I tried out the Chickpea Sesame Penne:

The packaging is very minimal – just a thin outer bag. If you like no excessive packaging this is a good choice. It reminds me of Packlite’s packaging. The bag is a shy 6×4″ and 6.5 ounces in weight. Fair warning: the bag is extremely thin. It is thinner than name brand sandwich bags. If you abuse your food in your bear bag/Ursack you could have a fail. So treat them carefully.

The meal prep is very straightforward: boil water, add dry ingredients and included organic oil  to pot, stir well, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

Suggestions: Let it sit for 15 minutes. The whole wheat pasta was a bit chewy still at 10 minutes but at 15 was perfect and still piping hot. If you are in cooler weather or above a couple thousand feet use a pot cozy. You could also speed it up by adding everything to the pot and bringing it to a boil, then following the directions for sit time. Or personally? Dump it into a quart freezer bag or a bag from PackitGourmet and do it FBC style. Everything in the meal is dehydrated so it works fine. Just give it 15 minutes sit time in the cozy at minimum.

The meal makes a lot. This is a “fill you up” meal, big enough even for a thru-hiker’s appetite.

Taste? Texture? The whole wheat pasta is nice, it doesn’t have the strong flavor that some types get (which I call the ‘cardboard’ flavor). It is pleasant and has a firm texture. The sauce is plentiful, covering the pasta in a creamy glaze. You won’t miss it not having dairy in it. The sauce for me tasted great but a warning: this may be a little too “granola” for some. If you enjoy salads and other dishes at say Whole Foods deli’s you will love it. If not…well this may not be the company for you. The side bonus is the majority of the ingredients are organic and they do not contain any artificial coloring/flavors or preservatives. I am looking forward to trying out the Basil Walnut Penne next!

~Sarah

Cheesy Rice – updated instructions, dry weight and photo added. This is one of Ford’s favorite meals when hiking.

Bacon and Cheese Pasta – dry weight and photo added:

Quick Mountain Spaghetti – updated instructions, dry weight and photo added:

Creamy Mushroom Rice – updated instructions, dry weight and photo added:

Red Bell Pepper Pesto Pasta – photo added:

Shiitake and Beef Rice – photo added:

Greens and Reds Mashers – photo added:

Sushi Rice Bowl – photos added:

Asian Fusion Casserole – updated instructions and photos added:

Bacon Sushi – a classic joke recipe finally added (it was on our old blog a long time ago):

Chicken Cheddar Polenta – new photos added:

Curried Fruit Hummus – photo added:

Chicken Satay Rice – photo added

~Sarah

Opening up the package I did notice that they used a shredded style chicken instead of small squares. That was an interesting touch. The aroma coming up was hot sauce and cream cheese (no surprise!).

As with all Mt. House meals simplicity is the name of the game. It was “add 1 1/2 cups boiling water, stir, seal and let sit for 9 minutes”. I stirred it up well after it sat and I will be blunt: I couldn’t try it. I don’t know, it was the smell. I just couldn’t get past it. So I called over Ford “for lunch”. He on the other hand was excited for something different. So there you go……

I was using soft taco sized tortillas. There was enough filling to make 4 of those – and plenty overfilled. With dinner plate sized burrito tortillas you would get 2. This is a large meal. Ford set off to eat what I had prepared and gave up after the 2 of them. He couldn’t eat anymore, he was stuffed. Ford is pretty much has a bottomless stomach so it shows how much was in the bag. I would recommend this as a 1 person meal if eaten as an entree but as wraps it will serve 2 adults.

Ford liked the wraps, mentioning that they were mildly spicy and they didn’t need anything added, such as cheese. Would I buy it again? Not for me but if Ford wanted something like that I might for him. On the other hand something similar could be made easily enough with pouched chicken, Tabasco sauce packets, cream cheese packets and other items – and not need any hot water.

Edit: I knew there was a recipe somewhere on our website for something similar! Here you go, homemade Buffalo Chicken Wraps.

~Sarah

The Ohana was running fast and cold:

Ford and Kirk in the shadows on the bridge over Laughingwater Creek:

Walker was awake and enjoying the ride – and kicking me good as we hiked:

Walker passed out not long after and missed Silver Falls:

Passed out and missing the best part of the hike:

Me and my boys:

Kirk ahead of me on the way back:

Just a nice few hours in the woods with all my men.

~Sarah

In use last weekend with my MSR Quick 1 Ti pot set:

It is a multi function tool made by Soul Trampers that I can see real potential for – in a way that the manufacturer nor Jason had seen. It is listed as a “pot holder, camp towel, stuff sack for your pot and organizer – and even use as a pillow (if one stuffs it)”.  And what was that potential that I saw? As a sturdily built (yet still light) washable pot cozy. That was the first thing that crossed my mind as I pulled the first one out. Almost all pot cozies sold are made of reflective bubble wrap, which while they work are neither stylish nor do they hold up over time. Bubble wrap ones are also quite bulky and while wipe able you can’t toss it in the washing machine to remove stains and odors.

