The Perfect Weekend
November 7, 2023 § 1 Comment
We returned to an area of West Virginia where I believe the first backpacking trip that I drove down to meet what would later become known as “The Virginia Crew” finished up. Then, it was a point to point that finished just off the Tuscarora Trail near Rt 48 between Strassburg and Wardensville, and now it was an in and out back up into Racer Hollow out of The Wilson Cove Wildlife Management Area. We picked this weekend, basically, because I didn’t give but 2 possible weekends for me to participate, and as it so happened, turned out to be the weekend after Walt’s final day at Iridium, bound for his post-work-life as a retiree.
Anyone reading this that lives in the Northeast knows that it has basically been one fucking shitty assed Autumn that has had weekend after weekend ruined by at least 1 day of solid rainfall. This NYT article spells out the doom in NY self-picking apple orchards that rely heavily on Autumn weekenders getting out there to pick apples, so I think it is safe to say that we all harbored great expectations of a fine weekend for this excursion. As soon as one could pull a long term posit, it was looking good, and unlike all my other long term looks, this forecast actually improved every day it got closer. At some point I realized that temperature wise, it wasn’t going to be any different this weekend than it was my entire week above 10,000′ this past August in Utah. So, with that great news, I put away my 0 degree bag, and packed my 35 bag with a liner and not only committed to my 45 liter Lite AF pack, but I did not even pack rain gear. No Pack cover, no tarp, no rain jacket, and no rain kilt. I, and a few others it turns out, went all in on the forecast.
« Read the rest of this entry »The Bread I Make
February 28, 2020 § 4 Comments
Republishing this with some updates. And again.
Let’s start this off by saying there are a lot of ways to make bread, and I suppose by “ways to”, I really mean “recipes for” making bread, because really there are a limited number of ways to actually make it.
It all starts with a recipe, and then you can experiment and add your own variance. The recipe I have been following lately starts with:
- 700g Hard White Wheat Flour (King Arthur’s Orange Bag)
- 300g Hard Red Wheat Flour (King Arthur’s Red Bag)
- 850g H2O @80-90F
- 200g Starter
- 20g Kosher Salt
- 1C Seed Mixture (Optional)
- 4 TBS Gluten Flour*
* Whether to add this really depends on the type of wheat being used. Soft wheat, like cake flour will definitely need gluten added, where as hard wheat, should really need it, but it doesn’t hurt to add in as it takes good gluten sheets to make that lovely crumb that we so love in these kinds of breads.
« Read the rest of this entry »The Halfway on the AT – Not the Winter Trip We Expected
January 19, 2020 § 2 Comments
You may recall from my previous post, that there was a plan and except for a little damage to Andy’s wife’s Infinity and a little bit of rain, everything was so far going to plan. We all arrived safely, ate huge breakfasts at The Elkhorn in Bendersville, and we pared everything down to all the food, beer and booze we needed to enjoy all ourselves for the weekend. We set out from our parked vehicles, and we headed South on the AT, which at the start was nothing more than getting out of the parking lot, and walking along the road until the trail turned right and started climbing past some local hunting cabins. The grade was a pretty easy grade, and there really wasn’t anything in this day that was expecting to be any real challenge.
« Read the rest of this entry »Second Recovery Day – Phi Phi
March 27, 2018 § Leave a comment
Up early we needed to be today. The agenda was a boat trip to some islands. In our particular case the Phi Phi islands, but I didn’t know what they were, or where they were for that matter, or even what kind of a trip we were in for. Susan came out to the pool on Monday and said she signed us up for a boat trip. See, we have had some pretty good luck with boat trips in the past. In Ketchikan, Alaska Susan and I took a Salmon fishing excursion during a cruise ship stop. We caught 8 lovely Pink Salmon, one of which we had the kitchen on the ship prepare for us. The envy in every other table around us when our dish came out was priceless, but really what they thought didn’t matter. What we had did, and what we had was deliciously awesome.
First Recovery Day – Cooking Class
March 17, 2018 § Leave a comment
Though I have the bike for the entire week, I can’t ride every day, and with the club ride yesterday, and my fiasco at the massage place (that poor young woman), I needed a day off.
During the research of “What to do in Phuket?” Susan came across a cooking class which she signed us all up for and as it happens that day is today. We had a scheduled pick-up at our hotel at 9:30, so even more reason not to go out on the bike, as anything could happen and I wouldn’t want to miss this class.
Operation Get The Bike! Day One
March 10, 2018 § 2 Comments
To say that “When we awoke the next morning” is a little misleading about traveling to the other side of the world where the local timezone is exactly 12 hours ahead of the timezone you left. If I said I went to bed and awoke early would be a lie, because I never really fell asleep that first night. The same went for Susan, and when 6am finally rolled around, and the breakfast buffet opened up, we were eager, and hungry to get started. Our girls had a week of Vietnam in them, so they weren’t about to stir for some time.
In Search of Pliney The Elder
November 22, 2017 § Leave a comment
I can’t recall when I first heard about this beer. It may have been a review I read, or it could have been my friend Christopher Tucker who texted me a query about it. When I googled the beer and got an image label, I felt like I had seen this once before but had ignored it. I am not swearing on this, but visiting Austin a number of years back, I feel like bottles of this were in the glass front fridge that I could see, and that label did stick out in its simplicity. Why I didn’t pursue, I cannot guess. My loss.
Big Bird's Adventures 