Shelter in Place Food

Being stuck at home is no reason to starve 🙂
I started using Whole Foods / Prime Delivery occasionally before the lock-down and it was fine so for now that’s where I get my groceries.

– French Fries with my new Ninja Air Fryer
– Waffles with Strawberry and Chantilly
– Scallops in Spicy Oil, Glazed Pecans and Orange Slices
– Chocolate Waffles, Chocolate and Banana with Cognac (That was for dinner I swear)
– And a magnificent 1.3 pound ribeye steak

Las Vegas – 2020

Short road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for a few days. Lots of walking around through the city and a little trip atop the Eiffel Tower 🙂

Oregon Coast Trail 2016

One last photo gallery (I’m catching up on things). This time from 2016 along the Oregon Coast Trail.
I was feeling pretty good and I made it a point of crossing the state of Oregon in 14 days. Since there are small towns along the way, food wasn’t a problem and I didn’t have to carry more than one day of food at a time. As for water, there are thousands of streams / rivers everywhere so that wasn’t a problem either. Weather was mostly good except for one day of rain. Not too bad.

Tasmania 2011

After New Zealand I spent about two months in Australia around Feb / March 2011.
Sydney, Melbourne, (quick trip to Tasmania) and finally Perth on the other side of the country. It was a lot of fun.

Australians are very proud of their backpacking trails. They enjoy reminding foreigners that there are “hundreds of things that can kill you”. It’s mostly BS if you ask me.
The South Coast Trail / Port Davey Track is however the craziest hike I’ve ever done…by far. It took about fourteen days to complete. I took a day off (in a green, half dome shelter) in the middle of it. I had a feeling a storm was coming. I was right. It rained non stop for 36 hours straight. When I came out the next day there was a foot of water absolutely everywhere around. A boardwalk that was supposed to be a foot above the ground was actually one foot under water. I hiked a few hours with water up to my knees.
Mud was also a problem. Turns out, it’s VERY difficult to get your leg out of the mud when you sink two feet into it. I crossed rivers by walking on dead trees that fell across. To this day I don’t know how I didn’t die 🙂

There’s something to be said about hiking along the south shore of Tasmania, looking south, knowing that there’s no more land…until Antarctica. One day maybe.

New Zealand 2011

Hiking the “Te Araroa” took about five months so I had one month left on my visa to see a few landmarks that were not necessarily on the trail.
I traveled to The Catlins and did some kayaking in the Milford Sounds. There’s a lot to see in New Zealand and clearly I will have to go back at some point.

Funny story; after kayaking for a full day my body stopped generating heat. I was freezing no matter what. I was staying in a hostel in the evening and I ended up going to bed with two heavy blankets & sheets, plus my sleeping bag and all my clothes on. I was still freezing. It took several hours for my body to restart…To this day I have no idea what the problem was. It wasn’t Hypothermia (I had that twice on the Colorado Trail, trust me, I know…) but it’s one of the strangest things that happened to me on a trail.

I did lose a good part of my hearing (right side) for almost two days after a tiny branch went straight through my ear along the Te Araroa. My ear “popped” eventually and everything was fine. I also broke my arm there so I had to hike for six weeks using my camera bag as a “sling”. Luckily it fixed itself. In 2007 I lost all feelings in my right leg while backpacking late in the evening. Feelings came back. I think my backpack was putting too much pressure on some nerves. Who knows. Shit happens and people complain way too much if you ask me. Anyway…

Stewart Island, NZ

After hiking the Te Araroa throughout the two main islands of New Zealand I decided to continue hiking. I flew to Oban, Stewart Island in one of these tiny propeller plane and did the “South West Circuit” track. It’s supposed to be a ten / eleven day trek but I was in good shape and decided to go thru two huts per day instead of one. It was a completely useless challenge since I wasn’t even using the hut system but it was fun to do…

Te Araroa – 2010

In mid 2010 I decided to take a year off work. My visa situation was a mess (what’s new?) and one of my options was to leave the US for at least a year, come back and re-apply for a new visa. The US economy wasn’t going anywhere and my logic at the time was that I would be better off leaving my job, wait a year, and get a better paying job which meant the sabbatical would pay for itself. It worked perfectly. I got $10,000.00 more per year which happens to be what I spend while backpacking abroad. In the words of Hannibal; “I love it when a plan comes together”.

The plan was to spend six months hiking the entire length of New Zealand (about 2000 miles) along the “Te Araroa” Trail, then three months in Australia and Tasmania after which I would maybe spend some time somewhere in South Asia.

There’s a lot to say about this trail. In many ways it was a “compressed and intense” version of life. So many encounters (both good and bad) and so many adventures…I have many stories. I’ll write them down some day. In the meantime, a short series of photos will have to do.

Attic – Insulation

 

Old insulation was some sort of cellulose powder. Not particularly good and very dusty.

The layer of R11 on top of it was definitely not good enough for Colorado.

I removed all of it, bagged everything and vacuumed.

Added some nice R15 / R19 between the joist and about thirty OSB boards so I could walk everywhere.

