According to legend (and wikipedia), Tapas began when Castile’s King Alfonso the Wise recovered from an illness by drinking wine and nibbling small dishes between meals. After regaining his health, the king ordered taverns to serve their guests food along with wine and the tapas became a good excuse for people to drink and eat alot… cough… I mean “heal.”
This is also a great way to do camp meals. We did this on The Great Float this past year. There were roughly 20 tents set up along a sandy island in the river. We all made our own dishes and then shared them. We didn’t really plan it that way, but everyone ended up eating a little of each persons food. That night I ended up eating spicy tiger shrimp, a little juicy steak, some chicken, a brat, a wrap, and the list goes on. It was a great way for everyone to share a recipe, try something new, and not have to bring a ton of stuff to cook. I think we might try this again it was such a blast.
We’re wrapping up the list of trailhead grub spots today with 5 places you can’t go wrong with. I’m getting HUNGRY!
5. Miguel’s - Red River Gorge, KY Why? Endercore says “Best pizzia in the world, amazing topping selection, and run by a great family who are nothing but supportive to the climbing community, and the community in general. Miguel employees a staff of climbers who are always really nice. Miguels IS the outdoorzy spot in the red, so proximity is no issue, price is good, and he rarely runs out. Don’t forget to admire his woodcarvings while you’re there. Plus you can camp in the back for 2 bucks a night.”
4. The Pizza Factory - Lone Pine, CA Why? Summiting Mt Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, is no easy chore. But getting down a big greasy peperoni laden pie with a tall pitcher of whatever beer you like IS an easy chore. After the Whitney adventure, stop here for some great food and lots of pictures of all the old western movie stars that used to film in the area. It’s right at the end of Whitney Portal Road, can’t miss it.
3. Ocoee Dam Deli - Ocoee, TN Why? According to Endercore “It is about 5 miles from the takeout for the middle ocoee river in TN. Its this little shack of a place with a gravel parking lot, a lovely porch, and a bunch of TV’s on the inside that are constantly playing boating videos. Its awesome because they have 2 or 3 diffrent videos playing at once, and one is almost always a rafting carnage video from the ocoee, so you can sit and reminisce on getting your ass kicked in the very same hole earlier that day, or freak your self out about getting caught in this keeper hole, getting run over by a raft, and being recirculated while some stoned raft guide misses you with his throw bag 10 times before finally rescuing you.”
2. K’s Dairy Delight - Buena Vista, CO Why? Well it sits in the shadow of the Collegiate 14ers in Colorado, has a whitewater river at its back door and plenty of rock climbing all around. Then there’s the food. Burgers, fries, onion rings, and ice cream cap off your adventure. They also give you the name of a movie star when you show up and when they call out your name, say… “Robert Redford”, you go get your food. Feeling like crap, but treated like a star.
AND #1 (at least on this list…) Calamity Jane’s - Mt Hood, OR Why? After skiing all day at Timbeline Lodge, hiking the 45 mile Timbeline Trail, or summiting Mt Hood… a 1 lb burger as big as your head is the only thing you need. That and some neosporin… Serving giant burgers just a few miles down the road from Mt Hood and doing it all with a smile. This rustic building has the charm and the calories to get you back on your sore feet again.
And for all the detail Endercore went into, he wins the MSR Alpine Kitchen Set compliments of MSR! Just message me Endercore to claim your prize.
Thanks for the help of all the Outdoorzies that put their two cents in on the forum!
After a difficult summit, run, hike, mtb ride, or day on the slopes there’s nothing like a big fat-filled, cheese-covered meal to satisfy your calorie deficit. Many of you probably have your favorite spot to eat after a tough day. I’ve compiled a list of some of the best trailhead grub spots (with the help of some of our members). Atmosphere, food quality, food quantity, and proximity to the trailhead all went into the hat to help us decide on these. These are all in the US and Canada. We may do an international list down the road.
Below are #s 10-6…. #s 5-1 to come tomorrow.
10. Pig Diner - Pig, Ky Why? Any place with named “Pig” in a town named “Pig” has to at least get a nod. Not to mention the amazing greasy breakfast selection and the killer Beef Manhattan. Wash it all down with a glass of sweet tea that your spoon could stand up in it’s so thick and you’re ready to re-enter society. This place is about 5 minutes outside of the south entrance to Mammoth Cave National Park.
9. Adair’s Wilderness Lodge - Waterford, NB (Canada) Why?Fundyguy25 says - “Great spot to eat with homemade desserts, soups, and all the standards. Friendly knowledgable staff that know the area and some even do some guiding. There is on-site tenting as well as a couple of cottages. They offer a shuttle service to and from many trail heads and often serve as headquarters when S&R teams are needed. The building sits next to a pond and is on a dirt road (may be chipsealed soon though), and is a log building.”
