This Makes No Sense At All

We've been taking digital for five years now, and I finally got back to scanning in a 2004 PCT trip that was originally slides. As I wiled away a few hours doing this, I realized a couple of things. First, how few slides we took on a backpack trip, compared to what we do now. We had to ration ourselves to something like six slides a day. It just cost too much to to more than that, so we missed taking a lot of things I wished we had. The other thing is that I realized that I like the digital images better. The slides are sort of like the streetwalkers we see in the marginal areas of the city. An in your face attraction to them, but over done. The colors are over bright, the contrasts too great. It makes a good show, but the natural look is more to my taste. As I look at this post in 2020, I realize it is sort of a flippant male attitude, joking about women and their appearance. Nowadays I would be more thoughtful, but that was my thought back then, so I will let it stand.  Insert ...

There have been some tragic hiking deaths this last week. Nine seniors died of hypothermia on a guided mountain climbing trip in Japan. The same week two hikers in separate incidents died of hypothermia while hiking in extreme heat near Palm Springs. There were the usual unthinking comments about candidates for the Darwin Awards. I'm not as harsh on those commenters as some might be. Sometimes in serious situations, a joke helps one deal with it. Remember that line where Butch and Sundance are about to leap off this 100 foot high cliff into a river? "You can't swim? Hell, the fall will probably kill you!". What hiker hasn't thought, "there, but for the grace of God, go I". If they haven't, they are a candidate for the Darwin Awards.If you're going to live, you've got to take some chances. Just try to minimize the risk, and learn from your experiences. When I first backpacked with Susan, I hadn't done it in a long time. We were going up...

As long as I'm on a cooking roll, let me pass on this recipe from an old roommate, from whom I learned a fair amount of cooking. One of his more important rules, at least for the single guy trying to make an impression: "If you cook with booze, you can't lose". No booze in this recipe, but its still a winner. For about six people. Leftovers taste good hot or cold. And re the booze; you can certainly serve it with lots of good red wine and a good time will be had by all. 1 big slab of round steak cut into cubes. This was the original recipe. You can't get those big slabs of round steak anymore, so I pick out a big London Broil and have the butcher cut it into bite sized chunks (about 1/2 in square cubes). They tend to make the chunks too big. 1 pint sour cream 8 ounces sliced mushrooms 1 can mushroom soup - the original full sodium variety. one or two big onions, chopped about 1/2 stick of butter about 1/4 - 1/2 can of tomato paste salt, thyme and oregan...

Ready for dessert? Backpacking has given us a great appreciation for good food. We've been making this all year - fall and winter apples & pears, now peaches, plums, you pick the fruit. Always tastes wonderful. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Don't know who to credit for the recipe - it's on an old yellowed newspaper clipping, don't even know the paper. Turn oven to 375 F, have 8x8 inch baking dish ready. Doesn't need to be oiled or buttered. Takes 2 medium sized bowls. In one put five or six cups of fruit cut into bite sizes. Don't need to peel, but seeds aren't good. In the other put 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix dry ingredients. Pause here to foil those unattributing blog thefts: ©2009 backpack45.com Mix two tablespoons of flour with two or three tablespoons of sugar and pour over the fruit bowl. Mix it all up. Dump the bowl of fruit into the baking dish. Now, add one beaten egg to bowl wi...

There's a little positive bias here, and a fleeting personal connection, just so you know that up front, but about the book. I love reading hiker narratives, but I almost never read one that I would recommend to my non-hiking friends. This is one of those rare few. This is a collection of tales from the trail, more or less in time sequence, but not always. There is a large amount of what some may call digression from the topic, but I call philosophical insights, prompted by the trail. On these long, long walking days, the mind goes all sorts of places, and Ray has put his thoughts on paper. His words bring Edward Abbey to mind, though he's not as angry. Maybe closer in the rhythm of his prose to John McPhee. I hesitate to use the word literature, fearing that word might kill some sales among the younger generation. Maybe it's sufficient to say that it is the best hiking book I ever read, that I hated to put it down, that I didn't want it to end? I should add that th...

My grandfather raised peaches in Modesto. Back in my high school days, it was my sentence to spend Augusts at the ranch, helping with the peach harvest, in hopes that it might inspire in me a love for the farm. Sadly for my parents and grandfather, but happily for me, that dream never worked out. The experience of being up on a ladder picking peaches in triple digit heat, with sweat running down, furiously itching peach fuzz down my neck and body, did not convince me that this was a life I wanted. There were, however, a lot of good things about that month in August. By trial and error, with tractor, truck, ancient Chevy sedan and farm pickup, I learned to drive through the orchards. My aunt and uncle also came for the summer to work and help my grandfather manage the harvest. They were only about ten years older than I, and sometimes allowed me to tag along to the drivein movie, or more frequently take me to this wonderful ice cream parlor in downtown Modesto, name now long forgotten...

I've been slow getting to this point, but I've got to ship our resupply boxes soon. Since they have isobutane fuel canisters, they have to go ground usps or ups, so I need to allow a couple of weeks to get to Oregon & Washington. Picked up the freeze dried dinners at REI last night when we did a Camino de Santiago talk (see our backpack45.com camino page if that subject interests you). Today we had a long hike planned but Kaiser's dermatology had a cancelled appointment, so scheduled me at 11 to check a new black spot - turned out to be totally harmless - just a sign of aging, but that did break up the day. So, back home for a bag lunch (had already packed it for the hike) and then review the backpack food list and off to the first stop. The Food Mill - our local bulk food store where I can pick from a dozen kinds of granola. Settled on four choices, but still know that after the trip it will be months before I can stand to eat granola again. I check my list. No...

A cold and foggy July 5th morning and a "long hike day". This by our definition is 7 to 12 miles vs a short hike being an hour or two. Looking for new trails, we looked at the EBMUD map again, and saw that just east of the King Canyon loop we did a few weeks ago there was a trailhead. It would let us get on the Rocky Ridge Trail and continue on to Las Trampas from the east edge of the King Canyon loop. My vision of this was a relatively flat undulating trail, finally taking an abrupt up as it hit the western edge of Las Trampas, similar in terrain to the King Canyon. That's not quite the way it went. First we park at the Rancho Laguna Park trailhead and search for the trail. Some returning hikers direct us to the southeast corner of the park where there is an EBMUD register and a gate. Then up an access trail to a fire/ranch road cutting south to the Rocky Ridge Trail. We head down this, and then east on the Rocky Ridge trail, taking note of a gate to the right that l...

Now that summer is here, and we are home for a change during garden season, the summer squash are thriving, and I can see a need for zucchini recipes. This flashed by last fall as a comment on The Solitary Walker's blog by Rebekah of the Moratinos Life blog . Per Rebekah: I grate them up, squeeze out the excess water, beat them together with a couple of eggs, Parmesan, and breadcrumbs, and fry them up into fritters. Serve them with garlic mayo. YUM. July 20,2009 - Update. In the interests of cooking science, and to use up an unexpected eggplant, I tried this recipe with eggplant instead of zucchini. My recommendation. Don't try this unless you are fond of eggplant to begin with. Susan liked it, but then she likes eggplant to begin with. I like mine totally disguised with layers of cheese, etc. The fritters have a distinct eggplant flavor. The recipe preparation is the same, including the squeezing out of moisture. The eggplant has a little more. Another note, when...