Finally, added a second layer of R30 insulation on top of everything. VoilĂ !

Herman Lake

Overnight for Christmas Eve / Day at Herman Lake . About seven mile RT. First time hiking that trail. I camped near the lake next to a giant boulder (first photo). A couple hiked up Pettingel Peak early in the morning (second photo). I started hiking up towards Pettingel Peak as well but without ice axe or trekking poles it was a bit too steep. Good workout though.

 

Reflection Canyon, Utah

3/3 – Reflection Canyon is also located in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

The idea for the weekend was to do a night photoshoot of the milky way in one of the most remote and darkest place in Utah…during a new moon. The weather was supposed to be mostly sunny. It wasn’t. It turned to rain and snow storm overnight while I was camping 7 miles away from the car…after a 75 mile dirt road 🙂

Oh well, I took photos of the snow instead. Better luck next time. Truth is; two feet of snow and I would have been cast away for days with no means of communication. I was quite lucky in that regard.

I spent part of the night pounding on the ceiling of the tent so the snow would not accumulate. I feared there would be more snow but it wasn’t too bad. Just crazy slippery and obviously no trail to be found most of the way…

This area of Utah is amazing. Honestly the entire state is just phenomenal.

Escalante, Utah

2/3 – Peek-a-Boo & Spooky Slot Canyon

I’ve never done a slot canyon so I thought I’d try.
I was a bit surprised 🙂 Much narrower than expected plus some climbing on two locations. I was carrying a backpack with $8000 worth of camera gear and a tripod. Oops. Everything went fine though. These slots were 12 inch wide at time. A bit tricky to navigate.

These two canyons are located along The Hole In The Rock road in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Castle Valley, Utah

1/3 – Castle Valley and Capitol Reef, Utah

Clearly, a three day weekend is way, way too short for a trip to southern Utah but for now that’s all I have. This should have been a five day trip at least.

The first shot is a view of Castle Valley, Utah seen from the Dome Plateau. I got there via a fairly rough 4×4 road but that was unecessary. The highlands Road is an easy dirt road that goes to the same place. Live and learn.

Some news…

Not much hiking these days. I’m mostly focusing on fixing up the house. Plenty of work in the basement, some work in the yard but mostly spending my time in the attic these days fixing the electrical and redoing the entire insulation.  I’ll post photos of that eventually. In the meantime…

A 12h hike on the Loft Route of Longs Peak to check things out. A fun hike going down the Kelso Ridge of Torreys Peak and some off trail scrambling up Atlantic Peak & Pacific Peak via the mayflower trailhead.
Thanks to a fairly cold & wet year Colorado has been quite green. The fall colors near longs peak are splendid.


Loft Route of Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park.


The famous “knife edge” of the Kelso Ridge coming down Torreys Peak.


Start of the Mayflower Gulch Trail. I wasn’t really paying attention to the trail and forgot to turn somewhere so I just went straight up the gully to reach Atlantic Peak. It worked.

Weekend cooking / baking

Roasted Artichokes and Prosciutto
Big Heart Artichoke and Parmesan Soup
Home made Potato Chips with Fleur de Sel and Parmigiano
Peach Cobbler with Spicy Rum

Notes:
– I didn’t do a very good job choosing the artichoke but otherwise the recipe is really good.

– I added carrots “chips” to the soup. It works.

– I used only brown sugar for the Peach Cobbler and added strawberries and red plum. Served with Bourbon Praline Pecan Ice Cream from Haagen Dazs

Seared Scallops with Bacon Marmalade

Seared Scallops with Bacon Marmalade – I paired it with a White Burgundy (Pouilly-Fuisse 2013) and I regret nothing.
I bought two pounds of fresh scallops so that’s what I’m going to eat this weekend mostly…

Recipe here:

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/seared-scallops-bacon-marmalade?fbclid=IwAR2sa5qd8-09Rlcitq2Po22tuzS_ijTgv1AOlkukziVV4QymeVAnnuhVhPo

Mount Meeker

Trying to stay in shape after the Climb of Mount Rainier earlier this month. I gave myself a week off then…back to the gym. And of course some mountain climbing on the weekends.

No summit of Mount Meeker but good training. Gully up the loft had about three feet of stable snow + a few inches of not so stable snow. Had to turn around about 150ft from the left turn out below the cornice.


The goal is to go up the snow on the right and turn left before the last big rocky bloc.


Another climber going up another gully on the left


Back to Chasm Lake. View of Longs Peak…sort of.

A Matter of Taste

Stepping aside from the blue sky and the nice trails for a few hours I went to a store in Leavenworth called “A Matter of Taste”
I’m not gonna lie I would buy the entire store if I could. I ended up buying only six jars including the delicious Spicy Red Jalapeno Mustard
and Roasted Pineapple & Habanero…

Leavenworth, Washington

The beautiful town of Leavenworth, Washington

Apparently the story is that the old mining town was dying so they decided to change it into a ‘Bavarian’ looking town and a tourist destination. It worked 🙂 The surrounding area is actually pretty nice too.