The first official float of summer 2017! We had a big amazing crew this time, and since we planned in advance for once in our lives we were able to reserve sites #10, 11, 12, 13 and 15. As you know, #11 is the best site in all of Wharton State Forest since it is right on the river. The secret is out here guys, this campground is packed now. It was Father’s Day weekend, but we’ve been here on Memorial and Labor Day and it hasn’t been this crowded. We typically also reserve #12 which is across the “road” and we can’t fit into one site. This is the first time that we’ve had friends in #10, which we would not recommend due to it’s proximity to the outhouse - it’s impossible not to walk through this campsite at night.
Pictured: (Some of) Our tubes away from home. This is the only photo I took all weekend. Yes, one of our tubes is a PRETZEL!
There’s really nothing that I haven’t already said before on prior trip posts, so on to the good stuff... what we ate:
Camp Champs Chomps:
lunch: River Picnic! Tom made pasta salad with chicken, I made a savory vegetable pie with roasted vegetables, our brother made German potato salad and orzo with tomatoes and cheese.
dinner: stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer. I also had some garlic wrapped in it’s own foil roasting on one side of the pans since I didn’t have enough mushrooms to fill both pans full. Tom put together a salad with croutons, homemade dressing, lettuces, chard and kale we grew in our garden and some sprouts we’ve been growing. I made creamy garlic chicken and rice with spinach as the main dish, recipe to be posted soon.
breakfast: doughnuts my cousin brought from Amish country, loaded breakfast muffins (blueberry pomegranate this time), I forgot eggs so we just had bacon!
snacks: Tom made honey mustard pretzel bites, I made another batch of fruit roll ups, friends brought lots of other fun bites!
Tom and I have a tradition (2 years in a row now) of backpacking for our wedding anniversary. If we’re going to die young, might as well do it together and in the woods. We had really aggressive plans starting out to tackle the Black Forest Trail, but (thankfully) we reconsidered and decided on the shorter Old Loggers Path instead. Our final trip clocked in at 28 miles over 3 days (Sunday through Tuesday).
Pictured: One of the amazing views. Seriously I dream about these mountains at night.
We did the trail counter-clockwise, starting (and ending) from the parking lot at the Cherry Ridge Trail head. As you’ll see below, as of spring 2017 the road at Masten is still out and doesn’t look like there are plans to replace it. A state forest office employee told Tom “oh, we lost those roads a few years ago”. She also informed us that some of the sections of the trail were rough, and boy was she right. We made a donation to the Keystone Trails Association to thank them in advance for the hard work they are going to have to put in there later this year! Even though there were lots of big downed trees to climb around/over, and we think part of the trail that continues along Pleasant Run Stream may have been completely eroded, it still was a very enjoyable hike.
There are really nice established campsites, mostly near water sources (but not all). Since we were there mid-May, there was plenty of water and the weather was perfect. We saw 2 other hikers the entire time, and they were off trail heading downhill towards a stream while we were going up. We did find plenty of trash, which was frustrating but I guess not entirely unexpected.
We really got our gear paired down this trip, and wound up carrying about 25 lbs each. That’s not really an ultralight trip but we’re moving closer, getting better about figuring out what we need. That weight doesn’t include water, which we are also fine tuning. We started out with 3 liters just because we didn’t want to risk the streams not being as expected, and were pleasantly surprised. Stopping to filter and refill out water a few times during the day meant less weight to carry and a needed excuse to take a break.
Pictured: One of the more interesting river campsites, you can see the angled ring/chimney and some stone seats set up. Water was clearly no concern. We didn’t actually camp here, just passing through!
Speaking of gear, Tom got trekking poles to help with his recent knee/foot issues. He said they really helped. I was poo pooing them at first and didn’t get a pair for myself, but now I kind of want them too. I tested his and it was much easier than I thought to swing the poles forward, they almost effortlessly swing forward on their own. It was comforting to each take one when we went out to hang the bear bag, and really useful for balance when we had to cross Pleasant Stream! Tom also made sit pads for us out of an old camp pad, and it was sooo nice. Those stone seats are not that comfortable! I also made pot cozy’s from reflectix and foil tape we picked up, which we didn’t have before.
Other trip reports sited bear, snakes and other wildlife but we saw almost nothing. A few birds and some bold mice that tried to snatch our crumbs under our feet one night, that was it.
Pictured: A beautiful photo collage consisting of (left) Tom & his trekking poles crossing a large part of the road that had been washed out, (top right) the beginning of the stretch of road that had been washed out and (bottom right) the whole side of this cabin must have blown right off during the storm that washed out the roads, there were still many large downed trees and debris from the cabin everywhere.
Nature. It’s powerful stuff man. The photos don’t do the damage justice. This was a great hike that I would recommend checking out in person if you have the chance.
So on to the important stuff... what we ate.
Camp Champs Chomps:
Sunday breakfast: at home, bacon and eggs
Sunday lunch: sandwiches we packed in the car and ate right before hitting the trail
Sunday dinner: red beans and rice with chopped dehydrated pork roll, snacks
Monday breakfast: We packed oatmeal in case we wanted a hot meal, but ate granola bars, snacks and these amazing pour over coffee pouches from trader joes
Monday lunch: tuna salad in wraps, snacks. We packed pouch tuna, relish and mayo packets and mixed in pouch before spreading into wraps.
