A Wet Night in North Carolina

Monday-Tuesday, July 2-3, 2013.  Pisgah National Forest. Black Balsam, through Graveyard Fields, to the Skinny-dip Falls Trailhead. 

The Beginning: Heading Out

We stayed a week in North Carolina with the regular crew at S’s parents’ place. The plan was take an overnight “somewhere”, most likely in the Pisgah. Lee has some tendonitis in her foot that is mostly healed… Given what is still hurting her, we decided a mostly-downhill route would be easiest.

Monday morning G dropped us off at the trailhead. She took our picture, we stepped off the road, and she left. 

 

 S, Lee, Birch

J, Boo

Photo courtesy Gwyn Krause

We followed the obvious trail off the road… and found a huge pine-needle covered area with no obvious trail out. S pulled out his map, and we heard the truck pull away. Well… 

 

A few minutes of mapping and poking yielded the trail. Narrow and rocky, with well-built bridges across the many rivulets and waterfalls. It had been raining more than usual, so the water was noisy enough it was hard to hear. Since this was a new trail to all of us and noisy, we kept the kids in the middle and an adult leading and tailing. We are so mean.

Teaser

We had a very nice overnight in the Pisgah National Forest. By the ”stick a mug out the door” method, we had ~3 inches of rain between dinner and bedtime, and were camped on a little island for a while. It was impressive. We cut our second day short.

 Kids were amazing. New food was big success.

Spicy Peanut Butter Soup for Backpacking

Our planned trip got cancelled, but we still cooked like we were on the trail, and tried a new recipe: Spicy Peanut Butter Soup.  Most commercial soup mixes have dairy, msg or both which don't work for us, so I've been experimenting with creating our own.

Soup mix, Pretzel rolls and water.

Combine powder and water

 Stir and wait......

A delicious dinner

Spicy Peanut Butter Soup for Backpacking

inspired by Copperbadge

serves 4

1 large onion grated

3 large cloves of garlic minced 

2 carrots grated

2 potatoes grated or in peeled curls 

1-2 TBS vegetable oil 

1 tsp dried celery leaves

curry powder, ginger, and pepper to taste

 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (32 oz)

6 TBS powdered peanut butter

* I used 1 sweet potato and 1 regular, I liked it - Birch asked for just normal potatoes next time

In advance at home

Saute the onion and garlic in oil until the onions are translucent.  Stir in the rest of the vegetables and spices, and let cook for a few more minutes.  Add broth, and simmer for about 15 minutes until vegetables are soft. Taste and adjust seasoning as appropriate. DO NOT ADD THE PEANUT BUTTER.

Let soup cool, dehydrate, and break into powder.  Combine soup powder and peanut butter powder in a bag for the trail.

On the Trail:

Combine soup mix and 4c water and heat until it is as hot as you'd like to eat, stirring well.  For a heartier meal you could add some bagged chicken. 

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Saturday Hike

Saturday, May 18, 2013

With Lee out of town, Boo and I took a picnic lunch to the observation deck at the far end of one of our local trails. This has been a favorite destination since she started toddling along for some of our hikes. 

She planned and made our lunches (PB&J, squeezy apple sauce, and a piece of candy) while I had my coffee. 

She has a tiny compass on her pack. It’s more of a toy than anything, but it points north-ish, and is a lot more accurate than I was expecting. She has gotten to the point where she can look at the compass and point north, and then figure out which was the trail is going next, even if it’s not the direction she’s looking. 

The last time we took a longer hike here, there were still several trees down across the trail from the flooding. This trail, however, was clear, which was a disappointment to her. She likes to climb over obstacles. She found a tree very close to the path and climbed over it.

Then we hit the creek.

And the bridge was gone. 

Dried Hummus

Lunch is always tricky. We don’t care to go on snacks evenly spaced throughout the day (though some arguments for that method are tempting).

One day we saw hummus powder at a grocery store and decided to try it. We often eat hummus and stuff in a pita, so it seemed a good choice (we have best luck with food that’s like our at-home food).

The prep work we needed was to find a measuring vessel. The particular hummus we got is 1 part powder to 2 parts water. I had, on a whim, gotten Squishy shot cups, and one of those made a perfect measuring cup. 

So powder. Then water. And… this is like dirty water. As we pondered this, and then realized it just wasn’t done rehydrating. Waited a few minutes and it made an acceptable pita filling. 

It has a lot finer texture than fresh hummus, which is a slight mark against it for both of us. The flavor was fine. We will certainly make it again, though in the future we may dry our own rather than purchasing. 

Have you tried dried hummus? What did you think?