The Rest of The First Part of The Trip

From Crater Lake we headed off to Oregon Caves National Monument. The road up to the caves is not exactly RV friendly, but Pam handled it like Mario Andretti in slo-mo and no harm came to any of us.
We found a shady spot for the RV and went for the 90 minute tour. I'm kind of a wimp about being under ground. I figure I'll be there soon enough anyway and why take silly chances, but I bucked up and went to ensure there would be a photographic record of the event.

Cave tour over, we braved the road again and made our way to Florence Oregon and another great Oregon State Park (Honeyman). The next morning we hiked at Cape Perpetua (6.4 miles) and made our way to Pam's Aunt and Uncles house for the night.

We were going to stay 2 nights but they have 3 dogs and Athena doesn't play nice with other dogs.

The next day we headed for our last overnight before heading home for our niece's wedding. We chose Fort Stevens State Park at the far northwest tip of Oregon by Astoria. It was another great Oregon State Park and we were lucky to get the last spot left for the night as we were a little late due to a stop in Cannon Beach for the best pizza on the west coast at Pizza Al Fetta.  We had a nice bike ride around the park which is 4700 acres and settled in for the night.

We awoke to a little drizzle but we chased the clouds north all the way home and arrived safely in the sun in time to head to the Taste of Tacoma in the afternoon.

I'll post some stuff on trip part 2 soon as well as the recipes I promised before.....

Oregon State Parks And Camping Food

The Oregon State Park System does a great job. The campsites are clean and easy to use. They have many options and there are a ton of them. We stayed at 3 of them last week and would gladly stay at any of them again.

Besides the ability to take Athena with us the ability to control our food was the other driving force behind the RV purchase. The results were great as Pam and I both lost 3 or 4 pounds while we were gone. The food was not your typical campout food. There were no burgers or hot dogs. Just before we left we bought 5 pounds of Snapper. We had a fillet each for lunch on Friday with some wild rice and Broccoli salad. On Sunday we made a healthy version of Jambalaya with the Snapper, mushrooms, and onion with organic tomatoes poured over some al dente brown rice.

The next day we used wild rice and spiced it with basil and went for an Italian spin. The last of the Snapper went in some fish tacos on whole wheat tortillas.

Breakfast mostly consisted of my Breakfast bowl recipe with oats, yogurt and berries. I make some hummus before we left and that has been great with Pita chips and as a spread that takes the place of other condiments on a wrap for lunches.

I'll write out detailed recipes for all of this soon. I'm off to the ocean to help my brother build his deck. Pam will grab me in a day or so to continue the vacation and maybe - if the weather is good- we'll try to climb St Helens again.

More soon......

Rain And Sun And Sun

So we were rained off of Mt St Helens again this year. It's like every other year we succeed and you'd think smarter people would just go on even years, but we are rarely confused with smarter people so there you go. Despite the shortened climb a good time was had by all and a great workout as well.

Next year we are talking about 2 climbs - one early and one in the summer. Like I said, rarely confused.....

We headed out Sunday south into Oregon. Our first stop was at Lake Ochoco County Park outside of Prineville Oregon. The campground was clean and located along the shore of the lake. We had intended to do a hike to Twin Pillars, but we arrived later than planned as our pilot Pam decided on a little longer route that she was curious about. It was really pretty and the bulk of the route was right along Mt Hood who was out in all her glory. Short story long- no hike Sunday.

We got going pretty early Monday and headed to Newbury National Volcanic Monument just south of Bend. There we hiked Paulina Peak. The trail was under snow so we hiked the road to the top which was closed to traffic. The hike was to be 6 miles round trip but ended up being more like 8.5 miles in the snow. Here's the odd part. It was over 85 degrees as we came down from the peak! So we are hiking in the snow in 85 degree temperatures - weird!

We headed down to Diamond Lake for the night and the next day we made it to Crater lake where our plan was to camp in the park and hike Mt Scott in the morning. The only problem was that the campgrounds weren't dug out yet and there was no way to get to Mt Scott yet. You might think this would be a bummer but here's what we saw.

More soon.....



Pre-Trip Numbers and Stuff

We are down to it now. We leave in the morning for St Helens and then off to some hiking in Oregon including Crater Lake and a visit with Pam's Aunt. We'll have the whole fam-damily with us down to St Helens as Pam's brother and sister along with her dad are all coming. We will only be short Eric and Dani of a whole load. Maybe next time.

I am happy to report that my return to activity has netted good results so far. I was at about 218 when I began exercising again (up from a low of right at 200) and am now at 210. My goal is 195 or so so still some work to do. I'm just jacked to be moving in the right direction again.

Two last trips for the last items we needed for the trip were managed today along with an airport run for Nancy - Pam's sister - who is down from Alaska to climb St Helens with us. Apparently, they don't have anything to climb up there.

We will attempt to find WiFi to post along the way, otherwise you'll get a bunch at once later, but we will report on the climb and the other hikes we have set up. You'll get some pictures, and hopefully they'll be the fantastic kind that makes me want to hike some more. Keep your fingers crossed! Here is one from last year.

I'm skipping the nutrition and recipe for today, but I'll have something for you next time I hope.


More soon......

A Short Note on Athena

I couldn't take the sadness anymore so yesterday I made a point of packing some dog food and treats while she was watching me and took them out to the RV. Since then she has perked up and is chomping at the bit every time I get close to a door. Whew!

Nothing is worse than a moping mutt.

The fire wood is loaded and the bike rack and bikes installed and loaded and locked. The fridge and freezer are mostly loaded, and I am half out the door with Athena.

Is it Friday yet?