Monday dinner: stuffing with TVP, dried minced onions and extra herbed seasoning. I didn’t make it right (added everything at once instead of letting the water come to a boil first), and the bottom cooked but the top was very dry. Guess which portion I got! Tom surprised me with tiny bottles of prosecco for our anniversary so it was OK. Plus we had delicious snacks.
Tuesday breakfast: Still didn’t eat the oatmeal. We discovered we’re more snacks and coffee people while we slowly repack.
Tuesday lunch: peanut butter wraps and snacks
Tuesday dinner: post-trail burgers at this random side of the road biker bar in the middle of nowhere PA
We originally thought we were going to do a 4 day trip, take it reaaaaaallly slow and be out earlier on Tuesday but there was a “nor’easter” forecast for Saturday so we consolidated into 3 days at the last minute. I also overestimated the amount of food we would want to eat.... So I also was carrying some couscous with dehydrated peas, sun-dried tomatoes, homemade herbed seasoning and olive oil as an extra hot lunch option and mushroom risotto with chopped beef jerky + instant mashed potatoes with nutritional yeast and bacon bits for dinner side dishes. When we were backpacking last year it was colder and we had less snacks, so that might be why we ate so much for dinner. I had also packed up gourmet ramen with tons of vegetables we dehydrated and a homemade seasoning pack but had the presence of mind to leave that in the car before we left. I didn’t make nearly enough beef jerky, I bought a chuck roast which was all I could find but it was freaking delicious! We really had to stop ourselves from eating it all the first day and ration. I’ll post the recipe I use soon.
If you need to stay connected: Sorry, we were both in airplane mode the entire time to save battery/for emergencies/photos also to enjoy each other’s company without the outside world for a few days.
Useful maps and guides: The most useful map we found was a 17 x 22 printout of the Loyalsock State Forest linked here that we happened to come across at the trail head. It was the last one and I kept it in nice condition intending to return to the bulletin board for the next hiker when we got back, but failed to do. We had printed it on regular 8.5 x 11 in advance, but as you can imagine it didn’t have the level of detail. I’d recommend you get it printed on the larger size if you can.
I also printed a copy of the map and trail notes from MidAtlantic Hikes. I liked features of both maps and wanted to have them both with us so we could make decisions about where to camp at night on the trail. We also downloaded the MidAtlantic Hikes gps files and loaded them onto my trusty Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS. There was no way in hell we were getting lost this trip!
I can’t believe I haven’t made this again since we were camping, the gravy for this dish is so so good. Modified this recipe by Closet Cooking for camp.
Ingredients:
- bacon (optional)
- 4 chicken thighs
- 1 diced onion
- roughly 20 cloves of garlic, minced
- thyme, I used 2 teaspoons fresh
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup chicken broth (or stock)
- grated Asiago cheese
To Prep at Home:
I diced the onion and pre-packaged the flour and thyme together in a small bag. You could also dice the bacon in advance but I didn’t bother this time. I didn’t mince the garlic, I used my handy garlic press at camp.
Instructions:
1. Dice and cook bacon in your dutch oven until cooked, then add chicken seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides. Brown for 3-5 minutes per side then set aside.
2. Add in the diced onion and add your minced garlic. I asked a family member to peel while I was cooking the chicken. Saute until onions are brown and tender.
3. Add the flour/thyme and cook for one minute, then deglaze the pan with your chicken broth, scraping up all the brown bits at the bottom.
4. Mix in the asiago cheese and season with salt and pepper if desired. Add the chicken/bacon back in, cover, and cook on low heat for 25 minutes.
Camp Champs Review:
I’m actually disappointed that the same friends are coming on our next outing because I want to make this again so badly and I hate making the same things for people in a row. I chose to cook my sides separately, but you could take the original recipe’s suggestion and add any vegetables for a beautiful one dish meal. I bought some cheap food tents and use those to cover the meat while I’m cooking. It feels like this took longer to write up then to make, it really came together easily and made a big impression.
~*~State Forest Obsession~*~ We only have one more tract to go until we’ve camped in all of Weiser! This site was almost directly at the trail head for Pinnacle point. One backpacker was already there when we got there, no others. Occasional traffic and a little close to the road, but no issues (besides the state trooper). Siblings camping trip - all the Philly brothers and sisters + our best camp champ. We burned so much wood!!
Pictured: Our woods away from home. 3 out of the eventual 6 tents pictured. Chilling around the campfire while brother and sister-in-law cook lunch.
When we go back, we’ll make time to check out Hawk Mountain nearby. There was raptor traffic overhead but all we saw were common black hawks. We drove up to the Fire Tower (can’t climb up it although I imagine that’s what the other cars driving up there were doing) and past the other sites on our way out. Next time we’ll check out Site #2 or #3, they both looked promising!
What we ate...
