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.
The Mineral King Preservation Society maintains a mini-museum inside the Honeymoon Cabin. Trail Guy and The Captain (frequently referred to in this blog) are both board members of the MKPS. Cowboy Bert and I help, because we are married to these board members.
Honeymoon Cabin, pencil drawing, $300, 11×14 framed, for sale here
What are these guys doing?
We nominated The Captain to be the official Straightener of Pictures.
This is the way a cowboy sharpens pencils.
It has been a dry winter. Trail Guy has been hiking this week.
Wow. This is early early early.
This is our friend and neighbor Keith. He is eating an orange on the bridge on April 26, 2013. There doesn’t appear to be any snow. Early early early.
The Park is officially opening the gate to the public on May 22. Early, early, early.
Is “early” really a word? Looks funny. Nothing like a little overuse of a word to destroy one’s vocabulary.
Me? Just painting Mineral King scenes so that the Silver City Store can sell them for me this summer. They sell my Mineral King oil paintings very well. Maybe my prices are too low. Maybe you should pick one up this summer before I decide that my prices are too low. Then you can say, “I got her early work”. Early early early.
I was able to paint this week because I finished my April drawing quota for The Cabins of Wilsonia. I finished them early.
Next week? Back to the drawing board.
Do you know anyone else who can honestly and literally say that?
Not much snow on Sawtooth.
Not much snow in the valley looking toward Farewell Gap.
No snow on the south-facing slopes; not much snow on the north facing slope on the Sawtooth trail.
Not much snow for March.
Someone took a trip up to Mineral King. It wasn’t me. I was working on The Cabins of Wilsonia. My camera had a nice time. There isn’t much snow. It might be a good idea to pray for a March Miracle in the precipitation department.
Fridays are still for Mineral King, when I have Mineral King information for you.
Do you remember reading on my blog back in September when I told you that Trail Guy had a great idea? You can refresh your memory here. Go ahead. I’ll be waiting for you to return.
Thanks for coming back!
Here is where that idea is now. I don’t mean geographically. “Where” means how far along in the development phase. “Phase” sounds so important, don’t you think?
What are we doing???
But it wasn’t me because I was drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia. (I know not to begin a sentence with the word “but”. Thanks for your concern about my writing skills.)
And the weird spot on my camera is not there this time!! (Sometimes things do fix themselves, contrary to what my auto mechanic says.) I think this would make a wonderful painting, should I ever finish drawing The Cabins of Wilsonia.
No, this is not a weird spot. It is Trail Guy, happy to be retired, happy to be in Mineral King, happy to be eating lunch.
This is not the Trackster. It is a Pisten Bully. (I am not making this name up.) It is how Trail Guy and Ted got to Mineral King. Ted is in uniform. He is not retired. He gets paid to do the heavy lifting. Trail Guy is just an unpaid volunteer who happens to have tremendous equipment operating skills and experience. Please Ted, don’t run over Trail Guy’s lunch box. (It has happened, but it wasn’t Ted. He might not have been born yet.)
1. Nothing to report about Mineral King. You can look at the webcam. I’m drawing in the studio, and Trail Guy is probably skiing. I think he should be renamed “Ski Guy” this winter.
2. I used to have a Blog Roll, which is a list of blogs I read. I don’t think any of my readers were checking those out, so in the interest of less visual clutter, I removed them. I still read those that post regularly.
3. I added the link to my other blog, The Cabins of Wilsonia. It is called “my other blog”. It is all I think about. I draw almost every day. Pencils, cabins, drawings, Wilsonia, the book, The Book, THE BOOK, THE BOOK.
4. No wonder Ski/Trail Guy is always on the slopes.
5. Trail Guy/Ski Guy had dinner waiting for me 4 nights last week! Isn’t that fantabulous?
6. If you know someone with the initials REC in Three Rivers, wish her Happy Birthday today!
. . . except the snow was too deep and we didn’t get there!
We unloaded the Trackster around mile 12, about 2 miles below Trauger’s. I think that is where we were. It looks so very different under snow!
The Trackster leaves tracks in the snow.
Wow, there was so much snow! (There was also a weird spot on the lens of my camera.)
See?
Sawtooth and the stoopid weird spot on the lens.
This is the historic Alles cabin at Atwell Mill.
It was very pretty and very cold. Remember, I am a California artist, and I live in the sunny foothills where it snows about once every 2 years. This was a wonderful opportunity to wear many of my knitted pieces. No photos of that, sorry to disappoint you.
Our enthusiastic passenger was thrilled to build a snowman. She was amazingly skilled at it for someone who grew up in the sunny foothills where it snows a little bit maybe every two years.
This is quite the unique guy. Since we all recently saw The Hobbit, we decided the dude needed ears. Actually I suggested ears like a bear, but these ears seem to be a bit like Gollum, the gross little dude who sort of talks like Donald Duck.
Any questions? ask in the comments or email me via the contact the artist button on the menu bar.
Trail Guy is not a peculiar sight in Mineral King. He is puzzling over a peculiar sight in this photo.
Words fail me.