Getting Outside in the Sunshine of Three Rivers

Trail Guy and I took a walk with some friends. It really was just a walk, but two of us carried lunch and water for the other two. It involved some trespassing, so the location will be kept quiet, other than Three Rivers. Of course, if you live here, you will probably recognize where we were. Shhhh. . . .

It started clear, and there were a few trees in bright fall colors. This is looking downstream from the Dinely bridge over the middle fork of the Kaweah River.

From our perch, spots of bright colored trees appeared. These are primarily Chinese pistache, a hardy tree that plants itself in random places, secret spots that no one notices until early November. 

But ick, what happened to the clear day??

The elephant was visible with the new snow on Alta Peak.

Baby rattler or gopher snake? Only its tongue was moving. Trail Guy relocated it a bit using a stick, and it was really stiff. One of our friends may have screamed a little bit. Trail Guy said it most likely was a gopher snake, because they are a bit shinier than rattlers.

One last look through the smog. Haze. Smoke. something.

Three Rivers is one of the best places to live in Tulare County. I’ve lived in the country outside of Ivanhoe, in Visalia, and in Lemon Cove (which is a close second to Three Rivers if you don’t mind being in a town of 190 people). It is the closest place to Mineral King where one can live year around, and it’s where my home is, complete with 3 cats.

That is Tucker, Jackson, and Little Bucky, who is not a cat. Pippin was probably sleeping in the house, where he is NOT allowed, but Trail Guy has a real soft spot for Mr. Orange Bob Square Pants.

Calendars Available, Mineral King HIKES

2023, Mineral King HIKES, still available here: Calendars

I’d show you the back of the calendar, but out of respect for my Most Faithful Blog Commenter you will need to click on the link to see it. Sharon buys a calendar every year, and never allows herself to see what it is in it until the appropriate month arrives.

 

Thankfulness

Thank you for reading my blog, yes, you, Faithful Blog Reader, whether subscribed by email or just roaming through the World Wide Web.

Lazy Listicle of Distracted Thoughts

  1. The acorns have been raining down from the live oaks in our yard and attracting herds of deer. One morning Trail Guy counted 16 in the driveway. (Deer, not acorns)
  2. This painting needs a title! Any suggestions?
  3. These 2 5×7″ oil paint on panel paintings are drying. There are 3 more, but these are days of distractions,  falling acorns, broken things, a rush pencil commission, RAIN, and yet another odd job.
  4. This big guy was focused on acorns and water. There is a tub on the other side of that rock that the deer come to (and the turkeys and the cats. . . probably some others we don’t know about). Such is life in Three Rivers in rural Tulare County.
  5. My wonderful webdesigner gave up two hours on her day off to begin figuring out what keeps going wrong with my website. This was her only day off in the busiest week she has had since pre-Plague. There are still some mysteries, but it is mostly functional at this time.
  6. Many years ago a former neighbor gave me this juicer. This year it wouldn’t work, AFTER we picked a 5 gallon bucket of pomegranates. Someone told me about a repair shop in Goshen, so I navigated my way to Breck’s in a ferocious rainstorm, and they gave me hope. Now my hope is that it can be repaired quickly, because in spite of not paying for it initially, at $90/hour, I will be paying for it now.
  7. In spite of November being my busiest month, I spent a day on my tookus, watching a live workshop of many demonstrations of art realism. During the boring ones (I KNOW how to draw!), I packaged notecards. During the other sessions, I took notes.
  8. I also took photos. This is how the light looks on one of my studio windows in the afternoon.

P.S. I might have knitted a little bit too. . . it wasn’t Zoom and no one could see.

P.P.S. (that means PS #2) I hit a skunk on my way home the other night. Didn’t know it until I got home. Felt something, but didn’t smell it until the car was in the garage. Well, yippee skippee. A skunk is easier on a car than a deer. 

 

A Peek at (closed) Mineral King

We took a day trip to Mineral King. Because the road is closed and the gates were locked, it was the perfect time to pull over next to Bird Poop Rock and inspect it. Since last year’s fire, it is very visible, and it is apparent that it is not bird poop, but a large erratic boulder of white rock (quartz? I don’t know) with lots of dirt and soot and who-knows-what staining the white. It is also broken up and has many pieces scattered along the bank. I slammed a small piece to the ground to see if it is white throughout, and sure enough, it is.

We were fairly busy, retrieving paintings from the Silver City Store, photographing a cabin that I will be drawing soon, and didn’t do any hiking*. The colors were faded, we still saw the small plume of smoke across the canyon on the way up (above Lookout Point), and it was in the mid 50s.

Cabin closed. Shutters up. End of season.

BUT THE JUNIPER IN THE PARKING LOT HAS BEEN SPARED!! Only the dead red fir behind it was removed. (It was marked to be removed, and if you scroll down a bit in this post, you can read about it.)

Hiking buddy and I walked down the road a ways from Atwell Mill.

