Kings Range Trip Report

Hello Internets !

I put the google-doc for my jerky and lentils recipe in that little side bar on the right side of your monitor, enjoy. More recipes, including electrolyte chews and a 4.4Cal/g bar !

Kings Range Picture Show and trip report, enjoy !

Good morning, it is early. You know you ain't young no more when your facial muscles takes a while to wake up.

Driftwood shelters along the coast


Dual use of gear helps lower pack weight


Lighthouse at the base of the mountains


Painted hills blowing in the wind above spanish flat


flowers on the beach at spanish flat


view of the mountains from the beach


Sunset, walking north to big flat after being sqeezed off the beach by the high tide. I like long walks on the beach, sunsets, and candle lit dinners.


I'm up early to beat the tide on my way out of big flat. Clark saw a mountain lion at the tree line, and I saw a figure on the trail the day before. In the morning there were tracks on the beach.


I finished my trip @ 34 miles, 10 hours of actual hiking.


A chunk of wax, put on a stick, and covered with lint makes a good match when combined with a firesteel.


Not washing my socks makes it easy to distinguish right from left.


The tides were no joke.


Clark should be here soon, I'm running out of daylight and been out of food.


Another trip concludes at sunset.

Be safe out there,
--Cayenne

Jerky and Lentils

In preparation for my trinity alps hike last weekend I made a ton of food, but didn't have time to sort through the pictures and post the recipes.

The first thing I made was some jerky, but rather than a jerky for snacking, I made it specifically to season the lentil dinner. I really enjoyed the flavor of the jerky, and the way it worked with the mashed potatoes and lentils. It did cause a bit of gas when eaten dried, but prepared it was mostly fine.

1. 10g salt
2. 15g black pepper corns
3. 5g coriander
4. 9g cumin
5. 4g all spice
6. 8g molasses
7. 2g agave nectar
8. 1.6# beef
9. pinch of cayenne
10. double pinch of cinnamon
    
11. 15mL tamari
12. 1/2 small onion fine dice
13. hand full of garlic cloves, minced
14. 5mL champagne wine vinegar
15. 200mL water
    

I start with a blend of spices consisting of black pepper,
coriander, cumin, allspice, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon.


Toast the seed like spices, and grind to a powder


combine spices with 10mL molasses, 200mL water, 5mL vinegar
15mL tamari, and blend well, add in 1/2 small onion diced fine,
and 6 minced cloves of garlic.


I am going to marinate this 1.64lbs of london broil over night in the refrigerator.


Because this is a small batch of big pieces, I will dry it flat
rather than hang it as I did with the mango-chipotle jerky
last season.


the jerky laid out for drying


130g of the dried jerky will be chopped into bites
and added to 75g of lentils and 45g dry mashed
potatoes per two person meal.


bite size pieces.


More coming soon , this is backpacking season !

fake meat (no recipe)

I am going to get a scale soon, as that is the only sane way I can think of to keep track of nutritional content in my cooking.

I don't really have a recipe written up yet, but I took a bunch of pictures while I was making it. Fake meat started as an obsession to copy my vegetarian roommates fake chicken sticks. And that was okay.

For the trail, I decided to make seitan. It was hard to eat on the trail, despite being easy to make at home.

I had been working with a grain based recipe. Grain textures, grain proteins.

Now I am working with a ton of mushrooms


And getting carbohydrate and protein from azuki, black, and anasazi beans.


They are all mixed together after cooking, and set aside.


A ton of garlic (not pictured), Corn, Leeks, Green Garlic, Bell Peppers, and onions are coooked and set aside.



Cooked it looks like this, just quickly heated over high heat.


A mixture of many grains and seeds are cooked with some textured vegetable protein, and vital wheat gluten.


I mash the cooled dried beans.


add in the grains and vegetables.


I am ommitting a lot of spices that will be detailed in the recipe when I write it up. The mix is spread and dried on trays, while some is eaten fresh.



once dried it looks like this. MMmmm.


I put one or two chips into my mashed potatoes, and, it was pretty good. I liked it, and will be doing it again.


cooking the mixture on the beach

Fuel for a 35 mile weekend, pretty tasty, and very quick.


Cheers,

Stampede Reservoir

Hello Internets,

Last weekend, I took my gear for a walk north of lake tahoe, and then treated it to a candle lit dinner in my snowcave before crashing out for the night. This was my first time ever building a snowcave, and took 1HR + 30minutes. I left all my other shelters at home and carried only my shovel to ensure I would be making or finding natural shelter.


I came down following the ski tracks to keep the photo nice

Scenery

more scenery as I navigate untouched snowfields to the reservoir


the southwest end of the reservoir

northwest end of the reservoir

my snow cave

The sun sets, and the air cools rapidly

But my cave was heated and lit by candles.
I cooked lentils with mashed potatoes and garlic for dinner. Simple and quick.

all packed up in the morning

Cheers, and be safe out there,
Cayenne

PS My normal backpacking season is just around the corner, and that means new recipes coming soon !

I went to Henry W. Coe State Park, in California, south of San Jose over the weekend. I wanted to be cold, and work on my backpacking in the rain. I left the stove and such at home, and went ultra light. I was hoping for a 26mi loop. I got in about 15 the first day, and just hiked out 3ish the second due to river flooding to a level I didn't desire to cross. I slept well thru hard rain and heavy winds inside my hennessy. Next time I am bringing a bag to keep my shoes dry.

The weather was crappy, or exquisitly gray . . .


The trails were easy to spot, and desserted


I saw a coyote thru the mist


this is my best picture of the doggie