Winter Camping

We took this weekend after Thanksgiving as an opportunity to go camping and climb in Mt.Judea, Arkansas at Sam's Throne - a culmination of bluff-line and relatively unpopulated woods that are fit for an amazing trip! It was Alpine and Pepper's first camping trip, so I was a little nervous, but they did well. It was particularly funny to see how domesticated my dogs really are. At night time, I would find them sitting by the entrance of our tent, waiting to "go inside" like they would any other night, rather than enjoying the cold air and warm fire. I suppose Alpine was frightened by an open flame and maybe Pepper was just following along in his footsteps. Who knows!

Pesto Grilled Salmon and Cheese Bread

Of course we planned a campfire menu that would energize us throughout the trip and give me something fun to do once the sun went down. The first night we did the traditional Hobo meal - where you prepare something in individual portions prior to the trip, wrap each portion in aluminum foil, and freeze the meal. This way, once the camp site is set up and a fire gets going, the Hobo meal is usually defrosted and ready for the hot coals of a burning fire! Last time we went camping, I made pesto grilled salmon and it was so tasty that we decided to do it again. Individual portions of salmon covered in the creamy tastiness of pesto make the best campfire food you've ever eaten! The key to this meal is getting the fire burning for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour, where the coals beneath the fire are hot through and through. Pull some coals out to the rim of the fire pit, and toss the salmon Hobo dinners skin side down on the coals. Cook them for about 20 minutes or until the fish is flaky and pink, yum! While the fish was cooking,  I wrapped a pepperidge farm 5 cheese french loaf in aluminum foil and threw it on the outside of the fire for a snack... delicious!

In the meantime, I boiled some water on our camp stove and cooked 1/2 pound of whole wheat linguine noodles. Once they were cooked al dente, I drained them and added fresh squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, and a hefty splash of white wine (a camp trip staple). Slap ya mama! Seasoning spiced it up, and here we have a yummy hot meal. Mmm.

After a campfire night with plenty of wine and smores, we woke up and got the coffee going (that's a necessary step to any day - camping or not!). In the meantime, Vincent toasted some whole wheat bagels over a lightly burning fire that we started for warmth. I scrambled several eggs and egg whites with cheddar cheese and cajun seasoning and we filled each bagel with a heaping serving of cheesy eggs. The boys had a few slices of summer sausage on theirs, but I naturally skipped out on that. *Tip - cover your plates with aluminum foil for easy cleanup! It's too cold outside to be doing dishes with bottled water.*

Saturday we hiked out to the throne and started on a climb called Chicken Coup, a 5.7 trad climb that was a little harder on the start than it looked. I just had some trouble getting good feet, but eventually I was able to scramble my way up! After that, we headed to a crack climb that I've done several times previously, but it always makes me angry when I start because it's so wide that I can't get my feet in a good lock. Once I get a good fist jam I can kind of smear out left on the rock face and I'll be golden after that. Fun climb, but even better to finish it once you get past that gnarly base!


Lunch time when we are climbing always consists of cinnamon raisin bagels with peanut butter and good old trail mix - peanuts, banana chips, and raisins! Pepper likes to crunch the banana chips extra loudly :) At night we made black bean burritos - which were eaten entirely too fast for me to photograph! I sauteed a bell pepper, medium onion, and one jalepeno on the camp stove + added a canned of black beans (I am a huge fan of reduced sodium Bush's black beans). We warmed some tortillas on the fire, tossed a handful of cheddar cheese, a splash of salsa verde and scooped some black bean filling into the burrito, rolled them and gobbled them down! Note... do not cut jalepenos when you're camping because you can't wash your hands well enough by pouring bottled water over them or using hand sanitizer... and you WILL rub your nose and/or eyes later and then cry about it. Ouch! Next time I will used pickled jalapenos.

Oh man, when we woke up the next morning we originated the epic blueberry pancakes - these things were meant for 6-9 pancakes, but we just made them one big handful. They were really yummy, but I was not able to finish even half of mine. The boys finished theirs and ate scrambled eggs - incredible! 

Climbing on Sunday was anything by effortless. Although we had these amazing pancakes for breakfast, we were exhausted from going all out the day before. We all climbed this great dihedral crack called Albino Rhino. It was a really fun climb - especially since you could stem at the top if needed. 

Albino Rhino

All in all, we had an amazing time. I can't wait to go camping again, if we can withstand some of these colder weekends - perhaps we will be back out there soon!