Camp Champ Chomps:
Saturday lunch: chicken tacos and Mexican bean salad provided by our champion relatives
Saturday dinner: hot white bean dip with roasted garlic powder, nutritional yeast, steamed sweet potato for an appetizer, baked in a pie tin
roasted garlic chicken with Asiago gravy (recipe to be posted soon)
seasoned roasted potatoes and carrots in a baking pan
fancy campfire rice (used Italian grains and chicken broth)
Sunday breakfast: granola bars - we had to skidaddle for Easter Sunday obligations
Recipe - Skillet Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchilidas
I was inspired by this recipe, and knew it could be easily adapted for campfire cooking and customized with ingredients I already had. I simplified quite a bit for camp. When it’s just the two of us, I’d rather carry the cast iron skillet instead of our large heavy dutch oven. We did bring the propane stove but only used it for eggs and sausage the next morning. This recipe still made enough for us to bring leftovers home.
Pictured: Sweet potatoes, onion and green pepper sauteing away in a skillet. In this photo, I’ve moved the skillet out of the direct heat to sizzle for a few minutes.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 can black beans, drained (or make dried in advance at home)
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 1/4 large green pepper, diced
- handful of spinach
- large flour tortillas
- manchego cheese, diced tomatoes for serving
- Enchilada sauce: olive oil, flour, ground chili powder, ground cumin, garlic powder, dried oregano, salt, cinnamon, tomato paste, vegetable broth, apple cider vinegar, black pepper
To prep at home:
This is so versatile, you can do as much or nothing at home if you prefer. The only prep I did the night before our trip was make the enchilada sauce based on this recipe. It was really easy and came together in a few minutes, although I let mine simmer down longer while I was puttering. I wasn’t going to make it at all originally, but apparently they don’t carry enchilada sauce at my local Aldi and it seemed pretty simple when I googled that recipe in the aisle. I didn’t bother to dice any veggies before we left, but I would still save the sweet potato for camp (personal preference so it doesn’t oxidize overnight).
Instructions:
1. Peel and dice your sweet potato, onions and peppers if you haven’t already.
2. Saute the sweet potatoes first in some butter, then add the onions and peppers after the potatoes have started to brown on one side.
3. Add the black beans, let them saute for a minute and warm through before adding the enchilada sauce.
4. Stir the sauce to evenly distribute then add the spinach, let warm and stir again.
5. Wrap enchilada filling up in a flour tortilla with manchego cheese and diced tomatoes sprinkled on top.
Camp Champs Review:
This dish came together really quickly with my favorite campfire rice cooking along side the skillet in a bread pan covered in foil. I added roasted garlic and minced onion to the rice, in hindsight I should have used the leftover vegetable stock from the enchilada sauce instead of water - it tasted great otherwise but would have rounded out the seasoning better since we prefer toothsome brown basmati rice to white. My cilantro lime rice would have also been good. This was a perfect warm, hearty and meatless meal. We kept everything in the cooler because we brought it and had room, but in the summer you could pack everything but the cheese in a grocery tote. You may have noticed I left out a lot of the seasonings from the original recipe - the enchilada sauce was so flavorful, it would have overpowered it anyway but fresh herbs are always nice if you have them.
I know. I said we were going to be camping in Delaware this weekend... things change. We had an interesting experience at Parvin State Park in New Jersey, just 30 miles from Philadelphia. This was a real casual car camping trip, we didn’t even venture farther than the little lake outlook at the grounds and back.
Since we’ve never been here before, we thought we were being clever driving through the campsites before heading back to the park office. We scoped out a few sites we thought were nice and spread farther from the others, but our first choice was already reserved when we got to the office. We went with our second choice, site #5 because the third choice, site #15 was closer to the lake and we were still concerned about a chill at night. Note that #10, #11 and #13 are right on the waters edge for return trips, but #10 is next to the playground. Turns out, we probably should have gone with the other site because what we didn’t notice is that #5 is DIRECTLY on the trail.
Pictured: Our woods away from home. As you can see, the popular main trail that goes around the lake cuts right through the site. We’re calling this one “Camping: The Exhibit” because we were very much on display.
We could have moved to another site, but foot traffic didn’t pick up until after we had already set up our gear and we were lazy. It wasn’t terrible - most people were friendly and said hello, one person stopped to chat around the fire for a few minutes. But there were at least 50-60 people who passed by during the day, and starting very early in the morning on Sunday. Thankfully no one came by after it got dark (the park closes at dusk), but the thought was unsettling. Generally, it was more traffic than my little street in the city probably sees in a day. It was nice to be social, we also spoke with a woman when we were sitting next to the lake.
The lake itself was beautiful - I didn’t have my phone with me most of the weekend so of course I don’t have any photos to share. The weather was beautiful. I’m sure the water was cold, but it was a nice sunny clear day and night. We watched 2 flocks of geese who were hanging out with 4 large swans. Both women we spoke with told us the same story about how one of the swans was burned a few years ago, and they were glad it had healed and been released back. Warning, graphic swan injury. Really seems like they were beloved local creatures. We were told that on a nice cold day with sun, the turtles were probably sunning themselves on rocks on the other side of the lake. We saw a lot of interesting birds, including an egret or heron fly directly over us on it’s way to the lake. We also saw a lot of squirrels and a groundhog, and heard at least one great horned owl.
