Mineral King in Winter

Retired Trail Guy and a friend went to Mineral King in Winter. This week. Yes, winter is really happening this year!

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Nice light on this cabin. People ask “How much snow?” The answer is “Depends on where you are.” Snow piles up or doesn’t pile up in different depths in different places. The best way to see how much is to check the Mineral King webcam. In the 2nd photo, taken toward Timber Gap, the striped stick is 10′ tall, and every stripe is 1′. Click here to open the Mineral King webcam in another window.

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This is The Trackster. It is more reliable than a snowmobile. This is not Retired Trail Guy. It is Retired Mailman.

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Retired Mailman is very tall, and he shoveled off this part of the roof.

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Then he photographed Trail Guy, AKA Shoveler-on-the-Roof. Our cabin is over 100 years old, and it has survived many heavy winters. Still, it takes a load off our minds to take a load off its roof.

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This is a neighboring cabin. The snow is “bridged”, so the weight isn’t as heavy on the roof.

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And a view of Sawtooth on the way back down the road. It is the tiny point on the far right of the whiteness in the distance.

Mineral King Oil Paintings For Sale

This week we conclude our little run of things for sale (did you notice the pattern?) with oil paintings of Mineral King.

Fridays are for Mineral King, but I haven’t been there since October. Since this is the season when people like to buy stuff, it makes sense to show you the paintings for sale.

Please forgive me if this seems sellsy and pushy. I promise I am not wearing plaid pants, waiting to pounce with false chatty cheer. I am showing you these in case you were looking for something like this. I am here to help you (and no, I am not from the government).

1535 Marmot

Mineral King Marmot, 6×6″, $60 (and no, I don’t know why it is appearing so large here).

1542 Kaw Hdwtrs

Kaweah Headwaters, 6×6″, $60

Long Way There

Long Way There, 12×16″, $275

1529 FG XVIII

Farewell Gap XVIII, 8×10″, $125

1527 Saw XV

Sawtooth XV, 6×6″, $60

 

005 MK Valley

Mineral King Valley, 12×16″, $275

1528 Saw XIV

Sawtooth XIV, 8×10″, $125

MK a.m.

Mineral King AM, 12×16″, $275

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Mineral King, 12×16″, $275

1441 MK Trail

Mineral King Trail, 11×14″, $250 (It isn’t this dark in real life – my poor computer skills may be misleading you on this one.)

1563 FG XX

Farewell Gap, 6×6″, $60

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Eagle Lake Trail, 16×20″, $400

These are available on my website, this page: Oil Paintings, Landscapes

There are more but this post is already crazy long. Please excuse the length and enjoy the pictures.

2015 Cabin Calendars for Sale

There are still a few of the 2016 calendars, “The Cabins of Tulare County” for sale. This calendar is a collection of pencil drawings of cabins in Tulare County. (Captain Obvious speaks again.) It is heavy on Wilsonia, followed by Mineral King, and there is one token Camp Nelson. These drawings are gathered from the book The Cabins of Wilsonia, and various commissioned drawings I’ve done in the past year or two.

Have a look at the unidentified months. I didn’t attempt to find seasonal pictures, other than a snowy cabin in December. Cabins, for the most part, are summer homes.

2016 calendar drawings

The calendars are $15 each, including sales tax. If you send me a check in the mail or money using Paypal, AND YOU GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS (excuse me for shouting – someone ordered via Paypal and didn’t give me her address or answer my email – how is she going to get her calendar??), then I will get your calendar to you and pay the mailing costs. (in the USA only)

 

Fall in Mineral King

We spent our last weekend of the season in Mineral King over Columbus Day weekend. The weather was beautiful – about time, after all the smoke this summer! It really seemed weird to shutter things up for the winter when we were running around in shorts and sandals, but it certainly is better than closing in a cold storm.

There hasn’t been very good color this year. It could be due to the drought, although there were 15″ of precipitation this summer (mistakenly reported in an earlier post as happening in July – thank you, Trail Guy, for keeping me straightened out on the facts!) The leaves mostly turned brown early and then fell off. Just turned brown and fell off! Sigh.

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Hey! I painted this scene a few years ago. I sort of lost track of the painting – did it sell? Who bought it? Or is it in one of the places that sell my work and I forgot to list it? (Sounds like someone needs to pay closer attention to her business. . .)

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This is the part of the trail that looks like a yellow tunnel in some years. These are cottonwood trees. The aspens are further up the trail, but we had work to do instead of popping around chasing colored trees. Such responsible adults.

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This was in 2010.

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The grasses were sort of yellowish. This coming winter will be a big one, it will end the drought, put lots of white in the mountains and water in the rivers and the lakes and the aquifers and green on the hills. (You listening, God? That is actually a request, not a demand. Amen.)

Mineral King Cabins

I believe that cabin communities are a true treasure of Tulare County, here in Central California. I love to draw cabins. Don’t believe me? My business has been called “Cabin Art” since 1987.

As a studio artist, I work from photos. There is no way to get the level of detail I like while sitting outside. Besides, I’m oldish now, and need a giant magnifying light, along with cheater magnifier glasses.

So, here are a few photos of Mineral King cabins for you to enjoy. Sometimes the light is just right, so I take the same scenes over and over and over.

Mineral King cabins

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Random Topic Round-up

Here’s a catch-all, catch-up post for you on random topics. My blog post ideas are triggered by pictures, and these were just languishing in the file without purpose.