The Return Of The Son Of Packing The RV For The Climb

OK. A Costco run and another to Fred Meyers, a restless night spent revisiting everything I could potentially forget, and a dog who still thinks we plan to leave her and take off somewhere followed by making a broccoli salad and 2 different kinds of roasted nuts, rigging some curtains for the rear sleeping area in the RV, more packing and trying to find all of the potential rattlers and squeakers in the rig and now I'm tired.

Next trip I'll know how much time to devote to this. I still need to install the hitch mount bike rack and track down some firewood. I fired up the fridge and freezer and will get them loaded early Thursday.

We started with a 3.4 mile walk at a pedestrian 4.3 miles per hour. It was like every dog alive was barking at Athena, and she didn't take kindly to their attention. She can be a tiny bit belligerent when barked at, but then who isn't?

Any RVers reading this please tell me what I'm forgetting unless it's some RV right of passage to screw up your first trip. I'd hate to miss a good hazing.

Nutrition:

You may have noticed that all of the recipes call for Organic ingredients. So lets talk about organics.

Most of us forty and older  grew up on fruits and vegetables that were grown locally and reasonably organic. In the 1970s we were barraged by advertisements extolling “Better Life Through Chemicals.”  Since then many changes and few advances have occurred in food production. On the scary side of these changes are genetically modified organisms (GMO’s).

GMO’s are seeds that Monsanto and some other companies have produced that have things like insecticides and herbicides modified into them. The idea, according to them, is that the crops will need less chemicals, but that doesn’t turn out to be the case. What is true is that these plants have insecticides and herbicides within them. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think I have had enough chemicals in my food.

Organic foods are  those that are produced using environmentally sound methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives. 

Oddly, the other type of agriculture is called conventional. The bottom line is that organic is better. I hear people tell me that “reports” say that up to 30% of foods labeled as organic are not, but even if that’s true, I’ll take  70% less chemicals.

The other thing most people believe is that organics are drastically more expensive than the other, and while there is a price difference it is not large and the food tastes better anyway.  The more we choose organics, the more quantity and variety there will be and the added demand should bring prices down and attract more farmers to embrace the organic way.

Recipe:

Roasted Nuts Your Way

1 Container (I use a Costco mixed nut container) full of raw nuts of your choosing. My mix is almonds, walnuts, and pecans. If that's too boring add some hazelnuts or macadamia nuts if you wish.

Pour nuts into a bowl large enough to stir the nuts in and add 2 tablespoons of water. Stir until all the nuts are coated.

Add salt or spicy dry rub mix or salt and pepper, or whatever you want. I make one with salt and pepper like this. I take 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt and put it in my spice (coffee) grinder and run the machine for 10-15 seconds. This makes the salt super fine and increases the volume. I add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt to the nuts and then cover the top with ground black pepper in a light layer.

Toss the nuts to cover well and pour onto a cookie sheet. Put in 375 degree oven for 5 minutes. Stir and replace for 5 more minutes. Allow to cool and add to container and enjoy!

More soon......

Packing The RV For The Climb

I just needed to fill the holding tank in the RV and then off to fill the Propane tank. Sounds Easy, right? Except for the fact that when the tank was full the kitchen area sink was leaking and needed a new faucet set and I learned the prior owner - we'll call him Mr. Caulk - had caulked the sink drains instead of using plumber's putty which is the appropriate product for sink drains. If I just taught you that pretend you always knew it anyway.

That was the bad news. The good is that the propane tank was already full so the trip to the station to fill it  used more gasoline than I got propane. Oh well.

It sounded pretty easy. Just figure out what we'll need for the climb and a week of travel after and pack it into the RV. The travel BBQ fits in the area I wanted it in as long as I remove the lid. The jacks had to come out of their tool box so I could accommodate the BBQ, but there was just enough room in the area to also stow the propane tank for the BBQ. Whew!

Since I plan to cook most of the meals I needed to pack an adequate travel kitchen. Big cutting board, 3 knives, pancake griddle for Sunday breakfast after the hike -Pam signed me up to make Buckwheat Blueberry pancakes- and some additional pans. I finally get to re-season my other cast iron skillets so I heated them up with oil in them and wiped them around and then baked them in the oven. So then I needed to pack dry food and spices and pretzels and popcorn for the air popper - oh yeah the air popper, and make sure we had sheets for all three sleeping areas, and OK THIS IS MORE THAN IT LOOKED LIKE IN THE BEGINNING!

I'm glad I have a couple more days to finish all this stuff.

Nutrition:

Without the commitment to eating healthy you will yoyo and need to start over time and again. Doctors agree that this type of weight loss and gain are very bad for your health. Among the dangers of YoYo dieting are the following:

·    Liver problems

·    Loss of muscle

·    Lower metabolism

·    Heart disease

·    High blood pressure

·    Stroke

·    Diabetes

·    Cancer

·    Shortened life span

I don’t see one item on that list I’m interested in having. The real changes are worth it for you and your family.

Recipe:

Carrot Muffins
Makes 12

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Teaspoon sea salt
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
1 Teaspoon nutmeg
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup

¼ cup Honey

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup water
2 Teaspoons vanilla
3 medium to large eggs, beaten
2 cups grated Carrot (If you juice you can use the pulp from juicing carrots)
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease approximately 12 muffin tins thoroughly. Mix dry ingredients first. In separate bowl, mix sugar with olive oil, water and vanilla.  Add beaten eggs and blend thoroughly. Lightly incorporate the carrot pulp and nuts.  Finally add dry ingredients.  Put into muffin pan and cook  for about 20 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes and serve.

More soon....