Today I will try to be quiet so you can enjoy some photos in peace.
Okay, I cannot contain myself. This guy was RIDING A BIKE down the Mosquito/Eagle Lakes trail. Strictly forbidden. Bad photo, but I wanted to let you all know to not do this. (ride your bike on a trail, not take bad photos) Now, shhhhhh (me, not you)
Just to review: a hike is when you take a pack and food; a walk is just a walk.
In addition to the Nature Trail/Wildflower Walk, there is a nice walk to the upper valley to a place we call Soda Springs. It might be 4 miles round trip.
Start here. Cross the bridge (unless you parked on the correct side already, which is the side that goes past the old pack station.)
Walk sort of uphill. Cross Crystal Creek. When you come to a sign that says trail pointing left, go right.
Encounter Trail Guy, wearing a Mineral King tee shirt. Ask him where you can get a tee shirt of your own. If he follows the advice that he gives me, he’ll pull a business card out of his pocket and hand it to you. If you are really lucky and catch him on a particularly hospitable day, he might invite you back to the cabin and sell you one on the spot.
Wow! Is this Soda Springs? Can I play in it?
Sure. Why don’t you leave a rusty handprint on a boulder?
Be sure to wipe your shoes, boys and girls. That’s BEFORE you go hiking or walking.
My dear friend Natalie moved to Texas about 18 years ago. I still miss her. We email, write letters, talk on the phone very occasionally, and every so often we find a way to visit each other.
Natalie is such a great person that her boss and co-worker decided to buy a couple of paintings from me for her birthday. They chose Mineral King as the subject, because that is where Nat and I met back in 1986.
I think it was because she was so surprised, so touched and maybe a little bit tired that these paintings made her cry. I don’t think it was because she was so disappointed!
I love you, Nat!! I’m almost wishing I’d driven to SLO for a stranger’s wedding last month so we could have had a 2 hour visit. Might have been a little rude to the bride. . .
Back in the fall of 2011, we had ourselves a series about The Mineral King Bridge. You can see it beginning this date. Don’t worry, it will open in another tab or window, and I’ll be waiting right here for you to return.
If you follow this blog (and blessings on those of you who do, even those who never comment), then you might be aware that I have a love affair with the Oak Grove Bridge.
This post is about yet another bridge. It was built sometime between 1978 and 1985. It is a footbridge on the Nature Trail, aka Wildflower Walk.
These old guys built it sometime between 1978 and 1985. I didn’t ask them for specifics, but they might be too old to remember anyway. I just know that Mineral King became part of Sequoia National Park in 1978; I first began spending summers there in 1985 and the bridge was there.
They are inspecting the bridge because Trail Guy told them it needed some work. (Hey Sophie, you listening??)
See how it lists to port? (At least from this direction it is port.)
Trail Guy knows People. He can talk to them, and they heed his ideas and suggestions. He does not abuse this privilege, no need to worry about undue influence.
This is now the approach and step up from the uphill end of the Wildflower Walk. (Sophie, it is still sort of tall but we can do this now!)
Trail Guy thinks it is a little weak under this corner. Not the bridge, but the shoring up of the bridge. (When we have work done at our house, he operates as Inspector Gadget, Quality Control Expert.)
Me? I just think it is grand to get stuff fixed at all. That corner? Prolly good enough for gov’t work.
And you Old Guys? I was just messing with you to see if you read my blog. You know you are both timeless and classically handsome dudes.
In Mineral King, you can walk from Cold Springs Campground up to the actual Mineral King valley on a trail, called “the Nature Trail”. That name bugs me. My faithful blog reading and commenting friend (Hi Mel!) suggested “the Wildflower Trail”. I prefer aliteration, and because I never take a pack or food when I use that trail, it is a walk. Thus, “Wildflower Walk”.
Every year, it seems there are new or interesting things to see. In the photo below, there are lots of white dots. This is Sierra Star Tulip, the most prolific I’ve ever seen it.
Look at this little thing! It actually comes in different sizes, but I didn’t have a quarter in my pocket to show you the differences.
This year there are clusters, something I don’t recall seeing in the past.
What is this? An unfamiliar flowering shrub. How can something be unfamiliar when I’ve been walking this trail since 1985?
Mr. Unfamiliar Shrub has these flowers. I didn’t stick my nose in them to see if there was a scent – I only just met them and didn’t want to overstep the bounds of politeness.