This painting was very difficult. I worked on it from real life, and from several different photos taken at different times of year. This is the final iteration (unless someone has a suggestion for further improvement).

1509 Barn
Three Rivers Barn, 8×10″, oil, $100

 

We are in year #4 of a drought. In spite of 15″ of precipitation in July, there was no snow on Bear Skin, the almost-year-around patch on the side of Vandever, which forms one side of Farewell Gap in Mineral King.

Bear Skin on Vandever

My favorite bridge was built in the 1920s and is supposed to be replaced. This fills me with dread. The current plan is to keep this one as a footbridge/landmark and push the road further up the canyon with some sort of newfangled, modern, probably-not-very-attractive contraption that will destroy the simple beauty of this scene. But I am neutral to the subject, keeping an open mind. . .

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Sometimes when I drive down the Mineral King Road, I am struck by new scenes. You’d think that after 31 summers of driving it almost weekly that I wouldn’t notice a thing. You’d be wrong.

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At the end of the Mineral King Road is a bridge. (It was rebuilt in Sept. and Oct. 2011 and the process was documented fully on this blog.) The abutment gets a lot of water abuse on one side, and was piled with rocks to protect it. However, kids love to use rocks to build dams in the stream, and most of those rocks got scooted away! So, the men in uniform and heavy equipment had to come redo the rocky protection underneath the bridge.

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Some new friends joined us in Mineral King early in the summer. Mister New Friend was an outstanding photographer, and he took this photo of Trail Guy and me. (Thank you, MAK!)

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Perkins and I thank you for joining us in the random topic round-up.

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Perkins is now sweet sixteen.

 

 

Short Hike in Mineral King

This wasn’t a big hiking year for me in Mineral King. I went to White Chief two times, and Franklin Creek once, and up toward Farewell Gap once. I noticed that someone moved White Chief farther away and higher up the second time I went. Who would do such a thing??

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This is a bizarre thing – 4 stumps in a row, all of equal height. Avalanche damage. Happened in the olden days when it used to snow in the winter.

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In spite of the drought and the lateness of the season, there was a great patch of Bigelow Sneezeweed. They like to have their feet wet, so there must be a natural spring on this slope.

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Yuck. Look at that smoke rising up in the distance.  That fire should have been suppressed the very minute it was spotted. It has caused tremendous damage, expense, and heartbreak.IMG_1606

Water makes for a nice lunch spot. IMG_1607

So does knitting.

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Trail Guy Tee Shirts

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Remember the Mineral King tee shirts, AKA Trail Guy Tee Shirts?

We have almost run out completely.

However, I messed up by not removing them from my website. It was set up so people can do a backorder. Someone ordered 2 shirts in a size we do not have.

Lucky you!

This means I have to place another order for tee shirts.

Would you like to order one? Go to the tee shirt page and place your order so I can include it in the tee shirt order, which I will place during the week after Labor Day.

This is the Mineral King scene on which the tee shirt embroidery design is based:

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This photo is current, and you will notice that the tall tree is now singular. In our tee shirt, there are two.

Does this make the tee shirt a “collectible” or perhaps “vintage”? Time flies, and the strangest things get called “vintage” or “retro” these days.

Dang. I’m middle-aged and that’s a sure sign. Another sign is that I’d rather hike up-hill than down-hill. Pretty soon I’ll be muttering, “Kids these days. . .!”

 

Too Smoky in Mineral King

There is a terrible wildfire roaring along in the Sierra Nevada, in Kings Canyon National Park, just north of Sequoia National Park. Mineral King is on the southern end of Sequoia, but it got plenty of smoke from the “Rough” fire. It was named for the location where it began, a place called “Rough Ridge”. The name is very appropriate, because it is a rough fire indeed.

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Timber Gap and Empire are barely visible.

Okay, forget about hiking. Let’s sew instead.

Sew? Did she say “sew”?

Indeed.

I sold my treadle sewing machine to my cabin neighbor and then spent the weekend setting it up, teaching her to use it and helping her make new cabin curtains.IMG_1535

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No electricity required for this beautifully effective piece of machinery. You just put your foot on the treadle and begin to peddle.

I didn’t photograph what we used for ironing. It was a Coleman iron, supposed to be powered by white gas, but instead we heated it on the wood stove.

I am not making this up. Did you doubt me, an axe-wielding, wood-stove-cooking, knitting, Central California Artist, surrounded by those who understand this bizarre way of life??

The day we headed back down the hill was a clear day. Why?

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“Clear” is a relative term. Normally we’d call this a cloudy day, but after the horrors of breathing smoke for 2 straight days, this is wonderfully clear. The Rough fire continues to wreak its havoc, but the smoke didn’t come to Mineral King for this day.

And here is my favorite bridge on the way home. I don’t want a fire here, but it would clear the view to the Oak Grove Bridge if one happened.

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Painting Mineral King

This has been a fine season for selling paintings of Mineral King scenes. Very fine! Each time I go by the Silver City Store, I stop to see what is remaining. Sometimes I bring a few new paintings along, other times I just make some notes about what to paint next.

Here are the newest 3 for you to enjoy. (You may buy them, if you beat out the others who are interested.)

Mineral King oil paintings

Honeymoon Cabin XXII, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)

1542 Kaw Hdwtrs

Kaweah Headwaters, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $55 (plus tax)

1537 OGB XV

Oak Grove Bridge, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $60 (plus tax) It was twice as hard as the others and should be considered a bargain because it doesn’t cost twice as much.

Relevant links to this post:

Landscape Oil Paintings available

Silver City Resort