The story of the Mountain Kings
Well, since JJT asked, here's a summary of the Pine Mountain Olive
Retreat. Apologies for the huge post.
For starters, we had the most wonderful weather. Yeah, it rained
and/or snowed every night. And there was some drizzly stuff for an
hour or two each day. But mostly it was bright and somewhat sunny,
and when it was raining we were at the snow flats, which meant a light
snowfall instead of drenching water. Our cabin was just below the
snow level, which meant we were unlikely to get snowed in (darn it!)
And the nightly rain meant fresh snow every day.
The nicest part was the rainbow right outside our front door the first
morning.
By 5 pm on Friday, the 'Burban was totally packed. But TOTALLY. The
two sleds filled a lot of the trunk, so half the clothes and some of
the food had to ride between people. DC arrived at our house about
5:45 and added his own to the collection, including a bedroll and
sleeping bag which never got used. Two people per seat, and we're off!
I thought to go via Balboa instead of the 405, since I heard about an
accident on the 14 at San Fernando Mission. Balboa was even MORE
packed than our car! It took almost an hour just to get from the 118
freeway to the 5 freeway, and I'm half-convinced it was less time that
way than the 118-405-5 route.
Once on the 5 it was pretty clear sailing in spite of the on/off
rainfall. We reached Gorman in about an hour and stopped for dinner
and a couple of groceries which had been forgotten. Then a left turn
at Frazier Park and about 15 or 20 minutes of easy driving despite
the black night and the weird effect of light snowfall coming STRAIGHT
AT THE FRONT WINDSHIELD as we moved forward. Mistakenly passed the
Rental agency, shot out of town, and had to turn around for the cabin
keys.
The house is up a nasty hairpin driveway and hardly marked. Bizarre
greenish wood paneling outside and completely separate up and down
stairs areas - you have to go outside to change floors. However, the
inside was roomy and VERY comfortable. Nicely furnished, with a couch
and two sofa-chairs which convert to futon-beds, 3 bedrooms and 2
bathrooms upstairs. The bottom floor was mostly open space and
mattresses, with one bathroom and a washer & dryer. (VERY useful!)
TONS of Disney videos, lots of Children's Illustrated Classics books,
wide open kitchen, books and charts about wildlife and stars for
exploration, bench seating at the tile-and-wood table (but barely
enough room for 8 people). Lots of wood paneling inside. Comfy beds
(good mattresses) but few curtains and the skylights made the rooms
bright in the morning anyway. We ended up using the upper floor the
vast majority of the time, hardly going downstairs at all.
Boys were all three awake very early (6:30 am!!!) and began exploring.
The overnight rain/snow had left a few inches of powder on our porch,
which they happily threw at anything and everything, even though it
was a little drizzly and getting soggier by the minute. I half-put
tire chains on, but took them off again as the morning warmed up. We
watched several videos that day. Space Quest and Princess Bride in
the morning, and Aristocats later on in the evening. DC was in Diz
Heaven.
Boys and I hiked up the hill behind the house after breakfast. There
is a small treehouse next to the back porch, with a small swing and a
clip-line dog leash. The hill is steep, and full of slate, granite,
and marble rocks. Nice solid ground here with lots of older trees -
little chance of a landslide in a heavy rain. The boys wanted to get
to the very top, but it was too far for me.
Susan and Mark arrived at our cabin about noon. The boys were busy in
the downstairs area filming themselves wrestling. (Ugh.) Sue & Mark
didn't do so well overnight. Their place was a converted trailer home
with a leak in the roof and two heaters marked "do not use." They
froze overnight. I called the rental agency asking about light bulbs
and firewood. They offered it to us free at the general market, since
it was stuff we needed in the cabins.
We drove into Pine Mountain in two cars. Picked up firewood and light
bulbs, etc. Then walked next door to the Screaming Squirrel for
lunch. (Great name, huh?) Great view of the golf course and nearby
mountainside.
After lunch, Sue & Mark filled their two giant inner tubes and we went
out to Mount Pinos for sledding. Right at the turnoff to the mountain
were a whole bunch of snowplows and an ENORMOUS field full of slopes
and lots of people there already. Nice sunny day, about 40 degrees.
Lots of sledding down slopes right into the freezing cold streams of
snowmelt at the bottom. Lots of fun, Ryan throwing giant armfuls of
snow at anyone going downhill. Very little filming for movie-making,
but lots of photos taken.
