Another Post About Mineral King

Perhaps I should only write about Mineral King because it is the most popular topic.

Nah. . . this website is expensive, so it needs to contain things about my business. But today is Friday, and Fridays are for Mineral King posts (when I have something to show and tell).

The reddish areas are not burned trees; it is borate, a fire retardant.

When I drove up the hill on Tuesday, July 24, there was a huge lit sign at the bottom of the road saying that there was a fire 15 miles up the road and that no backpacking permits would be issued. It looked like a nothing-burger, but I am very very glad that the Park was suppressing it with all their available resources, because who knows what those bad boy fires do when crawling along the ground, or smoldering in roots?

That evening, we strolled over the bridge and admired the evening light. 

The plan was to visit some neighbor-friends, and if we were lucky, maybe we’d get to hear them play some music. Jazz isn’t normally my musical choice, but these guys were magical together. This is a father with his 2 sons, and I was sure they were reading one another’s minds! 

This is how things looked on the stroll back home. 

A day or so later, we spotted this Model A in the parking lot, and turned out it was someone’s that we know. I took a few photos for him on the bridge, a tricky business with a little bit of traffic, plus the dark shadows and bright light in the background. This was the best of the bunch. 

Then, while visiting some other neighbor-friends, one of them pointed out that “Bearskin”, the patch of snow on the side of Vandever, is looking less like the skin of a bear and more like a rooster this summer. 

We hiked to the lower part of White Chief with some friends. One of them is an entomologist and pointed out this beautiful bug. I said that a pair would make nice earrings, and she said that some company actually does make earrings out of their wings! 

White Chief canyon, after the super steep climbing is over.
Swamp onion near the little pond, its glory fading. . .
Three hiking buddies, a privilege to share the trail with.
I don’t know why Trail Guy is sticking his hands in the water that is flowing toward the little pond.
Oh no! Another unknown yellow flower!
The tail end of the summer’s peak. There is plenty of summer left, but the flowers are over their stunning best.

More Action-Packed Mineral King Days

Last week in Mineral King, Trail Guy, 2 friends and I took a hike to a special place that I am choosing to keep secret. (You can ask me in private, but I’m not posting any details on the World Wide Web.) On our hiking day, we experienced fabulous wildflowers, tremendous views, hail, thunder, lightning and rain.

This will be a long post – might want to refill your coffee cup.

View back down toward Mineral King about 2.5 miles up the Franklin Lakes/Farewell Gap trail.

My favorite flower was out in abundance.

Explorer’s Gentian

It was a bit of a challenge to keep marching forward while surrounded by this.

Franklin Lakes – You can see one of them here, and sort of see the shelf where the upper smaller lake is above (if you know what to look for).

We got back home to great light, rain, and news that lightning had sparked a wildfire about 14 miles down the road (but on the other side of the canyon), called the Horse Creek Fire.

Big puffy clouds made for good photos at the end of the day.

The next day we only managed an easy sort of walk. Limp. Shuffle. (Me, not Trail Guy, so that would be the “royal we”.)

The East Fork of the Kaweah, near Cold Springs Campground.
Penstemon, possibly “showy penstemon”, but I haven’t learned the varieties yet. This is a close second to Explorer’s Gentian in my hierarchy of favorite wildflowers.

The annual Mineral King Preservation Society (MKPS) “Picnic in the Park” happened for the 33rd time. Our speaker was the wife of a former packer who worked for a private pack station, as a contractor, and later for Sequoia. She was outstanding!

The picnic was held by the Honeymoon Cabin, a little museum put together by the MKPS, and painted and drawn by me more times than I can remember.

The door is almost always open on the Honeymoon Cabin, AKA the “Point Cabin”, although I’ve never noticed any point, other than a museum is a nice thing.
‘Splaining things to the folks.
‘Splaining things to the ranger.
Listening, ‘splaining, knitting, chest beating? and watching the knitter

It was a day of much weather variety, sometimes in pounding sun, ending in large raindrops.

I drove down after dark that night, a different way to experience the road.

The Horse Creek fire as seen on Saturday, July 21, around 9:30 p.m. Doesn’t look very threatening, but one never knows. The Park has chosen suppression as the best method for this fire, and I am very glad they have.

Busy Time in Mineral King

July is a busy month in Mineral King. One could just sit on the porch, knitting and reading, or one could get out and see and do. I am one of the latter types, sometimes. These photos represent the activities in about a three day stretch of time in Mineral King.