Ok on to the important thing... what we ate.
Camp Champs Chomps:
Saturday lunch: chicken salad sandwiches on rye bread, snacks
Saturday dinner: skillet black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, campfire rice
Sunday breakfast: scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, our homemade breakfast sausage patties, coffee
If you need to stay connected: T-Mobile and Sprint could send receive/texts, but no internet at camp
Useful maps: Remember to always visit the State Park website for the most up to date information.
This was such an easy meal that would be so easy to customize, and tasted so much better than regular old Ramen. I know you don’t necessarily need a recipe for this, but I want to save some combos as we try them - and hear what you come up with too.
Ingredients:
- chicken flavor ramen noodles. I packed 5 for 4 people, and wound up using 3.5
- dehydrated vegetables, I used a little of everything in the fridge - mushrooms, zucchini, green pepper, minced green onion, parsley, cabbage
- thin sliced strips teriyaki beef jerky
- custom flavor pack: 2 ramen flavor packs at the base, minced dried onion, marjoram, roasted garlic, sage, dehydrated parsley, TVP. I don’t buy chicken bullion, but would have used that instead of the ramen packs.
- optional soy sauce packs
Prep before camp:
I broke up the noodles into more packable bits in a gallon ziplock, and added the dehydrated vegetables (minus the cabbage) in one small zip top sandwich bag. I kept the cabbage separate because I wanted to use half of the remaining dehydrated vegetables for breakfast scrambled eggs. The cabbage packed better separately in it’s own zip top sandwich bag anyway. Then I made a custom flavor pack in a 3rd zip top sandwich bag and packed it all in the gallon ziplock with the noodles.
Instructions:
I put the broken up noodles, half the dehydrated vegetables, cabbage and the custom flavor pack into our aluminum cook pot with enough water to cover and let it sit for 10-15 minutes to hydrate while I prepped the salad I was serving. As we were munching on the salad, I moved the cook pot onto the fire to heat up.
I didn’t time it, but I believe I cooked the noodles for about 10-15 minutes, stirring a few times to evenly distribute the seasonings/veggies, make sure all the noodles cooked, etc.
Camp Champs Review:
I know everything that you eat after a long day of hiking is going to be delicious. However I really think the green peppers, cabbage and custom flavor pack added a lot to this dish. I wish I had brought more fresh parsley pre-chopped to add for a little more brightness, but the dehydrated was a very nice touch. No one felt like they needed the soy sauce packets, it really had a robust flavor without being overly salty like traditional ramen. I was worried that the TVP would add a strange texture, but it fit in well with the chewier dehydrated veggies and jerky pieces. I think we benefited from the added protein.
I’ll admit, I thought that ramen on the trail was just... blech. But I’m a convert!
We have made lots of exciting plans since our yurt trip last month that I haven’t shared. Tom and I decided for our annual wedding anniversary trip, we would try to tackle the entire Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania. It’s an incredibly difficult trail so we have been working out and gearing up in preparation. This trip to Roaring Creek is one quick overnight we planned to prepare ourselves for the big adventure coming up in May.
Pictured: Two champions making their way through beautiful Roaring Creek. I’m in the foreground. This was a thankfully clear part of the trail, not representative of the 1 1/2 feet of snow we trudged through.
It was especially useful that two friends joined us who had never backpacked before - reviewing vital trip information brought us back to the basics too. We recently had the opportunity to upgrade our thrifted and hand-me-down sleeping bags for warmer lightweight Rhapsody and Nocturne Nemo bags (last seasons), so this was a great time to test them out in the elements. I’ll post a picture of our at-home pre-testing I think you will get a kick out of. I also recently purchased a Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS that I am still learning to use but loving so far.
Roaring Creek has been on my list for a while, I’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity. You know how much we love exploring Weiser State Forest! We relied on the MidAtlantic Hiker map and trail notes, but modified where we wanted to stay for the night. If there was less snow on the trail and we were by ourselves, I think we could have upped the pace. We deliberately carried more gear to sandbag ourselves a bit, knowing comfort took priority this trip. I knew it was going to be cold and prepared for the weather, but with any trip there were lessons I’ll be incorporating next time.
The first day was beautiful! There were a few other people enjoying the paved Roaring Creek main trail on bikes and with dogs, but no other backpackers. We took a slight detour to the Foot Bridge on the left of the trail before you get to Natalie Miners Trail West. It’s a short walk and worth the peaceful view. There were a few times on the trail that we had to stop and get our bearings, since it was difficult to tell where the trail was due to the snow. That’s why our total trip mileage was over so much. The GPS really came in handy straightening us out. The weather was bizarre - there wasn’t really any sun most of the day, but it was warm. There were also very distinct warm and cold zones, which could change quickly in just a few steps. Made us all very thankful we chose appropriate layers, which I will outline below.
