Mammoth

CHOWCHILLA, Calif. - This city is in a pickle over a giant orange. The onetime attraction sits rotting in the city storage yard, the end of the road for the last of the Central Valley's fruit-themed food stands that once dotted Highway 99 from Bakersfield to Tracy. There's still a key in its cash register and a soda fountain that might work. But spider webs drape the ice bin, bird droppings paint the floor and the orange dimple paint is peeling. So city worker Joe Roman is perplexed about a sudden, impassioned competition to buy and salvage the ersatz fruit.

The ski patrol had been at work since first light, inspecting Mammoth Mountain's reopened runs after a week of heavy snow and blustery winds. By midmorning Thursday, seven of them had set to work digging out a nearly buried fence erected to keep skiers away from one of the mountain's dangerous volcanic vents. Suddenly, the snow beneath them gave way. Two of the ski patrollers dropped into a 21-foot maw filled with deadly carbon dioxide fumes and landed on the ground, trapped in a deep hollow.

AT first blush, they sound like deals worthy of a late-night infomercial: "Buy a two-bedroom cabin in the middle of the national forest just two hours from Los Angeles for a mere $169,000!" Chump change for equity-rich Angelenos, right? But the devil, as always, is in the details. The cabins are part of the U.S. Forest Service's Recreation Residential Program, started nearly 100 years ago to encourage use of what was then the fledgling national forest system.

I read the article "Diverse California Vacations Just a Drive Away" (April 9) and was disappointed that Mammoth Lakes wasn't included as a summer resort. Mammoth is a Sierra jewel of deep blue skies and pine-scented fresh air offering beautiful vistas and lakes and natural wonders such as Rainbow Falls and Devil's Postpile. Fishing, hiking, horseback riding, backpacking and camping are some of the activities vacationers can enjoy. MELISSA RAFF Los Angeles

Peas, fresh from the garden, sweet and succulent, are a winter delight for Southland gardeners. While gardeners in most other areas of the country plant peas in the early spring, autumn is the best time to plant peas here. While often taken for granted by gardeners in this country, peas are superstars in many European gardens--especially in England where gardeners often compete to see who can produce the earliest crop.