Someone Else Hiked to Groundhog Meadow. . .

. . . and shared her photos. Thank you, Sharon Devol! Since unlike some of us, she wasn’t racing around trying to get to Chihuahua Bowl, Sharon took the time to enjoy Groundhog Meadow.

(And I still want to know why Chihuahua Bowl wasn’t full of M&Ms, preferably dark chocolate. Do they make dark chocolate M&Ms with almonds?? Why even have a bowl if it isn’t full of something like M&Ms?)

THANK YOU, SHARON!!

Walking to Chihuahua

Where’s Chihuahua? This is the name of a bowl and a drainage with a seasonal creek that ends up near the pack station in Mineral King. It is up the Timber Gap/Sawtooth trail, on the way to Cobalt and Crystal Lakes. We were joined by The Farmer, Hiking Buddy, The Heir and his wife (I’ll call her Beauty), and the Nine-Year-Old for what we mistakenly thought would be a simple walk.

It was a hike. A Hike. A HIKE. A HIKE!

The Mineral King Valley is still green in August! We are partway up the first steep 1/2-mile of the Timber Gap Trail.
Choices and consequences. . . but it doesn’t list Sawtooth, Cobalt, or Chihuahua. Note the mileages on the sign – one would reasonably conclude that there is a .4 mileage difference between the 2 lakes listed here.
Looking toward Eagle Lake across the valley, The Farmer told the Nine-Year-Old that up on the ridge are 2 Indians on horseback, and then there are 3 wisemen leading 1 camel. Can you see this?
Nice of you all to wait, but I bet you will take off the minute I reach you. Beauty is sporty, young and fit. Hiking Buddy and I lagged a bit. The Farmer probably wished he could have lagged. Nine-Year-Old kept telling us he had never walked so many steps in his entire life, INCLUDING Knott’s Berry Farm!
Yep. They stayed well ahead of me. That’s the rock outcropping of Empire Mt. that’s visible from the Mineral King valley but isn’t the highest point.
The sign reads “TRAIL”, because there is an old unmaintained trail to Monarch and Sawtooth off to the left.
The Bigelow Sneezeweed was profuse at Groundhog Meadow, a name that has always puzzled me. They are MARMOTS, not groundhogs, and it is sort of a boulder field, not really a meadow. But it is always a relief to get there because the trail is steep, hot, and dusty. Really steep at the end!
A variety of Mallow.
An unknown with soft fuzzy leaves, definitely in the mint family because of its square stem. I first saw this 2 weeks ago on the walk up the secret trail.
Mountain Jewelflower is something I never noticed until this year, and now it seems to be everywhere.
Weird. A fungus? A lichen? Not a flower!
The way we kept Nine-Year-Old moving ahead (and ourselves) was the promise of water at Chihuahua Bowl.
Trail Guy and The Farmer filled all our bottles.
The views were wonderful, and we were thankful to plop down and eat our lunches. The Heir packed cold barley pop for his family, which I thought was a fitting complement to the Hot Tamales which kept Nine-Year-Old moving forward.
NOW where are they going?? Oh. Scouting out a route to the Crystal Lake trail so we don’t have to bushwhack back the same way we came.
It has been years since I went to Crystal but I remember the rough trail past Chihuahua, up over that ridge ahead, down through the part where you can see Cobalt Lakes below, and then back up to Crystal. It isn’t a trip for the weak-minded or weak-bodied.
What’s going on here?? I thought the difference in mileage between the lakes was 4/10 of a mile, not 2/10. Did Monarch get pushed farther out, or did Crystal get pulled closer? My memory says that Crystal is farther than just another 1.4 miles from this junction.
Trail Guy and I went toward Monarch briefly because I remembered seeing a tree along the trail a few years ago that I couldn’t identify. Turns out it is a foxtail pine, and I didn’t recognize it because it is sheltered from the harsh elements and has grown tall and straight instead of the gnarly warped shape I am used to seeing.
Same view, several hours later, at Groundhog Meadow. “Groundhog Meadow”, as opposed to Marmot Boulderfield.
This trail is hot, dusty and steep. Any time I am trudging back down it in the heat of the day, I question the wisdom of day hiking on this side of the valley.
A group of 14 very fit and fairly grumpy Sierra Clubbers passed me up. I might be grumpy too if I had a 6 hour drive back to a city.
Someone forgot their shoes. They might be my size. If not, I’ll send them to Provision International.

