White Chief is the Best Hike in Mineral King

It is steep, really really steep, but White Chief canyon/bowl/valley begins only about 2-1/2 miles out of Mineral King. It has so much variety – you can go short or far, there are natural caves and historical mining tunnels, and a zillion kinds of rocks, sink holes, a lake, some sort of ponds, and even some cabin ruins.

In August, there was an official hike to White Chief led by the experienced and well-studied Laile DiSilvestro. She is from a long time cabin family, so in addition to the facts that she studied, she has rich history passed down through the generations. She brought along great photos, and I learned more from her than I have learned in all my years of hiking to and around White Chief.

There were 9 of us all together. (Nice to meet you, Dan, Sandy, Lindsey, Rich, Dana,  and Bryn!)

This is called “galina” and it is what got miners excited. They cooked it in smelters to determine which, if any, precious metals remained.

This is where we turned around on a simple walk to White Chief back in August. This time it was a real hike, with packs, food, water and walking sticks.

There are many holes in the ground, both man-made and God-made. The variety of rocks is wonderful! Some folks are drawn to shapes, others to texture, some to patterns, and me? Color, of course!

This is quite high in the White Chief canyon/bowl/cirque/whatever you want to call it. I’ve taken 3 different friends there, and each one got a Big Fat Headache (Hi Robin, Lisa and Carol!) Guess this isn’t a very friendly hike, and I’ve stopped dragging people there because I could run out of friends this way.

This is not a chunk of snow – it is marble! REALLY! I’m sorry I don’t have anything next to it for size, but maybe it is like an ottoman (but a very uncomfortable one).

We are the group in the upper photo.

This image is courtesy of the Crowley Collection and is included in “Mineral King: The  Story of  Beulah.”

Bryn and I sat here for awhile and visited while I soaked my foot. (Yes, just one of them.) This is an area that confuses me – in my memory it is ponds. At this time it was a slow moving creek. Hmmm – the altitude messes with my memory? Prolly.

P.S. Why did no one on the hike notice that Trail Guy and I were wearing our very special and available Trail Guy tee shirts with a custom Mineral King design??

What Do We Do In Mineral King?

Sometimes in Mineral King we just hang around the cabin, knitting, splitting wood, reading, playing a game called Mancala (I don’t like games but this is a tradition with my annual guest PC, and besides, the marbles are really beautiful), and baking pies in a wood stove oven.

Then we say, “What are we doing?? It is a beautiful day, and we could be out on a trail!”

Sometimes, a hike is just too much trouble. Pack up food, water, be prepared to be gone the bulk of the day, find a walking stick, do you need a poncho or parka, which camera shall we take, can I fit in this knitting in case I’m just sitting around?

So, we opt to not take food or water and just go for a walk.

Look Ma, no packs! It is just a walk, not a hike, after all.

A mighty steep walk. Some parts of the trail to White Chief are so steep that I have to do them on my tip-toes, because it is hard for my feet to bend at the angle of the trial.

As we were heading up the trail, I kept wondering, “Who Moved My Chief?”

Okay, that’s far enough. Can we go back now? It looks sort of as if it might rain.

Good camouflage, Miss Deery.

Weird sky, weird glowing light on Sawtooth, which is behind the darker peak that we call “Sawtooth’s Shadow”, even though its real name is “Mineral Peak”.

Final view of the trail as we hurried back to the cabin – aren’t those walking sticks interesting? Handy if you are heading out, but they won’t keep you dry in the rain.

PC LOVES the rain! I can tolerate it if I have a decent parka or poncho, and Trail Guy HATES to be caught out in it. The whole gamut of rain opinions resides in our cabin, but we are all immensely grateful for any water that falls from the sky.

 

Wood Stove, Pies, and Friendship in Mineral King

(Today’s post is about cabin life in Mineral King rather than hiking. If this is boring to you, tune in again next Friday.)

