Today we continue our long walk, now above White Chief, heading through some of the finest flowers in memory. I’m not going to sugar-coat this hike. It was harder to get to the top of the ridge than I remember, not as hard to come down the other side, but then pretty hard to pick […]
A Long Walk in Mineral King, Part 1
Actually, it was a hike. We went to White Chief, over the ridge to the Farewell Gap drainage, down to the snow survey site, crossed the stream on a snowfield, found our way to the Farewell/Franklin Trail, and then 4 miles back to the cabin. This post is getting too long, kind of like the […]
Short Mineral King Walk
There is a trail in Mineral King called “The Nature Trail”, a one mile route that connects Cold Springs Campground (near the Ranger Station) to the Mineral King valley itself. There was a meeting in the area near Cold Springs Campground, and I took the Zapato Express*, choosing to go down the trail instead of […]
Mineral King Wildflowers
Due to a late winter, increased family responsibilities, time at Hume Lake, and a Shaver Lake reunion, my visits to Mineral King have been fewer this summer than in previous years. Have a look at a recent visit, a non-hiking sort of look. It is a remarkable year for water and for flowers. This area […]
A Walk to Eagle Meadow
I split a lot of firewood, and have learned how to read the wood to work with the knots. Knots are just branches, but I have never seen inside a hollow tree before to see the entire branch, or what the end of a knot looks like. There weren’t as many flowers as we expected […]
Mineral King, Plein Air #4
I liked sitting by the stream to paint, so I set up the next day in the morning so it would be shady. The idea was to paint the same scene with different lighting, but I ended up leaving out the juniper this time. Why? Because I wanted to, and I am the boss of […]
Plein Air in Mineral King, #3
After painting Empire and Vandever with the Crowley Cabin in Mineral King, plein air (on location), my confidence built. But, I didn’t like schlepping the easel around or setting it up, so I tried it sitting down by the Honeymoon Cabin (at the beginning of the Eagle/Mosquito trail). This was most pleasant, right by the […]
Plein Air in Mineral King, #2
A number of years ago (feels like 6, must be 10) I tried painting on location from the bridge in Mineral King. I had no instruction and no idea of how to proceed. Trail Guy and I walked to the bridge and inspected the views and possible areas to set up. The bridge is narrower […]
Practicing Plein Air Painting in Mineral King
Remember that I went down to Georgia (no, I’m not the devil) to take a plein air painting workshop from Laurel Daniel? The goal was to be able to do plein air painting in Mineral King. I was a little nervous, having waited 3 months to attempt the techniques again. Mineral King feels so public, […]
Timber Gap
On July 4, Trail Guy and I hiked to Timber Gap. The flowers were early, but abundant, and the gap still had snow. We met a couple of hardy backpackers who planned a long trip in a short number of days. Then we took the old wagon road out of Timber Gap, and traversed the […]