Flowers along the trail to Eagle meadow (below the Eagle/Mosquito junction)
The flowers were beautiful; the biting bugs were horrible.
Scary scary tree situation along the trail; I wonder how many people look up.
We climbed up and up and up, including over this boulder field, “just over that rise” to White Chief.
This is looking back down toward Eagle Lake, which we did not go to because it was supposed to be a pleasant walk to see some wildflowers. (fall down laughing)
Weird, weird, weird (and an excuse to stand still and catch my breath)
YES!! We found our slippy slopey way down to White Chief!
Another scary tree situation above the trail on the way down from White Chief.

The next day, my friend and I strolled down the Nature Trail. I stood in the middle of the creek to get this photo of water with Sawtooth in the distance. If I draw or paint this, I will exaggerate the size and contrast of Sawtooth.

 

Next, Trail Guy worked on tightening up the railing on the bridge that he helped build in 2011. That’s a pretty strong work ethic–improving one’s work 6 years after retiring, off the clock, no supervision, just wanting his work to hold up. I’m proud to be married to this man!

We had the privilege of guiding a group of students from Western Michigan University Lee Honors College who are on a trek, following in the steps of Walt Disney. They call themselves “Waltineers”, and are a delightful group of folks who all have a great love for Uncle Wally and all things Disney.

Not a whole lot of sitting around at the cabin. Mineral King is a busy busy place in July.

Mineral King: 1 Hike, 2 Canyons

Last week we took in the 2 best canyons, White Chief and Farewell, with a friend on one long mostly off-trail day. The flowers were spectacular.

 

The lupine were at their peak.
Almost there – a steep climb. The fit folks would say “just a short hop over the ridge”. The sort of fit would say, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” The unfit wouldn’t even be present. (Putting it this way makes me feel better about my own personal struggles in the fight against gravity.)
The wildflowers were truly stunning on the south side of Farewell Canyon where the old route is.
The photos never do the real scene justice; however, I bet your legs aren’t sore.

Variety in Mineral King

My recent time in Mineral King was varied. Have a look:

The art show and sale, “Art: Inspired by Mineral King” was a hit! 

Some of my paintings on the display screens; everyone else’s were on the other side.
Botanical watercolorist Joan Keesey demonstrated.
Watercolorist John Keesey told another disappointed potential customer that the piece they wanted was not for sale. . . sigh.

Trail Guy couldn’t get out of the driveway to come help me bring the show home and I couldn’t get in with all my stuff because 2 cars parked directly at the end of our road.

If you recognize either of these cars, please explain to the owners that it is a bad thing to block a driveway.

We enjoyed a bonfire with our neighbors (and we were a bit short on sweets so I went to them a-beggin’).

We shared our roasting forks and they shared their marshmallows.

We walked the 4 miles to the Farewell Gap/Frankin Lakes junction. It felt like 6. Who moved this spot that we call “The Wildflower Cafe”??

It was worth 8 miles round trip to enjoy the wildflowers.
Franklin Creek was crossable – Trail Guy rock-hopped, and I walked straight through.
I learned a new (and difficult to photograph) flower called “Blue-eyed Grass”.

I had some fun going to Soda Springs and then to a swimming hole above Soda Springs with some friends/neighbors.

This is how a crazy 7 year old enjoys cold water with his grandma, who is not very traditionally grandmotherly!

When we could exit our driveway, we went to Silver City to retrieve my display screens and were happily surprised by dear friends/neighbors, who helped Trail Guy rehang our wedding photo. (We were the first to go on the wall, because the former owner was a great romantic and felt she had a hand in our meeting and marrying.)

Just a few of the many wedding photos, 2 couples with whom I worked at the store and married the same year.

Another hike ensued, but you’ll have to wait until next Friday to learn about it.

 

 

Art: Inspired By Mineral King

Farewell Gap, a pencil drawing, will be available as a framed original for $400 and in card sets.

After 7-8 months of painting toward a show about Mineral King and (almost) in Mineral King, it is tomorrow!

Is it considered shouting to use bold type? Or is that only for capital letters? I’ve always always always considered italics to be whispering, so maybe this paragraph will be more soothing to your ears.

Four artists with cabins in the Mineral King area will be showing and selling our work on the deck of the Silver City Store tomorrow, June 30, 10 AM until 3 PM.