(Provision International sends shoes to people in very poor countries who don’t have any.)

Trail Guy Goes to Farewell Gap. Again.

I am currently working on things that don’t belong on this blog. These things are often not in Mineral King, and since Mineral King is the most popular topic on the blog, I am showing you photos of recent hikes by my husband of almost 33 years, Trail Guy. Eventually I will be working on my art again and letting you have a peek into the life of this Central California artist.

Sky Pilot is only found in very high elevations, almost always near Farewell Gap. This is the flower on the cover of “Mineral King Wildflowers: Common Names” (but not this photo).
Lupine, not Sky Pilot.
Yeppers, snow remains in August. . .
. . .but it is melting.


Thank you, Trail Guy, for photographing wildflowers and hopefully whetting the appetite of the readers for a book that tells the common names of Mineral King wildflowers!

100 page paperback, flowers in photos, common names only, lots of chatty commentary, $20 including tax.
Available here
Also available at the Three Rivers Historical Museum, Silver City Store, from me if I put them in my car, or Amazon.

Trail Guy Goes to White Chief. Again.

Hey Central California Artist who hikes, what are you doing these days? Not working, not hiking.

Then what? I dunno. Knitting, reading, helping people, yardening, editing, planning for drawing lessons in September, thinking about painting ideas, messing with the calendar design.

Some of that IS work! Yeah, but I like it all.

Why aren’t you hiking? Because helping people and anything involving the computer happens down the hill.

Okay, then let’s look at pictures that Trail Guy took on a recent hike. Okay, good idea. He went to White Chief again.

Mineral King Wildflowers, Penstemon

Penstemon is a family of wildflowers that have tubes, which hummingbirds like.

How’s that for a non-scientific explanation?

There are many types of penstemon, and I know the names of some of them. Others are confusing, so if you are really into this, maybe you can discover the names. And remember, I only deal in common names (but sometimes read the Latin ones and have learned that Genus comes first and Species comes second, but I don’t know what those things actually mean.)

Pride of the Mountains, or Mountain Pride is a hot pink version.

The red one is called Golden Beard Penstemon, because if you look inside its mouth, it is yellow. (But why would it have a beard inside its mouth? Yuck.) I didn’t lie on the ground and photograph up into the opening for you. And I don’t know where I got the name “Golden Beard”, because in my book it is called Red, Scarlet, or Bridge’s Penstemon.

This next one might be called Showy Penstemon, but I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that the color slays me. It grows close to the ground and is hard to photograph well.

The fourth type I’ve only seen on Farewell Gap. It is a pinky-purple, or perhaps a purply-pink. It is called both Timberline and Davidson’s Penstemon.

That’s the strap to my camera on the upper right, in case you are wondering.

Finally, there is one I learned as Whorled Penstemon, but all the books I consulted call it Meadow, Sierra, or Small-Flowered Penstemon. There is always a lot of it at White Chief, and I saw some at Eagle Lake last summer. It is another one that I have not photographed particularly well. It is lavender but for some reason usually shows up sort of pinkish.

And thus we conclude our non-scientific tangent into the wonders of Penstemon.

100 page paperback, flowers in photos, common names only, lots of chatty commentary, $20 including tax.
Available here
Also available at the Three Rivers Historical Museum, Silver City Store, from me if I put them in my car, or Amazon.

Hiking to the Flowers, Part 3

The junction of the Franklin Lakes and Farewell Gap trail is notorious for abundant wildflowers. I left the area reluctantly, as Trail Guy became Off-Trail Guy while I headed back to the cabin.