8. Nate’s Grille - Skagway, AK Why?JoshuatheNomad says “The guy who own’s the place is uber-groovy. The place has a coffee shop/mom & pop greasy spoon atmosphere with constant great tunes, amazing deep fried deserts: oreos, snickers, reeses cups, twinkies…
And Nate makes by far the best fries in Skagway, maybe in the world! accompany that with his black and bleu HUGE burger and a PBR from around the corner at Moe’s Frontier Bar and you’ve got an Alaskan delight. I’ve never met a nicer, more genuine restaurant owner anywhere. And there was movies, by theme, every Friday and Saturday night this summer.”
7. The Blue Spruce - Frisco, CO Why?Grensap says “I like the blue spruce its got a old time feel. Close to all the ski slopes, trails, the blue river, and lake dillon. It great for a nice sit down dinner, but the bar has great prices and there Colorado wings are awesome. I know the price look high but its some of the best food around. Also I guess I really like it because it is right infront of my house.”
6. Pies & Pints - Fayettville, WV Why? JoshuatheNomad says “The name answers the why. Pizza and Beer. Parking isn’t great but the food and beer selection counters that issue. Also, on a nice spring or fall day, they have a porch and other outside seating [i think], not the greatest view but I personally love to sit outSiDe and down some beer and pizza after a long day of calorie burning fun. And you can basically make your own work of art with the plethora of toppings they have to offer.”
I need your expertise to help me finish my next Top 10 list to put here on the blog. Check this forum post out to contribute and enter yourself to win the kitchen set.
*If you’re not an Outdoorzy member you’ll need to sign up for free to post on the forum. Its painless, quit whining.
*The Kitchen Set was a Gear Test we did. It was only used once, and it’s been cleaned. Again, quit whining.
I have been trying to find some good recipes for outdoor cooking for Thanksgiving and haven’t been able to find much. There was this recipe for the Backpacker’s Thanksgiving Dinner which is ridiculously easy, but I was hoping for something more. Many places warn about not trying to cook turkey over a campfire, so the search has come up pretty empty.
Do any of you guys have any suggestions for an outdoor Thanksgiving meal?
Also a few years back Wade and I did a Thanksgiving day bike ride and that was a lot of fun. This year I may run in a 5k turkey trot Thanksgiving morning.
Any other outdoorzies have outdoor Thanksgiving traditions?
Well the SurvivorDude weekend was a success. The low temp was 32 degrees, so we got to see how our skills held up to the freezing weather. Here’s how we did on our goals…
Shelter - Built a shelter out of natural materials. Probably wasn’t rainproof, but was a nice windblock and held the fires warmth in.
Food - We foraged for food and found dandelions, wild onions, insects, and fish. Also made Chicory coffee, but the chicory was foraged from my yard before we left in case we couldn’t find any on site.
Cooking - Built a hobo stove out of a tin can and also cooked on the fires coals.
Fishing - Made a fishing pole from a green branch. Used floss for the line and brought a hook with us. Also made a fishing net from an old clothes hanger and a plastic bag.
Water - We filtered water using the charcoal/sand method. We also boiled water in an aluminum can using a tripod we built from limbs.
Fire - Attempted the bowdrill method, but had no luck. We used chemicals and also used flint and steel and were successful.
I’ve posted a few pictures and a video below. And am giving a little more description for anyone interested. I definitely feel like I could survive for several days in the wilderness here in the southeast US. Winter would be a challenge, and surviving on small amounts of food would also be a challenge.
The shelter took some time. I’d say 1 hour to get the frame cut, built, and assembled. We used vines and then some cord we salvaged from the trash to tie the structure tight. We used stones to support the two legs on the front and sharpened the ends of those poles and jammed them about 4-6 inches into the ground. The covering is made of small limbs with leaves and some moss and leaves. The bed inside the shelter was made of dormant grasses and some leaves. These finishing touches took another hour.
We found a place to camp near a creek. This proved invaluable and we spent about half an our fishing. We made a net using a salvaged subway sack (clear) and an old coat hanger. Nomad75 caught about 10 fish using this net. I caught a whopping…. 1. But the method worked, and with some patience you can make a small meal of these little fish which ranged in size from your pinky to middle finger.
We foraged and found onions which we boiled with the fish. We also found dandelions we boiled as well. We also found acorns but only tasted them and decided not to spend the time to cook the bitterness out. Nomad75 also cooked a grasshopper and ate a cricket which jumped into our shelter as we were eating. Bad timing little cricket… bad timing. I skipped the insect feast and made some chicory coffee. Which wasn’t too bad, but was a bit on the bitter side.
3leftsmakesapar and myself also made a fishing pole. Which actually looked pretty sturdy. He fished with it for half an hour to an hour but had no luck. With more time we may have been able to catch something. We used a piece of Styrofoam we found as a bobber.
The hobo stove worked well but I couldn’t get it to boil water. I did get it to simmer things and tiny bubbles formed on the bottom of the cooking pot (an aluminum can). I made a door to put coals in the stove and fed small sticks in for fuel. I ended up boiling on the fires coals by pulling a little channel of them out from the fire.
