Wes and I went on our annual backpacking trip before he had to go back to school in August. It was still the heart of summer vacation, so the concern of not getting a permit was real. I always try to choose a location that would be crowd free, but I also wanted to somehow finagle my goal of getting Wes to experience Yosemite for the first time. I decided on the Sawtooth Ridge, the northernmost border of Yosemite National Park, thanks to my father and his stories of Matterhorn Peak.
Author: Emily
Cucamonga Peak Engagement
Usually July is birthday month for two out of three of us, and it is always a bit of a competition. Last year, my sister tried to get in on the action by getting married right in the thick of it. This year, I took the month back to myself! Mai-yan decided to take herself and her bike to France for the month (you’ll hear more about that later), and then on July 18, Wesley and I got engaged! (and he wants everyone to know that it was NOT a birthday present!)
Anza-Borrego State Park
I grew up in the desert. And then I moved to Florida. There is an age-old question of what is worse- hot and humid, or hot and dry? I love to hear people say “ya, but its a dry heat.” I heard it a lot from Floridians who had never experienced that dry heat. I thought for sure that when I moved west, I would find more people who understood that 125 degree hot winds blowing dust around and cracking the skin under your toes was no better than muggy wet air, but I was wrong.
Quesadilla Salad
If there was an official food of our family, it would be the quesadilla.
Orange Honey Mustard Pretzel Dip
This dip is fashioned after a dip that was originally found at one of the many sauce/jam shops in the south. Being in North Carolina a few weeks ago jogged my memory of how delicious it was. The original was raspberry honey mustard dip, and it was a gift, but I later found myself in a store that sold honey mustard dip mixed with almost every type of fruit.
Campfire Strawberry Shortcake
Last week was Spring Break! so we took off to Florida, of course. And North Carolina. A regular southeastern tour. We never got near a beach, though. Poor Wes had a lot of family members to meet. And babies. He did very well, and has been accepted by all twenty-three significant people that he met while he was out there. He also saw his first gator (and then his two hundredth) and got to experience some real down home Southern cookin.
I’m only invited to visit my grandfather if I promise to make him pound cake while I’m there. The funny thing is that the pound cake recipe is my grandmother’s. Even though I’m not a cake-eater or much of a baker, I apparently have the secret touch. This time, he threatened to cancel my flight if I didn’t follow through. I made the cake on my last day in town, but my flight was missed anyway. I thought this meant I’d get a chance to eat some in the form of strawberry shortcake, but we found some seats open on the last flight of the day at the last minute, so my chance was missed. Though I don’t love cake, I was craving that strawberry shortcake.
Luckily, the day after we arrived home from the east coast, I had a work trip to Joshua Tree National Park (rough life). Strawberry shortcake (in the pie iron!) was on the menu.
I couldn’t find any whipped cream, so I used cream cheese and honey instead. And since I wasn’t about to make a second pound cake in one year, much less one week, I used biscuits in a can. The results were fabulous and easy- even with such short travel turnaround.
I’ll bet that if you happened to have a pound cake lying around, you could stick a few slices of that in your pie iron and make an incredible strawberry shortcake. If you do it, I wanna know about it.
Has anyone gone out and gotten a pie iron
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Red Rock National Conservation Area is my original stomping ground. Its where I was taught to love the outdoors. It is where I got the idea that playing outside doesn’t have to be a long-planned-for event. It can be something you do with your family every weekend, or even a quick escape after work. The proximity of Red Rock to The Strip and the diversity of activities available make it shocking that the majority of residents and tourists have never even seen it up close.
My dad is Red Rock’s biggest fan. He’s been hiking out there for years, and picked up right where he left off when he moved back to Las Vegas after a ten year hiatus. He’s proof that no matter how many times you’ve been to the same place, there is always something new to explore. The pictures posted here are all from him. Still, though, there are places in the park I’ve been to that he hasn’t, and there are spots neither of us have seen.