The Wildflower Walk has the best and most accessible aspens. I went nutso over them last fall. You can see those posts here and here and here and here. Here too. Go ahead. Each link will open in a new tab or window. I’ll wait.
There is a little footbridge. I’ll tell you more about that in another post. (Sophie, got some news for you!!)
Languid Ladies or Sierra Bluebells are one of the first flowers to bloom each year. I love blue.
I have no idea what these are. They are sort of boring. I usually don’t like white flowers because they are a little boring.
Sierra Forget Me Nots – sometimes they are called Sierra Stickseed. Sometimes they come in pink. I love blue.
Larkspur are sort of a bluish purple. I love blue and bluish purple.
Little white boring flowers.
These have the appropriate name of “Elephant Heads”. I can forgive them for not being blue.
Trail Guy and I have a weird hobby. When we hike, we like to improve trails. We toss rocks off, scrape out places for water to drain off the trail, improve water bars and just generally take notes on trails.
A favorite walk of mine is the almost 2 miles to the Franklin Creek crossing. (To refresh your memory, a hike is when you take food and wear a pack; a walk is just a walk.)
Crossing Franklin Creek can be scary early in the season. If you are lacking in depth perception as I am, it is really scary. This isn’t a very high water year, so we weren’t sure what to expect. I expected to take my shoes off and get a little relief to my stupid Plantar Fasciitis, and then to turn around and head for this:
When we got to the crossing, there was water flowing down the trail. No no, can’t have that! We began with a little water diversion, getting the water to flow off the trail and back into the creek.
We worked our way up toward the stream, where I removed my shoes and got into the water. Pretty soon, Trail Guy was shouting at me to move this rock and that rock (not because he was agitated, but because the water was roaring.) Eventually, he got tired of shouting and joined me in the stream. He crossed to discover the weak places.
This looks scary to me. If I had to cross, I’d do it barefoot and wade through rather than misstep or slip.
More rocks were moved. The idea was to break down the dam that well-meaning but uninformed hikers had built. If you build a dam for crossing, you will be crossing on a wet wall. If you break the dam and let the water flow through, you will be crossing on steps that are above the water. So, we cleaned out stones to allow for greater water flow.
See all that dry ground? It was under water when we first arrived.
Now, there are nicely spaced stepping stones across the creek, no water flowing down the trail, and no dam.
Way to go, Trail Guy!
(and I helped)
Yep, hawking those Mineral King tee shirts again. We are calling them Trail Guy Tee Shirts. Cute, yes?
Here is the men’s shirt in action:
This man usually wears a size Large. This is a Large. No problem.
Here is the women’s:
This is a women’s medium, which is the equivalent of a 8-10. This woman usually wears an 8, sometimes a 6. The women’s small is too tight. The medium is sort of roomy. It will shrink and fit exactly right.
We have sold out of Women’s Large. More are on order, and this time we have added Women’s XL, because the women’s run small AND shrink. We’ve had requests for sweatshirts (maybe someday), Children’s tees (probably not), Men’s XXL (yes, coming with the Women’s Large and XL order), white (sorry, we chose these blues), and long sleeved (nope, this is summer).
Anything else you’d like to request?
On the Mineral King Road there are 4 water troughs. Some years I think I will memorize the elevations and mileage markers. More realistically, I can remember their names and order of appearance.
This one is called Trauger’s, after Mr. and Mary Trauger (what was her hubby’s name? She was the one everyone talks about!) who had a home above. It’s my guess they built there because of the spring. Duh.
The National Park Service has spray painted all sorts of information on these historic items. Sanctioned graffiti, perhaps? Back in the olden days, they were places you could fill your radiator after it boiled over on the steep, nay, very steep Mineral King Road.
Mary Trauger planted sweet peas. They bloom near this water trough each spring.
HEY!! What are you doing up there? That is Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy. It bugs him when the troughs aren’t flowing, so sometimes we stop on the way up the hill so he can clear junk out of the stream and get the water flowing through the pipe into the water troughs.
He may be known as Trail Guy, but deep down inside Road Guy still exists.
Memorial Day is the traditional opening weekend in Mineral King. Sometimes it snows. It can be downright beautiful, or it can be stinkin’ cold. Some years there has been too much snow to open until June.
Not so in 2013.
Allll-righty- then!
Sawtooth X, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at the Silver City Store, aka Silver City Resort
Mineral King Road, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at the Silver City Store aka Silver City Resort
Timber Gap IIX, 6×6, oil on wrapped canvas, $50, available here or at Silver City, which opens TODAY.