Tag Archives: camping

UPWC: Easy Pass to Colonial Creek

UltraPedestrian Wilderness Challenge (UWPC)

Presenting a guest post on trail running by K, of General Tso’s Chicken blog fame.

Stats

5:47:00 Elapsed Time
2 Strava segments (GPS watch was a shame first 20 miles, Switched to iPhone Strava track when watch froze)
1 GPS watch that lost signal about 20 miles in
1 Finish photo
IMG_0075
2 liters of water, 2 consumed
7 Clif Bloks, 4 consumed
2 Stroopwafels, 0 consumed
2 Clif Bars, 0 consumed
1 Spam musubi, 1 consumed*
1 Lovely Wife to drive me to Easy Pass (pictured to the right and owner of this blog)

‘Gram

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTQ1MTc3MDgwMTc1NTQx/

Trip Report

Inspired by friends undertaking longer and longer trail runs and a recent read of Scott Jurek’s North, I identified Easy Pass as a nicely laid out route and excellent introduction to the UltraPedestrian Wilderness Challenge.  With a supportive community behind me, I convinced my wife (pictured above, you probably have to scroll back) into a wet camping adventure in the North Cascades and off we went.

Three lessons learned from Saturday’s run:

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Comment Guest Blogs, Healthy Living

Pro-Tip Tuesday:
Waterproof Camping Matches, an Anti-Tip

When I was a kid in Minnesota, I went to this one summer day camp where they taught us, among other things,* to waterproof regular matches by painting clear nail polish on them. Years later living in Seattle, I diligently painted and dried each match this way. That’s the Dahlia Lounge matches you see in the picture. Then for about 4 years I brought them with for car camping and found they were annoyingly hard to strike, delaying my access to delicious and/or experimental dehydrated camp meals. I ended up defaulting to regular ones, like the ones above from Fish and Game Hudson here. Conclusion: you could also always go for survival matches like the ones above, or regular ones in a ziploc bag. Sometimes DIY is overrated.

From left: stormproof matches, regular matches, DIY waterproof matches with nail polish, and a gas canister with camp stove.

*I vaguely recall them also teaching us to cut radishes into rose shapes…

Comment Eating Out, Food-Related Entertainment, Travel

Braised Chickpea Chard Coconut Meal
Translated for Backpacking!

Components:
1 c dehydrated braised chickpea chard coconut & couscous
1.5 c hot boiled water
About 35 minutes sit time, stir after 20*

Bored with your dehydrated backpacking meal rotation?
This just in: braised coconut chickpea & spinach recipe from The Kitchn works out as a dehydrated camp meal! Completed my trial of it yesterday with a taste test with some old friends.** Clockwise from top left: in my friend Alessandra‘s dehydrator, vacuum sealed +couscous (stored in freezer for optimum dryness while I was out galavanting), mid-hydration, ready to eat! Special thanks to Alessandra for loaning the dehydrator, and Torey for pointing me to the original recipe years ago while we were waiting for our S.O.s to finish the Vermont Beast.

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2 Comments 60+ minutes to MultiDay, Dinner, Eating Out, Healthy Living, Lactose-Free, Lunch, Vegetarian

Pro-Tip Tuesday:
Alt Uses for a Water Bottle While on the Road 1

Discovery in the desert, Moab, Utah near Arches National Park:

While on the road, you can use a large Nalgene bottle (or other water bottle) as a stand-in for a foam roller to roll out your thighs and other muscles, a great plus if you, say, went for a hike while car camping and have sore muscles! For my petite frame, my size water bottle worked (see slightly awkward feature photo for this post). If you have larger thighs, try a longer water bottle. Gonna be thirsty anyway.

For a video demo: Kinetic Sports Rehab’s Youtube video on how to foam roll your quads, my local neighborhood therapist.

For other ideas on foam roller usage: Runner’s World Foam Roller How-to

Also see: Pro-Tip Tuesday: Alt Uses for a Water Bottle While on the Road 2

Comment Healthy Living, Travel

Moab Vignette

View of the Moab Desert, Utah around 5AM 4-17-2017.

Bonus post for you subscribers!

When I close my eyes, I can still see the desert.

I look down and toe the red-brown dirt at my feet. I look up, and a vast horizon unfolds before me, the carpet of dirt for miles, dotted with the occasional tenacious yellow-green scrub bush. Far beyond, a ribbon wall of canyon cliffs lines the horizon. It is striped vermillion, pink, and a subtle purple in the dawn light. Distant rocky mountains toooed with snow peek out from beyond some unseen border. Above, the sky begins to lighten to its blue blue tint for the day, a vast and airy canopy smudged by some unseen but zealous artist with wisps of cloud.

The fresh bracing air whispers by, and carries a faint low of distant cows breaking their fast.

When I close my eyes, I can still see the desert, and it whispers in my ear with tranquil calm from eons of age.

Comment Dessert, Healthy Living, Travel

Run Away and Nurse Your Broken Heart in the Woods with a Hot Toddy

Hot Toddy Mix

Sometimes, don’t you just want to set the world on fire?
No? Well, maybe at least shake it around a little to tell it to behave itself better? Doesn’t the state of it just break your heart some days?
Let’s go back to setting things on fire. I extra-think plenty on the things that are hugely wrong with the world when I’m in the city, but let’s take 10 here for a fireside break of something to warm your heart (and belly). Not discounting it: my sincerest condolences to the families who have suffered losses by the products of our institutional racism and other issues built up over decades of bias. I’m sorry the rest of the post may land tone-deaf, I have no reasonable segue to such a trivial topic below. :(..
Stay tuned for some scenic photos that will hopefully prove a little calming and restful.

French Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
China Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

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1 Comment Eating In, Eating Out, Food-Related Entertainment, Gluten-Free, Hosting, Lactose-Free, Less Than 30 Minutes, Method, Paleo-esque, Snack, Travel, Vegetarian, Video

Raspberry Chocolate Camp Cake
in a Dutch Oven, by Fire!

Raspberry Chocolate Camp Cake - using a dutch oven

I found this gluten-free chocolate cherry cake recipe and used it to make a raspberry chocolate cake in a dutch oven by campfire. Below are the basic steps re-written the way I did them. This was a good one to prep and fire up before dinner, and let sit and finish cooking while you eat the main meal.

Raspberry chocolate cake batter: before and after.
Raspberry chocolate cake batter: before and after.

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3 Comments 30-60 Minute, Eating Out, Food-Related Entertainment, Gluten-Free, Method, Snack, Travel

Car Camping the Wong Way.. Choose Your Own Adventure Edition!

So, maybe that 2nd hot toddy and the half a family size bag of kettle style salt & pepper chips was not the best idea, since now my health has declined significantly post-camping over the weekend. But anyway, I thought I’d put it to a vote of the readers: which of these would you most like to hear about, from my brief stint car camping in the North Cascades (least visited National Park in the Lower 48)?

Polling closes in an arbitrary number of days from Thursday 5/13..

mmm, fire.
mmm, fire.
What would you like to see next on the blog?

1 Comment 30-60 Minute, Eating Out, Method, Travel