This is a mystery to me. These 2 peaks appear almost touching from Silver City. Someone has called them Hengst Peak; someone else told me they are Mosquito Peak. “They” is actually two separate peaks, and perhaps one is Hengst and the other is Mosquito. Anyone know??

Then the Husbands caught up to us in the big pick-’em-up truck, and we headed back down the hill.

*The 2023 calendar Mineral King HIKES” is now sold out. 

Round-up of Randoms

This post is a round-up of random thoughts that I’ve been gathering, thoughts that don’t fit any category, sprinkled with irrelevant and random photos.

  1. The last time Michael and I drove up the Mineral King Road together, a car with two young women caught up to us. Michael pulled into the next turnout, rolling slowly as he does, wishing the driver would get on it so he didn’t have to stop. Instead, the car stopped, the window went down, and the driver said, “You two are so adorable!” Excuse me? “Adorable” is what young people say to old people! I wasn’t even knitting at the time. (At least she didn’t say “adorbs”, a word that affects me like nails on a chalkboard.)
  2. The largest Catholic church in all of North America has been under construction in Visalia for two years. Visalia?? Central California, huge number of Catholic families, not a lot of priests available for multiple congregations (or however they refer to their separate churches).
  3. The bears are very active in Three Rivers this year, but not as many as in 2015 during and after the Rough Fire.
  4. Three Rivers population has dropped from 2200 to 1800, and there are only 80 children enrolled in the school. Seems like a good place to enroll your children if you want the teacher:student ratio of private school without the expense. WAIT! One week later, the population part of the sign was missing. What is happening??
  5. An old customer/friend called with an art emergency. This means that she needs some custom art and needs it fast. My prices haven’t changed in many years, but the smallest size I draw is now 9×12″ instead of 8×10″, and I tacked on a rush charge. I was a little embarrassed to tell her the price, feeling as if I was gouging her (but come on!), and her response was: “You don’t charge enough”. Oooph. Just oooph.
  6. I bid on a large mural project, and the waiting to hear if my design and prices were accepted, not knowing the competition, not knowing if it is even feasible to the (potential) customer is Not Fun. This is where faith comes in: “Okay, God, I trust you and your plan for me”. (If I say it enough, maybe eventually I will just relax about the uncertainty).

Closing the Cabin in Mineral King

The privilege of having a cabin comes with missing home often in order to truly enjoy the cabin. After spending 4-1/2 months living in 2 places, it is a bit of a relief to close the cabin. This year we are so thankful to have had autumn in Mineral King, and it is sad to leave, but also good to be leaving on our terms rather than the terms of a wildfire.

Driving up the hill, we spotted a plume of smoke across the canyon. This is how last year’s wildfire began, so we didn’t like seeing this.

Atwell Mill Campground was closed, but there was a government rig there, so we stopped to make sure someone was aware of the fire.

While Trail Guy was talking to Campground Guy, I amused myself by taking a photo of some strange markings on the road. It has to do with Federal Highways and their plan to upgrade the Mineral King Road. The markings look as if they were made by a seventh grade girl, and I have my doubts as to whether road improvements will be made in the next decade, based on clues such as seeing only about 6 potholes get patched this summer (actually not until early October) while the number and size of potholes increased steadily.

Enough road blather. Time to get up the hill and see the fall colors.

The weather is still good, the colors weren’t finished on the cottonwoods, aspens, willows, and other unknown foliage, but the daylight hours are getting quite short, and we are ready to stop living a bungee lifestyle for awhile. (Up and down the hill)

The Honeymoon Cabin (a mini museum), the ranger station, and the two campgrounds are closed now. The road officially closes on Wednesday, October 26. The plume of smoke across the canyon was dealt with swiftly.

Mineral King is one of my main sources of inspiration; in non-Artspeak, this means I draw and paint Mineral King possibly more than any other subject. Thus, I will continue reporting to you on this important topic whenever there are items that might interest you.

Nearing the End of the Season

This will be a long post.

The end of the season in Mineral King is approaching quickly. We had a weekend of preliminary closing tasks, interspersed with walks to appreciate the clear air and fall colors.

Hanging around

First, we closed a neighboring cabin and had our usual debate about which water bottles might freeze, split, and leak during spring thaw. We ended up putting several in a washbasin inside so we can finally learn and stop wondering.

Then I split some kindling, after which I split the piece of wood I was using as a chopping block booster. However, the real chopping block split in the process.

Trail Guy came to the rescue with another chopping block, which I had to try.

Heading out

I know, you came here for fall colors, and instead, you read the mundane details of cabin life. We headed out the next morning to see the sights, and ran into people we know over and over, so got a very late start.

We were finally on the trail toward Aspen Flat when we encountered 3 women, 2 that we know. One of them was wearing a pack on her back and one on her front. Oh-oh, someone needed help. Trail Guy stepped up to the task, and we all turned back. The idea was to be out and about, not that we had an important destination.

Changing directions

Next, we headed down the road and up the Nature Trail, just like the previous weekend.

