There really are only so many potential titles to a repetitive blog topic. This could be “A Day at the Easels”, but I chose to paint flat on the table, or holding the canvas in my hand. It could be “A Day with an Audio Book”, but then I’d have to make a book report.

Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Paintings are selling steadily at the Silver City Store; the main subjects are the Crowley cabin with Farewell Gap in the background, the Honeymoon Cabin, and Sawtooth. I wanted to paint something DIFFERENT, and after my recent hike to White Chief, it was an easy choice.

This isn’t White Chief but it is the trail to White Chief. I took a nice photo of Trail Guy with three cabin neighbors as he led them to White Chief (they haven’t spent much time at their family cabin—as a result, they needed a guide*). Because I don’t know them very well, it seemed prudent to keep their faces off of the World Wide Web. However, I thought the trail was quite nice in and of itself.

Break time! Oh look, there’s my favorite cat, Tucker, “hiding” in the tall grass.

This may look finished to most folks, but it wants another layer and more detail to satisfy your Central California Artist. (It is 8×10” in case you are wondering how I got so far in half a day of painting.)

Now, it’s time to paint White Chief. This is not how it looked in early July, although it could be how it looked in early July of a wet year. Can’t remember. . . I’ve slept since then. Besides, Trail Guy took my reference photo for this 8×10” painting, so I wasn’t there.

Yeppers, right on schedule, Jackson showed up and meowed at me. When I didn’t respond, he was fixin’ to bite me, so I hauled his 20+ lb. self onto my lap for a bit. He pretended to enjoy it, but put his claws in me** so I would just feed him already.

Like the trail painting, this requires another layer and more detail.

It was an altogether satisfying day of painting, one that flew by with that audio book. (Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate, in case you are curious.)

*They could have simply followed the trail but they would have missed out on a wealth of information.

**Not mean-like, just that thing cats do when they purr. He isn’t mean when he bites, only insistent and bossy. Downright domineering, actually.