In a former life, I was a baker. Pies were the specialty of the outfit where I was employed. It was a long time ago. Now I only bake pies for special occasions, and it amazes me that one pie makes the same huge mess as 8 or 12 pies do.

For 27 years there has been no oven at my cabin. Last fall, Trail Guy and Cowboy Bert remedied the situation.

We have some once-a-year neighbors in Mineral King, and over the course of the last 28 years, they have become cherished visitors to the cabin next door. Our friendships have progressed to the point where they are now comfortable hanging around in our back yard! Last year I knew they were coming, so I baked them a pie.

This year, I baked them 2 pies in a wood stove oven!

It was a big project. My dear friend PC peeled and sliced the fruit, I rolled out the crusts, and Michael operated the stove. Honestly, it took all three of us.

We had to rotate them very carefully and thoughtfully. It sounded something like this:

“Don’t open the oven yet. There is one in the back right corner and one in the front left. Pull the front one out and set it on the stove. Then rotate the back right to see if it is getting dark. If it is darker than the front one, take it out. Put the former front one in the back right, but make sure the darkest part is toward the front of the oven.  Okay, GO!”

“Did you reset the timer? How many 10 minuteses has it been? Do you think we can pull them if the crusts look brown?”

The apple pie took 50 minutes and the peach pie took 40. I think both needed more time, but the peach pie got sort of burned-ish anyway. No one complained. All were complimentary. I don’t much like pie (unless a thing is ice cream or dark chocolate, it is rarely worth the calories to me), but I certainly enjoyed the project  process.

It was Cathy, my bona fide Mineral King Expert friend who thought that inverted colanders would be good cooling racks. She was right, of course.

P.S. Homemade pies in a wood burning oven are good campaign props, don’t you think? If you live in the Everett school district, vote for Ted Wenta!

 

List of random thoughts about cabins and Mineral King

For clarification, this blog is about a California artist, me, to be specific. Mineral King is one of my main sources of inspiration, it is in California, I call my business “Cabinart”, there are cabins in Mineral King, and this is The Season in Mineral King.

Any questions? Yes? Click on the commenting line that might say “Be the First To Respond” or “# of responses”. No? Let us proceed. . .

 1. While enjoying the sunset on the Mineral King bridge one evening, I met Claudia and Dustin.

They were delightful, and Claudia told me about a great website whose name I am afraid to type on my blog. It is called cabin {blank}. The blank begins with a “p”, has four letters, ends with “n” and has the word “or” in the middle. It is fabulous photos of cabins from all over the world. Unfortunately, I just can’t put the name in my blog because who knows what sort of firestorm of spam it might unleash! So, put on your thinking caps, figure it out, and type in www dot cabin (that word) dot com and enjoy some wonderful cabin photos.

2. You’ve read about the Nature Trail AKA Wildflower Walk in Mineral King several times on this blog. (Or maybe you skipped those days. . .) While on the trail the first weekend in August, I found yet another flower that I’ve never seen before. It is on the downstream side of this little bridge. On the upstream side of that bridge I discovered a new flower several years ago, a Monk’s Hood. That is a real thrill to this rural regional artist who never goes anywhere (except Alaska twice, Chicago twice and China twice). It is a shrub that makes a berry in the middle of the blossom. Two friends said, “Wild Coffee Berry!” but it doesn’t match the photos I found on the internet.

3. This guy blew past me on the Wildflower Walk with his dog. HIS DOG! There are signs at either end of the trail with a picture of a dog and a slash through it. I overheard the guy say that he knew dogs aren’t allowed on the trails which is why he had to walk so fast. Hmmm, that means you don’t have to follow the rules??

Hike to Empire, Part 2

We left our eight hikers at the bunkhouse ruins just below the Empire Mines in Mineral King.

There are four different mining holes. (Are they called that?) I don’t know if they are separate mines, or entries to the same mine. Some might be enterable, but not unless you have ropes and know what you are doing!

