Although Sequoia National Park in Mineral King appears to be understaffed, with many things in a neglected state, things that are under the purview of private individuals are getting spiffed up. Cabin life is often about maintenance, and it is excellent to see this taking place.
Finally, the Honeymoon Cabin has been painted!
Yes, many exclamation marks are in this post, because it is very heartening to see maintenance and care given to a cabin community’s tangible assets.
Sequoia National Park appears to be seriously understaffed, particularly when it comes to Mineral King.
These are a few things in Mineral King that I noticed.
But wait—there’s more! A trail crew has done a bit of work on the Nature Trail.
Along the road, oh my goodness. I shot these photos through the windshield one morning while heading down.
This poor little cabin belongs to the Park.
HOWEVER, someone has worked on the water troughs and Redwood is now flowing.
Understaffed. Definitely understaffed.
Before I met him, Trail Guy spent three winters in Mineral King. At this year’s annual Mineral King Preservation Society “Picnic in the Park”, he told his story.
You can listen and watch it on YouTube here: MKPS 2024 Picnic in the Park
This begins a series of posts: Noticing, Neglected, and New. Today’s post is NOTICING.
“Noticing”? Yes. Since my hiking is severely curtailed, I am walking with my eyes peeled for things I may not have noticed before. When hiking, one tends to focus on the next step. When simply walking, there is more of a meandering attitude.
Instead of heading up with neighbors, I drove up. This meant I could stop for photos, and it had been awhile since I photographed the bridge.
I found a new flower, then discovered it is in my now sold-out Wildflowers of Mineral King as an unknown flower at the end of the purples/blues chapter. (The book was published 5 years ago so I am allowed to forget some things.) It took 4 different attempts to get a single photo in focus, because my PHD* camera focuses on whatever it wants to focus on.
*Press Here Dummy
Kaweah Arts in Three Rivers (now located in The Dome) and the store at the Silver City Resort 4 miles below Mineral King have been selling steadily for me so far this summer.
When times are slow, it is easy to start thinking: “I’m a has-been. My prices are too high/too low. I’ve saturated the market. It’s all over. I feel fat—maybe I should start singing.”
When sales are brisk, it is easy to start thinking: “It’s about time. I wonder if I should raise my prices. Finally, I’m starting to figure this thing out.”
The truth is that there are feasts, famines, surges, and ebbs. The economy is up, then the economy is down. (Mostly in Tulare County the economy is “downer” than in the rest of the country.) Sales are seasonal. It’s all part of the business of art.
All I can do is continue to paint the best I know how, and when sales are surging, keep producing for the wonderful stores that sell my work.
P.S. The sizes aren’t shown in relativity to one another. They vary in size from 6×6″ up to 6×18″ and 12×16″.
It was a smoky several days in Mineral King.
I stopped by a friend’s cabin for a quick visit and was struck by this timeless cabin scene.
The smoke did not prevent or hamper the 39th annual Mineral King Preservation Society’s Picnic in the Park, featuring our own Trail Guy.
He told of his three winters spent in Mineral King in the early 1980s, a story that held people’s attention for an entire hour.
Even little ones didn’t get restless, which is mighty amazing in this age of devices.
This one had a companion with her, besides me, her current MK BFF.
These are some of the very few artifacts remaining from the end of Trail Guy’s third winter (although the photos weren’t in the cabin when it went the way of all flesh.)
When the ordeal of public speaking was behind Trail Guy, we gathered with our neighbors in the evening.
The next day we went for a walk with some of our neighbors, in spite of the smoke.
Trail Guy loves to show people his favorite flower, the tiger lily (more accurately known as a leopard lily because it has spots, not stripes, but we have discussed this previously. . .) How thoughtful of those ranger buttons to disguise the face of his hiking friend.
The flowers were excellent, something I was almost resigned to missing in this hikeless summer. But some of the wildflowers are accessible even if one is only in walking mode.
This is Soda Springs, where water bubbles out of the ground with a hint of carbonation. Some people like to mix it with powdered lemonade, but I’ve never thought that was better than plain water. The water bubbling up tastes metallic. Some of these places are called “iron springs”, some “soda springs”, although I’ve never learned the difference, if there is such a difference.
The air cleared out in the evening when the winds shifted direction.
Thus we conclude another report on a series of days spent in Mineral King. Thanks for tuning in!
Last year when sales were almost non-existent, I forgot what it is like to arrange a painting schedule around the heat and the limitations of a swamp cooler. Now I remember. Everything has a downside and an upside. Last year up—no painting in the heat. This year up—good sales.
All set up, ready to begin, early in the morning.
I finished the 6×18 bridge and took it out to the woodpile for drying.
Then I got sidetracked polishing the door handle. Good thing I’m not on anyone’s time clock.
Next: Franklin Falls. This is 2 miles up the left/east side of the Mineral King valley, a pleasant walk with only a little bit of uphill, followed by a cold wade across the creek, unless you are inclined to rock hop, which I am not. I have 2 photos, neither of which is ideal, and neither of which is square.
That’s okay. . . I know the place pretty well, and I know what people expect to see.
When something is full of fiddly detail that can’t be exactly duplicated, because of ridiculousness and cramming 2 rectangles into a square, I just find the things that matter most. The rest can be fudged.
If you’ve been to Franklin Falls, I think you’d see that this is becoming recognizable and believable.
In discussing this painting with Hiking Buddy, I told her that it is sort of colorless, all greens and browns and grays. She wisely said (reading my mind), “That’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a few wildflowers”.
Off to the woodpile for drying; the flowers will go on nicely once it is dry. Or not nicely, but if it is dry, I can wipe them off and try again.
The Mineral King Preservation Society sponsors an annual picnic each year in Mineral King in July. It is a bring-your-own-picnic, bring-your-own-chair event. There is lots of chit-chat among friends, and each year a speaker brings stories of Mineral King for learning, entertainment, and for the preservation of history.
This year the speaker will be Trail Guy, telling of his three winters in Mineral King (before I met him).
He does NOT do public speaking, so I will be interviewing him, there to “prime the pump” and to carry him over verbal speed-bumps and snags.
He knows his story well, and I have been learning it over the past 39 years. It is . . .
. . . it is. . .
You gotta come hear it for yourself.
On day two of my Mineral King oil painting biathalon, I started early, actually feeling kind of excited to try a new scene.
I was so into the details that I forgot to take very many photos of the progress.
Call me “Butter” cuz I’m on a roll!
Next?
These two would most likely be too wet to scan, so I had to photograph them more carefully. The wildflowers at Timber Gap painting will need some skewing on photoshop to straighten it out.
Feeling accomplished, and because I began so early on Day Two, I decided to see if I could get one more painting finished.
Nope, guess not. But 4-3/4 paintings in two very hot very long days was a good dent, and I got them to the store at Silver City in time for the hoped-for Independence Day rush.
After I carried the first painting outside, I just grabbed the next canvas in the lineup. It is an unusual view of the Honeymoon Cabin, which is a tiny museum for the Mineral King Preservation Society. It is either the 2nd or the 3rd best selling subject of Mineral King oil paintings.
I carried this one out to the woodpile, nay, wood stack because it is so very neat, and put it alongside the first painting. Two down, four to go, and only one more day to paint. What’s a Central California Artist to do?
Put the palette and brushes in the freezer, and go home for the evening, that’s what.
Both paintings were dry enough to take to Silver City 2 days after painting them.
The saga of a Mineral King oil painting biathalon will continue tomorrow.