Inner tubes have no steering but they're easier to bump against a tree
or rock without hurting yourself. The sleds steered well but didn't
protect you from splashing into mud puddles and streams.
We played about an hour or so, until the adults couldn't take it any
more. One final snowball fight (boys behind a giant log against
adults who were sabotaging their own team) and then back to our place.
Supposedly for hot chocolate, but we never made it that day. Susan &
Mark went back to their place (the rental agency said go ahead and use
the "do not use" heaters) to change and they met us back at our place
for dinner. But they left fairly early: they had to leave for home
the next day because she didn't have vacation on Monday, poor thing.
Second full cabin day. Said goodbye to Susan and Mark. They stopped
by about noon, after I had thrown out most of the pancakes that no one
wanted. They kindly left us one inner tube. Yay! We went into
Frazier Park for lunch, ended up at a Shish Kebab place run by an
Armenian. The food was superbly seasoned, although very little salt.
French fries cooked in Olive Oil. Yum!
Back to Mt. Pinos Flats for more sledding and snowball fights. I
finally got David to do some filming for the Alabama Adam movie. We
got a in couple of snowball fights, lots of sledding, and a really bad
version of a giant snowball rolling down the hill. I had to push it
every three feet because it wasn't round. DAMN that thing was heavy!
But I finally got it to the bottom and the stream. What's more, the
snowball rescued us several times when we were about to splash into
the stream on a sled or inner tube.
We watched "Master of Disguise" that evening, which was a really silly
movie. Now the phrase of the month is, "THIS (open & close hand) is
what your mouth is doing. THIS (put thumb and fingertips together) is
what I want them to do." DON'T come over to our house for at least
two weeks if you don't want to hear it. (Oh well. Could be worse.)
Adam made some hot chocolate before dinner, Ryan helped me fix the
vacuum cleaner, and Jason did something good too but I forget what it
was. I wanted to do a pre-cleaning vacuum before we left the next
day, but the belt was broken. I had to get my car's tool kit to open
the vacuum and find that out. Called the rental agency and they said
they'd loan us a new vacuum the next day. (Gotta admit, the agency is
very responsive!) There was also a small hand-held Dustbuster, but I
wasn't thrilled with the idea of using that all over the cabin.
Then came the blackout. At about 4 am. Why would we know about a
blackout at that ungodly hour, you might ask? Because one of the boys
had to go to the bathroom and the hallway night light was out. That
got almost everyone out of bed (except his two brothers). We
discovered that a backlit cell phone makes a very satisfactory
nightlight/flashlight in a pinch. But of course, the heater was out
all night long as well. (Which wasn't such a BAD thing, since every
time it went on, it gave a humongous THUMP!)
Fortunately, the cabin never got colder than about 55-60 degrees. And
power returned about 10 the next morning. Also, fortunately, we had
lots of fruit loops and cold cereals and Pop Tarts for breakfast. (Not
a mother's first choice, mind you!) So I suppose it was just as well
that Sue & Mark left early. Between the nightly rainfall and their
heating problems...
Technically, we were supposed to clean the cabin thoroughly in order
to get our deposit money back, but without a vacuum cleaner, and when
we discovered the sponge-mop had fallen apart, we just did a quick
sweep and said the heck with it. Took a while to get everything
packed up again, then back to Pine Mountain to return the key.
Back to Frazier Park for lunch (pizza) and one quick backtrack to the
snow flats for a small container full of fresh snowballs. (We had
promised a neighbor that we'd bring her some snow.) A second quick
backtrack to the pizza place to retrieve someone's glasses. After
that, the drive home was leisurely, easy, and very little traffic. I
think it took us just over an hour after lunch to get back to
Chatsworth. Sure beats Arrowhead driving!
In summary, I highly recommend Pine Mountain for another cabin
retreat. I've got my eye on a particular cabin called "The Tree
House" which has a second-floor porch with a tree literally growing
through it. 3 beds, 3 baths (sleeps 12, including the futon sofas),
pool table, jet bathtub, and located across from a waterfall hike.
Anyone who's interested, we're already taking names for a summer
weekend. (I suppose it could even be for a standard 2-day weekend,
since travel time is so minimal.)
You may yell at me now for taking up so many electrons.
--Little Georgie H.
Received on 2005-02-25 23:16:26
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