See the rock spires above? Up there are a couple of air shafts that drop down into the mines. Only Scott, the youngest on our hike, ventured up there. He didn’t have to save his knees for the descent as the rest of us older duffers had to do.

Not much to see in there.

The rocks are very interesting at the mine entrances. This particular mine hole was closed with dirt by the Forest Service back when this was their jurisdiction. They didn’t want people falling down the hole. Sheesh!

This is the New England Tunnel. The New England Tunnel and Smelting Company was involved in the mining of Mineral King. I read Louise Jackson’s Mineral King history book twice, and I still can’t remember the details.

There’s nothing to see here, folks – keep moving.

But it looks so cool from the inside out!

Actually, it looks pretty neato from the outside in.

After the mines, we got on the old road. There is a road up there. Really!

We followed the road toward Timber Gap, and encountered about 6 or 7 more people. Turns out we knew them, and right there on the old wagon road that was built by miners, the descendants of some of the miners met up with their cabin neighbors. It was really fun!

Here is the final relic of the day. There was a gate between 2 trees on Timber Gap. These hinges and some wire remain.

Trail Guy Led a Hike to Empire in Mineral King

One Saturday a.m., it was raining like crazy in Mineral King. Too bad. We geared up, and headed over to the Sawtooth parking lot to see if there were any hardy souls who wanted to visit the Empire mines. We found 2 people in flip-flops, and said, “Nope, not those shoes”. They knew that but were just checking to see if we were going to proceed as planned. Four others appeared, it stopped raining, and we headed up the Sawtooth/Timber Gap trail. (Okay, you can call it the Monarch/Crystal Lakes trail too if you prefer). We figured that if it started raining again, we could either wait it out or head back down. Day hiking is easy like that.

We began as a group of six and eventually the 2 flip-flop wearers caught up (wearing hiking boots.)

Relics can be found around various historic sites. I don’t know what these things are, but they are interesting.

This is the corner of a tram tender’s cabin. Maybe.

Trail Guy referred to the Mineral King History book by Louise Jackson to figure out some of the historical sites. If you love Mineral King, you need that book! Louise used to lead this hike, but asked Michael to take it this year.

Yep, a tram went through here. It hauled buckets full of ore down to the stamp mill. The ore was quite disappointing, and mining didn’t succeed in Mineral King. Now, we love to look for the relics of the past.

We left the trail and headed up to the old bunk house ruins in the fog.

Alice and I got to talking and climbed a bit too high. That is the ruins of the miners’ bunk house down there. I think it is remarkable that we can stand there in the very spot where these old guys lived while searching for gold. (That’s why I am remarking on it!)

Ick. What sort of relic is this?

Ooh, maybe we should have gone to White Chief so we could be in the sunshine!

To be continued. . .

 

New and Improved Farewell Gap

Last year I did an oil painting of a standard Mineral King scene, Farewell Gap. It didn’t sell.

No big deal. I took it to shows and put it on my website. It didn’t sell.

What gives? I took it back to the Silver City Store this year and everything has sold so far except that painting.

Finally, I showed it to my friend Tall Cathy, who has been going to Mineral King her entire life, which is about 10 years longer than my life, plus she started at an earlier age. (i.e. Tall Cathy is a bona fide Mineral King Expert.) I asked her, “What’s wrong with this painting?”

She said, “Little Florence is too low”.

I said, “Shoot. I was afraid of that. Guess I’ll take it back to the studio and redo it.”

Little Florence is the peak on the left side of Farewell Gap, and it is lower than Vandever, which is the peak on the right side. Sometimes when you see it from a place other than the bridge, it looks very much lower. With 20,713 photos on my computer, I’m not going to look for the exact one I used for the painting. You can see the concept here:

 

Aside from the fact that normal people don’t lie in the grass to take photos, this is not the normal way that normal people view when they normally view Farewell Gap from the bridge. (There – have I successfully destroyed the word “normal” for you?)

