In the late winter and early spring of 2004 Teresa, Tori and I were excited – we had decided we were going to do the Wonderland Trail that coming summer. We were often out, nearly every weekend from the summer of 2003 on. Ford was in kindergarten so it wasn’t a huge issue if I pulled him out of school to play hooky on Fridays. And did we go to so many places. We hiked and backpacked all over Washington, went snowshoeing a bunch and when early spring came we had crazy weekends where we’d drive to Eastern Washington to hike the windy cold plains and the next morning drive down to Oregon and hike on the border. In that one year I put a good 15,000 miles on my Explorer. Gas was cheap and we had all the time in the world. Simple days then to say the least!

These photos are of a couple trips. The pictures are not great, I was shooting on my first digital camera. It was a heavy as a brick Kodak DC3400 that shot in the amazing 2.1 megapixels Kirk had given it to me to get me off of my pocket film camera. It took me awhile to realize that with digital I could shoot nearly all I wanted and to not skimp. But to me those trips were of places I had never seen, I was just happy to be there! The photos slightly blurry and low res but hey, it was a different time.

One weekend Teresa and I headed down to Eagle Creek on the Oregon side of the Columbia. Since then I have gone back many times but it was a real “first” that time. Walking the narrow path that was blasted out of the cliffs was unnerving that first time, especially with Ford with me. It was though a pretty hike.

Teresa crossing a side stream with man made pavers – the trail for the first couple miles is extremely heavily used. It is one of Portland’s favorite hikes. You can get solitude but you have to keep hiking.

Looking down on one of the many waterfalls as we hiked in:

Ford ahead of me and not overly amused to be out hiking that day:

The narrow trail as you approach the high bridge and cross over to the other side:

It is a pretty long straight down to the creek far below. The trail only exists due to the blasting and a couple bridges set over the canyon. There are a few spots near the river though where the walking is level, but not many. Many campsites though!

Another waterfall:

It was a greta backpacking trip. We stayed at I think Wy’East Camp if my memory holds. And had racoons in camp all night, trying to get into our Ursacks! My friend Drew’s snoring apparently scared them off eventually

The Columbia River basin in Eastern Washington is so unlike everywhere else in Washington. It feels like one should be in Utah or parts of Montana.

Ford walking a pooch belonging to a friend. We visited the Gingko petrified forest on that trip:

The next morning we drove down South to Dog Mountain where feeling crazy we hiked up the old trail, straight up until we joined the modern trail.

Teresa on Little Puppy, the shoulder below the summit, that once held a look out tower:

Ford, with the west behind him and the Columbia River below:

The odd nearly alpine summit of Dog Mountain:

Climbing on up:

Looking across at Mt. St. Helens, all white, and looking pretty right before she started spewing again:

Ford and I just below the back side of the summit:

We took the trail down the back side which I found to be the best choice. It wound around and dipped into the woods and was quite pleasant – with few people on it, where the other trails to Dog were very popular:

Until about halfway down we crossed paths with a nearly naked old dude, where upon Ford loudly stated “That man is NAKEY!”. Hahhah, that was rich.

That spring Teresa, Tori, Ford and I piled into the Explorer and drove down to Beacon Rock State Park and spent the weekend there, dayhiking and car camping. The campground was pretty much empty – it was perfect! It is tucked away from the highway, in a cool (temperature) hollow. Two things I remember: One was making fun of poor Tori’s subscription to Backpacker Magazine – Teresa and I were being super catty about it – and Tori was from the Midwest where seeing an issue with Mt. Rainier on it was the Bees Knees. Oopsies! The second thing was I made dinner for us. The one pot meal would eventually come to be Swiss Broccoli Mac & Cheese. We made it often when car camping because it is easy, tasty and fills you up. You have to bring a fresh loaf of bread for all the cheesy sauce! PS: There was a video made of this recipe.

When we got down to the Columbia River we met up with our friend Drew and hiked Hamilton Mountain. It is a pretty wooded hike past waterfalls:

And creeks:

That opens up to open windswept views – where the wind howls near constant.