If you’re a resident of Las Vegas or not, Red Rock should be on your list of places to go. Hike the many trails in or around the park. Scramble along the red sandstone rock slabs at “the quarry”. Drive the scenic loop at sunset on your way to a night out on the town. Boulder low at Craft Boulders or climb ten pitches high. Run on the Grand Circle through the center of the park, or go in search of the little stream in Icebox Canyon. See pictographs and flowers and wildlife like vibrant-colored western tanagers or burros.
Look very closely in the photo above. There’s more to it than the beauty of the snow on the rocks.
Tempeh Beef Stew
Southern Californians have all the luck. It doesn’t matter if you love the beach or the desert or the city or the mountains. It doesn’t matter if you just started exercising for the first time in your life or are trying to beat a world record. It doesn’t matter whether you have a week or only a few hours to play. There is always something totally awesome available to you.
Last week, we had 22 hours to play. Wes’ schedule has been almost exactly the opposite of mine for a while, so those 22 hours were something we really wanted to capitalize on- especially because we had new ice axes. Our closest mountains are the San Gabriels, and the one with snow left on it was Mt. Baldy, so we grabbed our backpacks and hit the trail. Being a Monday at 3pm, we had those last few hours of daylight to ourselves on the trail up, and made it to the Sierra Club Ski Hut just as the sun sunk below the mountains. At the exact same moment, the wind kicked up hard. We found a “flat” spot to set up our “tent” (barebones setup of poles, footprint, and rain fly), and struggled to get it as tightly staked as possible (we need more practice- the wind didn’t help).
We only had to deal with one real meal on this trip, so we didn’t worry about the weight. I packed a bag full of heavy potatoes, carrots, and celery, and a whole package of tempeh, because I knew the heartiness of a “beef” stew would hit the spot. I was right. It took our entire mini fuel canister to make and caused us to forego a real breakfast and have lukewarm coffee, but it was worth it. Don’t worry, I did my duty as a recipe tester and worked out all the kinks. That’s why you send me out there!
The moon came up as dinner finished, and it must have been the brightest full moon in history! The contrast of the bright snow on Baldy Bowl and the deep black trees surrounding it reminded me of my time living in the woods. Wes and I sat on a tree trunk bench outside the hut for a while, listening to the wind howl and watching the moonlit forest, surprised by how warm we were in such a wintry scene. We could barely sleep that night from the light and the noise and the rock under our backs and the hill we were rolling down, but that just made it easier to get up early the next morning.
As soon as the sun came over the first peak, the wind stopped. We drank the worst coffee of our lives (lukewarm melted snow mixed with leftover beef stew and iodine), and hiked 14 minutes further to be the first people at the Baldy Bowl, where we spent the next two hours hiking up and self-arresting down. Self-arresting is what you do with an ice axe if you happen to slip down a steep hill. It is serious business and being second-nature with it could save your life, so we practiced a lot, but it also happens to be one of the most fun activities on earth. It was like being at a water park! We glissaded and tumbled down the bowl over and over until we had snow burns on our bellies and expert ice axe handling skills. Then we took off down the mountain, certain we could save ourselves if necessary, and were home before noon- just enough time for Wes to nap before work at 2.
It only took a little planning to make such a great trip happen. I wasn’t any more exhausted than I would have been if I’d gone to the gym instead, but I was much more satisfied and refreshed for work the next day. And having a fabulous fresh meal just made it that much better.
Have you ever taken an emergency trip on a whim like this? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
Jawbone Canyon
There’s a state park in California called Red Rock Canyon State Park. Every time Gruncle Danny talks about going there, I think he’s going to visit my parents in Las Vegas. Mai-yan and I met up with my aunt, uncle and dad last weekend north of Red Rock Canyon State Park at a place called Jawbone Canyon after we were detoured from snow camping. We pulled off Highway 14 just under two “Mammoth” billboards (both in size and referring location) and drove straight into the desert. Plain old, with no landmarks. Then we began passing RV’s and ATV trails, and ended up at our family’s “campsite,” right next to a big jump in the trail. Was this really what my uncle had in mind? These ATVers weren’t our people. These are the people that go into the wilderness to destroy it. That’s all we ever knew about them, anyway.