Last weekend I took the one in the first photo with me to try it out while hiking. I didn’t have the sharp edge of the pot’s handle digging into other things in my pack, I used the back side (the waffle part) to wipe out my pot after boiling water and even used it to dry my hands on. Nice and multi purpose indeed.

Back to the pot cozy use – this is where I will be doing more testing in the near future. For one pot meals at altitude it is just what I needed!

~Sarah

One of the bigger changes was an actual bridge over Ipsut Creek – in 2007 it was a log, planed on the top with a hand rail. The other thing I am now picking my brain about is did the old ranger station cabin get removed? I remember it being there in 2007, it had barely escaped the floods but I don’t remember seeing it this trip?

We went through the old car campground and headed up the Wonderland Trail (or also called the Carbon Glacier Trail) and took the side to Ipsut Falls. It had provided water to the car CG for many years. The old building that housed the pump-house that I had last seen in 2003 – with a tiny Ford hiking behind me – is nearly gone now with a couple trees through it (you can see the trail in the shadows to the left):

Ipsut Falls is a sweet treat to see. I can actually say that it is a worthwhile hike to just go there. My photo sadly does not show it well. The falls sit at the end of short gorge of sorts. It is shaded and about 10° cooler than 200 feet away on the WT. The waterfall takes a couple turns and drops around 60 feet in total. The other significance is that the creek is clear till here. Just s a few yards down a section of the glacial till full Carbon River jumped its channel at some point. It ripped through the WT and now dumps into the Ipsut. At the CG the creek runs milky in color, not clear like it did in 2007. Definitely worth the extra 1/5th of a mile or so to walk up there for water if one is camping at Ipsut (which has been a backcountry camp since 2007).

We got water – while it wasn’t as hot as this past week was (we had a mini heatwave last week where it topped 95° at our house. Yech. No like. Today it was 55° – more my idea of nice.) and headed up the WT. About a mile in you come to the end of the trail and a series of bridges built over a channel of the Carbon, 3 bridges in total. They cross the river twice and once over a snagged pile of trees. It is actually quite inventive of the rangers in “fixing” the issue. The river has eaten that section of trail clean off  the wall.

We went as far as the Northern Loop Junction. The trail on this side of the river is closed not far beyond, one of the after effects of the 2006 floods was the trail was wiped away clean. It was on the bottom of an unstable slope. Now to go to the Carbon Glacier you must cross the Carbon River on a couple channels (2 shown below), go through the island of trees and cross more. It varies by the year on how many crossings! Jared and I had not seen anyone until this point when a couple groups of young guys caught up to us.

Looking upriver:

Keen trail runners, OR low gaiters and a seat along one of the wildest rivers I love:

Heading back down – the trail varies from deep forest to many open (scoured) avy slopes that are full of thick vegetation – including enough blooming Cow-parsnips for the summer (I have never been a fan of the sickly sweet perfume they let off on hot days but I am sure many others love it…..)

Very low growing Cloudberry that caught my eye near the junction to Ipsut Falls. It would be very easy to not see it but what a loss to not see it!

The section where the Carbon sent a small channel through, near the junction with Ipsut Falls. It is now a massive tree graveyard. You can see the WT on the right.

Unalaska Bunchberry (Canadian Dogwood) flowering about 6 feet up on this cedar tree (An Alaska Yellow?):

As we came back through the Ipsut Creek campground what caught my eye was this food bag hanging from a bear pole. While the bear pole provided safety for the food….said picnic table being right under it didn’t bode well – all a bear would have had to do is step up on it and have a free snack with no sweating. Doh!

We stopped in the CG and had lunch and a break knowing we had another shy 5 miles to do.Jared had started rehydrating his lunch back at our turnaround – his mix of beans and chicken:

He made it into a sammie – since he found out he had no tortillas upon getting his pack ready:

My lunch was…well….different to say the least. I had some leftover commercial meals from the late spring presentations and wanted to clean them out. I grabbed one without quite reading it – it was the new Mary Janes Farm Tex Mex Organic Beef Casserole. I put my MSR Quick 1 Ti pot into service this trip with my Snowpeak Giga stove.

Upon opening it was a normal MJF meal with the addition of a very large plastic bag inside, I found that odd – considering that the company prides itself on more enviro choices.

The beef was in the plastic bag, which being plastic was covered in the dry sauce mix. So after flicking off as much as I could back into the bag I opened up the bag…only to find that the beef was…..JERKY! It wasn’t that it was bad but frankly I had envisioned ground beef, not jerky. It is from eyeballing it about 2 Tablespoons of meat in a diced/shred size. For $13.50 (yes, I paid that much) the bulk of the meal is pasta and lentils with a few vegetables and a little beef. You would do better to buy the vegetarian Chili Mac and stop at a sketchy truck stop on the way to the trailhead and buy a container of jerky snuff (it looks like a plastic tub of chew but holds finely shredded jerky). For about a $1 you would get 2-3 times the meat. OK, OK….it isn’t organic but I like meat these days and mini portions don’t do it for me!

