Pine Mountain Lake is a gated community of about 1,500 homes in the historic gold-mining town of Groveland in the Sierra foothills. It is about 30 minutes from the western Yosemite entrance. At about 3,000 feet of altitude, our home is below the snow line. We get dusted about three or four times each winter, but almost never have to worry about chains or impassable roads. We are 75 minutes from two different ski resorts and only 20 minutes from one of several sledding sites. In the summer, the weather is simply spectacular -- days in the low 90s, evenings in the 70s.