The mountain itself:

A knob where you can look across to Oregon and the Columbia River far below:

In camp Ford and I took a short trail and checked out these rocks:

The next morning we went up Beacon Rock:

Ford at the summit looking over the view, with Hamilton Mountain in the distance:

Me at the top:

Looking down at Tori and and Ford:

A young Ford ready to hit a greasy spoon diner and a long drive home….

~Sarah

Kirk and I are hoping to start the filming of season 2 this weekend. Hopefully get a few episodes in the “can” and ready for production.

~Sarah

Bill has designed a smaller version of the highly popular White Box Stove, designed for the solo hiker. It has everything the original has, just a smaller stature. It will boil you 2 cups water in a little over 6 minutes and will run for up to 14 minutes on 1.3 fluid ounces of HEET fuel.

The Solo Stove works best with pots such as: MSR© Titanium Titan Kettle, Vargo© .9L pot, Snow Peak© 900 or 1100, Evernew© Titanium #1, #2, #3 and flat bottomed ‘tea’ kettles such as the GSI HAA Halulite. (Not for use with tall narrow pots such as the Heinie or Ti/stainless steel mugs.)

Original White Box Stove on left, White Box Solo Stove on right (we carry both in our store):

Bringing to boil 2 cups water in a GSI HAA Halulite tea kettle.

I shot a quick video of the stove in action:

~Sarah

He did a blog entry/video recently on Gluten Free Japanese Noodles:

Enjoy!

~Sarah

Even better you can use this recipe to make 1 brownie or a whole bunch of them. The ratio is: 2 Tbsp dry mix and 1 tsp yogurt powder per brownie. You will need 1 Tbsp water for each as well. I made 4 brownies in the video so I packed in a sandwich bag 1/2 cup dry mix and 4 tsp yogurt powder, which then I added 1/4 cup cool water to the mix, sealed the bag up tight and shook it till combined.

How to steam bake?

For more information on steaming and using the Fauxbaker ideas see here.

Take your pot of choice. Based on pot size and how wide it is determines how many treats you get. In the video I use a GSI Backpackers Set that is a 2L wide pot, which fits 4 Wilton Silly- Feet Silicone Baking Cups. The advantage of the Silly Feet is they have, well, feet! The feet means you don’t need a riser. You want to keep your cups just high enough so water doesn’t boil over into the goods. PackitGourmet also carries a different set up as well for steam baking.

Place the cups into the pot and fill the pot with water till it crosses over the feet. You want at least an inch of water in the pot. Pour the prepared brownie mix into the cups, dividing evenly.

Put the lid on, get the pot on your stove and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, turn the flame down and maintain a gentle boil/simmer. It will take between 10 and 15 minutes for them to “bake”. 10 minutes will give you full on “lava fudge cakes” – done on the outside, molten inside.

15 minutes will be fully baked. In the video I pulled them at 12 minutes. They had a little bit of fudge inside. Once done, let sit for a couple minutes to cool, they will continue to set up as well.

I used my MSR WindPro stove due to the temperature outside – 32* and falling fast. We had quite a bit of snow on the ground today!

Yes, it does use fuel. As a splurge it is fun and well worth it! And rarely will you have anyone turn down a hot brownie!

Enjoy the video as well:

~Sarah

The Morels soaking – the broth produced during the soaking period is an excellent base for a soup or a pasta dish:

A filling meal that is vegetarian as well.

And don’t worry – should you have no desire to eat morels, the pilaf is just fine served by itself! It is quite hearty. If you skip the mushrooms do add in a drizzle of olive oil to the rice.

Cooking in the morning snow in March:

Two Rice and Lentil Pilaf (Served with Morels)

In a quart freezer or sandwich bag:

1/2 cup instant white rice

1/2 cup instant brown rice

1/4 cup diced sundried tomatoes

2 Tbsp cooked and dried lentils

1/4 tsp diced dried garlic

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 stick lower sodium vegetable broth

3 packets or 1 Tbsp shelf stable Parmesan cheese

FBC method:

Add the broth stick contents to the bag and 1 1/4 cups near boiling water. Stir well, seal tightly and put in a cozy for 15 minutes. Fluff up and top with the cheese.

Insulated mug method:

Add the broth stick contents to the dry ingredients and 1 1/4 cups boiling water. Stir well, cover tightly and put in a cozy for 15 minutes. fluff up and top with the cheese.