The Silver City Store is 21 miles up the Mineral King Road. It is a long way there, a long and winding road, and it is well worth the effort it takes to get there. The store is at about 6700′ in elevation, and it is no longer called “The Store” but now is “The Silver City Resort”. The store itself has been remodeled into a new rustic elegant interior; the artists will be on the spacious outdoor deck.

Linda Hengst, Joan Keesey, John Keesey and I will be there. Linda paints in acrylic (or is it oil? Hard for me to tell the difference), Joan does tight realistic botanicals in watercolors, and John does whimsical playful watercolors of somewhat stylized scenery of the area. Linda’s work makes you say “Ahhhh”, Joan’s work makes you say, “Ooooh”, and John’s work makes you smile. My work? Um, let’s see. . . “How much for this one?” 

I am taking 23 oil paintings (some of which I have shown you on this blog), 5 pencil drawings (all of which you have seen on this blog), Mineral King cards (old and new designs), a few reproductions of pencil drawings (also of Mineral King, duh) and some copies of my book The Cabins of Wilsonia. (The Cabins of Where? Yes, they have been requested.)

Let’s roll! See you tomorrow??

Art: Inspired byMineral King

Show and Sale

FOUR ARTISTS: Jana Botkin, Linda Hengst, Joan and John Keesey

SILVER CITY RESORT, 21 miles up the Mineral King Road

Saturday, June 30, 2018

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Honeymoon Cabin #33, 6×18″, $160 inc. tax. (I like this one so much that if I saw it in a gallery, I’d probably buy it.)

Early Season in White Chief Canyon

Trail Guy’s favorite place to hike is White Chief. Mine too. I wasn’t there for this hike, but he graciously and eagerly shared his photos with me to share with you.

Oops. This is from a hike up toward Timber Gap, not White Chief. White Chief shows in the distance.
Phlox, also from the Timber Gap hike.
The square top is White Chief peak.
This is a scene I painted over the winter, but with lots more color, mostly greens.

Several friends have taught us to be on the lookout for heart shaped rocks. Trail Guy has gotten very good at spotting them.
Western Wallflower

A marmot, probably fixing to do an ear-splitting shriek of a chirp.
What’s hiding in the rocks?

Today’s painting is for sale:

White Chief III, 11×14″, oil on wrapped canvas, $275

Mineral King 2018

Opening weekend in Mineral King in 2018 was cold, drizzly, foggy and not conducive to any photos. Besides, my camera battery was dead.

The skies cleared briefly on Sunday evening. I borrowed Trail Guy’s camera for this:

Monday was glorious, sunny, bright, and warm(ish). I took this from our friend’s porch

The little cabin is actually an outhouse. It is where I found that gigantic snowball in March. Wow, 2-1/2 months later, and now the snow is only on distant peaks.

Finally, here is the classic photograph.

Would this look like camera distortion if it was painted in oil?

And thus we begin another summer season in Mineral King.

Painting Drawing of the day:

Farewell Gap #4, pencil drawing, framed to approximately 11×14, $400 including tax

Past Mineral King Opening Weekends

The Mineral King official season begins around Memorial Weekend each year. The gate was unlocked and opened to the public on Wednesday, May 23. Since at the time of this blog post I haven’t yet been to Mineral King, I will show you some photos from years 2007 forward. Why 2007? Because that is the year I first used a digital camera. The weather varies tremendously from year to year.

2007
2008
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2016
2015
2017
2017

Small Business Decision

The business of art is full of choices and decisions, and rarely is there a map or an instruction book. I can find things on the World Wide Web, but often the advice is contradictory, or geared toward folks who live in cities or sell in galleries. This forces me to do my own thinking, an exhausting proposition at times.

For the upcoming show on June 30, “ART: INSPIRED BY MINERAL KING”, I have been painting diligently since January. Many pieces have sold, so I just keep painting more. 

Last week I made a small decision: I am not going to show photos of the newest pieces I’ve finished on the blog. Instead, I am saving them for the actual show. Afterward, I will post them here, hopefully with a SOLD sign on them.

This is a marketing decision. Might be good, might be dumb. As my dad used to say, “Time will tell”. (I prefer “More will be revealed in the fullness of time”.)

Then what shall I show you today? How about Piper and some weird white poppies:

There are white poppies in my yard. Piper is puzzled by this.