Cooking and The Mountain: Part III

After hiking nearly 12 miles and 6000+ feet in elevation change, our legs were like silly string coming out of a can (although none of us wanted to admit it). With no chance of a massage, we decided swimming in South Branch Pond (pictured above) and nearby Howe Brook was a fun alternative to scaling another mountain.

Howe Brook is quite possible the biggest natural tease I've ever come across. Water flows through cuts in the rock collecting infrequently in deep prestine swimming holes that becon you to swim, relax, and soak the aching in your legs away. The catch? The water is painfully cold. Even in August you'll jump in and have this reaction. (We even had a contest to see which of us could stay in the longest. I won with a whopping 1 minute and 39 seconds.)

But who wants to relax anyway when there are rocks to jump off of? Plus sitting still isn't in our nature ... so we jumped in Howe Brook


and we jumped in South Branch Pond.


We enjoyed the last full day in the park and were ready to settle down to yet another glorious campfire and some dinner. At this point in any backpacking/camping trip it is a bit of a gamble to have fresh meat. Most veggies and fruit however are robust enough to travel but be careful, you don't want your backpack to become a juice machine. Furthermore, lugging them around gets to be a pain. That doesn't mean though that you have to resort back to the pre-packaged dehydrated food I described earlier. The idea is to concentrate flavors to maximize the "bang" for the weight and still replenish all those calories you just burned.

Pasta is a fantastic option here (just add water) but unless you are hardcore you probably want some sauce. Well here is a sauce that you can whip up at home that'll fit the bill for flavor and weight saving.

Backpacking Pasta & Sauce

2 tbsp. anchovy paste
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. tomato paste (w/ Italian seasoning mixed in already)
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. capers
1/4 tsp. black pepper
4-6 oz. dried mushrooms (any kind will work)
4-6 oz. sun dried tomatoes
16 oz. pasta

(serves three hungry hikers)

Step 1: At home the night before leaving for the trip, mix 2 tbsp. anchovy paste, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 3 tbsp. tomato paste, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 2 tbsp. capers, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper in bowl. Put mixture in sealed container or Ziploc bag. Store in fridge until departure.

Step 2: At home before leaving, dice 4-6 oz. sun dried tomatoes. Pack tomatoes and 4-6 oz. dried mushrooms in separate bags.

Step 4: In camp, prepare pasta as directed. (No fire cooking this time.) While pasta is cooking, rehydrate mushrooms by soaking them in water.

Step 5: When pasta is done, drain carefully and mix sauce with pasta. Add sun dried tomatoes. Before draining mushrooms add 1-2 tbsp. of the mushroom water to the pasta. Drain remaining water and add mushrooms to pasta. Top with ample Parmesan cheese.

Put a knife in this trip. It was fun filled long weekend with great sights, wonderful friends, and delicious food. Back to FBC headquarters ... unfortunately ...