We spent the first night on the ridge, in a little area away from the trail and on top of some large rocks that was protected by pine trees. As anywhere in good old Rocksylvania, it was difficult to find a flat spot for tents. Our friends had a larger tent, so we were able to create a canopy under a pine tree and tucked our tent off to the side in the snow behind theirs.
I can’t really say that I had a restful sleep, although my new bag kept me pretty warm. I loved the baffle flap you can grab onto and tuck inside, it really made a difference. I had a hard time getting comfortable though, even though it was awesome to be able to move in the bag since it’s designed for side sleepers. We use Klimet inflatable sleeping pads, but didn’t have another insulating layer between us and the ground (besides the tent floor and foot print) that is really recommended for sleeping on the snow. We’ve experimented with strapping our sleeping pads together because we have a natural tendency to roll toward each other when we are sleeping, causing the pads to roll out from under us. I’m a twisty side sleeper which doesn’t help either. We were too cold and tired to worry about it when we fell asleep at first, but wound up waking up at 3am and lashing them together since I kept falling into the ice chasm created in the middle of the pads. The other nice thing about the Nemo bags, we could have zipped them together. We thought we would be warmer separately though. Also one thing we noticed after we took down our tent... there was a set of bear tracks a few days old right behind us in the snow!
The second day of the hike was more difficult. It was really cold when we woke up which made it difficult to be coaxed out of my cozy sleeping bag. We decided to sacrifice our hot breakfast for time, and thought we would be able to make it to the stream on the South Branch trail for a nice breakfast. By the time we got there, refilled our water and had a nice snack break, we all agreed to forgo the hot meal entirely and press on.
Pictured: view of the reservoir from The South Branch trail. We slept somewhere on that mountain the night before.
As you can see the base of the mountain is beautiful. This is where MidAtlantic Hike recommends sleeping for the night, which would have been nice - it’s much flatter and relatively less rocky. On a future trip, I’d consider a different (shorter) loop to camp here instead.
Lessons learned:
- I only brought the cheap finger-less cotton gloves that I keep in my camp gear, and a pair of work gloves thinking I could layer them. That did not work, I would up stealing Tom’s.
- We didn’t need half the food we packed - we also had instant mashed potatoes, gummy bears, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, tea bags, pour over coffee, peanut butter packs, orange jello... etc. We barely ate the food we planned for meals! It added a lot of unnecessary weight.
Overall I was really comfortable with our time - about 2 miles per hour, and about 10 miles a day in shorter days. That puts us pretty on track to our goals for the Black Forest Trail trip. I also think my layers worked well. With the exception of my gloves, I was pretty comfortable most of the trip. Here’s what I wore:
+ sports bra & spandex blend underpants, synthetic workout tank with built in sports bra, Prana hiking pants, Columbia performance t-shirt
+ LL Bean button up flannel, very old hand me down LL Bean wool long underwear bottoms
+ Uniqlo ultalight down jacket, Lands End waterproof shell of my old ski jacket
Ok on to the important stuff, what we ate.
Camp Champs Chomps:
Saturday lunch: roasted chicken breast sandwiches, snacks
Saturday dinner: (first course) spinach and bacon bit salad with homemade dressing packed in an oxo dressing container
(second course) “gourmet” ramen noodles
Sunday breakfast: (what I planned) scrambled eggs, pre-cracked in a plastic diet coke bottle (with a splash of milk), bacon bits and dehydrated vegetable mix (green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, green onion, mined onion, parsley)
(what we actually ate) a bunch of snacks
Snacks: babybel cheese, hard salami, triscuit crackers, dried fruit assortment, trail mix, beef jerky, granola bars
If you need reception: T-mobile was in airplane mode the whole time, Sprint had sporadic service - to be honest we didn’t really pay attention (as you can probably tell from the lack of photos)
Useful maps:
MidAtlantic Hike - Trail Map
MidAtlantic Hike - Printable trail notes
State Forest Map - As always, be sure to check the Weiser State Forest website for the most up to date information.
We tried a new park and different form of camping, taking advantage of the beautiful weather we are having in February!
Pictured: Our yurt away from home. Have I mentioned yet that we slept in a yurt?!
Last Sunday, when we heard how nice the weather was supposed to be this weekend, we starting making plans to go on a local hike with our best Camp Champ. Of course that quickly escalated into an overnight trip, when I discovered these yurts available in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, NJ - literally 45 minutes away from Philly.
There are tons of interesting trails and we could do an easy 10 mile loop from the campsite. Our original day hike plans included friends who are non-campers, so we thought that the yurt + close by shower and restroom facilities would be attractive and a good first step towards luring them out when the weather gets even nicer later in the season.
It wound up just being the three of us, but we still had an excellent time. We checked in at the park office, unloaded and then prepped for the hike and left around noon. It’s a quick walk back up the road to the picnic area near the pond. We stopped to check out the cabins since they were closed for the season - small and cute, but a surprise was they each had a nice dock over the pond! It doesn’t seem like you can swim there, but maybe tube? or small canoe/kayak? They looked like they had bathrooms and a nice fireplace inside.