With the meat added:

It is an easy meal to make, just add in 1 cup boiling water and let sit. I have found that MJF meals do best if you can give the pasta ones an extra 5 minutes sitting time and be put in a cozy it will be less soupy. The flavor/texture wasn’t bad and it made a nice lighter lunch (easy to digest while hiking on) but yes, it did need more meat

Jared munching on one of his bars that he made from one of my recipes, Cran-Mac Caramel Bars:

Salmon berries just coming into ripeness:

On the way back the wind was blowing up valley, towards Rainier. It was very nice. In the sections on the river it kept us very cool. In the deep forest, well not so much.

It is always odd no matter how many times I hike this trail to be able to see the road across a gaping maw of river and know that it used to be there:

A last look upriver before we headed into the forest for good:

The GPS showed a shy 15.40 miles. It isn’t horribly hard elevation wise (you only gain about 500 feet to the campground) but the road part does do one’s feet in by the end.

~Sarah

With Western Washington still in the throes of freaking winter our options for hiking have been well noted as being minimal. On Saturday Kirk and I took the boys out for an easy local hike on the Green to Cedar River Trail. Perfect weather for walking – cold and overcast. On Sunday I wanted to try out the new front carrier that we had picked up for Walker, Kelty Kangaroo Infant Carrier which is a discontinued model, but still sold new on Amazon.

I have talked recently about my frustrations with getting a carrier that Walker would like. He howls almost instantly when put in carriers. And more so, I needed a carrier designed for hiking, not for “baby wearing” which most slings, packs and wraps are. I happened upon a mention of the Kangaroo online when I remembered about the Kelty Wallaby Infant Carrier. The Wallaby is a good pack as well but for hiking the Kangaroo is hands down a fantastic design. It is too bad that Kelty discontinued  them and is now only making carriers for older babies (back carriers). The new pack came about 2 weeks ago and after a couple local test runs I felt secure enough in using it on a real trail so off to the mountains we went. We crossed one mountain pass to get to the trailhead and it was a balmy 44° outside. As we headed to the pass we drove into the clouds. At the first trailhead it was 45° and misting. Perfect summer weather, no? We didn’t do any big trails nor anything remote but we did get out and have a great hike – and the new pack passed with flying colors. The back support was comfy for me, Walker was happy in his well padded cockpit style seat. He was fascinated by the trees and spent much of the hike wide awake looking around.

We visited the Box Canyon area, which yes, is a tourist spot but a worthy break on a rainy day. The Wonderland Trail is most of the short loop trail. It is an are full of glacial scoured rock. Just seeing the rocks is worth pulling off the road.

The Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River cuts through a very deep canyon. Half way you cross the river on a bridge. The river is 115 feet below you.

A web in the rain:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

The loop takes you back to the road where you cross the river on the car bridge, well over 130 feet above the water. There is also a tunnel a few feet away on the road that is neat to walk through. It brought back memories of doing the Wonderland in 2004. We camped our first night at Nickel Creek, short .8 of a mile past Box Canyon (also a nice way to extend a very short hike). There was a large raven loitering around the parking lot. I have a love for them and really enjoyed watching it.

We headed back downhill to Ohanapecosh and found parking for the Eastside Trail and Grove of the Patriarchs trail (check out the dayhiking page on the Rainier website as well).

Walker and I heading up the Eastside Trail:

I hadn’t been on the Eastside Trail in a few years. The last time I was there we had done a one way downhill walk from Chinook Pass to Ohana – in the rain, in fall. A gorgeous hike though if one gets the chance. I had been out to the Grove but neither had Kirk or Ford. In the flood of 2006 the wide fixed suspension bridge had been wasted and twisted. It had been a great bridge – it didn’t bounce at all. The new bridge is well built but is a bouncer. Walking across it isn’t bad as you are pretty low to the water and the Ohanapecosh River is a pretty clear one to look down at (it doesn’t have a lot of glacial till in it, so it isn’t cloudy).

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

The island you walk out to has recovered nicely as well from the flood. The Grove is a very popular hike but is worth waiting for your turn to walk the bridge. The highlight being the two trees that are over a 1,000 years old:

Ford in front of them:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Checking out the big trees:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Walker was very much enjoying the ride and drifted off about here:

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

It was a nice hike and it helped us feel comfortable using the new pack.

~Sarah

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

In the Pacific Northwest all too often one sees the invasive Himalayan Blackberry crawling and engulfing everything. It grows fast and strong, crowding out everything else. I am not a big fan of the Himalayan berry – I find it to be like Californian strawberries – big and not a lot of flavor. That and the seeds/papery dried bits are not appetizing at all. Seeing native Pacific Blackberries though is a treat.

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Like wild strawberries they are smaller and have a taste 100 times bigger than they are. The small fruit is perfect when it is glossy black. Best warmed from the sun, they melt in your mouth.

Photo © Kirk Kirkconnell.

Visit our foraging page on berries for more information.

~Sarah

Look for our column “Trail Eats” on page 34 for these two recipes:

Asian Chicken Slaw Wraps:

Ice Cream In A Bag:

~Sarah

See here for the recipe for Honey Mustard Pasta Salad.

Everything ready to go:

The gear used:

Boiling the pasta:

Olives, dressing and pasta being mixed:

Lunch is ready:

Walker asking if we are done yet with lunch?

The recipe can be done either one pot or FBC style, both directions are included.

~Sarah