Here it is in its new and improved version. Last year I photographed my paintings. This year I scan them. The color isn’t true either way. Look at the heights of the peaks – this is more of what people expect when they think of Farewell Gap.

Do you agree with this?

Rainy Morning Fun in Mineral King

How many people does it take to build a futon bunk bed?

FIVE! (The white in the foreground is the so-called “instruction” sheet and reader’s hands, and #5 is taking the photo.)

No, SIX!! (The cowboy hat is on the head of an engineer, who was just as baffled as we were by the so-called “instructions”.)

What are all these people needed for?

One to read the directions, another to interpret, someone to find the pieces that the illustrations don’t accurately illustrate, someone else to decide which way the piece should go (which the instructions don’t instruct), two people to hold the pieces in place, two others to put the bolts in, someone to photo-document the process, and someone else to learn how to use the self-timer on a camera.

That is more than six, but some of us jump from task to task as needed.

This man is laughing as he undoes the top platform for the third time. Does that little bar go on top or on the bottom? Where are the holes to attach the ladder? Why is neither thing mentioned or shown on the so-called “instruction” sheet?

It takes a village to build a futon bunk bed.

After we placed it, we realized that climbing on the ladder meant bashing one’s head AND that the side windows in the little cabin will not open with this Thing in this place.

But, a good time was had by all, and the futon bunk bed is now assembled.

Isn’t it amazing what passes for entertainment in The Land of No Electricity?

 

How to Decide if There is Enough Contrast

When I worked exclusively in pencil, a drawing had to have contrast. My friend Debbie used to say, “Remember, black is your friend.” She was right.

Without contrast, a drawing is flat, plain gray and boring.

Paintings can sometimes get away with not very much contrast. They don’t look great, but the color distracts from the lack of value range. (Values are the darks and lights – “value” is a good Artspeak word to know.)

But, I am very aware of contrast and value because of my pencil days.

I painted this little canvas of Timber Gap in Mineral King. It didn’t look very good to me.

 

 

I converted the photo to black and white which confirmed my suspicions of not enough contrast.

There really weren’t enough lupine either, but that’s not the main problem.

Have a look at the redone painting in black and white.

Neat trick, eh?

Here is the finished piece in color.

Timber Gap, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $50

 

Business Decisions Are Hard Without A Crystal Ball

Maybe they are hard with one too.

I’ve been getting the message from several sources that my prices are too low.

My subject matter is Tulare County, and most of my customers are here. Because we are poor, fat, undereducated, breathing bad air, and accustomed to frugality, I price my art work accordingly.

Common art marketing wisdom says that if your prices are too low, people will not value your work.

Common sense says that if your prices are too low, you will stay poor.

Contradictory common sense says that if your prices are low, you’ll sell more and more people will buy your work and then you will raise your prices and have a following who are willing to pay your new prices.

Common sense is uncommonly confusing.

(“Too many cooks spoil the stew” or “Many hands make light work”? “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” or “Out of sight, out of mind”? See what I mean?)

This little 6×6″ painting of Sawtooth is $50 plus tax. It is an original oil painting that took me about 2 hours to make. (First I had to buy the canvas, brushes, turpentine, linseed oil and paints.) When it sells at the Silver City Store, they keep a percentage, of course. That means I am earning a sorry hourly wage, particularly when you take the giant self-employed bite out of it.

Does this matter?

Not to me. I paint Mineral King because I love Mineral King.

However, I do need to earn a living.

I just looked up other oil painters. For 6×6 oil paintings, they charge $26, $65, $80, $100,  $125, $150, $175, $190, and $325.

Holy Cow. Excuse me, I need to go do some more thinking. Might need to knit a few rows to calm down, have a hit of chocolate, pace, rock back and forth while banging my head on the back of the chair, perhaps even put my thumb in my mouth and curl into a little ball.