We filtered water using sand and charcoal then boiled it. This was done on a tripod which we used later to hold an aluminum can over the fire to boil water. The filter worked well, but was a slow process. So, after the first batch of water we boiled ongoing. It is recommended that you boil water for at least 5 minutes to kill the possible bacteria in it. We boiled for about 10 minutes each time.
All in all, a great trip. No ill effects from the food or water, which we were very safe with. I wouldn’t recommend doing this yourself unless you have read up on it and are very sure of the things you are eating. We did quite a bit of research for this trip coupled with books we have read in the past and techniques we’ve actually had to use before. It is also key to find items you can get clean to cook with. Several of the tin cans we saw were rusty and we couldn’t use them. But once you’ve studied up, this is a great way to make sure you know how to handle yourself if you became lost or stranded in the wilderness.
And last but not least, a little video of us eating the Dandelion Fish Wraps. MMMM, weeds and boiled minnows, everyone’s favorite….
Thanks to Nomad75 for all the research and prep work. Thanks to SherGrayWin for all the firewood gathering. And thanks to 3leftsmakeapar for the fishing expertise and help documenting the trip.
We’ve all seen SurvivorMan and Man vs. Wild by now. And we’ve all seen the controversies behind Bear Gryls method. And we’ve all wondered if we could survive out there on our own with only our wits and some McGuyver spare parts to use.
Well I’m going to do it this weekend for the sake of Outdoorzy. I’m sacrificing myself for the sake of a blog post… what a noble cause… I’m heading out with three other Outdoorzy members; Nomad75, ChrisG, and 3leftsmakeapar. Only two of us will be “surviving.” The other two will be documenting the trip and laughing while we eat bugs.
I know you’re all thinking “Man this guy is dumb if he thinks living in the woods for 2 days is “surviving.” Okay then, I’m not actually surviving. More like testing some skills and trying some things out to see what works and to see if I can pull it off. That’s why this is called Survivor”Dude”… because it’s kinda half-baked. Here’s the plan.
Take all our regular gear, and then only use it if we need to
Take 4-5 items each that you would find in the trash
Bring a knife or multi-tool
Spend 24-36 hours in the wilderness, several miles from a road or civilization
Come back without getting some gastro-intestinal funk from eating something dumb
Make a Shelter
Get clean drinking water
Find or catch some food (even just a little)
Build a fire using only natural materials
Build a stove or cook items on the fire that we find
Should be fun. I’ll report back next week and let everyone know how it goes.
With real snow season right around the corner the desire to get out and enjoy the last scraps of any summer sport is thick. Ok Fruita weekend cancelled.. My desire wasn’t great enough to go camp in sub-freezing temps, desert wind, and mixed precipatation. No visit with Tater Tot, the unofficial mayor of Fruita and well deserving of his own blog. If you make it to Fruita, (If you don’t know you better ask somebody) seek out this amazing local personality. Be prepared for hugs-a-plenty and be careful when he goes in for a cheek kiss. If you’re slippin he will sneak one pass the goalie and get you on the lips.
So I guess that leaves riding whatever is dry around here and watching Mike race cross.
Mike, off the front.
American Cross fans, all six of us turned out in full force. You know hundreds of people in Europe come out to these races to watch, cheer, and drink. We have football and nachos.
“Frenchie” turned 72 on Saturday and was out to race both days. On Sunday he had a few too many post race “recovery drinks” and drove his car onto the snowy course… race officials were not pleased.
We got off our bikes Saturday just in time, the weather came in hard. 10 inches in the valley, who knows what we got up top. The weather channel says we are getting some warmer temps this week,,, lets hope we can keep some of this early dump as base.
Best part about cross? Hot racing action rain snow or shine!
Including snowman, 7 race fans on day 2.
Deep in the pain cave
Wet clean up, aisle one.
I did manage to schmooze my hands onto a bunch of FRS this weekend. I had tried this stuff a little before and I have to say it rules! I am pretty particular about what I consume before, during and after training / racing. When you find what works stick with it. Personally I have found a mix of Accelerade/Hammer Gel/Endurox/Big Mac’s to be what makes my engine purr.
FRS now added to the regement for pre-game /maintenance. Try some, tastes good, tell your local shop to get it. I’m not usually a sucker for endorcement, I personally would tout about anything for a check. However, Lance sees fit to put his name on this stuff instead of the newest male enhancement formula.
So, what are the secrets to being or staying thin? Well Real Simple magazine thinks they’ve found the formula. They’ve compiled 13 different attributes of thin people from different scientists and organizations to create “The Secrets of Thin People.” One of the things that keeps people thin which might interest us outdoor sports enthusiasts is… well basically, outdoorsy people stay thinner!
From their blog - And why are there fewer fat Coloradans? “My take is that, traditionally, Colorado has attracted people who value outdoor living and health and wellness more,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, who has lived there for 14 years. “People will take off every Friday because they go to the mountains. They’re willing to prioritize health and wellness.”
Okay, so it’s not ground breaking. But hey, it’s nice to see the media recognizing that an active outdoor lifestyle can improve your quality of life. Thanks Real Simple.