Serves 1.

~Sarah

~Sarah

The contestants in this round:

Packit Gourmets Nawlins YaYa Gumbo and Alpine Aire’s Chicken Gumbo.

Packit Gourmet’s weighs in at 12.2 ounces and costs $11.49. Alpine Aire’s weighs in at 5.5 ounces and costs $7.43.

Why the large weight difference? Packit’s comes with: a 4 pack of Kountry Boy Sausage that you cut up and add – and the sausage weighs about 4.4 ounces. It is a big part of the meals weight but also what will impress you most. The sausage is fantastic tasting. It also has the flour mixture for the roux, oil packet, broth packet, cornbread Toastee’s and even Tabasco packets for those who like it fiery….

This is what the bag of Alpine Aire’s looks like before adding water – the green things are okra. It is a pretty standard as they come freeze-dried meal.

Packit Gourmet’s simmering on the stove:, it works best in a non-stick lightweight 2L pot. I used a GSI Backpackers Set. The long handled spoons are GSI ReHydrate spoons – we have the new 2009 version in stock now as well.

Finished and ready to sample: In the pot is Packit Gourmet’s and in the large bowl. In the upper right is the Alpine Aire version.

Close up of Packit’s:

Closeup of Alpine Aire’s:

I shot a video making the two meals – Alpine Aire’s is a simple freeze dried meal – just add boiling water, stir, seal and let sit for 15 or so minutes. Packit’s you will need to heat the oil, make a roux with the flour (very easy to do!), then add everything else and simmer for 8 or so minutes, then let rest for 5 minutes. It comes with the tastiest cornbread Toastees they make – which just makes the meal.

While both meals have “gumbo” in the name, there is a huge difference between the two.

Packit’s simply is the winner – there is no comparison. Kirk commented that if you didn’t know it was a “backpacking meal” you would think it was made from scratch. It has a kick from the Jalapeno sausage but isn’t over powering. It is thick, stew like and full of sausage, chicken, fish and plenty of vegetables. Ford loved it as well.

The issue we had with the Alpine Aire was while it made a lot (which was shocking as many commercial meals are really 1 person servings) you kept looking over at the sausage in Packit’s and thinking “hey, this is skimpy looking!”. And bluntly put, the Alpine one was excessively salty – you didn’t get flavor or heat – you got “salt” as the main taste. Which was odd, since if you treated both as a 2 person meal they had about the same sodium levels. Yet, the Packit one made enough to serve the 3 of us for lunch. And that kept the salty sausage down to levels I could enjoy

Ford refused the Alpine Aire after one bite. He didn’t care for it. And that folks is never a good sign – the boy is a bottomless hollow legged vacumn cleaner….and if he refuses a food, then…I hate to say it: it F-A-I-L-S.

The only reasons I can think of buying the loser is if you are counting every ounce, you want convience over a few minutes work and you like simple food

PS: More on the new stove tomorrow.

~Sarah

Bill, the man behind the stove makes the stoves in Montana. You can see the story of them at his website.

In the video I did recently, I used the White Box along with a GSI Soloist pot set:

It took 5 minutes from start to finish to boil 2 cups water in the tall and narrow pot. I wanted to show the flames so I wasted a bit of fuel. To boil 2 cups water you don’t need more than 1 ounce denatured alcohol. If you want to do actual cooking I would recommend going to 2 ounces fuel.

The video:

~Sarah

To watch the video in HD, please visit our Trails & Cooking Channel at Blip.TV

Salmon Alfredo

In a sandwich bag:
8 ounces small pasta
1/4 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes

Also take:
1 packet dry Alfredo sauce mix
1 6-7 ounce foil packet salmon
1/4 cup dry milk

Bring 4 cups water to a boil in your pot. Add in the pasta and tomatoes. Boil gently till done (note time on pasta package). When done, turn off the heat and drain off the water reserving about 1 1/2 cups water.
Add in the dry Alfredo mix and the dry milk. Stir in well. Add in the salmon, stirring in well. Heat over low heat if desired. If desired sprinkle in some no salt seasoning or black pepper.

Serves 2 big appetites, 3 smaller ones.

~Sarah