The pond area was pretty populated but not full or packed with people. There’s a nice clean bathroom facility and picnic area. We took the Pakim pond trail to the Cranberry trail to connect to the Mt. Misery trail.
Pictured: Beautiful causeway on the Mt. Misery trail.
The trail was pretty easy, flat and sandy. There were only a few wet areas in the path we had to walk around. Instead of taking the full Mt. Misery trail back to the pond, we used the green horseback riding trail to return to camp. Note, this trail is not marked on the trails brochure we received at the park office, but is on the maps I linked above from the state forest website.
There were two horseback riders who were going the opposite direction on the trail, they were still getting ready when we left camp. We crossed paths at the top of Mt. Misery trail (behind the camp there, we stopped to have some lunch). When we got back to camp, they were gone. The entire hike took us about 4 hours.
We did see a few dirt bikes/ATV’s on Saturday during the hike, but it was more of an issue on Sunday. There were probably 15 bikes that poured into camp, and parked their trailers in the field next to the yurt. They weren’t hooting and hollering or anything, but just you know... had loud dirt bikes. Not the sounds I come to the forest to hear, but still not overly disruptive to our experience.
We did walk around and check out the other campsites. On a return trip, I would recommend booking Yurt 1 because it was farther from the trailer parking and buffered by woods on one side. If you wanted to try a campsite, #24 looked like the best option. It was quite far from the restroom, but the most private looking. The remaining sites were very close to each other. There were only a handful of other campers (less than 5) spread out all over the park, so in the off season the close sites are less of an issue.
Pictured (Top, Left - Right): Our little campsite, the very nice restroom facilities that had hot water and showers. (Bottom Left - Right): the inside of the yurt, a view from the bottom of the yurt walkway to the trailer parking.
The yurt was really cool! There’s a Plexiglas dome on top and they give you a pole so you can vent it open. There are 3 zipper windows that you can open and roll up as well (you can see the dark green square pictured above is a window, and when we had it open in the top photo). My back is at the wooden, lockable door in the yurt photo so you can see it’s not very large but we had more than enough room. The bunk beds were much less comfortable than an air mattress in my opinion, but I should have slept with more padding under me. We closed the windows in the yurt and it was actually cooler inside than it was outside.
Since we didn’t need tents, we kept all of our packing very light. It was nice just to roll up at camp, unpack, change shoes and hit the trail within 10 minutes! I could see staying in yurts again if gear was a concern - like if we were biking through or backpacking light.
On to the most important part... what we ate:
Camp Champs Chomps:
Saturday breakfast: (pre-camp) pre-made egg, cheese and pork roll breakfast sandwiches on english muffins
Saturday lunch: grilled chicken breast sandwiches on the trail with clementines and dark chocolate trail mix bites
Saturday dinner: It’s Fun to Eat at the RYE-MCA Burger (from the Bob’s Burgers cookbook - a beef burger served on rye bread with brown mustard and horshradish, topped with carmelized onions, sharp cheddar cheese and sliced avocado), warm spinach and grain salad made using this method
Sunday breakfast: muffins and pre-made egg, cheese and pork roll breakfast sandwiches on english muffins warmed on campfire
As you can tell, this trip I kept things simple and did variations of recipes I’ve published here in the past. Easy and versatile, customize based on what you’re in the mood for/what’s on sale/what you have to use up. We cooked the burgers on a cast iron skillet on the fire grate, no propane stove needed.
If you need to stay connected: T-mobile could receive texts but couldn’t get a photo, noticed I didn’t have any service a few times but I wasn’t really paying attention other to take a few photos. Sprint and AT&T were fine as usual.
I started experimenting with rice on the campfire last year and have been thrilled with the results. Almost as good as what I get with my rice cooker at home. Plus it’s a cheap filler when cooking for a champ crew! I call this fancy rice because I do what I want. Feel free to use whatever you prefer to jazz it up to your preferences.
Pictured: Rice cooking away on the fire. Simple bread pan covered in foil with a cast iron skillet of veggies sizzling away from the heat nearby.
Here’s what I did this past time:
Ingredients:
- rice
- garlic powder (more appetizing than boiled minced garlic)
- minced onion
- fresh minced herbs, I used parsley thyme and oregano
- chicken broth
- water
To prep before camp:
- assemble your rice and seasonings in a ziplock bag. I combine everything in the same bag. You can either purchase a disposable aluminum pie tin or loaf pan, I have used both successfully. This time I packed a crappy extra loaf pan I had at home.
Instructions:
1. Dump rice into your cooking vessel, add twice as much liquid as rice (chicken broth and water) and cover with foil tightly.
2. Put on fire grate over hot coals and let steam for 20ish minutes.
3. Normally, the foil will puff up slightly as the rice steams. I check a corner after 20 minutes and test to see if all the liquid evaporated and if the rice is done.
Camp Champs Review:
I have also used this technique and made cilantro lime flavored rice to serve with pork carnitas or Mexican dishes. Once I burned the bottom of the rice when I used a wide pie tin, but we didn’t even realize until someone went back for seconds and hit the bottom. I would also like to try this technique and make rice or roni, toasted my rice and pasta in advance and then boiling at camp.
