Katherine and I returned from MK yesterday (Aug 10) after a week at the cabin. It was a fine time especially after I managed to unclog the kitchen sink drain. There wasn't any evidence of any particular thing in the line; maybe just 50-60 years of accumulated gunk. I can also explain what "Sara clean" means. It means that the kitchen cabinets are really clean and neatly organized; better than I have seen in years.
We did pretty much our normal in terms of hiking. We warmed up going down the Hockett trail a few miles. Went to Farewell Gap, First Mosquito by the old trail up the creek (always something of an adventure), and lower Monarch. The one thing that stands out this year is the wild flowers. They are really spectacular. On the Hockett trail there are a couple of flower garden spots which had hundreds of Sierra lilies. In other places there were tons of Mariposa lilies, and on the last mile of the Monarch trail, there was a huge number of yellow Columbines. And there was lupine, shooting stars, and just about everything else. I don't remember ever seeing flowers like we saw this year. I have attached a picture of some of the Sierra lilies.
The heavy winter probably is responsible for the flowers. If you have any doubt about how heavy it was at MK, go to http://mk-webcam.net/MK_photo_album.htm. There are pictures of cabins from February and March, and in the March ones, I swear that the 3d picture is of Cabin 15 with 6 or 7 feet of snow on the roof. Even if it isn't our place, the amount of snow is pretty impressive. The snow also damaged the chimney for the cast iron stove. I let Jeff know so that he could fix it (hopefully). Additionally, the vent for the water heater didn't stand up too well to the snow. My suggestion is that we not try to brace it but instead that we remove it when closing the cabin and put it in the cabin. Then we would have to seal up the end of the vent pipe to keep snow out. That seems easier than trying to brace it against the snow. Also, we could shorten the vent pipe. It really only needs to be about a foot long.
For those who go up next, here's a quick sense of the supplies at the cabin. There's lots of tp and 3 rolls of paper towels. There's lots of hand soap including a bottle of soft soap. There are 2 sleeves of D cell batteries (about 25-30) and some AA batteries. It would be a good idea for the next folks going up (Jeff and Sara I believe) to bring up some propane canisters; maybe 2 each with male and female threads. The canister for the propane lamp hanging above the stove is about to run out. There also are lots of trash bags for the garbage can. And there is still an unused, unopened propane fire lighter. And, before I forget again, when we were closing up, I turned off the propane at the tank per normal. However, I forgot to turn off the hot water heater. With no propane in the line, I don't think that's a problem, but Jeff and Sara should turn the water heater off before they turn the propane back on at the tank.
For who ever closes the cabin this year, we took down the metal shutters on the windows upstairs at the east end of the cabin. There may be a way to put them up and take them down from inside those windows, but I haven't figured it out. So, we took them down from outside using the ladder, and I put them behind the couch downstairs.
A couple of final items. We still have a leak in the hot water line going to the kitchen sink. I think we are going to need to do something about the plumbing before too much longer. And if we get the plumbing worked on, I suggest we get the same person to rework the propane lines so that we can have better light in the downstairs. And, as K and I sat in the main room and felt the breeze from outside come through the wall, she suggested it would be nice to line the interior walls downstairs to tighten the place up.
The final item is that we didn't attend the annual cabin owners meeting. However, we did get a report from Jean Koch and the Bosses (as we attended cheer at the Koch cabin several evenings). It seems that the main new item is that the Park Service is going to make the cabin owners report on changes to cabins. I think this will mean changes to the outside appearance, but I expect we will get more from the NPS on this.
So, that's it for our trip to Mineral King. We had a fine time and look forward to next year.
John
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