After a few hours of coffee and lounging in the sun, watching dirt bikes pass by occasionally, we decided it was time for an outing. We piled into the two 4-wheel drive vehicles, and headed off deeper into the desert on the ATV trails. Instantly, I remembered what the majority of my outdoorsy experiences as a child included- off-roading! We’d always drive around in the desert on trails just like these.
As we explored last weekend, we passed bunches of ATV’s. Most of them were in groups, and we learned their hand-gesture lingo semi-quickly (I started off thinking a bunch of them were giving us the peace sign). They all knew what number they were in their pack, and they’d hold up the number of fingers that represented how many were behind them. This was very helpful, so we participated as well, being a caravan of two.
Our first destination was a canyon inside the Red Rock Canyon State Park, which we slowly crawled into with our trucks, and then hiked around in. The second was Schmidtt Tunnel. Mr. Schmidtt built a house out there in the desert, and was determined to find gold and be rich. As he attempted to dig his mine, he ended up with just one long, dark tunnel, which is still open to the public. The house is a mess, but the tunnel is very cool. It goes so far in that you can no longer see the light at the end of it, and then takes a 90 degree turn out to a dead end with a beautiful view. Aunt Linda was so dizzy from darkness that she had to hike over the top of the tunnel to go back, and almost everyone else came out with an egg on their head.
The ATV culture has been one we considered foreign and not interested in mingling with if we could help it, but we realized that they are out there to have a good time in the outdoors as well. The area wasn’t destroyed with littered bottles and noise pollution like I’d imagined such a place would be, so its definitely on the list of recommended local camping spots. Its different than many other places we like to go, but its a great place to explore if you have an appropriate vehicle to do so in.
Tempeh Barbecue Sandwiches
This is the most popular month of the year for fitness and everyone knows it. I’m right in there with everyone else, trying out new things and thinking grandly about setting myself up for the rest of the year. So far, I’ve started running again (we’re all talking about signing up for the Wild West 10 Mile Run), tried out yoga class on my new Roku and 60” TV (which apparently doesn’t sound insanely huge to anybody but me)(it belongs to my roommate), and bought a new mountain bike!
Wes took me on my first mountain bike ride in years last week at our local park. He taught me some techniques and let me have a little taste of different types of terrain, from semi-steep uphills to a few rocks and ruts in the road. I felt ok about my abilities, but was worried about going on a slightly harder ride with a friend the next day. Luckily, that friend cancelled on me, but somehow I was signed up to participate in the SoCal 12 Hrs of Temecula Race instead!
The boys kept telling me that I only had to do one lap, our team wasn’t competitive at all, and I’d be fine. I got on my bike and took off on my own, straight up a mountain, and immediately fell over in front of a speedster who was definitely being competitive, almost getting my head run over. I just carved up my knee instead. The mountain kept growing in front of me, for endless miles. I had to pull over twice on the verge of heat stroke, but never fell again. By the end of the 8.6 mile loop, I’d started feeling awesome about my skills, no longer afraid of steeps or ruts or boulders, and even making it up some hills (my weakness) without having to hike. Its too bad nobody I knew was there to see me, because I totally looked like a pro by the end. Although I can’t imagine having done so well if a friend was there to listen to me whine. Funny what you can do when you are all alone and stuck with no option other than to toughen up and deal with yourself. If you haven’t been in that situation in a while, I encourage it.
This recipe is a great one to add to your fitness-filled winter camping trip. Its really just a hearty delicious grilled barbecue sandwich that everyone will love, but its more focused on health than any other you’ve had. Its made from tempeh, which many of us have a hard time loving, but trust us on this one. You’ll get everyone on board. The spicy slaw brightens the sandwich up and is hearty enough to withstand a good day of hiking (in cool weather). Thanks again to one of our current favorite cooks, Bryant Terry for another fabulous recipe to inspire us. Keep playing!