These folks passed me by, but when I caught up to them, I knew several. It was a group from Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Great folks!
The Pennyroyal were both thick and fragrant, especially if you knelt in them for a photo, as I did.
I keep looking for the best photo of wildflowers in the foreground with landmarks in the background. Timber Gap is the landmark area in this photo.
Timber Gap and Lupine, very similar to a photo taken by Trail Guy shown in yesterday’s post. (We’ve been married for almost 33 years, so things like this are bound to happen.)
Larkspur is one of my favorites. (My real favorite, Explorer’s Gentian, was just beginning to bloom but I only greeted it, taking no photos.)
Franklin Creek. I managed to cross without accidentally sitting down this time.

Hiking to the Flowers, Part 2

Trail Guy and I parted ways at the junction. He wanted to go off-trail, and Prudence told me to stick to the trail. (I do best when I listen to her.) These are his photos from across the East Fork of the Kaweah, on the north-facing slopes of Farewell Canyon.

That’s not a wildflower!

Tomorrow I’ll show you photos of my hike the 4 miles back to Mineral King, on the trail.

Hiking to the Flowers, Part 1

Trail Guy and I wanted to continue enjoying wildflowers at their peak, so we headed to the Franklin/Farewell Gap junction, 4 miles from the Mineral King Valley floor.

Morning sun coming through the Bigelow Sneezeweed.
Morning sun coming through thistle at the Crystal Creek crossing.
PINK Lupine?? Yeppers.
Last week this Giant Blazing Star was just unopened buds.
How many photos of Lupine will I take? As many as I want!
At the junction. The flowers are better behind me than in front.
Trail Guy went up ahead to a spring with reliable water. Yeppers, we drink from springs. Not saying that you should, just that we do.
Pink Sierra Bluebells. Life is full of unanswerable questions.
Yikes. Look what is coming down the trail. Better get a move on!

Secret Walk in Mineral King

I mentioned a friend in a recent post, someone I have mostly known through email correspondence. Last week she showed me a trail I have never heard of, and it seems to me that it might be very localized secret. So, out of respect for people’s privacy, I will simply show you photos but keep the identifying information quiet.

Wooly Mullein is not a native but grows along the Mineral King Road above the ranger station. I saw this on the way to meet my friend.
This is new to me – soft and furry like Lamb’s Ears (the plant, not an actual animal’s ears).
Our view.
Another unknown yellow.
An unknown little pink.
This is my first look at a Lewis Monkeyflower AND IT IS BLURRY!!
On the way back up the Nature Trail, I stopped to admire the aspens (and rest a little.)
Felwort is in bloom. I first saw this with another cabin neighbor/friend 2 years ago. It was A Moment To Remember. In real life it has more intense color, so much more that the first time I saw it, I thought it was lupine.

A Long Walk in Mineral King, Part 4

Maybe today we will conclude our Mineral King hike among the wildflowers. I will cease referring to Trail Guy as Off-Trail Guy now, because we rejoined a trail.

This is the Franklin/Farewell junction, where we normally go to swoon over the wildflowers. After Everything Spring, it was rather meh.
I was very happy to be on a trail again.
Aster? Dunno. Prolly. Tired.
Farewell, Farewell Gap.
I can count on seeing Blazing Stars along this trail. These are actually Giant Blazing Stars, and I don’t normally see them just before they have opened.
Maybe these are asters. They are smaller than the one I just showed you, and I’ve included some foliage in case you want to be Nancy Drew.
These Lupine were very intense. Never mind that I take photos of Lupine over and over. . .
This is Franklin Creek, 2 miles from the cabin. I just waded through, and it felt mighty fine. Then I slipped and sat in it by accident. No one saw, but I dripped all the way home. It wasn’t pretty.

I wonder why this hike felt farther and more difficult than in my memory. The flowers were the best I’ve ever seen, so it was worth the trouble. But oh my goodness, I need to work harder at fitness, or stay on a trail, or something. Is this part of being at the tail end of the F’s?

Just a few more photos, because we earned them, and so did you by sticking out this long saga of a long hike in Mineral King. Thank you!