Steak, anyone? This rock is along the road, one I noticed a few years ago and then couldn’t find until recently. What a thrilling discovery. (Yes, I know, easily thrilled here.)

We had a friend with plans to climb Sawtooth that morning, so Trail Guy and The Farmer kept pulling out their binoculars.

We trudged onward, with Hiking Buddy and I commenting that we were fine with just a walk rather than a hike. The colors are decent, but there have been much brighter falls. It’s the contrast to two autumns with smoke and fire that make this year seem spectacular.

Where is that Sawtooth Soldier?

(Sharon, this shot of Iron Falls is for you.)

And another direction

This is the view next to the Honeymoon Cabin.

The Spring Creek bridge has been removed for the season.


This is the view up toward Aspen Flat. The brightest trees on the left are the section I call The Yellow Tunnel. The more distant trees on the right are not quite yet yellow: that’s what we call Aspen Flat. We didn’t make it there. Maybe next week.

Even heading down the road was nice because it wasn’t in the 100s or even the 90s for much of the drive. This is the final view of Sawtooth (very distant – just squint at this photo) on a day with clear air.

P.S. About 6 potholes got patched on the road. That leaves about 600 more.

 

More Fall in Mineral King

It was clear by the colors that fall has arrived in Mineral King. We missed fall the past two years because of fires, so this year we are soaking it in. 

This is more of our walk down the road and back up the Nature Trail last Saturday.

The next day we took a walk up the valley to Crystal Creek, where we took in more of the bright colors of fall, a real gift after the smoke of the past two falls.

The Sierra Gentian at Crystal Creek from last week were now fully opened.

But that looks a bit too summery for a post about fall, so let’s conclude with this bright little leaf, whose name I do not know. (Want to name him? How about Rufus?)

Beginning of Fall in Mineral King

Since I am currently working on a project that is not ready to be publicized, this week will have two days of Mineral King. 

Last weekend it was clear that fall has arrived. It didn’t feel like fall, but the colors were evidence enough.

A friend had left his sweatshirt along the trail to Timber Gap, so we headed up to see if it was still there. I only made it a little past the junction before giving up. Trail Guy went to the place where the sweatshirt had been, looked carefully all around, and finally concluded that someone new is now wearing a gray sweatshirt with the words “Grove City College”. (If you know who, please let me know!)

The next day we walked down the road and up the Nature Trail to enjoy the colors. These photos are what we saw while heading down the road.

And I’ll show you the rest tomorrow!

 

 

Eight Things I Learned in September

Started with six and then two new learnings arrived. It was a month of great thankfulness for no fires and for a little bit of rain without lightning.

  1. King Arthur Flour is supposed to be superior for baking. I have always just bought the cheapest unbleached white and whole wheat flours from the bulk bins at Winco, so this will be a giant leap forward. My tastebuds are not very discerning, so I may decide it isn’t worth the extra moola. However, I have been told it is worth the higher price. I looked it up and the shipping is high (of course!) and the website sent me around in circles, so I am not providing the link. Found the flour at SaveMart. Expensive, so it had better be good*.
  2. Simon Beck is a snow artist. Say what? He creates 2-8 acre “murals” in the snow, geometric designs, by walking in a pattern with snow shoes in new snowfalls. Here is an article about him with more photos than words.
  3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a wonderful book, one I read many years ago, again in 2003, and just finished. Why does it seem as if I have never read it before?
  4. Fiestaware is the last pottery factory in the United States. I had no idea. Dishes are overwhelming thrift shops because people rarely buy sets anymore and definitely don’t choose “fine china” along with “everyday dishes”. Guess I was way ahead of my time when I decided against “fine china” back in the early ’80s. But oh my, I do love those bright colorful dishes. (I learned this while listening to Mike Rowe interview Salena Zito – Episode 268).
  5. Also on Mike Rowe’s podcast (episode 260), I learned about a dairy called Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana that is entirely self-sustaining. They found a way to feed their cows so that the milk is lactose free, has 1/2 the sugar and 1/3 more protein than regular milk, and Coca Cola bought the brand, naming it Fairlife. I bought some—super expensive, and good, but not sure it is worth the extra money. But I felt so hyper-nourished and righteous about it).
  6. Painting on a south-facing wall is an activity best done in December, January, or February. I learned this years ago when I painted my first giant mural in Exeter. However, when the work appears, it doesn’t often come with ideal options. (Begun in January, completed in May.
  7. Asphalt driveways DON’T need to be resealed every year. In fact, about every four years is right, according to ASR, an excellent asphalt seal and repair company. We’ve been thinking we were neglecting the driveway by skipping a year or two, and in fact that was the right thing. If you keep resealing it, it traps moisture and starts flaking. Who knew?? Obviously not the guys driving around resealing driveways every single year!!
  8. There was indeed a carousel at Mooney Grove Park. It has been restored and now is in front of Hanford’s Fox Theater, according to old friend/blog reader David Stevens, who also provided this photo (THANK YOU, Dave!)

*Good, but not awesome.