2/2017 Update: I made a variation of this method with a mix of quick cook grains (farro, barley, rice, spelt, etc), roasted garlic powder, dried minced onion, fresh parsley, cooked in vegetable broth. I packed fresh spinach on top of the grains to steam and covered with foil before setting on campfire grate. Turned out delicious, the bottom of the grains were perfectly toasted!
Recipe - Warm Roasted Beet, Eggplant and Kale Salad
This salad was so incredibly good. I had to use a bunch of produce that I had on hand from my parents garden, I used this recipe from Lively Table for inspiration and modified to suit my cabinets.
Ingredients:
- beets and eggplant used this time. I’d love to try this again with butternut squash
- kale or any other hearty greens you enjoy - spinach, chard, collards, etc.
- toasted pine nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts
- goat cheese
- thyme
- olive oil & salt and pepper for roasting
for the dressing:
- garlic
- 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- black pepper
To prep before camp:
I cubed the eggplant and beets into even bite sized pieces, then roasted them separately in my convection oven while other things prepped. The beets took about an hour, the eggplant 45 minutes. Then I toasted about a half cup pine nuts also in the convection oven for a few minutes. I made the dressing in advance but didn’t heat it - I minced garlic and just added everything to a container planning to heat at camp. I doubled the amounts in the original recipe since I was serving a crowd.
Instructions:
1. Start by roasting the kale, which you’ll notice I didn’t do in advance because I was didn’t think it would taste as good. I packed up an entire gallon freezer bag into a foil pack drizzled with olive oil and lots of black pepper and put it directly on some hot coals to roast for a few minutes, turning and compressing to get some crispy edges.
2. Since I stored the combined roasted eggplant and beets into one crappy cake pan wrapped in foil, I just tossed it on the fire to heat through.
3. When the kale was done and the veggies were hot, I combined them in a large bowl with the dressing, toasted pine nuts, goat cheese and thyme. I meant to heat up the dressing in a small camp pot on the propane stove, but after that malfunctioned we were hungry and it wasn’t worth the effort to heat on the fire. I shook it vigorously and the residual heat of the veggies was fine.
Camp Champs Review:
I am a sucker for the beet and goat cheese combo, but adding the roasted eggplant really took this dish somewhere new for me. Everyone raved about it, and I had to send my parents the recipe when we got to email service because I knew they would love it too. I’m already imagining new combinations... yum!! Please let me know what you try.
This is a different take on the chicken Marsala recipe I posted before, I needed to omit the pasta since I was cooking for someone on a modified low carb diet.
Ingredients:
- chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 cup flour, salt & pepper & Italian seasonings
- butter and olive oil
- prosciutto or bacon
- sliced mushrooms
- garlic
- Marsala wine (1/2 cup for a 6 person serving)
- chicken broth
To prep before camp:
If using chicken breasts, butterfly and pound flat to even thickness. Cut into even sized pieces so they will be easier to handle when cooking at camp. Pre-mix and pack your flour. I added my salt, pepper and assorted fresh chopped herbs directly to the flour pack in advance. You could also slice your mushrooms in advance but I didn’t this time.
Instructions:
1. Coat the chicken in your seasoned flour mix.
2. Heat up the dutch oven with olive oil and brown the chicken on both sides, working in batches. Pop-up food tents come in handy to keep food covered while it rests after browning.
3. When all the chicken has finished browning, remove and set aside. If using bacon, add chopped pieces to the pan first and cook until brown. If using prosciutto, add butter first.
4. Now add sliced mushrooms, let cook until slightly soft then add minced garlic and butter if you didn’t before.
5. Add the Marsala and scrape up all the brown bits at the bottom of the pot.
6. Add the chicken back to the pot, enough chicken broth to cover (I used about 3.5 cups) and cook until the sauce thickens.
Camp Champs Review:
I had a few challenges cooking this recipe (frozen chicken to thaw, equipment malfunctions, etc) but otherwise the steps were very easy and it’s an impressive dish that nearly everyone loves. I think it’s a testament how easy this recipe is that it turned out so well despite such poor planning on my part.
You may recall we camped here at the end of last season and I scoped out the other sites on the way out. Since then, I have wanted to come back and give this awesome, flat wooded site a second look.
Pictured: Our woods away from home. You can actually see all the tents (and some friends!) in the photo this time. Taken from in front of the parking spot to give you an idea of the short path to the site.
A real gem in old Rocksylvania, this site offered lots of flat area for tents that was not super rocky! There are no trespassing signs behind the site marking private property, but the state forest continues side to side as you travel alongside the ridge. And since it was so nicely wooded, we had plenty of firewood and options to hang a tarp since it was raining when we arrived. The downside was since there were still plenty of leaves, you couldn’t see many stars unless you ventured out to the road. But seriously we burned SO MUCH WOOD. It was amazing. And my awesome brother-in-law and his awesome girlfriend made this sweet sawhorse to chop the abundance of wood we collected:
Pictured: Seriously look how cool the sawhorse my BIL made. Camp construction!!
