The idea was to hike somewhere during my most recent stay in Mineral King, but instead, I just hung out at the cabin with a few forays out to attempt to photograph a few wildflowers. I also ventured out to photograph a cabin to draw, but in case the cabin owner is one of my […]
Mineral King Cabin Life
This could be cabin life anywhere, especially if your cabin is part of a community of cabins. We often take walks to the bridge in the evening to enjoy the views, the light and one another’s company. My guess is that many cabin communities have gathering places and times in their own areas. Sometimes we […]
More White Chief in Mineral King
Today we will continue and complete our White Chief hike in photos. I always thought it was a short hike, but maybe someone moved White Chief, just like Franklin Falls got moved. My phone, masquerading as a camera, also told me that I went 7.5 miles and climbed the equivalent of 43 floors. Yes, indeed, […]
A Hike to White Chief (in Mineral King)
Trail Guy and our friend K went to White Chief, and came back raving about the flowers. Two days later I went to White Chief and came back raving about the flowers. Our photos are intermingled on my laptop, so I’ll just post some many in today’s post and many more in tomorrow’s, keeping the […]
Animal Thoughts
A city guy on his podcast went on and on about how much he loves animals. Too bad I couldn’t invite him over, because he could experience animals here in Three Rivers, in my yard and in my house. At least we don’t have any snakes right now. HOWEVER, some guests at a vacation rental […]
July is Here!
I don’t remember what pier this is. It is somewhere on the Central California coast. I might be at jury duty today. After I got the summons, I sent in the excuse form which said that I am unavailable most months of the year except July, August, and December, when I am not teaching drawing […]
Nine More New Things Learned in June
2. Learning to use an iPhone 14 is more difficult than I expected. It doesn’t have a push-button, and the whole swipe-thing just doesn’t work very well for my fat clumsy ever-so-slightly numb fingers. There is also a charging problem—the portable charger? the cord? Elevation? Sigh. And although the camera is far superior to what […]
Cleaning up the Jackpots
Cabin Life Behind and around our cabin is what firefighters call a “jackpot”. This is a conglomerate, a tangle, a giant mess of downed trees and limbs. Let’s not think too hard about their nomenclature. I’ve been raking, dragging, cutting and organizing this in incremental sessions throughout the past 2 years. It is gradually decreasing, […]
Who Moved Franklin Falls? (in Mineral King)
Walking in Mineral King (Not a hike because we didn’t take packs) Instead of the now normal down-the-road-and-up-the-Nature-Trail walk, or the wussy turning around at Crystal Creek, we went past Crystal to Franklin Creek. It was a little bit farther this year. Don’t you just hate that? The flowers were most totally excellent. This was […]
Walking Down the Mineral King Road and Up the Nature Trail
Gird your loins—this is a long post. With my new-to-me iPhone 14 in hand, I walked down the Mineral King Road to Cold Springs Campground (STILL CLOSED—CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR SOMETHING!) and back up the Nature Trail. This is about 2-1/2 miles total. Let’s look at the flowers I found along the road. I actually […]