Like other campsites in Weiser, the site had a gravel pad with a fire ring and picnic table. The fire ring had the kind of grate that lifts up and down, so bring gloves to adjust because it gets hot. It was slightly warped in the middle (I realized it’s probably because jerks like us forget to put the grate back up when we finish cooking). I just want to note for next campers that since it was so cold, we really had a nice fire going and when it was full of embers, it wasn’t quite tight at the bottom rim. I collected some more rocks to stack around which also helped to keep my sides warm when I was cooking later.
Since as I mentioned it was raining when we got to camp, our priorities were:
- unpack and put up the tent so we had somewhere dry to put our stuff
- put up a tarp over the picnic table so the other stuff stayed dry
- finish unpacking the car and start collecting wood to get a fire going ASAP
I don’t want you to think I’m complaining about the cold, I had a really great time. We all had enough warm clothes and adequate shelter, a few tweaks next time and it will be even better. We brought the big tent which was harder to heat up but we brought because Harvey almost came with us... in hindsight I’m glad it would have definitely been too cold for her. I also had good intentions bringing flannel sheets, a knit blanket and a twin sized down comforter which I thought would be warmer than the small single sleeping bag and mummy bag we try to cram into but we still couldn’t really stretch out without exposing each other to the cold. Bringing the second down comforter would have been perfect.
I believe the secret to a great camping trip is knowing what to expect (so you can prepare for it!) and I want all my camp champions out there to have a great time. Although the wind made it really unpredictable which direction the smoke from the fire was going to blow next (hint, somehow always right in my face), it was really cool to watch the very tall trees sway back and forth almost seeming like they were going to bend in half but the trunks were totally still. Resilience in the face of adversity. Lessons from the trees. That’s why I love the woods folks.
Pictured: A closer view of our woods away from home. Note that sweet camp box set up. There would have been poles in the tarp but it wasn’t necessary after it stopped raining.
Ok, ok, on to the important stuff: what we ate.
Camp Champs Chomps:
Saturday lunch: chicken salad wraps, crudite and hummus
Saturday dinner: chicken marsala (a traditional take), warm kale salad with roasted beet & eggplant, “fancy” seasoned rice
Sunday breakfast: scrambled cheesy eggs, bacon and pork roll
For someone with the audacity to proclaim her camp championship, I made some rookie cold weather cooking mistakes I want you to learn from. Since it hit 85 here last week, I was in serious denial about what October feels like. The mountains reminded me, and a special thank you to my sister-in-law who gave us a case of hand warmers once that we finally put to good use. Some lessons I wrote down so my hubris doesn’t get the best of me again:
- A hot lunch is very welcome on a chilly day. The chicken salad was delicious but I was fantasizing about wrapping it in foil and throwing it on the fire (it was half eaten at that point).
- For dinner, stew or other one-pot dishes will stay warmer longer than multiple side dishes and a separate main dish. I had a lot of constraints while I was planning - one of our campers was observing a low carb diet so I needed to make sure there were enough options, and we had a limited budget so I needed to use a lot we already had on hand. Thankfully we just bought a ton of chicken on sale and had a windfall of produce from my parents garden! I hit a lot of other marks but I didn’t think how I was going to serve dinner without everything going instantly cold. I brought a plastic bowl to combine the kale salad and could have used something I could have put on a hot stone. One issue I need to solve for the future, I still only have 4 cheap plastic bowls in the camp set and I have been on the lookout for better ones that don’t buckle and burn your hands when you’re holding something hot.
- If you are planning to use a propane camp stove, make sure whatever you bring to cook can also be made on the fire in case of a malfunction. It took extra long for the chicken to brown because the strong wind kept blowing the flame out, then the line to the propane tank froze and we wound up moving the dutch oven completely over to the fire anyway.
- I shouldn’t have bothered to freeze the chicken and bacon beforehand, they were still frozen when we were ready for dinner and I had to thaw, taking care not to overheat my water and accidentally boil the chicken. Since it was so hot during the Labor Day trip our ice melted immediately, I didn’t want that to happen again and over compensated.
- Hot embers are better for cooking and give off much less smoke. We were so cautious not to build the fire up too much in preparation of cooking (I planned for the rice and kale salad to cook on the grate). We should have really built up the fire as much as we could first, and then let it burn down before cooking to get better coals instead of keeping a low controlled burn the whole time.
Despite all those challenges, the meal turned out absolutely delicious and stayed pretty warm considering, but it was exactly the comfort food we needed that day.
If you need to stay connected: Sprint, Verizon and AT&T had service. T-Mobile could get calls but some texts wouldn’t go through.
Useful maps:
Google pin to State Forest Entrance (estimated) - You can also just look up directions to Hope Hill Lavender Farm (right up the road). The road to the state forest entrance is 2 properties past the yellow Victorian. There’s a small dirt road that was marked with bright pink ribbon and no trespassing signs (to keep people from parking along side which is private property). The road is a little dicey while it’s private but turns into nice gravel when you reach the state forest, which is marked with a Weiser plaque.
Weiser State Forest Second Mountain Tract map - Please visit the State Forest website for the most up to date information.
